Mountains appearing in a glass
Why is there a mountain in a glass? And it looks so real, almost as if it were the real thing. This unusual glass is from "North Drinkware," a craftsmanship-filled product from Portland, Oregon, USA.
Many freeskiers who enjoy aerial skiing will likely recognize this mountain floating in the glass. It's Mt. Hood (3,429 m), Oregon's highest peak and a classic location in ski movies. This is the memorable first product from "North Drinkware."
What is North Drinkware?
North Drinkware is a design project that began as an idea from three mountain-loving friends. The three are passionate about the outdoors and enjoy traveling to the mountains of America whenever they can find the time. With expertise in design, engineering, and marketing, and a wealth of business experience, the three had a desire to create a product that embodied their beloved mountains with their own hands
As a result, they came up with the idea of engraving their beloved local mountains onto glasses. And not just any glasses, but meticulously crafted products that faithfully reproduce the mountains' details using USGS (United States Geological Survey) topographical data and a hand-blown technique. The idea is that
even when someone returns home after climbing a mountain, holding the glass will vividly reflect the mountain scenery, allowing them to relive their travel memories.
Now, please look at the photo of Mt. Food above and the photo of the glass artwork below. If you compare them, you'll see that they are finished in an extremely delicate and similar way. It would be understandable if they were made of clay or plaster, but the material is glass. This
is truly a testament to the passion of producers who deeply love the mountains and the high skill of the craftsmen.
Process Is Everything
The shape of the mountain floating at the bottom of the glass is based on detailed data obtained from USGS topographical data. The design was confirmed using 3D printing from that data, and a mold for the prototype was created
Then comes the creation of hand-blown glass, which requires years of skilled experience and technique, as well as a completely bespoke process. It takes two days and more than 15 steps to make one glass, and the artisans repeat these steps hundreds of times a day, carefully handcrafting each one. No matter how hard one artisan works, they can only make seven or eight glasses a day. That's how valuable they are.
I highly recommend watching the video to see the artisans' artistic craftsmanship.
Background to the success story
The "North Drinkware" design project, started by three friends, kicked off in February 2015. They launched their first creation, "The Oregon Pint," featuring Mt. Food engraved on a glass, on Kickstarter, America's largest crowdfunding service. The initial goal for this one-month project was $15,000 (approximately 1.6 million yen). This amount was intended to cover only the costs of creating the molds and shipping the products to the backers.
However, to everyone's surprise, the crowdfunding campaign yielded phenomenal results. They surpassed their $15,000 goal in just 5 hours and 15 minutes, achieved 200% of their target in 28 hours, exceeded 2000% in 5 days, and ultimately secured 5,620 supporters in a month-long campaign, ending with a total of $531,581(approximately 55 million yen). This tremendous success was covered by numerous domestic and international media outlets, including The New York Times.
They subsequently released a series of videos featuring mountains across the US states, and the "North Drinkware" lineup now comprises 11 titles. Take a look to see if you recognize any of the mountains. Of course, Grand Teton, the highest peak in the Teton Mountains—a base for filming by the long-established ski movie studio TGR (Teton Gravity Research)—is included.
Product lineup:
https://sputnikshop.jp/blogs/products/north-drinkware-collection
Introduced by sputnik,
the Japanese debut was made possible by
"Sputnik" was the first to introduce "North Drinkware" to Japan. The company's representative, Hodaka Endo, is a lifelong traveler, outdoor enthusiast, mountain lover, and of course, skier.He founded "Sputnik" in 2017 and since then has been importing and selling "things that resonate with the heart" that he has found on his travels around the world, which he considers his life's work.
From ski-related items such as helmets and goggle covers to lifestyle goods, each brand he handles has a story behind it, a story of Endo's travels and encounters with people. (It's very interesting, so I'd like to introduce this story on another occasion.)
While he was in America, a designer he was working with told him about the designer of "North Drinkware," saying there was something interesting. After hearing about it, he was very attracted to the style of making things by hand and the story behind them, and thought it would be great to introduce it to Japan, so he contacted them. That was in 2017.
The designer happened to be a snowboarder, so he went to meet him, and they hit it off immediately after playing in the mountains together. Due to their busy schedules, it took some time before they could launch in Japan, but in August 2020, they finally made their Japanese debut.
They started selling at five select outdoor and mountain specialty stores, as well as on the sputnik online store. However, because the products are entirely handmade, production and import quantities are limited, and sales will be limited to each season. ...This means that getting one in Japan could be considered a premium item.
Whatever you pour into the glass, the drink you drink from this glass is sure to be delicious. You can enjoy a relaxing moment admiring the sparkling mountain reproduced in the glass. Why not enjoy some quality time for yourself?
Will Japan's famous peaks also feature in the work?! The project is underway with high expectations
Lastly, a little secret for STEEP readers.
According to Mr. Endo of sputnik,
"If we're going to expand in Japan, we definitely want to make products based on famous Japanese mountains that we're familiar with. In fact, we're working on releasing Mount Fuji as our first product in Japan this December. It's a lot of work because we make each one from scratch using molds, but we're aiming to make about one product a year, and eventually we'd like to make Mount Tateyama or Mount Yotei in Niseko
." This is something to look forward to.
The Oregon (Mt. Hood)
Pint
Glass
¥9,000 (excluding tax)
Text: STEEP Editorial Department Photo: sputnik