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2014-03-04 Our Brother Club in the Detroit Area, The Mavericks

Arturo "Dutch" Sanchez has formed a powerful team to build a powerful new club like ours, in an area that truly appreciates handsome, unified leather/fetish men!  I wanted to post this in particular, because it shows exactly how to create a new, similar club from scratch. The hardest part after this is continuing onward with regularly-scheduled events.  That is where most clubs fall apart.


September, 2013:

Hello Papa Tony, I'm planning to come out this October or in February.....i'm going to visit some friends in Palm Springs and thought a detour to San Diego would be nice especially if I could go to one of your FMSD events.....as for my interests I'm still exploring them, all of them (wink-wink)... I ran into your articles on Leatherati about a year and a half ago and I have to say I have had many of the bad experiences you discuss in your articles…..

But, using your outline, I assembled 6 friends to create the "Mavericks"..... we are now assembling a "host committee' of 40 guys to spread the word.....the response has been fantastic......our one and only meeting is scheduled for Oct. 17 with our first event planned for February 2014.....we are modifying your platform a-bit as we have no leathers bars in Detroit ( our Eagle closed about 5 years back)  and the gay bars that try to host leather events are in neighborhoods too dangerous for life or property .......so in essence we will be doing 'Leather Invasions" at different gay  bars and restaurants........Can't thank you enough for taking the time to put all your articles and podcasts together, we will be reference them often......Yours, Arturo Sanchez



October 2013:

I forgot to mention that Bob was Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2006 and is the president of the Michigan branch of the Band of Brothers and his partner Jim was Great Lakes Leather Boy 2012…..so needless say we have some committed leather men as part of our founding members…….

Wanted to keep you informed of what we (the MAVERICKS) are doing here in
Michigan.......Our one and only "Host Committee" meeting was  on October
17th  and we had 28 guys come to hear our concept ( really a modified
version of your club)......we were really pleased with the  turn out ( 28
guys) considering it was a cold and rainy night......the guys and I had beer
and wine and served in mason jars Pulled pork with mashed potatoes garnished
with a slice of bacon.......the event was scheduled for 7:30 -9:00 but
people stay till 11.....people really liked what we are trying to do and
really enjoyed the concept of early event times and non-bar locations….

Just wanted to give you some more feedback……after meeting your friend Magnum (what a great guy) his 2 friends John and Atiba as well as 6 more of their friends are going to join our “Host Committee”. So far we have 36 people who have a strong desire to improve the Leather scene here in Detroit.  Our first meeting is next week……and yes I will take lots of pictures……




Chuck prepping the pulled pork. Chuck is one of the co-founders of
the Mavericks


Chuck (center) his partner Brian ( also a co-founder) and Host
committee member Josh prepping food


Dale (LHS) , Bob ( another co-founder), Edgar and Josh


Jim (LHS) (Bob's partner and co-founder) and Michael


Chuck addressing the crowd ( forgot to mention Chuck is our Mr
Michigan Leather 2014 and will be competing at IML this spring)


Anthony (far left) Chris, Gar, Sean, Edgar and Brian


Myself, John and Atiba ( who are friends of your friend Magnum)


Chris and Jim


Bob, Dale and Jamie


February 2014:

Our First event is going to be a "Boots and Bourbon" event scheduled for
Saturday February 22nd........we just secured the location last week so now
we are full throttle on creating a great event!


New Leather Group Mavericks Hosts First Party, Feb. 22
by Great Lakes Den • February 14, 2014

FERNDALE, Mich. – A new leather group has started in the metro Detroit area and have already planned their first event.

Mavericks, a leather social club, will have their first event, Boots and Bourbon, at Ferndale, Mich.’s Soho on Feb. 22 at 8pm.

Arturo, one of the founding members, said the Mavericks are a social club for men who like leather and want to explore the possibilities. It’s open to guys new to leather and kink and those with experience.

“Our parties are open to everyone,” Arturo said. The group is male centric since the founding members are all men, but everyone is welcome. Mistress Lily of the Kinkdom will be at the first event. Arturo said that Maverick events will have no fundraising, no politics and no cover.

He said the group hopes to create a series of events where people can come, hangout and have fun.



Well the guys and I have finally recovered from our first party.....which
was a great success! 

We had hoped for 80-100 guys to show up and we had
over 180 come.......we were packed ...the bar's capacity is 165 people, so we
were like sardines, but no one was complaining. 



As you know the Midwest is freezing right now, the coldest in years, but with all these hot guys,
figuratively and literally, the shirts came off quickly to show their
gear…..

it was great fun, and the response to our starting our party at 8
was amazing.....we were packed by 9 and it was out of control by 10!


Here are some pictures from our party ...the one above is of
myself and my partner Tim with the custom "wallpaper " we created for the
Men's room…..



the bar is a little plain so you will see in some the other
pictures that we created some décor elements to help Brand our group......


Hope all is well, and looking forward to seeing you in LA,

Yours in Leather,
Arturo



From Magnum:

This is awesome! I'm from Detroit and I met with Arturo last Sept (with a nudge from Papa Tony) when I was visiting my mom, family & friends. I brought a couple of my Detroit buddies (they're in the photos) and shared with Arturo and a few of his friends about what we do in our SD leather community and specifically in FMSD. They were inspired, and it's great to see them launch their club.