Makers' Market

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Handcrafted goods are high on consumers’ lists, encouraging more artisans and craftspeople to launch small businesses.

New companies like Portland, Ore.-based ADX are popping up to support this ‘maker movement.’

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org PHOTOS BY NICOLLE CLEMETSON AND HANMI HUBBARD MEYER

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onsumption is art these days, and a product’s source matters more than its label. “Mass-produced” is déclassé to today’s discerning customers.

“Handmade,” “small-batch” and “artisanal” have become standard criteria to get products from clothing and home goods to food and beverages and beyond into their consideration sets.

Handcrafted goods have gone from niche offerings to more major players, so much so that the artisans and craftspeople behind them—or the “makers”—have their own movement.

Handcrafted products not only are sold online and in boutiques and galleries, but also in mass-market retail outposts. San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s home goods chain West Elm, for example, now collaborates with artisanal product brands and handmade product platforms such as Common Good, Potter’s Workshop and Etsy to add small-batch goods to the retailer’s mix of contemporary furnishings and décor.

Small businesses and mom-and-pop shops have been selling handmade goods for hundreds of years, of course, but in the digital era, DIY-friendly retailing sites and crowdfunding platforms have made it easier for woodworkers, metalworkers and other artisans to build their businesses, expand distribution and, ultimately, sell more product. It’s also easier for makers to connect with each other and share best practices. Annual conferences for the maker community, called Maker Faires, originally started in San Francisco and New York, and now are popping up across the globe. Overall attendance has climbed from 74,000 in 2009 to 120,000 in 2013, according to Make magazine.

Although some handmade goods have a kitschy reputation, the maker industry is a serious business. Revenue from maker-driven companies in the U.S. grew from $525 million in 2011 to more than $1 billion in 2013, according to Forbes. And artists and artisans aren’t the only ones who are benefitting. Across the U.S., nonprofits and for-profits have been launched to support the “maker movement,” offering artisans and craftspeople the space, tools, training and even promotional assistance necessary to bring their goods to market. Some of these makers behind the makers now have thriving businesses of their own, forming a handcrafted subcategory to the artisanal industry.

Portland, Ore.-based ADX is a warehouse-like, 14,000-square-foot hub for builders and artisans.

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Making the Space

Portland, Ore., is known for its love of all things handcrafted.

Stroll through the city and you’ll find a plethora of stores that specialize in handmade products, with everything from handcarved ukuleles to homemade jam, hand-stitched leather bicycle accessories and make-your-own kombucha kits.

Charles Heying, associate professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University and author of Brew to Bikes: Portland’s Artisan Economy, has been studying the maker economy for the past seven years. “When I started writing about

it in 2008, the word ‘artisan’ wasn’t used very widely, but now I’m seeing it everywhere,” he says. “People want to identify with the product they’re using, and artisan products … are actually telling a story. You meet the artisan and you connect with the product.

Larger firms [are] trying to find the same sweet spot, where the consumer takes the product and identifies with that brand and identifies with the quality. That’s why the time is right for this artisan notion, and why the maker movement is happening.”

Etsy and other e-commerce platforms have found success by offering artisans distribution and go-to-market opportunities.

Now more organizations are capitalizing on the maker movement by supporting artisans’ production processes, opening up “makerspaces” across the country that offer space for artisans to create their works, the tools they need to do so and training on how to use those tools. Some of the biggest benefits of many makerspaces, of course, are the branding and marketing power, and the go-tomarket advice available from their in-house experts and artisan communities, experts say, helping individual craftspeople build their businesses and brands.

Nonprofit makerspaces have been opened in libraries in cities from Washington, D.C., to Twin Falls, Idaho. To foster innovation and potentially to spur on new product ideas for their own businesses, corporations such as Northrop Grumman, Ford and GE are building their own makerspaces and helping to fund existing ones, and universities are getting in on the act, too. Harvard University donated equipment to Artisan’s Asylum, a makerspace in Somerville, Mass., and Arizona State University has provided funding to TechShop, a nationwide chain of makerspaces.

Portland-based ADX, which was founded in June 2011 and stands for Art Design Portland (a play on Portland International Airport’s code, PDX), is a 14,000-square-foot hub for builders and artisans. Its founder, Kelley Roy, was inspired to open ADX after reading an article in The New York Times about 3rd Ward, a former Brooklyn-based incubator

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ADX offers members access to a welding and woodworking tools, laser cutters, table saws, routers and 3-D printing equipment. It also offers members promotional help, featuring member profiles on its website and showcasing members’ work in monthly “First Friday” shows.

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If somebody’s working out of their garage, they’re isolated. … The collaboration that goes on between people in [ADX] helps you get to the ‘branding, marketing, selling’ business phase.

– Kelley Roy, ADX

for artists and craftspeople. At the time, Roy, who has a graduate degree in urban planning, was running Art Department, a gallery and events space in Portland. Because of her work as a consultant for gallery spaces and small businesses, she saw the marketing benefit of a space like ADX for its members.

“I’ve always interacted with creative people, and I realized that they needed a lot of help when it comes to business development, marketing and networking,” she says. “If somebody’s working out of their garage, they’re isolated. Working out of a space like this, you have this whole network of people to tap into. It’s an affordable way to do that initial design and prototyping, and you can access all the experts around you for free. The collaboration that goes on between people in the space helps you get to the ‘branding, marketing, selling’ business phase.”

Adds Tessa Blake, ADX’s former marketing director and events manager: “Our motto is, ‘Work together,’ and that’s exactly what it is.

You’re not going to be able to be good at everything. You might be a great woodworker and you might be able to build a great product, but that doesn’t mean you’re great at marketing or messaging.

Everyone helps each other with that, too.”

Companies can rent floor space at ADX for $250 per square foot, and individual memberships, ranging from $50 to $175 per month, include safety training and varying levels of access to ADX’s wood shop, metal shop and electronics lab, which house welding and woodworking tools, laser cutters, table saws, CNC routers and 3-D printing equipment. ADX also offers classes in metal, wood, electronics and upholstery at various price points. (Its introductory welding class is $235 for nonmembers and $85 for members, for instance, and its introductory wood class is $210 for nonmembers and $90 for members.) ADX has 10 full-time and 25 part-time staff members who work as instructors and fabricators, and ADX occasionally recruits instructors and staff members from its membership. Since its founding in 2011, ADX has incubated more than 100 businesses and 200 crowdfunded projects.

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Many for-profit makerspaces operate on a similar membership-and-classes model, but ADX also gets revenue from a third source: its fabrication business. ADX’s fabrication work includes projects such as a large sign made of steel and light bulbs for Portland-based pizza joint Sizzle Pie, tap handles made of reclaimed barn wood, brass and steel for Portlandbased Pfriem Family Brewers, and a 40-foot chandelier for a Denver apartment complex. “A lot of folks are looking at our business model for how to run a successful space, and that’s the secret sauce,” Roy says.

Marketing the Space

Opening a space like ADX in a city like Portland is bound to generate some word of mouth and earned media pretty effortlessly, but to get people talking, Roy and her team have focused on a mix of print and out-of-home advertising, corporate partnerships and tours.

Before ADX opened its doors, Roy and her team hosted open houses to spread the word and to get feedback from designers, fabricators and potential members. Then she hired Portlandbased branding firm OMFG Co. to develop ADX’s branding, and to design its signage and website. “OMFG set the stage for our brand language and the tone of how we speak to the world, which is professional, yet fun and accessible,” she says.

OMFG designed ads to promote ADX’s opening, which ran in The Portland Mercury, an alternative weekly newspaper, with slogans including: “Makers Gotta Make” “Builders Gotta Build” “Welders Gotta Weld” and “Thinkers Gotta Think.” Poster-sized versions of the ads were plastered on Portland buildings that were under construction. “Most of the places were approved,” Roy says. “We did get in a little bit of trouble, which was good. … People who come into our place have that independent spirit, that ‘Do what you gotta do’ attitude. It set the tone for our style and appeal.”

ADX markets its services and resources through its sister brand, Portland Made, a nonprofit founded by Roy in 2013 that provides education, resources and branding tools for Portlandbased businesses to build brand awareness and perception for the area’s artisanal offerings. The organization hosts networking events for member businesses, and its website features member profiles and lists events and classes at ADX. According to a study

by Portland State University, Portland Made member businesses brought in $242 million in revenue as of August 2014. “[Portland Made] is more consumer-based, to help them understand that buying local might be more expensive, but what it does for the economy and what it does to support people here is important,” Roy says. ADX also markets through its corporate partners, such as Dearborn, Mich.-based Carhartt Inc., which offers a 15% discount to ADX members at its Portland store. Carhartt profiled Roy on Crafted in Carhartt, the work-wear brand’s blog geared toward female makers. “Because we are a brand for people who work with their hands, it made sense for us to feature Kelley and ADX,” e-mailed Tony Ambroza, senior vice president of

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ADX memberships range from $50 to $175 per month, and include safety training and varying levels of access to the company’s wood shop (above), metal shop and electronics lab. Right: ADX’s fabrication work includes tap handles for Portland-based Pfriem Family Brewers.

marketing at Carhartt. “Kelley’s advancing the maker movement in her community, and we want to inspire women to create by reading about other women who are successfully doing that.”

Another of ADX’s corporate partners, San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk Inc., offers ADX members use of the company’s design, engineering and entertainment software, and Autodesk software developers even teach a few ADX classes.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp. hosts happy hours at ADX that feature demos of its latest 3-D scanning equipment.

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Intel sponsored a multiday workshop at ADX with 90 fifth graders and their parents, from Forest Park Elementary in Portland, where ADX staff members taught the children about circuits and touch-screen technology. “ADX is a win-win for us,” says Aubrey Clark, northwest region education relations manager at Intel. “A lot of our employees were already members. It was a fantastic project that fit with Intel’s STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] and education initiatives. The students were inspired, and community engagement was great.”

Moreover, ADX gets a marketing boost from the state and local governments. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and other politicians have held events at ADX, and it’s a regular stop on Portland Mayor Charlie Hales’ economic development tour, in which development directors from around the world are shown around Portland to use it as a model for their own city development efforts. “Politicians like us because we’re this very creative economic development organization,” Roy says. “They

don’t provide any funding, of course [laughs], but they talk about us and they use us as an example of how they want the world to work.”

Adds Heying: “Portland is the hottest thing going in Japan.

People from Japan are coming here all the time to study our artisans and makers. There’s a Portland mania going on.”

ADX offers free tours of the space on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and holds happy hours and “lunch wagon” events every Friday, where members and nonmembers can learn about Portland’s manufacturing ecosystem via an interview-style panel with a Portland Mercury editor and Roy. About 75,000 people have visited ADX since it opened, and about 200 visit the shop each week, according to Blake. “It’s not about raising awareness [of ADX] anymore,” she says. “It’s about finding students, finding architects, finding people who want to quit their day job and start their own business, people who are going to come into the shop and it’ll be a resource for them.”

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Portland-based nonprofit Wind & Oar Boat School operates out of ADX and has built five boats there thus far.

Working Together

Maker case studies featured on ADX’s website, blog and social media channels serve the dual purpose of both marketing the makerspace’s usefulness and helping to build its members’ businesses. ADX’s digital channels highlight some of its success stories, including its fabrication projects, as well as member profiles, which link to members’ websites and Etsy pages to help them promote their work and gain exposure. ADX also displays member projects at monthly “First Friday” shows.

“We want to be able say, ‘This guy came into the space, learned some skills, started his own company and now he’s super successful,’ ” Roy says. “The more people who see that value, they see our value. The more successful we can help our members be, the more successful we are.”

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One of the members who have benefited from ADX’s resources is Andrew Moe, who has run his own furniture design firm, Studio Moe, from ADX since shortly after ADX’s launch in 2011. “When I left New York, I sold all of my shop equipment, so when I was setting up in Portland, I was looking for a space that had equipment, and the communal aspect appealed to me, too,” Moe says. ADX’s Autodesk software and its CNC router helped to make his manufacturing and production process more efficient, and being at ADX has given his business more exposure, he says. “ADX has a lot of people coming through constantly. People notice us and see our work in person who might not otherwise see it.”

Portland-based nonprofit, Wind & Oar Boat School, which teaches people how to build boats, also operates out of ADX. One of Wind & Oar’s goals is to educate kids about the importance of math, science, design and problem-solving skills through wooden boat building. The organization has built five boats at ADX so far, and has increased its overall enrollment from 160 students in 2013 to 230 students in 2014. The boats

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built at Wind & Oar either are donated to local schools and organizations, or are auctioned off for their benefit. “[The kids] get to see a lot of makers at work and get exposed to a lot of different things that they could be doing with building,” says Peter Crim, Wind & Oar’s founder and executive director. “Because it’s a community place, the ability to go and chat up your neighbor and say, ‘I’m having this problem,’ is great. Besides borrowing tools, the camaraderie and the ability to learn from your peers is part of the allure. Anybody who comes to see the boat school sees ADX and appreciates the things that are going on there, and anybody who comes to ADX gets to see what we’re doing. It helps to spread the word.”

The Next Generation of Makers

Beyond offering the space, resources and exposure necessary for craftspeople to get their businesses up and running, ADX is encouraging the next generation of makers by offering training programs and scholarships for high school students and at-risk youth. “There are all these manufacturing jobs available right now, and manufacturers are screaming that they can’t find a labor force because we haven’t been training people,” Roy says. “We’ve removed shop classes from schools. We need to start training these kids immediately because we have the space, we have the tools, we have the expertise. … If traditional school isn’t working for kids, they can come in here, get the skills they need and become immediately employable.”

This summer, ADX recruited high-school-aged kids through Worksystems Inc. and Impact NW, two Portland-based organizations that support at-risk youth, to work on a project to rewire electric bicycles. Hands-on projects give kids a taste of the maker lifestyle, Roy says. “If an eighth grader came in here and said, ‘I want to start my own business and develop my own product line,’ great, let’s do it. That’s one of my big goals: In the next year, someone under the age of 18 comes to ADX, starts a business, develops their own product and is running a successful company. That would be rad.”

ADX wants to offer end-to-end support for the maker movement, even staying engaged with former members as they grow beyond the makerspace, Roy says. “We realize that in that second stage—and we, as a company, are in that second stage— you still need help, you still need networking and marketing resources, you still need the community behind you as you grow.

We feel like proud parents. We have a handful of people here— Kyle with his cutting boards, Scott with his straight razors—we’re trying to connect them with opportunities because we want to be able to say, ‘Hey, they made it.’ ” m

Top: ADX founder Kelley Roy (left) leads a tour. Middle: Industrial and vintage-inspired décor and signage appear throughout the space. Bottom: The sign for Portland-based pizza joint Sizzle Pie was made by ADX’s fabrication team.

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