Verbena, the student-focused women’s clothing boutique at 309 S. State St. since 2014, is expected to close by the end of February.
The store was a father-daughter partnership between longtime Ann Arbor businessman Bob Duerksen and Kate Ryan, the brand manager and merchandise buyer. Duerksen, headed toward semi-
retirement, formerly owned Great Lakes Team Apparel and Varsity Blues, since sold to M Den. Ryan is now a stay-at-home mom in Washington state, according to her mother, Mary Duerksen, who has been helping Verbena wind down.
Duerksen says that while last year’s major street construction project hurt foot traffic, larger factors in the closure were the extended absence of students during the pandemic and the rapid emergence of peer-to-peer apps that let young people buy and sell clothes among themselves rather than shop new.
Calls & Letters, April 2023: More about Verbena
Mary Duerksen emailed to fill in more of the story of Verbena, the State St. boutique owned by her husband, Bob Duerksen, and their daughter, Kate Ryan, that closed at the end of February. She pointed to “the role we’ve played for students and locals, offering on-trend clothing, fulfilling their requests for donations to campus and local causes/charities, and often complying with requests from students for class projects. We have contributed a locally owned presence on State Street and employment for many young women for over eight years.”
Duerksen also expanded on her husband’s history on State, which we’d summarized in a March Marketplace Changes article. Prior to Verbena, Bob Duerksen owned Great Lakes Team Apparel/All About Blue—we’d confusingly identified the latter by the name of his legal entity, Varsity Blues—and before that, opened and expanded Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear.
