Olean’s Northport, Leelanau County’s lone marijuana dispensary, is welcoming spring in an unusual way. According to Daniel Caudill, the store’s owner and founder, Olean’s is starting a new tradition this year where it will change the outfit on the statue outside the dispensary (pictured) to mark the changing of the seasons.

The statue is a “Uniroyal Tire Gal” from the 1960s. Back then, the Uniroyal Tire Company had dozens of these 17.5-foot-tall fiberglass statues made and used them to brand and promote Uniroyal dealers throughout the country. Uniroyal eventually discontinued the program, and according to some sources, there are only about 12 Uniroyal Gals left in the entire United States. One of them is at Olean’s in Northport.

When the statues were crafted more than half a century ago, Uniroyal had them made so that the gal’s red shirt and blue skirt could be removed to reveal a bikini underneath. The idea was that Uniroyal dealers could transition their statues' outfits throughout the year to mark changes in seasons. A bikini-clad Uniroyal Gal, in other words, was a sign of summer. Now, Olean’s is embracing that idea.

“Basically, she has an outfit on – it's like a skirt and a top, and underneath is a bikini,” Caudill says. “And so every spring, we're going to take the outfit off and she'll be wearing the bikini, sort of as a way of heralding that summer’s coming. And then every fall, we're going to put her outfit back on, but it'll be a different print. So, each year she’ll have different outfits.”

This year’s springtime switch is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18, at noon. At that time, Caudill says team members from Britten, Inc. in Traverse City will be on hand to change the outfit. Britten will then set to work designing a brand-new look for the Uniroyal Gal.

“Her outfit is riveted on, so Britten is going to come out on the 18th and basically unrivet it, and then take it back to their shop so that we can put a new vinyl on it, to change her outfit for fall,” Caudill explains.

Olean’s has teased the outfit swap on its Instagram page, encouraging customers to come by the shop on Tuesday at noon “for a big reveal.”

The Uniroyal Gal reveal is the first of two big events that Olean’s has planned this week. Caudill tells the Leelanau Ticker that the dispensary will also be celebrating 4/20 on Thursday with food trucks, a local radio station broadcasting from the shop, and more.