Carfree Conference 2008

We got a lot of questions about our tote bags and volunteer tee shirts. Here are the details on where they came from, and some more about the cool local businesses that hooked us up.

The sharp volunteer t-shirts were made by Sonadei, a new Seattle-based bike wear company that approached us with great enthusiasm and support just as we were about to give in and buy some very boring volunteer shirts indeed. They are offering these shirts on their website for $20 USD plus shipping. Here is the product link.

The tote bags are another great story. They were handmade individually by Elaine Loving of Reuseable Solutions in Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland. She finds discarded fabric that is on its way to the landfill — remnants, curtains, sheets, whatever she can find — and gives it a new life in the form of these beautiful tote bags. We commissioned 400 of them for the conference and silkscreened them by hand (along with those more varied t-shirts that were on sale throughout the conference) over two long evenings in Gregg and Nikki’s backyard. You can buy Elaine’s bags online — though not, unfortunately, with our image on them. They are $15.99 and ship for free if you’re in the US.

The carfree logo, you know, the one that makes you feel like you were just at a rock festival rather than a transportation conference, was designed by Portland artists Justin Gorman and Caleb Freese.