Maine newcomers start Lewiston 'slow fashion' company
Needless Society is a company brand that seems both provocative and an oxymoron for someone wanting to sell products.
But that’s the approach Rance and Phoebe Pope took when they moved from Baltimore to Lewiston to start their handmade leather accessory company in September 2016, according to the Portland Press Herald.
“The whole point of Needless Society is that we are making a product that is going to last the rest of society,” Rance told the newspaper. “Rather than the purse of the season. We want eventually to fulfill all of a society’s needs.”
The married couple moved to Brownville, where they initially worked out of their cabin, cutting and sewing leather wallets, camera straps and satchels.
The moved to Maine because they realized they could live anywhere in the country, and found inspired by Maine’s outdoors, the newspaper said.
They later picked Lewiston for their location, which Rance told the newspaper fits with millennials wanting to live in urban areas with old factories. The still don’t have a physical store, but display at Hive Artisan Co-op above the Forage Market in Lewiston’s downtown.
They try to source their products locally, buying leather at Tasman Leather in Hartland and thread at Maine Thread Co. in Lewiston.
In June Mainebiz wrote about another young entrepreneur who moved into the state. Rob Mueller, co-founder of Mpower Sports and Recreation moved his Maryland-based adaptive sports media company to Brunswick and volunteered at this summer's Maine Startup & Create Week to make local connections.
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