Detroit Wall Street Anniversary Celebrates Hot Sams

On Saturday July 23rd,  a beautiful hot 83 degree, summer day,  the Detroit Wall Street Anniversary celebration was held at Detroit’s Campus Martius, downtown with great music and a flavorful fashion show. What a great turnout to witness the 100+ anniversary of Hot Sams, a Detroit staple.

The nice and laid back, comfortable environment,  allowed Detroit to “show up and showed out.”  MC, Mike Bonner, kept the crowd in stitches and bouncing while the band, Modern Element, kept attendees dancing and grooving to their great cover jams.  The best part of the celebration was the fashion show where male and some female models walked the runway, “killing it.” Most were wearing those fantastic Hot Sams tailor-made suits, making all of anxious about shopping at Hot Sams.  One of the male models included his own wife as he walked down the runway First, he did her stride down the walk way, doing his thing, then he turned around, went back, took his coat off and wrapped it around her.  They connected arms and they walked down the runway together revealing her very pregnant baby bump. 

Black Wall Street dates back to the 1900’s in the Greenwood district of Tulsa Oklahoma and was a community comprised of bustling black businesses and residences that personified self-sustaining strength and excellence, which created vast wealth, where the dollar circulated approx. 19 times before leaving the
community. In June 1921, that community was demolished at the hands of a white mob resulting in one of the largest massacres of black citizens in America. 100 years later in July 2021, Detroit’s Black Wall Street was presented by Hot Sam’s in downtown Detroit to recognize and remember the great feats and contributions
of black businesses and black people including the rich history of paradise valley and Black Bottom in Detroit.

This commemorative celebration highlights metro Detroit black-owned and operated businesses across various sectors in a street vendor marketplace and brings together all communities to collectively appreciate and honor the history and legacy of black business, so that as we rebuild, we also remember.

Congratulations to Hot Sams on the celebration of 100 years of business. Owned by two legendary Detroiters, Tony Stovall and Cliff G. Green, Hot Sams is an iconic Detroit Mens Fashion Brand built on an essential lifestyle promise. The Hot Sams brand has always been synonymous with High Quality Detroit Style. The story goes that in 1974 a couple of determined and hard working young men worked their way up the retail ladder at Hot Sams and in 1994 became owners of the very store they worked at, which makes this fashion and lifestyle label a true American/ Detroit Dream personified.