Photo by Phierce Photo | FX Media Solutions Grassroots is so much more than a hat company, it’s a movement. While known for their Colorado and California roots, this company’s relationship with Summer Camp Music Festival goes way back. Grassroots recently opened up a storefront in Chicago, establishing a permanent residence in the Midwest where they can showcase their exclusive gear that caters to their unique audience. I recently got a chance to pick the brain of Max Urquhart, who’s been with this organization since its humble beginnings.
How did the Grassroots movement first get started?
The Grassroots movement first got started by Ryan Ruga Connolly in Venice Beach, California. With one hat and a table on the Venice Beach boardwalk the idea of vending and selling hats grew. Overtime we came out with more and more hats and soon started collaborating with artists such as Pretty Lights and STS9. In the beginning every hat donated back to a unique charity, now we donate back to 12 different charities with 1% of sales going back to a different charity or organization every month. We have worked with Upbeat Academy in New Orleans, NORML, Conscious Alliance, The Justin Ehmer Foundation, Headcount and many many more.When did Grassroots start working with Summer Camp?
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Photo provided by Grassroots[/caption]
Summer Camp was the first music festival we ever legally vended at. The summer before we had roamed campgrounds all over the festival circuit with hats in our backpacks, slowly and surely we were getting the hats and our message out. Over the years we started making official hats for Summer Camp, that connection led to hats being made for Ryan Stasik and Umphrey’s McGee. We also moved from EZ ups to our 27ft dome that has its own place in the campground every year. The connection with the Campers continues to grow more and more every year.
Describe the community that has formed around your products?
The community is actually very spread out and a part of multiple different counter cultures. From streetwear to music to marijuana, we have our hats in multiple different communities. We spend a lot of time on the road, connecting with these people and hanging with them at events. Denver has been our new homebase for a couple years and we have been very well received. It’s a great feeling going out and seeing a Grassroots hat, it’s really a dream come true.Tell me about the new store in Chicago. How did the idea come about?
Chicago has always been the next location for us, it was only a matter of time. We have always had a presence in Chicago, MADE was the first shop to ever carry Grassroots California. Online sales and events in the area have always been good for us and we were very excited to make Chicago happen. Beauregard Pate found the location for us and is now the Chicago store manager. Beau, Michael Kriz, Aaron Giles and myself all built out the store in a little over two weeks. We all worked together on different concepts and ideas and used Michael’s carpentry knowledge to make it all come together. Team work makes the dream work. [caption id="attachment_23290" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Grassroots Chicago store – photo by Chris Monaghan[/caption]
What special things does Grassroots Chicago have planned for this summer?
Grassroots Chicago will be doing lots of things from meet and greets with artists (we did Late Night Radio and Manic Focus recently), as well as trying to make an art gallery in the basement. We will be trying to hold pop up shops with companies we are friends with and hopefully having lots of smaller events in store.Does Grassroots have any special plans/collaborations we can expect to see at Summer Camp?
For Summer Camp we have two new official hats coming out. The hats are amazing this year and we cannot wait for the Campers to see them. Grassroots will also be releasing a couple items at the event and we will have a lot more stuff for the ladies this summer as we expanded our women’s line. The dome will be going off in the forest this year so make sure to come on by!!! [caption id="attachment_23289" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Photo by Tony Vasquez[/caption]
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