MartinPatrick3 Named Retailer of the Year from Top Industry Magazine
North Loop anchor MartinPatrick3 (MP3) has been keeping a secret for the last month. The editors of MR Magazine, the gold standard for the men’s fashion industry, called to tell them they won the prestigious MR Award for “Retailer of the Year – Specialty Store.” MP3 owners Greg Walsh and Dana Swindler agreed it was a hard secret to keep. “We just told some people that something good’s going to be coming out on the PR front and this is actually very, very great news,” said Swindler.
“We received their award for Innovation nine years ago,” recalls Walsh. “So to roll forward nine years and to get the big feather in the cap is really amazing.”
MR Magazine editors choose honorees with input from experts in what the industry calls the “better menswear” category. “We hear from all the vendors that come in, and they tell us we’re the only truly lifestyle store,” explained Walsh. “What puts us on that national platform where people recognize what we’re doing is because it’s truly a holistic lifestyle [experience], touching home and men’s and women’s and art and furniture and jewelry categories.”
MR Magazine launched the awards in 2006. In its press release announcing this year’s honorees, the magazine describes the awards as “a cornerstone event for the menswear industry, recognizing the retailers, brands, and individuals making a meaningful impact across our business,” with the mission to “celebrate excellence across every facet of the market.”
“MartinPatrick3 was selected not only for the exceptional store Greg and Dana have built, but for the values behind it,” said Karen Alberg Grossman, Editor-in-Chief of MR Magazine, in a press release from MP3. “They’ve created a rare kind of luxury—one without attitude—where everyone feels welcome. And in a moment of hardship for their city, their focus was on supporting others. That speaks volumes about who they are.”
Walsh and Swindler remain committed to North Loop. “Every month we have somewhere, someone across the country who has a proposition for us to open a new MartinPatrick3 in New York or LA or Miami and we are just so convicted to us being here, just in the North Loop,” said Walsh. “Being the size we are, in the location that we are, so that we can stay nimble, react to market trends, react to consumer trends and the fun we have doing it here.”
Walsh and Swindler will receive their award alongside other honorees and industry leaders and legends in New York this July, and MR Magazine will profile them in their July issue.
— By Mary Binkley, NLNA President