Chris King recently featured us on Cielo Cycle’s Buzz blog, in a post titled, “Like-Minded: A Tour of Grovemade”. Cielo Cycles is a fellow Portland manufacturer working in world-class handmade bicycle fabrication. An arm of Chris King Precision Components, Cielo Cycles creates handmade, small-batch bicycle frames of the absolute highest quality. Chris King began manufacturing frames and bicycle components in 1978, and the company prides itself on integrity, precision, design, and reliability.
We enjoyed having their team visit our workshop. Sharing our processes and space with a company we hold in high regard is a great experience. They took some gorgeous photos and made some wonderful comments on the way we do things here. It’s definitely a blog post worth checking out! Here are some highlights from the post:
Image source: http://cielo.chrisking.com/2014/06/18/like-minded-a-tour-of-grovemade/
"Out of this fertile community companies have risen that address the party line that 'manufacturing is dead in the US,' head-on with an explicit show-don’t-tell attitude. One such business is Portland manufacturer Grovemade, makers of modern and sophisticated wood based office supplies and personal electronic accessories. Their products are designed and produced in their SE Portland facility where they maintain a strict focus on both the quality of their product and the environmental impact of their production."
Image source: http://cielo.chrisking.com/2014/06/18/like-minded-a-tour-of-grovemade/
“[...]Grovemade has continued to expand their offerings,” states Cielo, “drawing design inspiration from Alvar Aalto sparse wood textures and Dieter Ram’s functional fineness of line.”
"Currently Grovemade has 19 employees and they continue to assess, tweak, and improve every aspect of their company from their product offerings to their production process. 'We don’t really have a direct competitor, no one out there is doing wood products like us, the tolerances and fit that we maintain doesn’t exist anywhere else in our market,' says Ken. And they are not interested in changing that by devaluing their process to increase their profit margin.[...]We know they will continue to grow and we hope that they will add many more annual rings to their business. Be sure to check out their site for more insight into their products and process."
Image source: http://cielo.chrisking.com/2014/06/18/like-minded-a-tour-of-grovemade/
We not only share Chris King’s enthusiasm for making things the hard way and the best way, but also we share that company’s enthusiasm for meeting like-minded designers and sharing stories. See more photos of our space by Chris King, and read the rest of their rad blog post here.
Written by Mary Yajko. She is a copywriter and member of Team Grove originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.
