Business & brands / Fashion
Hamilton Carhartt
1855–1937 · clothing manufacturer, founder of Carhartt
Founder of the workwear brand Carhartt, started in Detroit in 1889 to make tough overalls for railroad workers.
- Born
Macedon, New York- Died
Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
aged 81- Detroit years
- 1880s–1930s
- Field
- Business & brands, Fashion
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Hamilton Carhartt founded his company in Detroit in 1889 to make durable work clothes for manual laborers. Its first target was railroad workers: Carhartt talked with railroad men about what they needed and designed heavy duck-cloth bib overalls to match, under the slogan 'Honest value for an honest dollar.' The business expanded in the 1890s along the rail lines, later opened plants in other states and abroad, and kept many of its factories unionized. The company is still owned by his descendants and is headquartered in Dearborn. In 2015 Carhartt opened a flagship store in Midtown Detroit, in the old Cass Motor Sales building, a nod to its hometown; its Detroit jacket and chore coats have become fashion items far beyond the job site. Carhartt died in Grosse Pointe Farms in 1937 and is buried at Woodmere Cemetery; his granddaughter Gretchen Valade became one of Detroit's most important jazz patrons.
Highlights
- Founded Carhartt in Detroit in 1889
- Early products: duck-cloth overalls for railroad workers
- Company still family-owned, headquartered in Dearborn
- Detroit flagship store opened in the Cass Motor Sales building
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
Carhartt Detroit Flagship Store
The company's hometown flagship in a historic car-dealership building (where Preston Tucker once sold Dodges).
Buried here · 1937
Woodmere Cemetery
The southwest Detroit cemetery where he is buried.