Ruckus is pivoting to hot dog cooking tools to capitalize on the #hotdogsoutside trend.
(Photo: Ruckus Composites)

Portland is home to bike companies known for pushing the envelope of product design.

Cases in point are BlaqPaks and Ruckus Composites. Their new offerings — available April 1st — are sure to get people talking…
[Read more…]

Southeast Portland-based BlaqPaks — makers of fine backpacks, messenger bags, and more — want to offer a full line of products in the style of the iconic PDX Carpet. To do it, they’ve turned to Kickstarter.

For more info, read their press release below…[Read more…]

Jeremy Neal (L) and Paul Johnson of Blaq Design
at their shop on SE 11th and Division.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

You know the local bike industry is healthy when niches are created within niches. That seems to be what’s happening now in Portland’s thriving cargo bike scene. Made up of advocates, builders, retailers, and buyers, our local cargo bike industry is alive and well.

Blaq Design is just one local business riding the wave.

Paul Johnson and Jeremy Neal are the men behind Blaq. They moved to Portland from Ohio back in 2010 and have been gaining a strong foothold ever since by making both stock and custom messenger bags, backpacks and other products. By 2010, Portland’s cargo bike industry was already several years old and Johnson and Neal wasted no time getting involved with it. At the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show that year, they debuted an innovative fabric cargo bin created through a collaboration with Joe Bike owner Joe Doebele.[Read more…]