Students don’t want to miss the new up-and-coming business to Court Street. With an interesting location above Red Brick Tavern, students might find themselves walking past The Plug 740 every day.
The Plug, 14 N. Court St., Ste. 9, owned and operated by four Athens natives, opened late this summer. The entrance is between Red Brick Tavern and Cat’s Eye Saloon.
Walking into The Plug, customers are met with a colorful display of posters, walls of shoes and a clothing rack full of thrifted and custom shirts. The store has a youthful, fun, fresh and new energy about it, and is definitely a distinct shopping experience.
“People like the shop,” Amos Moretti-Dobo, a co-owner of The Plug, said.
Opening The Plug was an endeavor that has taken a lot of time and effort, Moretti-Dobo, a sophomore studying environmental health science and political science, said.
“We’ve been working on this for about nine months,” Moretti-Dobo said. “We’ve been open for about three.”
The spot above Red Brick was perfect for expenses and location, Moretti-Dobo noted.
“It was the best location we could find for the price,” he said. “This one was just right, because we don’t have that much stuff to store.”
The Plug sells a diverse array of items, including customized and thrifted T-shirts, collectible shoes, CBD products, prints and posters. To Moretti-Dobo, The Plug fills a niche in Southeastern Ohio that isn’t being met.
Fashion and shoes are hard to come by in the region, which is why Athens is great for The Plug’s business. Ohio University students are the biggest customer base for The Plug, Moretti-Dobo said.
“Athens is definitely growing a lot,” Moretti-Dobo said. “(Fashion) is a desirable industry here.”
The Plug is a taste of big-city culture, Moretti-Dobo said.
“I’ve been to a lot of cities and something that is more common is a curated thrift store, which is sort of what this is,” Moretti-Dobo said.
To Moretti-Dobo, a curated thrift store is a consignment shop that carries more customized or repurposed items.
“People like custom stuff a lot more,” Moretti-Dobo added.
Moretti-Dobo encouraged anyone to stop by whenever they see The Plug open.
“Come check us out,” Moretti-Dobo said. “Come up and see the store.”
The Plug is continuously growing its inventory, and diversity of its items. The Plug hopes to carry more high-end shoes and products, as well as selling more locally made art and clothing.
“We want it to be a higher-end store,” Morettei-Dobo said.
The idea for The Plug came to Nathan Whitehead, a co-owner of The Plug, in high school. His original interest was in collecting and trading shoes.
“I got into shoes and the sneaker game,” Whitehead said. “I probably had about 40 pairs.”
Whitehead struggled to find local resellers and traders who shared his similar interests.
“Access to stuff we want to sell is very hard to find,” Whitehead said.
Most of the industry around Athens is more focused on vintage and customized clothing, he emphasized.
“There’s nowhere nearby that people can go to other than, like, Footlocker, or where people can go to find pre-owned used shoes that people like to collect,” Whitehead said.
Whitehead said he’s heard students lament the need for a business that serves special interests, like finding collectible shoes. People in Athens have traveled as far as Toledo and Cleveland to find specialty items they couldn’t get in Athens, but The Plug now has them covered.
Whitehead thought opening The Plug would help service the niche interests.
“I imagine it’d work here,” he said.
Wyatt Clark, another co-owner of The Plug, helped found the business.
“There’s nothing else like it on campus,” Clark, a sophomore studying engineering technology and management, said. “It can definitely take off.”
The Plug is open Monday through Friday, 3 to 8 p.m. If the door to the upstairs suites is open, The Plug is open. Customers can often catch the owners of The Plug outside their location selling raffle tickets.
The Plug’s next raffle drawing is for an Amazon Echo Dot, three pairs of men’s shoes and two pairs of women’s.
Keep up with The Plug on Instagram and Snapchat, @theplug_ou.
