Behind the Scenes at Dittrich Furs as It Closes Up Shop

Detroit — The line wraps down Third Avenue onto Grand Boulevard. There might be 1,000 people waiting in line to look at the fine coats and hats from Dittrich Furs. Some have camp chairs. Some smoke cigarettes. The police are outside, and a security guard walks around with a gun on his hip, letting in a few at a time.

There’s a Black Friday feeling to it all. People walking by stop to ask: “What’s going on?” The answer is a 70% discount on fur coats and hats before the company ceases to operate in the city, where it’s had a presence since 1893.

Jason Dittrich, who operates the company with his brother, says it’s been amazing to hear the stories of patrons who come in who have ties to the store. Some played dress up with a relatives fur coat when they were kids. Some remember the Dittrich Fur commercials on TV.

Jason said the woman riding the horse in the iconic Dittrich commercial, Julie Cox Frazer, recently visited the store. That advertisement is so iconic, it got a big spoof in the show “Detroiters.” It’s a testament to Dittrich's cultural sway.

Everyone around back then remembers it, even if it’s lost on young people today.

Dittrich had its own in-house brand studio, which came up with the advertisements. There are still offices in the back where the marketing team would physically piece together print materials. There’s a CRT television they may have used to watch the commercial air for the first time.

Dittrich’s current building opened in 1965. During the race riots a few years later, a tank was stationed right in front of the building thanks to a personal connection, Jason said.

After a truck ran into the building, people came by to support the business, Jason said.

Unfortunately, there have been quite a few trucks that have been driven into the building, some successfully, others got stuck in the doors or on bollards while trying to break in to steal inventory.

There’s a lot of reasons why Dittrich is closing up shop in the city after all these years, but a lot of it has to do with taking care of family, Jason said.

There’s no word yet on whether someone will take over the building, which has giant refrigeration coils in the cold storage vault downstairs to preserve the fur coats. Dittrich currently charges $59 a month to keep thousands of coats at 34 degrees year-round.

Because fur coats are made out of animals, they have a lifespan. Proper storage and care can extend their life from 10 years to 30 or more. Other furriers in the area offer storage, but many don’t set their thermostats so low that moths go dormant, Jason said.

The electrical bill is $3,000 a month. Employees would be in fur all summer because of the chill from the massive freon-powered units, Jason said.

Some employees I spoke with had worked at Dittrich’s for decades.

There’s a lot of company history to sort through, and everyone wants a piece. Jason said his barber wants a photo from the company archives to hang up on the wall. People want something from Dittrich because it’s part of the city.

The Detroit Public Library is considering an exhibit on the company’s history, Jason said, but it’ll take weeks to go through all the advertisements and records.

Furs put Detroit on the map back when time was still immemorial. And Dittrich has been supplying the city with fine animal garments before its wealth and industrialization, during its devastating declines and its rebirth over the last decade.

Part of the city is dying this year. If you want a piece of it before it's gone, get in line.