In 2008, skateboarder Lindsay Jo Holmes began trading freshly baked cookies for broken boards to upcycle into products like earrings and planters. Thirteen years later, her Portland, Oregon–based company, MapleXO, collects old, broken, and discarded skateboards donated from across the United States to make her unique designs. Holmes initially conceived the paddle-style bottle opener shown above to impress a bartender she was wooing, and it has since become one of MapleXO’s bestselling products (small, $20; large, $30). The smooth wooden handle is more comfortable to grip than the classic metal version, and the colorful cross section of a board makes it a fun addition to anyone’s kitchen drawer. “The purpose of my brand has always been to save as many skateboards from landfills as possible—to reduce the carbon footprint of skateboarding and give old skateboards new life,” Holmes says. maplexo.com•
Nasim Ghasemiyeh is an associate editor at Alta Journal. She graduated with a degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley.
