Apartment Number 9 in Chicago has been on the forefront of mens' fashion for over a decade — about as long as I've been in Chicago myself.
They helped establish the revisitation to classic styles, high quality materials, and craftsmanship in the trade through their careful curation of brands like Steven Alan, Jack Spade and more. Chicago has since blossomed with an audience of men interested in finding the craft in everything they buy and consume, from beer to good to fashion. And that audience is continuing to grow as they migrate from one passion to another.
For me, Apartment Number 9 is a company that's been holding it down for a long time. But today they're jumping back to the front of the scene with a new e-commerce site that focuses on the shop as much it does on the stories of passionate craft-focused people around them. To that end, Apartment Number 9 and I collaborated to tell the tale of a Chicagoland brewery that's also at the intersection of numerous craft cultures — Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville — to kick off the storytelling section of the site.
The ladies and gents at Solemn Oath come from many backgrounds as writers, fashion designers, brewers and artists. The culmination of those talents makes them an ideal starting place for Apartment Number 9's mission to export more of Chicago's culture to the rest of the nation.
Head on over to the new site, bookmark that jawn, and spend a few minutes watching the Solemn Oath story through the storytelling eye of Apartment Number 9's Marc Moran. It's a rad video piece.
Congrats to the Apartment Number 9 team on the launch. It's been an enormous effort.
Michael Kiser
