Shop Local Now: Made in The 330
Smart Ways to Shop Local
-The Akronite app (available for iOS and Android) lets you earn $1 blimp rewards at participating businesses and the city reimburses them, so you get a deal and they get foot traffic. Plus, there's a list of minority-owned businesses.
Text friends and family members a digital ShopLocal330 gift card. It can be used at over 25 participating stores in Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson, Stow and Munroe Falls. app.yiftee.com/gift-card/shop-local-330
We still make things here. With skilled hands, sharp ears and keen knowledge, makers are continuing the Rust Belt renaissance. Take part by giving some of these gifts crafted by our neighbors.
Carry On
Laurence Kenyon Co.
The nearly extinct fine American luggage industry is being revived in an Akron home. That’s where Ellet resident and Laurence Kenyon Co. luggage maker Corey Phillips uses all American parts to re-create luxurious ‘30s-style suitcases lost to outsourcing. And you can’t find them anywhere else.
“There is no one in the world making what we’re making,” says company founder Laurence Kenyon. “Everything is cookie cutter. To be individual with quality — people are hungry for it.”
Phillips and Kenyon are committed to only sourcing American parts, even if it means stepping in. After the owner of the vintage leather handle company they use died, they salvaged its molds and dies and are having Amish makers resume production.
It takes Phillips a week to assemble this tweed suitcase ($1,675) with intricate processes, from stitching on American bridle leather trim to attaching 88 fasteners. That handcrafted quality makes Phillips stand out at airports filled with worn roller bags and prompts curious travelers to ask about his suitcase.
“It’s an heirloom you’re going to pass down,” he says. “That can’t be said about many things today.”
Hide Out
Mapleton Road Craft Goods Co.
Some people unwind with a glass of wine. After his day job, Norm Clark relaxes by crafting leather goods in his East Canton home workshop.
“To sit down and have peace and quiet, you can get lost in your head,” says the owner and founder of Mapleton Road Craft Goods Co.
Clark admits he has a weakness for antique leathermaking tools and the classic look and feel of leather. Fine leather makes this fiery red tote ($180) a head turner. It’s from a Maine tannery and a wild steer that tore himself up on fences.
“It comes from a feisty soul, but it’s got character,” he says. “It’s got scrapes and scratches.”
It takes about five hours to hand cut leather for the tote, sew it with thick thread and add accents like solid brass buckles from a fourth-generation family business.
When Clark sells at markets, he enjoys hearing people say they love bags he handmade in the quiet. He keeps getting hooked in for more and is hoping to open a shop in Canton soon.
“It really is like a drug,” he says. mapletonroad.com
Tooth Fairy
Primal Life Organics
We brush off dental care as routine. But registered nurse Trina Felber says it’s more vital than we realize.
“Having good mouth hygiene can change your overall health long term,” says the CEO of Copley-based Primal Life Organics that’s on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing U.S. companies.
Felber’s difference maker is her old-fashioned toothpowder (starting at $8.97) with three clays, baking soda and essential oils. While most toothpastes kill bacteria with acids that can weaken teeth, her toothpowder uses minerals to alkalize and strengthen teeth.
“Everything is acidic. If you aren’t alkalizing and have minerals present, your teeth will remove minerals, become sensitive and that can lead to a cavity,” Felber says.
Alkalizing helps saliva remineralize teeth, neutralize acids from food and kill bad bacteria, in turn boosting immunity.
“If you restart your immune system inside your mouth, you can reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases, including heart disease, diabetes,” Felber says. Got it — improving dental care can change your life. primallifeorganics.com
Sound Off
Earthquaker Devices
The guitar effects pedals from EarthQuaker Devices are touched by at least eight makers before they’re sold. From surface-mounting parts on circuit boards — typically done by machines — to testing how a guitar plays through it, all production of the pedals used by famous bands like Wilco and Morrissey occurs in Akron.
That includes EarthQuaker’s newest release, Plumes ($99), owner Jamie Stillman’s version of the classic Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer overdrive pedal released in the ‘70s that most rock guitarists praise for its light distortion.
Stillman took a low-tech approach to updating it, experimenting with circuitry tweaks until he heard the level, gain and tone controls respond well at every setting. “I like to do it with my ears,” he says.
His pedal is loud with much higher tone clarity that never gets muddy like the original. He used Plumes in his rock band, Relaxer, for the past three years, before deciding it was ready — and sold nearly 4,000 in its first month alone.
“It’s my idea of what perfect guitar sound is,” Stillman says.
Sharp Object
J. Lees Knives
The swirly blade on this Damascus chef knife strikes the eye. To get that intriguing texture, bladesmith Jared Lees fused together a stunning 76 layers of high carbon and nickel steel and soaked it in acid to reveal the contrasting layers.
These detailed, artistic designs set apart J. Lees Knives hand-forged in his Tallmadge home and have earned fans, including chefs at Blu Plate and Square Scullery. Lees is a bassist too, so he adds musical vibes by stamping his initials and a bass clef on blades and often shaping handles from wood recycled by luthiers.
His creativity shines on the inventive handle of this 7-inch knife ($1,000) sculpted from dyed stabilized spalted maple. “It feels secure,” Lees says. “The hard lines in the handle help lock it in.”
Lees approaches sharpening as an art form too. He’s put in extra effort to master the centuries-old art of hand sharpening on Japanese water stones until the edge is mirror polished akin to generations of craftsmen before him.
“It’s a skill everybody used to have, and it’s gotten lost,” Lees says. “So I take pride in making things sharp.” jleesknives.com
Main Squeeze
Peaceful Fruits
When you eat fruit snacks, you’d think they have real fruit as labels claim. But most commercial brands include only fruit juice, added sugar and artificial flavors. Peaceful Fruits passion fruit strips ($16) have only three ingredients — an entire passion fruit, a whole apple and lemon juice — for a full serving of fruit packed with iron and potassium.
“You’re getting nothing but the fruit,” says Evan Delahanty, owner of Peaceful Fruits, which has appeared on “Shark Tank” and earned a B Corp certification for the steps it’s taken to better the environment and society.
The former Peace Corps volunteer sources his pureed passion fruit from fair-trade growers in the Amazon. Delahanty employs adults with disabilities at his Barberton facility, where the fruit is blended together, poured onto metal sheets and dried overnight in a forced-air dehydrating machine. The next day, each snack is cut and shaped by hand.
“We keep it to a minimal process, changing the fruit Mother Nature gave us as little as possible,” Delahanty says. peacefulfruits.com