How Did The Iconic Zig Zag Records Sign End Up In A Williamsburg Warehouse?

Somehow Brooklyn’s cultural treasures always seem to find their way to Williamsburg — that hipster mecca where vintage artifacts become trophies for flannel-clad twenty-somethings.

Turns out the Zig Zag Records sign is on display at a Williamsburg warehouse. Neighbor Corey Kanterman spotted it last month inside the warehouse for Sky High Murals and Colossal Media, which specialize in hand-painted advertisements. Kanterman posted a picture of the sign to the Facebook group 11235.

Zig Zag Records closed down more than five years ago after a run of more then three decades in a storefront on Avenue U. The legendary independent music store, believed to be one of the last vinyl merchants in southern Brooklyn, became an outpost for heavy metal enthusiasts during the 1980s and established ties with the iconic Bensonhurst music venue L’amour.

As a tribute to the store’s status in Brooklyn, the shop was briefly brought back to life during the production of Men in Black III, when film crews posted replicas of the sign on storefronts in Downtown Brooklyn for the film shoot.

However, workers at the Williamsburg warehouse, which is located on Wythe Avenue between North 11th Street and North 10th Street, told us the sign in their shop is the real deal.

Truman Lahr, Colossal’s shop manager, said the sign was picked up by a friend of the company who spotted it in the trash beside Zig Zag Records when the shop was being dismantled.

Lahr said the sign has been on display in the warehouse ever since — nestled amongst a vast collection of business banners of a bygone era.

“We’re sign hangers,” he explained. “Our shop is filled with old signs.”

However, Lahr said many visitor’s to the company’s warehouse are unfamiliar with Zig Zag’s deep roots in Brooklyn’s music scene.

“People walk by and think we’re a record store,” he said. “They don’t really know where the sign is from.”