Maker of the iconic biker jacket inks Soho lease

Schott NYC opens first city retail location in 70 years

The Ramones in Schott Biker Jackets And 236 Elizabeth Street
The Ramones in Schott Biker Jackets And 236 Elizabeth Street

The company that makes the biker jackets that the Ramones turned into high fashion is opening a store in Soho — its first New York City retail location in 70 years, The Real Deal has learned.

Schott NYC signed a 10-year lease last week at 236 Elizabeth Street, between East Houston and Prince streets, according to Dawn Ferrer, an associate broker in the retail service group at Cushman & Wakefield. Ferrer represented the 100-year-old company alongside colleagues Alan Napack, a Cushman senior director, and director Greg Tannor.

The landlord, the Ervelino Group, was represented by Larry Roberts, principal and co-founder of Arch Brokerage, which is affiliated with developer Washington Square Partners. Roberts declined to comment.

Elizabeth Street is already home to many trendy fashion boutiques, including Tori Burch and Cynthia Vincent, which both are on the same block that Schott will occupy.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Schott will pay approximately $140 per square foot for the 1,880-square-foot space, Ferrer said.

“They felt it was time [for a retail location],” she said of the company. “Their jackets have never gone out of style. They’ve done very well with wholesale and it was time to take it to a new level.”

Actor Marlon Brando put the spotlight on Schott’s “Perfecto” biker jacket in his 1953 breakthrough role in “The Wild One”; the Ramones adopted the jacket as their dress code as the country’s first punk rock bank in the mid-1970s.

In a statement, Jason Schott, COO of Schott, said: “In 1913, my great grandfather began making jackets in the basement of a tenement building in the Lower East Side. Today, Schott can be found worldwide, but it is my true honor to mark his accomplishments by opening this store less than a mile from his humble beginnings.”