Welcome back to the Stomping Grounds newsletter, and happy new year!

It is 2026 (HOW??), and Stomping Grounds is checking off our New Year’s Resolutions with some pretty big upcoming changes, including a branding revamp! Read on, dear friend!

Note: if your device doesn’t let you see the photos, please click “Read Online” in the upper right hand corner of the email!

Over the past several months, we have been working behind-the-scenes to switch up the branding of Stomping Grounds to something new, exciting, and more aligned with the feeling of the store. Think elegant, vintage, classic, and slightly funky…we will have more for you in the coming months, but you can get a sneak peek with our new bags:

We have been working with the lovely designer Kyle Knobel on our branding re-design, and are SO thrilled with how it is coming along. He is helping us turn ideas into reality, from new logos to a wee facelift for this very newsletter. We certainly couldn’t have done it without Kyle’s ideas and technical genius!

This might seem like the post-holiday slump, but we never stop finding fun new items to stock our shelves. Seriously. We can’t stop.

Check out some of our customers’ stunning frame jobs from before the holidays:

Attention local weirdos and fun lovers!! Have you been to Total Recall in downtown Geneva? If you haven’t yet, you are missing out on Geneva’s premiere retro toy store, arcade, game haven, and cryptid society. We LOVE Total Recall, so we are thrilled to join the downtown business community in congratulating its brilliant owner, Cassie J. Sneider, on the birth of her baby boy, Gene Jumbelic Safran-Sneider! Gene was born to Cassie and Joshua on Thursday, December 4th, 2025 at 2:09am, measuring 22 inches long and weighing 10lb 6oz. Gene is named after Geneva, and he is bound to have the most fabulous childhood amid the wonderland of Total Recall.

Be sure to stop by at 40 Castle Street and follow the shop on Instagram @totalrecall315!

Also…do we count as “community news”? I think so. We wanted to thank everyone who made our holiday season magical, and that includes both you and our amazing staff! HUGE shoutout to the lovely silly faces of Stomping Grounds (not everyone pictured, but there in spirit).

While I have not yet seen the latest film adaptation of Frankenstein, its critical acclaim and public reception reminded me of my awe when I first read Mary Shelley’s book. It seems that the recent film appropriately captured what so many adaptations fail to do: the complex and socially relevant symbolism of the Creature. I grew up thinking that Frankenstein was a horror story about a monster, but when I finally read it for myself I realised that it was a horror story about humans. It is such an important book, and yet its messaging has been largely overlooked. From the dangers of “playing God” to the social creation of evil, this book holds so much more than a simple monster story. Frankenstein remains a must-read book.

-Barrow

Thank you for sticking with us another year! We are so excited for what 2026 will bring, and we could never do it without all of your support.

See you next month!