Story by Alyssa Hetterich | Photography Emma Stiefel
Nestled proudly in the Liberty Center Mall, Homage brings vintage pieces of Ohio-inspired sport and collegiate wear to the Cincinnati area.
What began as a proposal to The Ohio State University to sell more classic types of clothing, Homage quickly catapulted into a thriving business endeavor. The brand has expanded to five locations in Ohio: one in Cleveland, two in Columbus. and two in Cincinnati and have even branched out to Michigan with a store in Detroit.
The Liberty Center location opened in November of 2016 to appeal to the ‘shopping mall market’ and has seen success within the last month. Being in the middle of many college campuses including the University of Dayton and the University of Cincinnati has brought students, fans, and alums to the store’s doors.
The goal of each store is to create a unique environment where customers can find compelling pieces that they couldn’t typically find in a more common athletic store. For store manager Kevin Carter, helping people to find vintage clothing that they love is something he carries a great passion for.
“I want people to enjoy being here and I want people to come back,” says Carter. “That’s been the success for me, seeing people enjoy being in our store.”
In addition to being a cool place to hangout with friends and play NBA Jam or shop for Christmas gifts for any sports fanatic, Homage provides a great place for employees to get a relaxing taste of retail. Coming from a large-brand athletic store, Michelle Luciano, a student at Miami University, finds the calming nature of the store to be something she loves about working at Homage.
“It’s so laid back here,” says Luciano. “Even if you don’t know everything about a product, everyone walking in the door is always so nice.”
Homage provides more than just sportswear, however. With a 90’s vibe, there is plenty of clothing with 90’s stars, T.V. shows and movies like The Goonies and Hoosiers. Prices for these original pieces range from $65 for a sweatshirt to $20 for a beanie.
Moreover, all of their logos are licensed, meaning Homage has permission from the brand owner to associate their logos with Homage’s products.
East senior and vintage clothes lover Kiki Davis has found a great love for Homage, a store offering more fashionable sportswear of her choice college, The University of Cincinnati.
“I love that they offer so many different options,” says Davis. “Normally stores have one or two similar looking sweatshirts, but Homage has such cool designs.”
Teenagers and adults alike can all find a little piece of themselves within the walls of Homage whether it’s with a new sweatshirt of their alma mater, a quirky graphic design of a 90’s sitcom or baby clothes for a future Flyer. Homage truly caters to the proud Ohioan.
“Being able to run a new store in a new location,” explains Carter. “With a product that I love [and] that’s important to me, makes my job pretty easy.”
Video by Michelle Chu and Emma Stiefel
Music:* A Face Of Goodness by Lee Rosevere: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee…
Edited for volume and length and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…
