(Adrienne Priess | Photo courtesy of JAX Upcycled)
Saving the World with Ugly Sweaters
JAX Upcycled, also known in Central Oregon as JAXHATS, is a clothing and accessory company that specializes in using recycled materials to make a variety of products like hats, gloves, visors, reusable paper towels and more.
“Upcycle” is defined as the process of reusing discarded objects or materials in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value, than the original.
JAXHATS, according to the owner Adrienne Priess, started 17 years ago when her mom, Jacky Priess, made Priess her first upcycled hat in a specific style that she had been asking for. “It was made out of an old sweater and all of my friends loved it,” Priess said.
Naturally, her friends wanted hats of their own. Then other family members began to order hats, and as word spread, a business naturally formed. In the early years, Priess helped her mom by working as the spokesperson and model for JAXHATS. Eventually, she started selling the hats herself and started to help her mom in the creation of the hats.
Priess moved from Montana to Portland in 2012, and when she did, she created her own business called JAX Upcycled. Starting small, she built up her upcycling company in Portland by getting into events like the Portland Saturday Market, which she said, “fast-tracked” her growth.
Eventually, Priess got her sister to move from San Diego to Portland to help with the growing business. The two discovered Bend in 2014 when JAX Upcycled got the chance to be a vendor in that year’s winterfest.
Falling in love with Bend, they moved JAX Upcycled to town. At first, with ski patrol and EMT certifications, Priess found work at Mt. Bachelor working as ski patrol. JAX Upcycled would be a side business until 2015 when she quit to focus full time on her passion. Once Priess was able to get some help making the hats with contracted seamstresses, things could start to take off.
Now, JAX Upcycled has a core team of contractors, including Priess’ right-hand person, Marcy Hosket. The team works hard to make sure every step, from where the materials are sourced to where the products are made and sold, stays as local as possible.
Amongst many small businesses that are selling apparel or accessories, JAX Upcycled stands out by sourcing all of their materials as used materials, or “pre-loved,” as Priess calls them. JAX Upcycled repurposes these items into long-lasting, functional and unique clothing items. The whole process is very different when compared to sitting on a computer and ordering your blank items from overseas, waiting to print your own label or design on them. Priess and her team are always hunting for pieces that she can upcycle. It is important for them to keep a steady flow of unique, quality materials.
While the company inherently focuses on fashion, Priess’ passion truly lies in her philosophy of environmentalism. “In a world where it’s trendy to consume and discard items, especially cheaper made items like a lot of modern clothing, we’re hoping to spread more awareness around consumption, fast fashion, plastic use, pollution, and all the problems in the fashion industry,” Priess said. “We can fight all of that by slowing down and using high-quality materials to give new life to old items.”
Priess wants to keep things local to Central Oregon for a few reasons, “We do a lot of business in the PNW, so it makes sense to save money on shipping and transport costs. It’s given us a great sense of purpose to hire local people and keep all the money in the local economy. We get all materials from Central Oregon, from places like garage sales and thrift stores. We hire local seamstresses and mostly sell to locals. That keeps as much money in our local economy as possible,” she said.
Going into the future, Priess wants to keep doing things her way, and seek growth as it comes naturally, “The main thing is to continue with our mission of keeping things locally made and always upcycled,” she said. “We want to always have the ability to grow, as we do have more and more exposure to other markets all the time through wholesale. We want to keep everything in house, support the locals, and grow naturally by maintaining stability and a good foundation before expanding.”
