Made in Old Town

THIS IS A SNEAK PEEK OF THE MADE IN OLD TOWN HUB AND TOWER Two buildings are at the heart of the Made in Old Town campus. The HUB is where creative, development, and materials teams collaborate to imagine, design, and build factory-quality footwear and apparel samples. Adjacent is the TOWER, a dense ecosystem of curated suppliers and partners, from future-facing materials to academic labs to logistics solutions providers. Cafe, lounge, pop-up, roof deck, and event / gathering spaces span across both buildings. These will become a beating heart of the footwear and apparel community – and the Old Town neighborhood. All of this is designed from the ground up to be a transformational resource for the footwear and apparel industry, offering SPEED of product creation, INNOVATION in materials, performance, and sustainability, and CONNECTION across all levels of the industry. The Made in Old Town team has been working with best-in-class architects Clayton Taylor EJ Del Rosario and Jess Smith at West of West to materialize the vision. We took a human-centered design approach, listening to stakeholders and understanding the needs of product innovation today. We looked at the best innovation spaces in the world – learning from their their successes and weaknesses. And we worked with a historic building to preserve the character and identity of the neighborhood. We couldn’t be more proud of the result, and (after welcoming over 200 guests for a public reveal party on Monday) we’re excited to share these images with you today. Our first cohort of Made in Old Town tenants is almost full; a bold group of brands and suppliers that are ready to shape the next generation of footwear and apparel. They see the transformative potential of speed, innovation, and connection, and they’re ready to be part of the groundswell. Are you?

Mark your calendars for “City of Possibility: Portland Seen Through Architectural Models, Past, Present, and Future”! This winter term, UO’s Portland Architecture Program has partnered with exhibit curators, PDX Design Collaborative, to offer a wide range of public programming on urbanism, architectural models, and housing design. The exhibit is designed and co-curated by UO Visiting Professor of Practice, William Smith, along with a team of partners, faculty, staff, and students. It is free and open to the public from Noon-6:00pm on Friday-Sunday from Feb 1 to March 27. A list of upcoming events is below. Visit cityofpossibility.net for more details on the exhibition and a full list of related events with links for tickets. Events are free for students. And be sure to follow @city.of.possibility on Instagram. --- Friday, Jan 31 – City of Possibility Kick-off Party (6:00-9:00pm, J.K. Gill Building, 426 SW Harvey Milk St. and the Expensify Bank Building, 401 SW 5th Ave, Portland). Sun, Feb 2 – Portland’s Next Horizon: 7 Projects That Will Transform the Central City (2:00-4:00pm, Fields Ballroom, Portland Art Museum). Featuring guests working on Albina Vision, the OMSI District, PAM’s Rothko Pavilion, the Green Loop, Made in Old Town, the Lloyd District, and the Burnside Bridge. Mon, Feb 10 – City of Possibility: Bold Visions for Portland (6:00-8:00pm, Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St). Co-hosted by Justin Fowler and William Smith (University of Oregon SAE) with special guest, Patricia Diefenderfer (City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability). Presenters include Mark Fretz (University of Oregon SAE), Elisandra Garcia (El Dorado), Jeff Kovel and Reiko Igarashi (Skylab Architecture), Nico Larco, Emma Gabriel, Mariella Hirschoff, Nick Hodge (University of Oregon SAE), Daniel Meyers and Traci Sym (Plus And Greater Than) and Yianni Doulis, (YDAS), André Middleton (Friends of Noise), Ethan Rose (Wavelength), Andrew Santa Lucia (PSU School of Architecture), Jeff Schnabel (PSU School of Architecture), Hannah Silver (Holst Architecture). Wed, Feb 19 – On Models: An Architecture Runway Show (6:00-7:30pm, J.K. Gill Building, 426 SW Harvey Milk St., Portland), Co-hosted by Justin Fowler and William Smith (University of Oregon SAE) with Alexis Coir (Waecther Architecture), Benjamin Fuglevand, Ali Gens (Hacker Architects), and Lisa Kuhnhausen (Office Kuhnhausen). Mon, Feb 24 – Streets of Possibility: Well Beyond Cars (6:00-8:00pm, Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St). Hosted by urban designers from PBOT with guests. Mon, March 3 – On Housing: Infill Models (6:00-7:30pm, J.K. Gill Building, 426 SW Harvey Milk St., Portland), Co-hosted by Justin Fowler and William Smith (University of Oregon SAE) and special guest Elizabeth Timme (Office of Office), with Heidi Beebe (Beebe Skidmore Architects), Jonathan Bolch (Woofter Bolch Architecture), Clayton Taylor (West of West) and more TBA.

Made in Old Town will become a world-class innovation campus in the heart of Portland, bringing together brands, suppliers and manufacturers to shape the future of footwear and apparel. Miss the launch? Check out this video for the highlights, along with inspiration from leaders like Eric Liedtke , Congresswoman Bonamici, and Shea Flaherty Betin (thank you to Mike Marchlewski and Proper Films for the video production, Damien Webb and Kadie Casey for the MiOT design system): https://shorturl.at/oubYd Brands, suppliers, innovators, and industry professionals are rushing through the doors of Made in Old Town. City, State, and regional leaders believe in the vision. … And you? Join us on February 10th for an exclusive first peek of the interior design and upcoming opening. Meet the Made in Old Town team and mingle with brands, suppliers, and civic leaders at a happy hour reception. Space is limited — request an invite here: https://shorturl.at/dCvfg #MadeinOldTown #PortlandProud #PortofPortland #ProsperPortland #FutureofFootwear #sneakerweek #oldtownbrewing #pdxoldtown #societyhotel #barnesandmorgan #chessclub

Thank you to everyone who made 2024 an incredible year for Made in Old Town! This year we moved from an idea to bricks and concrete. We brought together an amazing team of people who know the footwear and apparel industry inside and out, who care deeply about product, who are ready to innovate, and who are wildly optimistic about the future of Portland and our industry. We hosted hundreds of tours for brands, suppliers, local organizations, industry professionals, community members, and public officials. We bought our first building and celebrated our first industry partners. What’s coming next? In 2025, our doors will open for operations! With the Engine building and first floors of the Tower already spoken for (tenants to be announced soon!), the next few months will be busy with design, interior build-outs, and gearing up the sample room with world-class fabrication capabilities. We are deeply grateful to you, our colleagues across the industry, city, state, and Old Town community. The future together is bright. For now, the Made in Old Town team wishes you happy holidays filled with warmth and joy.

We are thrilled to announce Claire McIntyre Juttelstad joining Made in Old Town as the inaugural HUB Director! Many of us already know Claire from her time leading manufacturing at Danner Boots, KEEN, or manufacturing innovation at Under Armour. Her experience spans from local to global manufacturing, and from workwear to performance. That's why Claire is a perfect fit for Made in Old Town – an initiative that encompasses breadth and depth, and pushes the boundaries of manufacturing innovation. We couldn’t be more honored to welcome her to the team at such an exciting time for the industry and for Made in Old Town!

This week, I posted two articles that hit me like a one-two punch. First, the New York Times politely let me know that regular nylon tights are apparently just as good as the unbreakable, space-age tights I’ve spent 8 years and $150M engineering. (Why did I bother with ballistic polymers? Clearly, I should’ve just bought some regular tights off the shelf!) Then Vogue Business piled on, celebrating a brand that doesn’t own a single factory or make any materials—but hey, they’ve got influencer collabs, so they must be the future of innovation, right? Here’s the thing: I don’t blame these brands. It’s not their fault our economy has turned into a game of selling each other someone else’s products with a prettier label. But we need to change this narrative. Western society has stopped making things. We’ve outsourced manufacturing and innovation, and with it, we’ve outsourced jobs, economic growth, and progress. So here’s my call to action: - If you’re an investor, start funding companies that build factories and develop IP-driven manufacturing here at home. Take bigger bets. Stop looking for the quick win. - If you’re in the manufacturing or venture space, push for new factory incubators that actually enable companies to do large scale manufacturing here at home. - If your’re talking to government officials, call for transparency around supply chains and incentives for brands that own their own production. - And if you’re just someone who just cares about the future of the western world, start asking: Who actually made this? We can rebuild a culture of making things—but only if we stop glorifying middlemen and start valuing the companies that do the hard work of innovating and creating. Otherwise, we’ll just keep putting lipstick on pigs and wondering why nothing’s really changing.

Reducing our dependence on fossil-derived materials like plastics in footwear and apparel is a monumental challenge—but it’s one that we’re proud to tackle at Made in Old Town!   That’s why we are thrilled to announce our newest partner, EVOCO, a leader in sustainable materials and manufacturing processes. Their high-performance bio-foams, bio-leathers, and bio-TPUs are scalable and ready for production. This is innovation in action.   As a founding member on campus, EVOCO’s team is ready to collaborate with brands and other suppliers to explore, adopt, and scale solutions that meet their highest sustainability goals.    Learn more about Evoco. Reach out to us for more information about how to get involved with Made in Old Town.

Thank you Skip Newberry (he, him). The Technology Association of Oregon is doing great work to convene companies across industries and work closely with the public sector to advance transformational projects. We're taking the same approach, and thrilled to collaborate.

"MiOT’s collaborative environment removes traditional barriers, giving established and emerging brands alike the tools to innovate faster and more sustainably" – well said, Manuel Olberding. We are proud to be working with OIA GLOBAL and a broad ecosystem of brands and suppliers.

Thank you, Kate Nishimura, for a great article that captures the enthusiasm and support in the room.