IIt just goes to show you—or at least me—that if you go a season or so without turning certain corners around here, you’re likely to miss some pretty fantastic stuff. An errand for the March issue took me Pioneer Square yesterday, and as I cruised Occidental and considered the cost/benefit of a late-in-the-day latte at Zeitgeist, I noticed a shop—or something—that I hadn’t seen before.

The mission of Tether is not entirely clear upon first entering. A gallery? Not exactly; though there is, at present, a collection of dime store paint-by-numbers and outsider, folk art landscapes on display, there are also a great many odd objects (antique can openers, vintage LPs, miniature Mexican wrestling masks attached to key rings, an emerald green Schwinn) for sale. A curiosity shop? Can’t be; the space around the curious stuff is too deep, too wide, and there are too many busy people on the mezzanine level above.

Just then someone came out to greet me, and I learned that Tether is, at the core, a design agency—and unbeknowst to me, it’s occupied the gorgeous Pio Square space since August. While those folks on the mezzanine work with international clients on branding and design initiatives, president Stanley Hainsworth, once the Creative Director at Nike, curates monthly-or-so art shows on the walls, and fills the rest of the space with whatever interests him, and whatever he thinks you might like to buy.

Right now there are vintage hats. Lots of them, from a recent trip to his home state of Kentucky. (Those pictured here are a mere drop in the bucket, as you wander through the space you discover more, and more. And then more.) And there are books. And mid-mod chairs. And soda bottles almost as historic as the building they sit inside. And that bike.

It just goes to show you—or at least me—that the idea of retail, and of art space, is currently being reinvented. And the more things change, the more they stay the same.