KNIFEYTOWN Portland knife makers forge a coalition SPINY SOLUTION Diving deep to save the kelp forest ON THE AIR OPB’s new CEO sounds off $4.99 Q1 2025 | OregonBusiness.com OUR ANNUAL BOOK OF LISTS
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KNIFEYTOWN Portland knife makers forge a coalition SPINY SOLUTION Diving deep to save the kelp forest ON THE AIR OPB’s new CEO sounds off Q1 2025 | OregonBusiness.com OUR ANNUAL BOOK OF LISTS COVER ILLUSTRATION: Joan McGuire ⁄Contents⁄ Q1 2025 FEATURES 20 Making a Splash Immersion Research makes a hybrid manufacturing model — making some gear in-house and some overseas — work in the Gorge. 26 How Do You Stop an Invasive Species? Try Eating It. Two Oregon Coast entrepreneurs have a delicious plan to put a dent in purple sea urchin populations — and help kelp forests in the process. 32 Reporting for Duty Rachel Smolkin stepped into her role as the CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting last fall. We talked to her about her vision for the state’s largest newsroom. 37 2025 Power Book Cover Story Our annual collection ranking Oregon’s major players in banking, legal services, higher education and more REGULARS 04 Editor’s Letter 06 Newsfeed 10 Tactics Mike Williams, president of Washington Trust Bank’s Oregon region, on what sets his institution apart — even from other community banks. 16 Spotlight: The Cutting Edge Portland-area knife makers have formed a Knife Center of Excellence. Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter featuring the best of OregonBusiness.com, plus articles from our print publication. To sign up, go to OregonBusiness.com. BRAND STORIES 14 Get There Oregon Tools for employers to improve their employees’ commutes — and satisfaction 24 Twenty Ideas Developing custom software solutions, from idea to implementation 30 Oregon Institute of Technology Enrollment is booming at state’s tech college. JASON E. KAPLAN CORRECTIONS The story “Sound the Alarm,” which ran in the October/November/December 2024 edition of Oregon Business, erroneously stated that Live Nation had promised to require proximity clauses, when in fact they promised not to require them. Oregon Business regrets the error. The story “Reading the Room,” which ran in the October/November/December 2024 edition of Oregon Business, erroneously reported that Literary Arts employed seven staff in 2018 when renovations began; the actual number was 16. In addition, the story stated that the price tag for renovation of the organization’s new building was $16.5 million, but that figure includes staffing and furnishings, not just physical-renovation costs. Oregon Business regrets the errors. CHECK OUT THESE EXCLUSIVES (AND MORE) ON OREGONBUSINESS.COM n Intel CEO Gelsinger Abruptly Resigns — The longtime Intel employee had a tough mission to restore the company to its past glory, but he oversaw major layoffs and revenue decline. n Not So Run-of-the-Mill — Three years after her Portland Garment Factory burned down, Britt Howard tackles a new next challenge with an organic-fiber mill in Slabtown. n In Conversation: Former Congressman Les AuCoin — AuCoin spoke to Oregon Business about being honored by Pacific University, the 2024 elections — local and national — and why civics education is more important than ever. n DEQ Holds Hearing, Takes Comments on Controversial Proposed Columbia River Refinery Project — The $2B NXTClean Fuels facility has several regulatory hurdles to clear before construction can begin in 2025. n Shari’s Closes All Oregon Locations — Oregon-based diner chain was down to 17 restaurants after starting the year with 42. Follow @OregonBusiness for breaking news, blogs and commentary. 16 60 Storyteller-in-Chief Junki Yoshida’s positive revenge 62 Downtime Live, work and play with Cobi Lewis of Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon 64 Policy Brief ADP’s Jason Delserro on how companies can stay competitive in a hot labor market 2
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Diving In EVERY JANUARY WE PUBLISH the Power Book, a collection of lists ranking the biggest players in business, nonprofits, higher education and professional services throughout the state. Some lists are pulled from public records; most are derived from surveys sent to the institutions themselves. Putting together the Power Book is a massive task that involves outreach to hundreds of organizations, and every year we work to make sure the Power Book is as thorough and accurate as we can make it. We think it provides a valuable glance at what’s going on in Oregon companies each year. This issue also includes several stories about Oregon institutions that stand out from the pack in some way. One is Immersion Research (“Making a Splash,” p. 20), a maker of kayaking gear that started in Pennsylvania but opened an Oregon location a few years ago. As writer Ellee Thalheimer details, owners John and Kara Weld started out making their own gear, then decided to outsource production as they found that running a domestic sewing factory was more difficult than they imagined. But after they relocated to the Columbia River Gorge, the itch to make things in-house returned, and the Welds have arrived at a hybrid business model where some items are made onsite in Hood River and some are manufactured overseas. They also found that relocating to Hood River — an epicenter for outdoor outfitters — gave their company cachet and access to resources they couldn’t find anywhere else. Britany Robinson’s story, “How Do You Stop an Invasive Species? Try Eating It” (p. 26), is a deep dive (pun intended) into a problem that has plagued Oregon’s underwater forests for the past decade. After an outbreak of sea star wasting illness killed off their key predator in 2013, purple sea urchin populations have gotten out of control. They’ve wreaked havoc on Pacific Ocean kelp forests, but — because they can live for years on few calories — the destruction of that critical food source hasn’t put a check on their numbers. But a Newport-based startup has been working to put a dent in their population — and supply local restaurants with a delicacy they’d normally import. Garrett Andrews’ feature for this issue, “Reporting for Duty” (p. 32), profiles Rachel Smolkin, the newly appointed CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting. In addition to offering a portrait of Smolkin herself and her vision for the organization, Andrews offers a glimpse of the media environment Smolkin is stepping into as the leader of one of the few Oregon newsrooms that’s grown in recent years, while others have laid off staff or folded altogether. In that story’s sidebar, “Going Paperless” (p. 34), Andrews mentions a development that is worth announcing more formally in this space. In 2025 Oregon Business is reducing our publication frequency to four print issues per year. The next issue, due to publish in March, will look familiar in some ways — we’ll be publishing our annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For — and different in others (notably, it will be perfect bound). We’ll continue to run great exclusive content on OregonBusiness.com as well. Our staffing numbers haven’t changed — we remain small but mighty — and neither has our commitment to producing high-quality, deeply reported business journalism. We look forward to diving in. ⁄From the Editor⁄ VOLUME 48 ⁄ NUMBER 1 OREGON BUSINESS (ISSN 02798190) is published 4 times per year by MEDIAmerica Inc. at 12570 S.W. 69th Ave., Suite 102, Portland OR 97223. Subscription inquiries should be directed to 503-445-8811. Subscription charge is $24.95 per year, $49.95 for two years in the USA. Single copies and back issues available at above address and at selected newsstands. The editor is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. Copyright © 2024 by MEDIAmerica Inc. All rights reserved. All material is protected by copyright and must not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Printed in Oregon. Periodicals Postage Paid at Portland, OR. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Oregon Business, 12570 S.W. 69th Ave., Suite 102, Portland OR 97223 EDITORIAL EDITOR Christen McCurdy christenm@oregonbusiness.com ART DIRECTOR Joan McGuire joanm@oregonbusiness.com STAFF WRITER Garrett Andrews garretta@oregonbusiness.com STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jason E. Kaplan jasonk@oregonbusiness.com COPY EDITOR Morgan Stone CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jason Delserro, Tim Neville, Britany Robinson, Ellee Thalheimer, Junki Yoshida PUBLISHING PUBLISHER Courtney Kutzman courtneyk@oregonbusiness.com EVENTS MANAGER Craig Peebles craigp@oregonbusiness.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Evan Morehouse evanm@mediamerica.net ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Greta Hogenstad gretah@mediamerica.net DIGITAL PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Alison Kattleman alisonk@mediamerica.net PRESIDENT AND CEO Andrew A. Insinga CONTROLLER Bill Lee BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIRMAN André W. Iseli PRESIDENT Andrew A. Insinga SECRETARY William L. Mainwaring TREASURER Win McCormack 4
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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT ●Main drag. The iconic Portland drag venue Darcelle XV Showplace will continue to operate in 2025, though under new management. The children of Walter Cole, who performed as Darcelle XV for six decades, sold the business in December, having operating it themselves since Cole died in 2023 at age 92. EDUCATION ●Digital switch. The Oregon Department of Education has released new cellphone policy guidance recommending all 197 school districts in the state limit or restrict cellphone use during school hours. APPAREL ●Putting the brand back together. Nike has welcomed back former CEO Elliott Hill, who oversaw some of the troubled company’s most prosperous years in the 2000s and 2010s. Hill, 60, has already rehired several familiar faces and shuffled top executive positions. ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT ●Auction off. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management halted a planned offshore wind auction on the Southern Oregon Coast due to lack of interest. The announcement came after Gov. Tina Kotek wrote to pause the offshore project, which for years was opposed by tribes, local governments, businesses and landowners. ●Fruit suit. PacifiCorp was sued again for fallout from the devastating 2022 wildfires, this time by vintners alleging wildfire smoke tainted several crops of wine grapes. ●Big as life. Bob Sallinger, a leading figure in Oregon’s environmental community, died unexpectedly in late October. Over his career — which included stints as executive director of Bird Conservation Oregon, which he founded, and Willamette Riverkeeper — Sallinger, 57, advocated on behalf of natural resources and wildlife. ●Cut-rate. Residential customers of gas utility NW Natural saw a rate increase of 4.5% on their November bills — a much smaller than the 17% increase the company originally sought. The utility hoped to raise $154.9 million to replace aging meters and other infrastructure, update its information technology systems, and perform seismic upgrades. FARMS AND FORESTS ●Lightning in a bottle. An Oregon wine was named Wine Enthusiast’s best wine of 2024. The publication selected Roco Winery’s 2013 RMS Brut 10-Year Delayed Disgorgement, one of five Oregon wines to make the annual top 100 list. ●One sick pig. A Crook County pig was found to be MANUFACTURING ●Cheap as chips. Communications chip manufacturer Qorvo announced it will move some production to Hillsboro from Greensboro, N.C. Qorvo said the move will aid efficiency as it works to adjust to a diminished business outlook. ●Strike a bargain. Boeing factory workers voted to end their strike and accept a new contract. The seven-week labor action hobbled the troubled U.S. aerospace giant as 33,000 machinists stayed off the assembly line. ●Out of office. The State of Oregon will reduce its office footprint by half to save money. Nearly half of the State of Oregon’s more than 45,000 employees rarely go to their offices, and the state’s top administrator has asked departments to adapt to new work-from-home realities. RESTAURANTS AND RETAIL ●Uncommon crops. Imperfect Foods, a subscription service that delivers discounted produce deemed too unattractive for produce departments, plans to close its Clackamas warehouse at the end of the year and lay off all 64 workers. The brand’s parent company is consolidating operations in Southern California. ●Beard market rally. After two decades of delays, developers say the James Beard Public Market will at long last open next year near Pioneer Courthouse Square in 2025. Named for the Portland-born culinary icon, the market will feature more than 40 small businesses including bakers, butchers and cheesemongers, as well as a teaching kitchen. the first known case of avian flu in swine. The animal was one of five tested at a backyard farm operation where poultry and pigs were housed together and shared water. ●Heir a-pear-ent. Rogue River Valley-based holiday box company Harry & David filed a formal protest against Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand for being too similar to its Royal Riviera brand of luxury pears. Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is attempting to trademark her American Riviera Orchard food product and lifestyle brand. HEALTH CARE ●Call it a Knight. Dr. Brian Druker resigned abruptly from his position as director of Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute, saying the center had forgotten its mission. ●Zipper merge. State regulators finally gave the green light to a plan by Oregon-based St. Charles Health System to acquire a chain of doctor- owned neurosurgery centers, known as The Center. The nonprofit health system, which runs four Central Oregon hospitals, encountered pushback from the state when it tried to fast-track the merger. ⁄Newsfeed⁄ Walter Cole’s heirs sold Darcelle XV Showplace, which will operate in 2025 under new management. PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN 6
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You’ve talked about making decisions for the long term — for 20 years from now — as opposed to managing quarter to quarter. What does that look like in practice? Our culture here is better than I’ve ever seen anywhere. The bank really approaches it from the standpoint that if you take care of your clients, you take care of your employees, and you give back to your communities. Everything else just takes care of itself. That’s how they operate. It’s deeply rooted from the top down. When I hire people, I want them to want to be here as badly as I want to have them. As a result, we have very little turnover, and that’s true with clients and staff. We have employees here every year who are 40 years with the company and retiring, or have been with the company 30 or 35 years. That’s very common here, which is not so much in banking. ⁄Tactics⁄ Mike Williams Commits to Community Banking The president of Washington Trust’s Oregon region talks about why the 122-year-old community bank is planting a branch in Vancouver. INTERVIEW BY CHRISTEN McCURDY MIKE WILLIAMS IS RELATIVELY NEW to Washington Trust Bank, but he’s worked in banking for 30 years, and Washington Trust has been in the game for over a century. Williams joined Washington Trust after a 30-year career in banking that includes leadership roles at Columbia Bank, HomeStreet Bank and Northwest Bank. Originally from Montana, Williams started his career in banking after graduating from the University of Montana, then moved to Boise and Seattle before being transferred to Portland in 1996. Based in Spokane and founded in 1902, Washington Trust operated primarily in Washington and Idaho until 15 years ago. Washington Trust has a smaller market share than most banks operating in Oregon (see our Banks Powerlist, p. 47, for a detailed rundown) but is, according to Williams, the second- largest family-owned bank in the country. It’s a full-service bank with retail, commercial and private banking services, as well as mortgage lending and investment services. “It’s really unique, the way we operate the company. It’s for the long term,” Williams says. When he spoke with Oregon Business in October, Washington Trust was preparing to open a branch in Vancouver, Wash., adding to a portfolio of more than 40 other branches throughout the three states in which it operates. That branch opened Nov. 12 in downtown Vancouver. Williams also spoke to OB about what makes Washington Trust different from other banks — even other community banks — and why employees tend to stay with the company for decades. This interview has been edited for space and clarity. 10
How does that thinking change investment strategies? As far as where we expand, we tend to stick with our markets, meaning the three states we operate in. I’ve never really heard discussions about how we need to go to Utah, or we need to go to Montana. We continue to build out our existing markets: Oregon, Idaho and Washington is our focus. If we see opportunities in these various towns and cities, and we think we can attract a team of people, that’s really where we start. We’ll bring in an office and set up the infrastructure and everything else to support growth in that marketplace. In the last decade or two, we’ve seen a lot of mergers and acquisitions, especially in the community bank size range. I think someone like Washington Trust is becoming ever more important the three states [where we operate]. Right now we’re expanding into Vancouver, and that’s a market that at one time had a preponderance of community banks, and over the last several years a lot of those have been bought up or merged. I think it’s leaving not a complete void, but more so of a void. What effect do you see that trend having on customers? I think it leaves them fewer options. National banks have about 80% of the market. That leaves one-fifth of it for the community banks. So when you see the community banks shrinking in numbers, it’s probably realistic to think some of that [market share] is going to drift up into the national banks. When customers that fit our size and our niche are with banks like us, including our bank, we know our clients. We get to know them very well. We understand their business. I think we have really good-quality, experienced staff and commercial lenders. And I think those are the benefits they get being with a community bank. Who are your clients? We have them at all size levels, from small business up to, you know, companies with 300, 400, 500 employees. That includes professional service firms. We also handle a certain amount of investor real estate — commercial real estate, investment and then private banking. That’s quite a gamut. We’re not all things to all people, but we can really sit down and look at someone and say, “Well, let’s talk,” and we can figure it out if they’re a good fit for us. You know, we want it to be a fit both ways, similar to hiring. I think, in the long term, the customer wins when someone does that. JASON E. KAPLAN What is the timeline on the Vancouver expansion? Our commercial team has been brought on over the last 18 months or so. What we do, typically, when we go into a market is we set up a temporary office, and then they go to work trying to build our brand in that market, working with their clients and prospects and people they know. And we can’t take deposits in that market yet, because we don’t have an office, but they go to work, basically. Then we begin the process of bringing in what we call a financial center. It’s about a 7,400-square-foot office, totally remodeled. We’re excited. We have a real good base of clients that will come on as we open the office. My experience has been that we will probably be pretty busy in year one, because when you open the office, it becomes real, like, “OK, you guys are here.” One of the trends that I have found really interesting in banking in the last few years is the number of retail locations that are closing — particularly in rural areas, but it’s also happening everywhere. What are your thoughts on that? Having branches can be expensive. As we all know, technology has changed things a lot, and you can have more clients in a market and less traffic through branches. I think there is a need for a certain baseline of branch operations in Vancouver, and I think we’re looking to add perhaps a couple more branches in that market. Ideally, I would love to see another office in Portland, more toward the Tualatin-Tigard area. Once you plant one in that market, you can reach down to to Wilsonville and even south of that if we need to. I think if they need to, they can be spaced out farther. But there just doesn’t need to be one on every corner. We have a fairly heavy network of branches in the Spokane and northern Idaho markets, but that’s where our roots are. I think we’ve showed we can really develop a good business without having a heavy branch presence in these metro markets. Are there other trends — either in banking or, you mentioned, commercial real estate — that you’re keeping your eyes on? The way you survive 122 years in this business is, there’s two secrets to success, and that is granularity in your lending and diversification. We’ve just managed our loan portfolio well. We work with low-income housing; we’ve done regular apartment lending, industrial; we have retail, you know, have offices. Outside of urban markets like Portland, that space still remains fairly healthy, but again, we’re very diversified. What do you do when you’re not at work? Now I have two college kids, so I’m not quite as busy. I like to play golf, I like to ski. We like to fish. Now we travel a little bit more to go see them and catch games and whatnot. I’m just a regular family guy, to be very honest with you. 11
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BY TIM NEVILLE A FEW MONTHS AGO Ron Khormaei, the founder and CEO of Steelport Knife Co. in Portland, was in Colorado wandering around a Scheels sporting goods shop when he noticed something that made him pause. Steelport has a factory on Sandy Boulevard and makes exquisite carbon- steel kitchen knives — arguably some of the best in the world, with a price point to match. A full, six-piece set of the American-forged 52100 steel knives, complete with a patented magnetic knife block, will set you back about $2,750. For $1,000 more, you can add an eight-piece steak-knife set that comes in a walnut box. They’re meant to be heirlooms passed between the cooks in the forks of the family tree. Scheels is a dealer. That’s why Khormaei was there. “I was looking at the kitchen-knife display and I was lamenting that they had four or five of our knives but the rest were very standard Japanese and German knives,” he said. “I don’t necessarily like to do a lot of competition, but I was thinking, how long is it going to take to have more American-made knives?” Khormaei has taken a particular pride in his work with manufacturing and selling American-made metal. In 2012 he launched the Portland-made ⁄Spotlight⁄ More than half of all the knives made in the U.S. come from Portland. The makers of those knives want the world to know. The Cutting Edge Ron Khormaei, founder and CEO of Steelport, in the knife maker’s Northeast Portland factory. Below: a set of Steelport knives 16
cast iron cooking company Finex, purveyors of the octagonal cast-iron skillet, now owned by Lodge, which has been the only acquisition in that company’s 126-year-long history. Steelport, Khormaei’s post-Finex act, isn’t just American-made but, specifically, Portland-made — at least mostly. The steel billets do come from a Rust Belt mine and end up at a factory in the Midwest, where they’re hammered into a rough, dull blank at a high- volume factory that specializes in forging Harley Davidson engines. After that, the remaining 133 steps that it takes to make a Steelport knife happen in Portland. That includes the intricate labor needed to transform a single piece of Oregon bigleaf maple wood into a handle. The sharpening and refining happen there on Sandy Boulevard. As a final step, Steelport blades get dipped in cold-brew Coava Coffee Roasters coffee. “Very Portland,” Khormaei jokes. “The acid seasons the metal unlike anything else we’ve tried.” At Scheels Khormaei looked around some more and happened upon the cases of outdoor knives: Gerber Gear. Leatherman. Benchmade. Columbia River Knife and Tool. Kershaw. He was stunned. “Every single one of them was not only American-made but made in Portland,” he recalls. “I’m like, wait, what?” Khormaei flew back to Oregon and dug deeper into American knife making. He discovered something even more remarkable, a tidbit he took to Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District. They had breakfast one morning. He presented Blumenauer with figures that showed about 30,000 knives a day are made in Portland. “I told him that, by my estimate, over half of American-made knives sold in the U.S. are actually made in Portland,” Khormaei recalls. “I said, I wonder what would happen if we got all of these companies together?” Blumenauer saw the potential of this “emerging story.” “He said, ‘Ron, that’s a great idea,’” Khormaei recalls. A few months ago, on August 24, 2024, “Knife Day,” that great idea came to fruition. That’s the day the Portland Knife Center of Excellence was born. The PKCOE, as it’s known for short, brings together five of Portland’s leading knife manufacturers — Steelport, Gerber Gear, Benchmade, CKRT and Leatherman — in an attempt to elevate Portland’s place on the global stage, plopping it along side cutting-edge cities like Solingen, Germany; Seki City, Japan; and Thiers, France; which are all known as the places for knives. In doing so, these companies hope to develop talent within the next generation of knife makers. They want to create jobs, attract conventions and spin off tourism opportunities. Beyond the business, there’s an emotional component, too. “It will be an inspiring story to tell to help revive our beloved city,” Khormaei said in a presentation announcing the center’s creation. To be sure, the center has no brickand-mortar HQ, at least not yet, and exists pretty much only on paper. (And at least one company, Kershaw, never expressed any interest in joining forces at all. “They’re probably wondering, ‘Who is this Ron guy?’” Khormaei says.) But the idea of branding Portland as the “knife-making capital” of the U.S. could go a long way toward growing a manufacturing ecosystem that floats all boats. “It’s a little bit like the Nike and Adidas world, where you have these two brands creating all of these offshoots,” says Ashley Williams, head of marketing for Gerber Gear. That company, one of the oldest knife makers in the Portland area, has recently expanded into the culinary hardware space, too, with a top-notch camping cook set that retails for about $200. “The city becomes a magnet and attracts all sorts of designers and engineers and entrepreneurs, and Ashley Williams, head of marketing for Gerber Gear Above images: Production at Gerber Gear, one of the oldest knife makers in the Portland area. 17
with knife making in particular, that’s great because there are manufacturing steps that you can’t do in-house,” Williams says. “So you farm those out, and if you have that ecosystem, there will be people within that geographical area that can do it for you.” That idea exists across numerous manufacturing sectors and other industries, of course, and is nothing new to Oregon. Redmond, with its advanced metals manufacturing industry, has become a firearms hub. Prineville and The Dalles have their data centers. Bend continues to lean into its momentum as a place for brewing beer and cultivating niche outdoor companies, with business alliances like the Oregon Outdoor Alliance and an Oregon State University– Cascades “outdoor products” degree. That course of study includes running an outdoor company, the SnoPlanks Academy, which designs, manufactures, and markets skis and snowboards. Making Portland a knife capital is a move that stems out of the 19th century, with Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s founding in Lake Oswego, just south of Portland, in 1882, though other companies came before it. The Rose City had a great demand for steel — hello, bridges — and numerous steel manufacturers sprang out of that ecosystem. In fact, Steelport must use two other metallurgical facilities within Portland to complete the complicated heat treatment that Steelport knives require. “We couldn’t do that in Sacramento, for example,” Khormaei says. It’s that sort of building on the momentum of what’s already there that fuels the idea behind the Portland Knife Center of Excellence. In claiming the title, there are numerous other benefits across other sectors of the economy. Maybe there could be a knife center display at PDX, for example, something to pique the traveler’s curiosity. Better yet, imagine a tourist- focused campaign that drives visitors to these factories for hands-on experiences, much in the same way that you can, say, make your own Swiss Army knife at a Victorinox factory in Switzerland. “Portland is a city of makers,” says Marcus Hibdon, communications director for Travel Portland. Perhaps one day there could be a “knife trail” in the way that there are “food trails” along the Coast and in Central Oregon, but Hibdon says there haven’t been any discussions about that yet. “The city very much makes sense as a hub for knife artistry, as the craft of it is an intersection of our culinary, artisanal and entrepreneurial communities,” Hibdon adds. “Innovative Portland-based knife brands are a part of the Portland story.” Gerber Gear’s factory floor The Northeast Portland Steelport facility 18
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BY ELLEE THALHEIMER | PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN Walking into Immersion Research’s storefront and sewing studio in downtown Hood River, customers are greeted by racks of fleece clothing that encourage them to browse and touch. Think thick, fluffy pants, shirts, and hoodies — clothes ideal for anyone stepping out of an icy cold river in March. In the attached space, busy workers sew and cut. Kara Weld, 55, who co-owns the company with her husband, John Weld, 56, points out the meticulous details of a fleece pullover, from a windproof chest layer to a zipper pouch over the kangaroo pocket, each aspect tailored for kayak life. In addition to fleece clothing, Immersion also makes specialty gear like paddle pants, dry shirts, dry suits, spray skirts, throw bags and changing robes. Immersion is the only stand-alone technical whitewater kayak brand in the U.S., and it opened a second location in Hood River in 2017. At that time its owners, the Welds, were 20-year veterans of the industry, operating on the East Coast. They started out making gear in-house, then ran a medium-size sewing factory before outsourcing much of the manufacturing overseas. When they moved west, they continued small-batch in-house manufacturing, though the majority of their products are still manufactured overseas. The company has 12 employees between its locations in Oregon and Pennsylvania, and embraces a hybrid business and manufacturing model. Products like spray skirts and dry suits are manufactured overseas for wholesale, but the company also runs small manufacturing studios with storefronts at both locations, where they make fleece clothing on-site and sell directly to customers. The decision to open a storefront and sewing studio in Hood River hasn’t been without its challenges, but so far, the Welds have made it work. Their story represents the perseverance, innovation, challenge and opportunity for businesses in Oregon’s outdoor industry — a significant player and success story in the state’s overall economy. The outdoor industry is a pretty big sector for the state,” says Valerie Egon, the regional development officer representing Hood River County for Business Oregon. “Depending on which data sets you look at, the sector is worth $7.5 billion to $12 Making Splash a Immersion Research, an industry-leading maker of kayaking gear, has embraced small-batch manufacturing in downtown Hood River. “ Immersion Research co-founders Kara and John Weld 20
billion; that’s 2% to 4% of the state’s GDP.” And it’s doing better in Oregon than most of the rest of the country: While the national outdoor gear and apparel sector has seen a 9.1% decline over the past 10 years, Oregon’s sector grew by 12.3%. The splashiest examples of Oregon’s outdoor industry are titans like Nike, Adidas, and Columbia Sportswear, but smaller companies abound and are an important part of the industry ecosystem. They fuel the stoke with innovation and draw talent to the area, which, in turn, benefits the larger companies. According to 2023 data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Oregon Employment Department, more than 86% of the 711 businesses in Oregon’s outdoor sector have 20 employees or fewer. (The 10 largest outdoor gear and apparel companies—big players like Nike, Columbia and Pendleton, which are captured in the business-services-targeted sector, not the outdoor gear and apparel industry sector — are excluded from this data set.) Hood River sustains a particularly robust cluster of niche small-batch manufacturing companies. “Within walking distance, there are five outdoor-gear businesses with sewing machines, like Alpine Sea Co.,” John says. “It’s cool that I can ask a neighbor to borrow a Serger or to laser-cut something for me. This community was unexpected.” In 1997 the Welds lived in Confluence, Penn., a small town in northern Appalachia near the Youghiogheny River, the hub of the mid-Atlantic whitewater- kayaking scene. John was a kayak guide, and Kara was a decorated professional kayaker, who worked at a daycare to make ends meet. They were tired of “living the dream” and wanted financial stability. “I was tinkering around on a sewing machine and made board shorts for a friend,” John says. “My buddy, who owned a store, said he could easily sell more of them. Soon after, I bought a bunch of industrial sewing Immersion Research employee Ofelia Gandara sews a short-run product. Immersion Research’s retail store in downtown Hood River 21
machines from a guy going out of business. I really didn’t know what I was doing.” It turned out the board-short look captured the trend of an emerging movement. Whitewater kayaking was skyrocketing in popularity. It shifted from a canoeing-withyour-dad vibe for an older set to an extreme sport for people in their 20s, more akin to snowboarding and surfing. John took stylistic cues from those edgy sports and integrated them into his kayaking garments. “We were the only ones merging fashion sensibility with technical gear,” Kara says. The business exploded, leading the Welds to rent out half of an auto-body garage, where they sewed everything themselves. “A tarp separated us from the guy next door spray-painting hoods,” John says. “It was a dicey place to create clothes.” Three years later, the Welds had 50 employees and were producing board shorts and rash guards in a high school that had been converted into a sewing factory, which they eventually bought. “Running a sewing factory and corralling workers takes a completely different skill set from designing clothes,” John says. “We didn’t know any better back then.” They realized they wanted to refocus on product design and marketing. Not only did they want to quit running a sewing factory, but domestic manufacturing didn’t work for them. To do it, they needed a variety of complex machinery to make different gear, and they didn’t need workers all year round, making employment tricky. High-quality overseas contract sew houses had the necessary machines and could complete their order in a matter of days or weeks, which helped cash flow. “Sometimes people wag their fingers at us for not manufacturing in the U.S.,” John says. “Even if we wanted to use a contract sew house in the U.S., we couldn’t. They don’t exist here because of labor costs, taxes and a lack of will to do this kind of low-tech manufacturing.” By 2010 most of the company’s manufacturing was overseas, and IR grew in notoriety. By 2015 its spray skirts — very complicated pieces of gear which keep water out of kayaks — were all the rage and almost an industry standard. John guesses nine out of 10 people whitewater kayaking on television will be wearing an IR spray skirt. By 2017 the Welds were ready for a change. They wanted to raise their two kids in a place like Hood River, for the lifestyle and better schools. Plus, the axis of whitewater kayaking was shifting from the East Coast to the Pacific Northwest. “Pennsylvania is a great area for kayaking, but it doesn’t have the same glamour as Hood River,” John says. “It’s like skiing in Vermont versus Jackson Hole; Hood River is the North Shore of kayaking. Moving here raised the game for us as a brand. We’re constantly in contact with the best kayakers in the world, who are here to run the White Salmon and Little White Salmon rivers. They come in all the time and help us with product development and marketing. In Pennsylvania this business was seen as a hobby, making weird gear for weird people. It’s hard not to internalize that. Here our work is legit.” Michael Held, a regional services manager at Business Oregon, notes that Hood River is a good example of a microeconomy in the larger ecosystem of the outdoor industry in Oregon. “In Hood River, the outdoor lifestyle attracts industry talent, creating a concentration of knowledge and skills. It’s a great place BUSINESSES IN THE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY GET A LEG UP A number of organizations are dedicated to supporting the success of businesses in Oregon’s outdoor industry. Bend Outdoor Worx is the country’s first outdoor startup accelerator and has a 14-week program, which includes mentorship, e-commerce coaching, branding, accounting and legal consulting. The Outdoor Industry Association is a national advocacy organization that tackles issues of policy, education, economic climate and conservation, whereas the Oregon Outdoor Alliance focuses all its energy on the region. The organizations facilitate statewide networking events, speaker series and education panels aimed at growing the industry. Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, bolsters smaller companies and startups in the outdoor industry through direct loans, education and consulting, and the Outdoor Gear and Apparel Grant Fund, which accelerates early- and growth- stage startups in Oregon’s outdoor gear and apparel industry. Immersion Research’s Hood River sewing studio Kara Weld at Immersion Research’s office, up the street from its retail store 22
fleece from huge corporate orders at discounted prices. There is also an odd wrinkle in the tariff code that levies an inordinately high tax on fleece apparel. A fleece hoodie shipped back into the U.S. after being manufactured overseas will be taxed at nearly a 30% rate (28% for women’s clothing, 29% for men’s). That means the cost of producing a hoodie in the U.S. has a chance to be competitive with hoodies manufactured abroad in sew houses. “Making things is a lost art here in the U.S. The sewing studios are a small part of our business, and not the most lucrative, but it’s a fun and important part of our story. Any good brand has to tell a story,” John says. Kara Weld adds, “We are lucky to be so connected to our customers, and in many ways, we are telling their story through ours. We are people who get up early to bushwack in the rain to run a gnarly section of river.” to test products, to see them used in real life and informally grow a business over a pint at pFriem or on the slopes. I love to see when sectors grow their own legs organically.” But there are also challenges to being in Hood River. In addition to general obstacles inherent to the outdoor industry — climate change affecting recreation, the COVID- related inventory overhang, workaday inventory overhang, and the challenge for smaller businesses to keep up with the latest innovations and trends—the housing crisis is huge. The city was ranked the seventh most expensive micropolitan area in the U.S. by The New York Times in 2024. “Housing prices in Hood River are out of hand. The best thing for a business is to have employees stick around. How can I do that if they can’t afford housing?” says John Weld. One of his employees interjects that he found a rental from a fellow whitewater kayaker, and that’s how he moved Hood River to work for Immersion. Around the time they moved to the area, Immersion started being recognized for its dry wear — technical gear designed to be watertight — which is manufactured overseas. Yet the Welds couldn’t resist their proclivity to create products in-house. “I wasn’t sold on having a sewing studio,” says Kara. “But John pushed for it; he is a maker at heart.” When they stumbled onto a storefront for rent that had studio space in the back, there was no question about going forward. “We have about half a dozen competitors. But our crazy experience of running a sewing factory makes us stand out. It’s a part of our company DNA. When we saw an opportunity to make products on a small scale, we went for it,” John says. This is possible in part because Hood River commercial real estate prices are more commensurate with what storefront owners can pay — in contrast with residential real estate prices in the same area, which have spiraled upward. Plus, the Welds are able to buy leftovers of Polartec 23
24 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT BY JON BELL When he was a young student at the University of Chicago in the 1990s, Mike Biglan enrolled in two computer science classes. The first one, he crushed. The second one? It crushed him. “I did horribly,” he says. “I never took another one after that.” Yet Biglan, who went on to earn his degree in economics, never lost his affinity for computers. He would read computer science textbooks in his spare time, and eventually, he made his way to the University of California, San Diego, where he earned a master’s in computer science and engineering. Fastforward through about a decade’s worth of tech experience — as a programmer, developer and chief technology officer — and Biglan was ready to head out on his own in 2014. That’s when he founded Twenty Ideas, a digital product agency that develops custom software solutions for companies in health care, education and a range of other markets. “I had really enjoyed what I’d done before that, which was taking ideas and turning them into realities,” says Biglan, who had headed up technology for the widely adopted video sharing startup Marco Polo before launching Twenty Ideas. “I like leading a team that enables origin stories.” Today, Twenty Ideas comprises 60 designers and engineers across four time zones, with headquarters in Eugene and Portland and a team in Thailand headed up by Biglan’s brother. Prospective customers usually come to Twenty Ideas with a challenge or issue in search of a solution, which the company delivers through custom software. Its specialties include artificial intelligence — which it has been utilizing for more than a decade — user experience and user interface design, front- and back-end development and mobile apps. Biglan says the Twenty Ideas team listens to customers, then asks them loads of questions to help identify and define the challenge, the solution and how they’re going to get there. That’s followed by design creation , coding, customization and other steps, from ideation through implementation. “The best technology is invisible, but when it’s not, it can be frustrating,” Biglan From Idea to Reality Twenty Ideas creates custom software solutions to help companies thrive. “We do a good job providing the feel of an ambitious startup and bringing that energy to a larger organization. We come in, create a solution and get you to the finish line.” MIKE BIGLAN
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