Shinola

[Watch This]

I'm starting to see this brand everywhere. Watches amongst many other items. Made in Detroit USA if I am not mistaken. Anyone have any personal experience or insight in to the brand?

I find the name awful and wonder if the similarity to the obvious catchphrase "you don't know _____ from" was intended.

[Thatguy]

They have been marketed pretty heavily. A while back they got into a little trouble with the 'made in detroit' line. Apparently they import parts and only assemble in Detroit. Looks like any other quartz watch to me. They are all marketing.


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[GRB]

Originally Posted by Watch This

I'm starting to see this brand everywhere. Watches amongst many other items. Made in Detroit USA if I am not mistaken. Anyone have any personal experience or insight in to the brand?

I find the name awful and wonder if the similarity to the obvious catchphrase "you don't know _____ from" was intended.

Costco has a caseful of these things. They are to me , just a basic quartz
watch. Also , you are correct , that the name ties in to the popular
catchphrase.

[swils8610]

My boss has 2 of them. Nice quartz watch for $600 or so. Assembled in Detroit of imported materials.


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[KDS777]

Meh.........a $100 watch with a large marketing department behind it.

To me they are in the same category as Nixon, Diesel......etc.

[youthagainsttt]

Shocking name, doesn't make any sense imo

Random

[SDRider]

Originally Posted by KDS777

Meh.........a $100 watch with a large marketing department behind it.

To me they are in the same category as Nixon, Diesel......etc.

Agreed. Heavy on the marketing but other than that it's just another quartz watch, and an overpriced one at that. Worthless as soon as the charge hits your bank account.

[Danny83]

They are ok I saw them at the Nordstoms for 400-700. Better of buying a Tudor

[CamSLC]

They're owned by one of the founders of Fossil. It's a fashion brand first and foremost. My GF has one because a solid gold piece isn't in her budget, I think it was sub $300 or so.

[rr-nyc]

They're decent looking fashion watches. I like what they're doing overall though. The bikes, leather goods. Etc

Being a Detroit native, I'm hoping for their success. The NYC boutique is always busy

[drm20]

Yeah, for such good marketing (or good effort), horrible name. I think Costco sells them. Not a huge fan of quartz watches myself.

[wrist_watcher]

At least the company is giving folks in the area jobs, which there are few of in that area.

[Busyboy]

The jerk , with Steve Martin, is the only time I ever heard of the name shinola..... Just before he walks thru a massive pile of cow xxxx

[cajunron]

Personally hard for me to get excited about any quartz watch. What I do like, is the fact that this provides some sorely needed meaningful jobs in the Detroit area.

[hugs]

What is this offensive catch phrase the name is based on? (PM me if it's offensive for forum)

I cannot think of any phrase it seems similar to..I am guessing it is a popular phrase in America that I have not heard of??

[.brian.]

Originally Posted by hugs

What is this offensive catch phrase the name is based on? (PM me if it's offensive for forum)

I cannot think of any phrase it seems similar to..I am guessing it is a popular phrase in America that I have not heard of??

You don't know *another word for poop* from Shinola.

Meaning

Possessing poor judgment or knowledge.

Origin

doesn't know shit from Shinola

Shinola was a brand of shoe polish previously manufactured in the USA. The alliteration and the fact that the two commodities in the phrase could possibly be confused is the derivation. The distinction is well made; only one of them would be good to apply to your shoes and only particularly dim people could be expected to muddle them up. Of course, outside America, most people don't know Shinola from anything at all, as they've never heard of it. Even in America it would probably not be widely remembered but for this phrase.

Outside the USA, people haven't heard of Shinola and so really don't know the difference.

The 'ola' suffix is popular in the USA as part of trade names, e.g. Crayola, Granola etc. This leads to the pronunciation of Shinola as shine + ola. That spoils the alliteration a little as it would work better as shin + ola.

This phrase is typical of the barrack room vulgarity of WWII, which is where it originated. Other "doesn't know" phrases, also mostly from the military are, "doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground" (or elbow, or a hot rock, or third base), "doesn't know enough to pee downwind", "doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass". The tone is lifted a little by the English conductor Sir Henry Wood who expressed a similar opinion with "he doesn't know his brass from his woodwind".

[hugs]

Interesting info thanks!

Putting aside the phrase I think the name sounds quite cool. As someone who hadn't heard of Shinola the first thing that came to my mind was Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park

[Valenciawatchrepair]

I had one of these come through my shop a couple weeks ago. It didn't take too long for me to come to the conclusion that these things are "Assembled in Detriot" at best. I like the style of some of them, but if you're really going to push the whole, "Made in USA" think, I think you could do better.

[Dartmouthbrian]

Filson watches are made by Shinola. They look cool, but $700-$1000 I'd go up a notch and get a Tudor or even a Seiko Marine Master.