Sat 2/21 @ 8pm
The call is out for pinball wizards, fashionistas and hipsters to unite for the Volume 2015 Fashion Show taking place at Superelectric.
This free and unique melding-of-interests event includes runway shows by designers Alicia Hunter, Cleveland Fray and jewelry designer Sandy Buffie, rock shows by Goldmines, Hiram Maxim, and Arms and Armour and plenty of silver-ball fun at Cleveland’s amazing pinball parlor.
CoolCleveland talked to Superelectric co-owner Ben Haehn about the Volume 2015 Fashion Show.
CoolCleveland: First of all, how exactly did you come up with the concept for this event?
Ben Haehn: It was brought up to us at one of our events by designer Alicia Hunter. She has a few fashion shows a year and was looking for interesting venues. We like doing events that are a little different. We’ve had weddings in here, and we thought a runway fashion show could be something interesting and different so we said sure.
It’s three fashion designers doing some design work with jewelry. There are going to be a lot of dresses down a runway, kind of more fashion forward kind of stuff so it will be interesting to look at. We’re having three bands play, which will make it a little different. There will be some cool ladies walking down the runway, some cool bands playing and everybody will get a shot at playing some pinball.
Has Superelectric ever hosted an event like this before?
No, this is the first time we’ve mished-moshed an event. We’ve done bands before, and we’ve always had the pinball, but this is the first time we’re doing something where we’re trying to get other people up here exposed to music or if they’re into fashion or vice versa. It’s a nice little thing to try out. We’re getting a real good response online. I think it’s going to be a really good event.
On the surface, it appears you’re attempting to bridge a gap and bring together three different audiences.
There’s a lot of overlap. It’s kind of funny, we’ve got pinball enthusiasts who came up here and found out we were going to do the fashion show and they know people who are involved in the fashion show. And there are people in the music scene who really like pinball. I think those groups will get to explore a little bit and have some fun.
As far as Superelectric is concerned, tell us about the operation.
We started out as a screen printing company, and we still do a lot of that. We do T-shirts and a lot of poster work for artists like Derek Hess. But we do a lot of pinball now. We’re kind of taking what we do with the screen printing and have been adapting it to pinball.
We do a lot of refabbing and making old machines new again and selling them. With all the screen printing and photo shop work we do, it seemed like a really good fit. All of those machines are all screen printed. We started buying a ton of machines and letting people play them. Also, we do a lot of pinball events. We have tournaments and special events like this. It’s something fun for us because it exposes a lot of people to something they didn’t even know they’d like.
It’s funny, to millennials and younger folks, a pinball machine is akin to an antique we’d see at Cedar Point’s old-fashioned arcade.
We get a lot of that, where kids will have the apps on phones. And the pinball apps sold millions of copies, so a lot of people are familiar with pinball but not the tangible object. We’ve had kids come up here with their parents and they know the games but they’ve never seen them in person. I found that to be interesting. A lot of people haven’t tried it before. Everything is on free play so it’s kind of like a real nice exposure to get a chance to try something. We usually make a couple of sales when we have a couple of events. It keeps us motivated and doing what we do.
Finally, what’s the average cost of a pinball machine these days?
It depends. We’ve got machines from ‘40s to current, and the prices vary. Some of the older ones are worth $800 to $1,500, and then on the high end we have some machines that retail for $5,000. We hit the market for a lot of people who are looking for something they can have in their basement for a while and enjoy when their friends are over. Or a more competitive machine they’ll play a lot of. We have a lot of older folks in their 60s who love the older machines. We’ve also got a younger generation in their 30s and 40s who are about the newer ones. So it’s a cool place to be. We really like it.
The free Volume 2015 Fashion Show takes place at 8 p.m. Feb. 21 at Superelectric, 1300 W.78th St., Suite 3C, Cleveland.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio.
When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.
Cleveland, OH 44102
One Response to “Three bands. Three designers. Lots of Pinball. @78thStStudios”
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This is a great event. Hope a lot of people came over and enjoyed hours of fun pinball games as well as appreciate excellent designs from Hunter, Fray, and Buffie. The place must also be rockin’ with that awesome rock band line up.