For all you southeast Michigan folks, I don't need to tell you how few apparel/footwear dealers are around in the area. Since Parisian stopped carrying apparel, there has been a serious lack of retail outlets.

I spoke to the regional rep today, and he informed me that Boyne Country Sports (Bloomfield Hills and Novi locations) and Don Thomas Sporthaus (Bloomfield Hills) are now carrying a large selection of the spring apparel. I have not personally seen the goods yet, but the rep indicated that they are both well-stocked.

Also, I found out that the Tennis & Golf Company in Royal Oak is soon to receive new store fixtures. They will be setting up a small Oakley department in the store and getting more apparel inventory. They already have a large selection of sunglasses and watches.

I hope to visit at least one of them tomorrow and will post an update if I do.

Obviously, if anyone has a chance to visit either of the new stores, please reply to this thread and let us know what you find.

Thanks for the update Ed...

Stopped by the Novi Boyne Country Sports on Saturday. Not a bad selection of spring apparel. They had several lifestyle shirts & shorts, a couple golf-specific apparel pieces, and four styles of shoes/sandals. They also had a fair assortment of eyewear as well.

I talked to the rep the other day as well... he said that X-Riders in Jackson michigan was also geting a bunch of clothes to go along with there 3 mega towers and one Double Wide filled with glasses.

nice Ed. next best thing from having an O-Store nearby i guess...
before the SoHo O-Store opened, i mainly relied on Macy's for Oakley apparel and they hardly ever have a wide selection.

They had 10x the amount that the KoP Macy's had when we were there, Bong. I was impressed. Not by the glasses though.

heh... i suppose other Macy's have less than the flagship Herald Square store, but still nothing to brag about. the two other Macy's i know of that stock on Oakley items (not all Macy's do), Roosevelt Field Mall and Green Acres Mall in Lawn Guylannn (Long Island) have a much smaller selection, i suppose they have a similar situation with King of Prussia. hell... the one in Green Acres doesn't even have eyewear.

the Herald Square Store usually stocks pretty standard fare... IIRC right now they have the Blade track jacket, the Fifty backpack, Trench 3 pants, some Slim cut Industrial jeans, some slim fit t-shirts, shorts, and a few MTB jerseys. their double wide cabinet looks really sad right now, it only has like 6 or 7 eyewear in it!

umm... sorry about hijacking the thread, back to Detroit.

No worries, Bong. Apparel dealers are still few and far between around here, so there's not much else to say unless anyone else in Metro Detroit knows of any other dealers that haven't been mentioned yet.

James - I thought about visiting X-Riders, but I'm not in the Jackson area very often. Is it worth the trip?

didn't you mention Dillards carried Oakley apparel at one point?

Yes, the Dillard's at Franklin Park Mall in Toledo carries sunglasses, watches, apparel, and sometimes accessories like bags. Not sure about any of the other stores, though.

Dillards at FP dont carry apparel anymore and their selection of shades blows chunks.

On a side note Sun Vision at FP also sold shades but now they are out of business.

Jason, thanks for the news. I was at Dillard's a few weeks ago and was wondering where the big wall display went. I thought they were just rearranging between seasons.

I also noticed that Sun Vision disappeared. I thought maybe they moved somewhere else in the mall but didn't have time to look around for them.

Scratch two more dealers....

yeah its a joke I am seriously considering opening a small store when my Dad retires (he can run it while I am at work) that does mailorder and a small retail front.

Ed.. Maybe someday if you are in the area of jackson I would stop into X Riders... I would not waste the gas just to head over there.. I would defently if you are looking for a certain type of Sunglass.. They have almost any style you would want. I happen driving down the street today in Bloomfield hills and saw Boyne Country Sports so I thought what the hey lets see what they have. Really Surprised about the selection, Mostly all golf but about 4 to 5 clothing racks filled with oakley. They even have the oakley golf bag. I would make a trip to a boyne country sports if you are near one. Pretty good selection for golf and some life style.

Jason, & Ed.

In regards to Sun Vision in the FP Mall they not only went out of business but also boned customers that had put money down to order in glasses. A friend of mine received a paid of XX's for xmas from his wife. Oddly enough she got him the same pair that he already had! So he went down to where she bought them (Sun Vision) and they took them back and gave him a store credit towards a different pair. He decided on Half Jackets, Black w/ Black Iridium lenses. They didn't have them in stock and told him they would order in a pair, and even gave him a receipt.

After waiting a week and not hearing anything back, he tried to call only to find out their # was disconnected. He then went to the mall and found their kiosk was empty. He talked with the Mall officials and they had said a number of people were complaining that the Sun Vision place owed them money. He filed a complaint with the BBB and also one with Channel 11 news call for action, but in the end he was out the $125ish bucks w/o any glasses to show for it.

I told him to call Oakley customer service and explain the situation as I've had awesome help with them in the past. He did and explained that he not only had the original receipt but also the exchange/credit receipt to order in the new pair. Oakley said there was nothing they could do, and wouldn't even give him a discount towards a new pair.

So I guess it pays to buy from reputable shops, and to keep the merchandise you plan on exchanging until you have the new pair in hand. ;)

That's an awful story, WildBill. I wonder why Sun Vision went belly-up in the first place?

If you don't mind me asking, where in MI are you?

Ed,

I'm in the Flint area. Any good dealers around the metro area?

Other than the ones mentioned above, not really. I don't have as much time as I would like to scour all the local bike shops and such, but I haven't seen many dealers around with anything extraordinary. Apparel is very hard to find.

There is a little skate shop in Birmingham called Pogo that always has a decent selection of eyewear. They are a Stretch dealer, too, and also carry Thumps and RAZRWIRE.