Summertime! After working hard through Portland’s gray winter and enduring months of rain and cold we Grovers need to replenish our vital life energy with fun, food, and sunshine!  

A brief poll around the shop led to this summary of favorite summer adventures and getaways taken by us lucky Grovers.

First, one of us got hitched! Wahoo!

Highlights include: An excursion to wine country in California for a wedding, a trip to Alcatraz, drinking hot cups of joe in beat poet cafes in San Francisco, ziplining through the forest like maniacs, enjoying a demolition derby northern Washington, camping, hiking, and sasquatch spotting on the Oregon coast, padding the pavement in New York City and Brooklyn, museums, art, amazing food and friends, and lot and lots of summer heat and sunshine!



Apart from our big trips, there have been other good doses of summer in our everyday activities like bike rides up to Mt. Tabor and Laurelhurst Park, picking berries on Sauvie Island, running in Forest Park, and enjoying walks Portland’s Rose Garden.  There have also been picnics, barbeques, birthdays, and excursions to Ken’s secret swimming hole.  

Last but not least every day on misty Oregon mornings Ollie the dog is taken for his walk!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

We are so excited to finally get our hands on an iPhone 5 today! In honor of “the arrival”, we’re running a little Sweepstakes on Facebook! Here’s how it works:

1. Take a photo of something you find to be absolutely beautiful with your new iPhone 5.
2. Post the photo on our Facebook wall.  
3. THREE winners will be chosen at random to win the most beautiful case on the planet: the Grove iPhone 5 Case.

Happy snapping, everyone!

*Official contest rules here*

The iPhone 5 was announced by Apple at their 2012 iPhone 5 keynote today! Everyone here at Grove was anxiously awaiting the specifications of the phone, and a chorus of high-fives sounded throughout our workspace as the details came to light. We took a risk this year and decided to design our new case and make it available for pre-order before the specs of the phone were officially announced. Lucky for us, the rumor mill was on target (Although Ken thinks it's less exciting this way)!

Thrill over our case design is one thing, but I think everyone’s got a bit of a crush on the iPhone 5 itself. I’m pretty sure most hearts in Grove are lusting after the new iPhone - yes, partially because it means we get to use our iPhone 5 case.

Here’s a rundown of some initial reactions from the Grove team:

Sean (Designer and Production Manager):
“I love the mix of materials and how elegantly they use them. I love the back. The sexy back. My favorite part of the presentation was when the iPhone rose from the stage. It reminded me of the golden statue in Indiana Jones.”



Max (Lead Graphic Designer):
“I can’t believe I’m getting my fourth iPhone. Things have come a long way since 320x480!”

Ken (Co-owner):
“It wasn’t exciting this time because there were so many leaks!”

Joe (Co-owner):
“I guess I’m just blown away with the meticulous attention to detail as always...and the manufacturing methods employed.”

The specs of the iPhone 5 courtesy of CultofMac:

• Same width, but slightly taller
• New 4-inch, 326 ppi Retina display with 1136×640 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio
• A6 CPU is 2x faster than the iPhone 4S’s A5 CPU
• New 8-pin Lightning sync-cable replaces old 30-pin connector
• LTE, HSPA+, and DC-HSDPA cellular data and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wifi
• Battery life improved to 8 hours of 3G/LTE talk time
• Camera upgraded to 8-megapixel sensor with hybrid IR filter, five element lens, and f/2.4 aperture
• Panorama feature can create 28-megapixel photos
• Screen has 44% more color saturation and improved integrated touch sensors
• Three new microphones and Enhanced Audio
• 7.6mm thin, which is 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S
• 112 grams, which is 20% lighter than iPhone 4S
• Comes in black and white at 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB
• Priced at $199, $299, and $399 with a two year contract
• Pre-orders start September 14th and ship on September 21st

Let’s set the record straight-- Arthur “Arty” Johnstone’s mom makes all of his clothing, and he looks great!  He is like a handsome sasquatch, tall like a brontosaurus, and he loves bad movies like The Norseman (1978). He is also a painter who loves Die Antwoord-- check out his website here!



Arthur is a light hearted sanding machine who keeps everybody happy while we work. He is known in the woodshop as The Beard of Zeus-- one who has perfected the art of sanding and shaping iPhone cases, wood watches, and wood speakers. He excels at chamfer and backsanding!

A few months ago, we wrote a post about Arty and his woodshop series of prisma color drawings that he made here in Grove’s shop! He keeps a painting studio in a space at the Recess Gallery, and has recently been working on a large volume of collaborative work, including a time lapse video of painting of a Portland’s Willamette River.



Sadly, like a meandering and lonesome cowboy on the prairie, he is now leaving Grove to move on to greener pastures. He will first embark on a pilgrimage to the major art hubs of the United States. You may catch a glimpse of him on the Amtrack train or Greyhound bus trolling through your town. He’s destined for Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Boston, and New York City.  He wants to see how independent artists make a living outside of the corporate structure.

Arty says more than anything he will miss working with this collection of well dressed people.  While drawing his coworkers on our breaks he says he imagines us wild stallions...

Bon voyage, Arty!  We’ll miss you!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

The Grove team is delighted to announce that our new iPhone 5 case is available now for pre-order! We re-designed our case to be thinner, sleeker, more durable, and still made with all-natural bamboo. Give your new phone a case that’s modern, gorgeous, eco-friendly, and practical!



Equal parts sustainability and eye-catching form, our smartest design yet involves combining two materials - a renewable bamboo exterior and a strong, solid surface material core. In signature Grove style, we design and make the case entirely here at our Portland workshop.



Up until September 30th, you have the chance to pre-order the case for a special discounted price ($20 off) AND a secure place in line before those who don’t pre-order. Pre-order prices for the case start at just $59*. (For more information on the pre-order, please visit our iPhone 5 case FAQ).

We don’t get any special insider information on the new iPhone, so we’ll be watching patiently when the new iPhone is released on September 12th - just like you! Once we have the new iPhone in our hands, we’ll finalize the case so it fits like a glove.

Thank you for reading and don’t forget to reserve your iPhone 5 case!

*Discounted pre-order prices : Plain Case ($59), Engraved Case ($79), Custom Case ($109)

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

Grove’s co-owners, Ken and Joe, are honored and excited to speak on the panel at the inaugural Portland Digital eXperience (PDX), a part of MusicFest Northwest (MFNW)! Ken and Joe will be participating along with Lindsay Jo Holmes of MapleXO, our collaboration partner on our iPhone SkateBacks. Discussion will be framed around the ins and outs of running tech-inspired small businesses in the creative oasis of the Portland Metro Area. Check out this panel “Technology as Inspiration” on Friday, September 7th at 2:15pm; PDX activities will be ongoing September 6th through 8th.  Tickets and schedule are available online.

Portland Digital eXperience is a thrilling addition to Time-magazine-lauded MFNW, giving Portland’s many tech-focused start-ups (aka the Silicon Forest) an outlet for discussion, celebration, and exploration! PDX was planned and organized by Rick Turoczy, co-founder of P.I.E. (Portland Incubator Experiment) and creator of Silicon Florist. Friday’s “Technology as Inspiration” panel will be moderated by Garrett Stenson. Garrett currently works for Ziba as a business developer and all around “dot connector”, and previously founded db clay. Check out Garrett’s blog, Twitter feed, and Linkedin profile for more information on this mover and shaker.

Lookout South by Southwest (SXSW)! The Northwest is giving you a run for your money with MusicFestNW and its awesome new events, like PDX. Read more about Portland’s tech-savviness and “creative streak” on OregonLive and CNNMoney. And if you’re coming out for MFNW and PDX, be sure to stop by Friday’s panel with Ken, Joe, Lindsay, and Garrett to learn more about “Technology as Inspiration”! 

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

We wanted to share a little about how Grove operates day to day in our work space. Because we share a building with several other creative businesses and individuals, our workshop is divided between two different floors. In this charming, brick, industrial building, our woodshop is on the very bottom level, and our laser studio is located on the very top floor. That’s five flights between the upstairs and downstairs teams. We only use the industrial lift when we have something heavy to carry, so we all have super strong legs. “Legs like trees,” we like to say!



I asked our general manager Galen and our woodshop production manager Sean to add some insight into how they keep everything together, without being two places at once:

How do you manage two production areas?
Galen - “It used to be a challenge but like many of the hurdles we’ve faced over the life of Grove, we’ve adapted and we’re working as hard as we can to unify our production team.”
Sean - “You have to constantly remind yourself to get in contact...we meet every morning...we levitate to each other out the windows too. And use cans with string. I use smoke signals as well...carrier pigeons. You know.”

The downstairs woodshop, or “the shop” as we call it, is where we bring in our raw bamboo or skateboard material, mill it with our machinery, and sand and finish each case by hand. That’s also where we have our barbeques, manage our compost pile, and grow our fledgling patch of bamboo!

Upstairs, or “laserland”, is where we have our lasers, sewing machines, and quality control areas, as well as our shipping, design, and customer service pods. Laserland also has arguably one of the best views of the Willamette River, downtown Portland, and all its bridges!



Before our current building, the lasershop and woodshop used to be in two different locations entirely. Even though we’ve got Grove down to one building, we’re still moving toward eventually having one large workshop and more streamlined and unified processes. The production teams have been spending time lately cross-training in various tasks.

Before our current location, Grove used to be in two different buildings. How has being in one building affected the company?
Galen - “Going into one building - super game changer - now everyone knows each other. Now we have to run up five flights of stairs instead of running for 2 ½ miles.”
Sean - “When I worked in the old wood shop we didn’t really see the laser shop people very often, so it’s been really great merging the two shops...Plus we’re not sharing a space with other woodworkers that have their own projects going on.”

You’ve started cross-training the production team so everyone learns every task. What are the benefits of that?
Galen - “It gives us ultimate flexibility if people are out on vacation or sick. We can shift them and still get production done.”
Sean - “It makes our relationships with each other stronger, and it makes us understand how our actions can affect each other. You see the big picture, where before it was compartmentalized. I mean, we’re all BFFs, but now we’re even closer BFFs.”

What’s the ideal Grove space?
Galen - “The ideal would be one ginormous production space so that we can all be happy together forever.” [the end].
Sean - “Maybe we should get an elevator...to space. Or an underground mountain lair. In a volcano.”

Grove probably won’t be moving into a ginormous underground volcano lair anytime soon, but we’re always working toward being the most unified and productive team we can be!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

This week we wanted to share a little more about the city where Grove is based-- Portland, OR. We are fortunate to have a proactive and forward thinking community that is investing in a better future for our city and its residents. Grove fits into this community by making our cases using bamboo- a renewable resource.

Here is an informative video on Portland’s sustainability initiatives that was made by artist Andrew Dickson for the Portland Office of Sustainability.  

Below is a small selection of the green initiatives that Portland is investing in. (Besides what Portland is known for- like an amazing network of bike lanes.)

1. Bioswales

What’s a bioswale? Bioswales are elements designed into the landscape that help to reduce pollution in our waterways by removing silt and filtering out toxins from surface runoff water.  This helps to keep our rivers clean and make our city more beautiful by adding more greenery to boot.



2. Green Eco Roofs

Green roofs are beneficial in many ways.  They help reduce carbon dioxide levels, reduce rainwater runoff, provide habitats for urban wildlife, filter the air and reduce air pollution, and significantly lower the overall temperature of a city.

Check out the downtown Portland library’s eco roof!  

3. Solar Energy

Portland is a leader in installing and maintaining solar panels. Solar is the most reliable and renewable of all of our energy resources. By transitioning to solar energy we can reduce our dependence on costly and polluting fossil fuels. To learn more, here is a link to Solar Oregon.

We love this town.
Go Portland!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

To the laypeople of the world, Dano is a machinist.  But the real deal is that Dano (aka Jeano) helps in the design, prototyping, and manufacturing of the production of our products. This winter he was instrumental in redesigning the iPad case. More recently he’s been  focusing on developing the skateback, the major innovation of this product being the design and construction of a vacuum table that allows for speed of manufacture while simultaneously minimizing waste.

Dano hails from Salem, Massachusetts, the Halloween capital of the universe! He graduated from Reed college in 2009 with a BA in Psychology. In school he was most interested in the neuroscience side of psychology and currently splits his time between Grove and a research lab at OHSU where he uses a gigantic MRI machine.

Right now, he has a project with two other friends called The Humble Velocipede on Kickstarter. This project owes a lot of its success to Grove, as Dano used his design and machining experience from his work here and applied it to the Velocipede.



When he’s not as Grove you can find him enjoying bike rides, kittens, hot coffee and listening to Mariah Carey. Songs like Fantasy and Emotions really power him through the day!

goGrove!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

We’re thrilled to announce our newest Bamboo iPad Case from Tasha Chapman, artist of our “Feathers” Bamboo iPhone Case! In our newest collaboration, we’re featuring Tasha’s design “Silent Night” on our premium leather and bamboo iPad case. Check out one of her many original pieces below:


"Depths Below" original by Tasha Chapman

“The diving whale invites you to follow him into his serene world below the waves. Even if it's stormy above, in his world sounds are muffled, the water flows slower, and chaos dissolves into liquid.”  - Tasha Chapman on “Depths Below”

Tasha, a.k.a. Jewelwing, is a full-time artist and a lover of the ocean and its inhabitants. When she’s not in the water, she’s channeling her fascination with nature into beautiful illustrations. Tasha’s designs are now in a permanent collection on T-shirts.com and have also been sold at Urban Outfitters, Threadless, shirt.woot, Society6, and Goodjoe, among others. The Atlantic Ocean is Tasha’s Etsy store for all things sea-inspired. The best way to learn about her and her work is to explore her website, jewelwing.com.



Tasha’s whimsical “Silent Night” Bamboo iPad Case will be $20 off this week!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

We wanted to share some of the tools we use at Grove everyday to make our items, along with some of the Grove products we ourselves enjoy daily! Check out the product descriptions below if you’d like to learn a little more about shop life.



From the top left going clockwise:

Grove Notebook leather Moleskine Cover in “Elephant” by Jacob Escobedo - Here at Grove, we depend on our trusty personal Moleskine notebooks to organize our daily ideas, to-do lists, and inspirations. Joe’s Elephant cover has been through years of use and shows the graceful aging of the leather, which results in a smooth texture and deep honey hue.

Copic Multiliner Pen - This is a great pen for the detailed technical drawings essential to product and production designing.

The trusty no. 2 pencil - A good no. 2 pencil never fails you whether you’re sketching on the work table or working through some figures in your notebook.

Olfa Safety Cutter - We entrust our various cutting jobs in this safe, sharp blade. It cuts leather, veneer, paper, and other materials with ease - it’s the sword of the workshop!

Gingher Thread Nippers - This nifty scissor-like tool is used for trimming the thread after we sew our covers for Bamboo iPad Cases, Wool iPad Sleeves, or leather Moleskine covers.

INSIZE Digital Calipers - We like to perfect the fit of our iPhone cases, and this digital caliper allows us to do just that. We bow down to its preciseness!

Grove Wool iPad Sleeve and Apple iPad - We love DJing during our woodshop hours with the iPad, and the wool sleeve is great for protecting the tablet when we carry it from our woodshop to our laser studio and everywhere in between.

Grove SkateBack and Apple iPhone 4s - We like to be uber cool with SkateBack-endowed iPhones; the SkateBack is also great for protecting our phones from being set down on various hard surfaces all day. Of course, we use our iPhones for just about everything from Instragramming to planning super serious business meetings. Shh!

Assorted Dental Tools - We know it’s kind of creepy, but dental tools are great for picking the excess glue off of bezels on our iPhone cases (and the food out of our teeth after lunch...)

DEWALT Safety Glasses - Saving eyes (and making us look sexy in the workshop) since 1920!

Custom Finishing Tongs - We crafted these tongs to be the ideal tool for our custom, hand-applied oil finishing process. We design and make many of our own tools!

3M Respirator - We use 3M respirators to add that post-apocalyptic vibe to the woodshop and to protect our lungs from the inevitable sandstorms created by sanding up all that lovely bamboo. Ahh - breath in that delicious wood smell - as long as you’ve got your respirator on!

We hope you enjoyed learning a little more about our everyday tools of the trade. We love what we do, and we love finding the right tools for each job - even if that means we have to make them ourselves!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

This August, Apple is trying to spread the love for some of its newest iOS devices. With Apple refurbishing programs and price-matching promotions, the opportunity to finally get the New iPad or an iPhone 4/4s has presented itself. Apple also premiered the following television commercial for the New iPad on August 7th, as reported by MacRumors:



The ad states:

“Read it. Tweet it.
Be surprised. Be productive.
Make a sale. Make some lunch.
Make it movie night.
Play a game. Or an old favorite.
Do it all more beautifully, with the Retina display, on iPad.”



It’s true that so much can be done on the New iPad, and the Retina display adds smoothness, seamlessness, and eye-catching sharpness to so many of our daily routines. For those without the new iPad, Apple has just begun selling a variety of refurbished New iPads on their online store. According to TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog), quantities of Apple refurbs are typically limited. Each refurb comes with a complete warranty, new outer shell, and new battery.



Apple has also begun to price match certain retailers discounts on the iPhone. Historically, the Apple store sticks to its own price scale; however, MacRumors and TUAW reported that they will accept price matching for the iPhone 4 and 4s for Best Buy, Carriers, Radio Shack, Target, and Sprint. Allegedly, customers must cite the source of the price to receive price matching and can only use price matching in Apple stores, not through the online store.

There you have it! It’s truly Apple August, and some of us on team Grove are especially excited to take part! Beating the heat with some indoor tech-time sounds good right about now...

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

To customers, Tommy is probably best known for writing most of the thank you notes for our outgoing orders, but around here Tommyhawk is known for making sure every product gets finished and goes out on time. He’s worked at Grove for two years and when he joined the company it was just a baby beginner with six employees! He’s mastered every job in the laser shop, and now his main responsibilities include lasering all the artwork and processing all of the shipping orders. His favorite products are the Leather Notebook Covers for Moleskine. Have a peep!

Tommy is a born-and-raised Portland native who grew up in the St John’s neighborhood. He attended the University of Oregon where he graduated in 2009 with Bachelors of Architecture. Out of all the Grovers who attended of the U of O, he is the reluctant Duck. Having grown up here, Tommy’s love of Portland fed into his desire to become a city planner. This year he’ll be returning to school at Portland State University for his Masters in Civil Engineering. He’s interested in using European models of city layout-- particularly transportation systems-- as a way to connect communities. The dude has lived in Denmark, speaks Swedish and he’s looks forward to returning to live and study in Copenhagen. Jealous!

Outside of work, Tommy is an avid runner.  Recently, he’s been getting back into screen printing and watercoloring.  He is also the local horror movie buff with Suspiria at the top of his list. (Halloween is a close follow up.)  

When he’s not keeping a small mountain of orders to be shipped and organized you can usually find him singing karaoke-- Heartbreaker by Mariah Carey!

Written by Mike Schultz. He is an oil painter from Ithaca, New York.  When he is not working for Grove, he’s painting and drawing to his heart’s content.  You can see his work on his blog and his website.

We’re lucky here at Grove to be working amongst such talented people. From architecture and fine art to carpentry and web programming, our team has a lot to offer! We wanted to share the art and designs of five of our many passionate creators:

Ellie Yi
Ellie Yi is a hardworking production manager at Grove and also a talented illustrator. Ellie graduated with a BFA in Graphic Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She uses a range of mediums, including charcoal, acrylic, and computer illustration. According to Ellie, almost anything in her day-to-day life can serve as inspiration for an image or character, but the motivation to be a better artist is what moves her to draw. From creating playful characters to invoking emotions in the viewer, Ellie enjoys telling stories with her drawings. She is putting that energy toward a career in children’s book illustration and video game character design. Ellie is available for commissioned works.

More of Ellie’s work can be viewed on her blog.

Arty Johnstone
Arty is a production assistant at Grove - sanding cases with care in our woodshop. He’s also a drawing maniac who’s always got his sketchbook out. His main mediums are acrylic, pen and ink, and prismacolor pencils, but he’s been known to do the occasional wire sculpture. He’s interested in working quickly and capturing loose representations of the people, places, and objects that occupy his life. Inspirations for Arty include impressionist paintings, pop stars, and even trash bins and some of the more underappreciated parts of human anatomy. Arty loves the draw his friends and spend entire weekends holed up in his studio, beating his head against the wall about the myriad quandaries of painting. Arty was part of a two man show at the Cock gallery in Portland entitled “Attraction and Repulsion”.

See more work from Arty on his blog.

Mike Schultz
Mike works as a production assistant in the Grove woodshop and is an inspiring artist returning from a 15-month stay on the Thai-Burma border. Japanese sumi ink and oil painting are his preferred mediums. He’s made a wide breadth of work including a collaboration with photographer Sarah Wilmer of some haunting album art for the mysterious Connie Converse. Since returning to the US, he has been concentrating on narrative work reflecting his experience of living and working in a conflict zone. While living in Mae Sot, Thailand, Mike taught art to Burmese migrant youth and helped to establish the Puzzlebox Art Studio, a project of the Mae Sot based NGO Youth Connect. The first project of the Puzzlebox was to build a guesthouse from the ground up! Check it out here: Picture Book Guesthouse. Mike is available for commissioned works!

See some of Mike’s work and his process blog here.

Sean Michael Kelly
Sean Kelly is production manager and product designer at Grove, and he’s also passionate about his personal design projects. Sean creates a range of designs - mostly furniture and consumer products. His focus is on user experience. Growing up with a carpenter father and architect grandfather, he’s inspired by people and how they interact with the objects around them. Sean loves to explore the emotions that people experience around products and why people choose to surround themselves with certain items. One of his designs is a device that would provide an entirely new form of communication based on movement and light! Creating something from scratch and sharing new ideas with the world inspires Sean in his work.  Sean will be showing a design at the upcoming ShowPDX , and he recently helped assemble an outdoor bamboo sculpture in Las Vegas with BambooDNA.  His work has also been featured in PlyDesign: 73 Distinctive DIY Projects in Plywood. Sean is available for freelance, collaborative, and commissioned projects.

See more of Sean’s work on his website.

Max Brown
Max works as a designer here at Grove, and in his personal time, creates solid-lined and colorful comic-style tidbits. Max works mainly with pencil and paper, Illustrator, and Photoshop. He’s inspired by other comic and poster artists like Geof Darrow, Hergé, and Tyler Stout; but, most of all, he’s inspired by the animated show Adventure Time. Max loves visually manifesting anything he can dream up - he sees some storytelling coming up in his next project. Done with searching for the perfect fictional worlds, Max has decided he’s going to have to create them himself. Recently, Max has been working on his ongoing series of illustrations inspired by every David Cronenberg film (in chronological order), and has also completed a screen-printed poster for the Holiday Friends July tour. He enjoys poster work and is free for commissioned projects.

See his comic work at Computers are Crazy and explore his world on his website.

These are just a few of the amazing people working on the gifted Grove team! We’re so glad to be able to share their beautiful creations.

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.

I know we’re biased, but we think SkateBacks are pretty darn cool. We love the colors, the feel, the look, and the sustainability factor of using recycled SkateBoard materials! We partner with skateboard jewelry maker MapleXO to get our paws on this awesome material, and it’s pretty exciting to take stuff designated as waste and make something cool and useful.



We wanted to showcase some photos of the process of making our SkateBacks. This product of ours starts off as waste material at Paul Schmitt’s skateboard manufacturing shop, PS Stix.  Lindsay, owner and founder of MapleXO, is an expert at slicing, dicing, and matching up the material to create strong, beautiful colorscapes.

Once the material comes to us at the Grove workshop, it’s time to use our high-tech machines to cut out the shape of each individual SkateBack and to add the perfectly aligned holes for the camera. After that, we apply the adhesive by hand, sand each piece by hand, and carefully rub an oil-based finish on each SkateBack to bring out the best in the material.



Our laser completes the final steps on each SkateBack, adding our tiny Grove + MapleXO logo at the bottom - two names carved together like it’s true love. Grove and MapleXO sitting in a tree...

SkateBacks are available in three color types from our website!

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.