SEPTEMBER IMPACT | MAKE A WISH OREGON

In lieu of offering our "Cancer Free" sale this year, we have opted to donate 15% of sales from the first week of September to The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon is an organization of thousands of volunteers, donors and supporters who work to grant life-changing wishes of children with critical illnesses living in Oregon and Clark County, Washington. Please read on below for Scott's personal reflections on this decision and what it means to have positive impact for a child battling a critical illness.

Dear Reader,

This week, Portland Razor Company will be partnering with The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon, and donating 15% of all website sales to this great foundation, whose cause is near and dear to my heart. As some of you know, in 2015/2016 I battled cancer and survived with the help of my friends and family. I feel very fortunate to have had this experience but it was certainly the toughest thing I have ever endured. I know that surviving cancer is one of the greatest gifts I could and will ever receive, and it has become a goal in my life to give back.

Every year, thousands of children and their families deal with the same hardships that me and my family did in 2015. Between the physical, mental and emotional stress of battling a critical illness, it can be very difficult for these children to live as positively and as happily as they deserve. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon plays a very important role in helping lift the spirits of these brave Wish Kids and their families. The simple act of granting a wish to a child can have an incredibly positive impact on their mental and physical well being. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon is here to make sure that every Wish Kid is given the chance of happiness. Make-A-Wish has granted thousands of wishes and by donating to this cause, we hope to help grant the wishes of as many children as is possible.

I know first hand that having something to look forward to is important during the treatment of a critical illness. Minutes, hours, days, and months really start to add up when they are spent in a hospital bed. During my treatment, I dreamed of the day that I could once again ride my mountain bike and told myself that every minute of treatment was bringing me ever closer to this dream. One friend brought me some new parts to go on my mountain bike when I could ride it again, and a nurse found an old stationary pedaling machine in the hospital and brought it to my room. These little acts of kindness functioned as reminders that I had a life to look forward to after cancer and helped keep me going. Make A Wish helps give Wish Kids something to look forward to, and I believe that donating to this cause is one of the most effective ways we can help these children and their families.

Myself, my family, and Portland Razor Company all thank you for your continued support, and we wish good health for all of you and your loved ones!

Best,

Scott Miyako

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How It Works

Portland Razor Co. will donate 15%  of all online sales during the first week of September 2018 in support of The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon. These donations will continue through the end of January. We hope to aid those in need as much as we can and thank you for your support.

If you would like to make a donation on your own accord, you can donate directly to Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon here.

It's time for a good old-fashioned rant : 1 minute on an american-made soap box

Portland Razor Co. received an email from Gold Dollar this morning asking if we would like them to manufacture our straight razors for us. I followed the link they had sent and found it odd that I recognized the photos (having never looked into buying a gold dollar myself). Look familiar? They stole photos I took for our manufacturing page and are using them to market their own razors!! To Gold Dollar's credit: someone over there knows their way around photoshop and did an excellent job replacing our logo with theirs!

A few thoughts on this:

1. I'm pretty sure this isn't how they make their razors, but it IS how we make our razors!
2. Gold Dollar claiming images of our straight razor manufacturing process as their own is intentionally misleading and co-opts the authenticity of us smaller makers who take time and care in our process. It says, "this wasn't made in a black box overseas. Look! This was made by a real person. You can trust us as much as you trust small batch manufacturers!" But the truth is, you can't!
3. I've seen much discussion and many many examples in the past year of larger faceless corporations ripping off independent artists on Instagram. This is a massive problem in the age of the Internet and it is a fact of life that it is hard to take the bad with the good. While sometimes legal action can play out in favor of the independent artists, there is a great deal of power which lies with you, our audience and customers, to choose to support us: the originals, the artists and makers who work hard to produce quality work and push our own limits every day. I hope you see the benefit of supporting small, honest companies such as our own. I want to re-enforce that your support and contributions never ever go underappreciated.
4. We've been meaning to update our manufacturing page, so this gives us a pretty good reason.
5. And OF COURSE, all of our razors will always and forever be American Made.

Aaanyways, looking forward to meeting Scott's hand twin in China some day! Happy Wednesday everyone!

P.S. we won't hold it against you if you share this with people you know who also care about the integrity and quality of the goods they purchase with their hard-earned money! ;)

Happy Earth Day! | Out on the sandy river delta with friends of trees

Yesterday Portland Razor Co. had the great pleasure of getting the heck outside by volunteering with Friends of Trees! It has rained almost every day in Portland since OCTOBER (except for the days when it snowed or rained ice[???]), so the time spent outside in the sunshine was long overdue. As an aside to all friends in Chicago: sincerest apologies, but this winter was the worst and every arm chair therapist in Portland knows it! When the weather forecast said 70 F and sunny when I checked my weather app this morning, I’m pretty sure a single tear squeaked out.

Scott and Robin scoop mulch into buckets

In choosing to make straight razors it is we at Portland Razor Co.’s sincerest hope that shavers will elect to switch from disposable razors to the straight razor at least in part to reduce their own waste. Disposable razors, especially those attached to plastic handles, are thrown into landfills by the billions each year in the United States. Knowing that our straight razors will never be thrown away with proper care makes us warm and fuzzy and we hope you feel the same! With this commitment to the environment, we often seek other opportunities to leave the world better than we found it. To put our best foot forward in observance of Earth Day, yesterday morning the Portland Razor Co. team headed out to the Sandy River Delta to help Friends of Trees and the Sandy River Basin Watershed council care for native trees and plants that had been planted last winter.

Showing up without any information besides the address and that the work had something to do with mulch, I didn’t really know what to expect. The event organizers informed the group that the Sandy River Delta had been used as cow pastures starting in the 1930s when a small dam was built to limit the East Channel of the Sandy River and increase flow to the West Channel. The entire delta was eventually unusable for agriculture and the habitat of the native plants and wildlife had been destroyed. The dam was removed 10 years ago and the area has been undergoing native wildlife restoration with quite a bit of success! Native salmon, birds, and shallow-water creatures have returned to the area with the work of many many organizations coming together to make it happen. After we learned more about the project, the organizers taught us how to mulch and other things we could do to care for the plants to ensure they have a productive spring and summer. All told, we mulched and performed basic maintenance on hundreds of native trees and plants and left with smiles on our faces.

I cannot say enough about how approachable and fun the whole event was. If you are interested in getting outdoors in the Portland Area, Friends of Trees should be at the top of your list. Here is a link to their event calendar so you can find an event in your area (they also have events in Eugene and Salem). If your group is small enough you don’t even have to sign-up beforehand, you just show up! Whether it's switching lights off when you're not using them, riding your bike to work next week, or buying yourself a reusable water vessel to cut your plastic bottle habit, I hope you find your own way to care for our earth today.

Happy Earth Day from all of us at Portland Razor Co.