Credit: Portland Made

You’ve got to have some balls to turn down an invitation from the President of the United States, but it looks like doing so has earned some of Portland’s biggest local manufacturing advocates an invitation to the White House:

On Monday, a crew from the Portland Maker Community will attend a national Maker Movement roundtable at the White House to share how Portland community members are advancing the maker movement locally. Representatives include Kelley Roy of ADX and Portland Made, Katrina Scotto di Carlo from Supportland, Joshua Lifton from Crowd Supply, Dana Hinger and Sara Tunstall of Spooltown, and Laura Wolf Powers, a CUNY researcher working with PSU on a Kaufman Foundation funded research project about the Maker Movement.

But here’s where it gets juicy:

The group declined an invitation to join President Obama at Nike headquarters on May 7th and invited the President to join them at ADX: “Portland Makers do not advocate for tax breaks and other government subsidies for companies that exploit labor and non-existent environmental regulation overseas, nor do we support secret trade deals that undermine our locally grown businesses. We are deeply committed to the long term economic viability of our community and support an economic system that values people, planet and profit equally. This is what Portland Made represents and we will continue to advocate on behalf of our local makers and artisanal manufacturers.”

It doesn’t sound like the president took them up on the ADX offer (they probably would have mentioned that?), which means they passed on meeting Obama on his Portland visit out of principle. It unclear how much direct face time they’re likely to get in DC, but hopefully the audacity of their refusal will pique some interest in the capitol.

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  • Portland Made

Marjorie Skinner is the Portland Mercury's Managing Editor, author of the weekly Sold Out column chronicling the area's independent fashion and retail industry, and a frequent contributor to the film and...

4 replies on “Portland’s Maker Movement Is Headed to the White House”

  2. Since when has refusing to meet the President ever furthered a cause?
    These people seem to me to acting like children.
    They could take the opportunity to express themselves to the President, and voice misguided displeasure at the venue, but no, they want to sulk instead.
    I’m glad Obama will not meet these kids as representatives of Portland craftsman and manufacturers.
    Grow up.

  3. The realm of politics is a realm of no morals, pure money. On a Portland scale, high respect to ADX, Portland Made, Supportland, Crowd Supply, Spooltown, Powers plus all the Portland makers who stepped out on this. They could have gained free international publicity, but they focused on their here and now Portland customers.

  4. It is hard to influence decisionmakers when you turn an opportunity to speak with them. This smacks more of juvenile leadership than a stance for any just cause.

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