10
S moke S ignals
APRIL 1, 2019
‘The Tribe has helped me every step of the way’
BUSINESS continued
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five part-time employees.
Douglass says he saw a need for
the business after witnessing dif-
ferent ways Hawaiian youth and
young adults showed their culture.
With his own mixed heritage,
which includes Native American
and Pacific Islander, he and his
business partner, who is half-Fili-
pino and half-white, decided to call
their budding business Cultural
Blends.
“We wanted to use the brand to
serve the people of Hawaii and give
it a streetwear feel,” Douglass says.
“We created a batch of T-shirts
and sold $900 worth in the school
cafeteria. After that I just ran with
the idea.”
To make his clothing differ-
ent, Douglass learned how to sew
watching YouTube videos and cre-
ated shirts with silk pockets, which
proved to be quite popular among
the students at the University of
Hawaii.
“From there it just grew and
we opened up an online store and
started selling there and through
Facebook,” he says.
After graduating in 2012 with a
bachelor’s degree in communica-
tions, Douglass decided it was time
to return to his Oregon roots.
He decided to celebrate that by
designing a T-shirt that reads “The
Best Coast,” featuring the state li-
cense plates of Washington, Oregon
and California.
“I didn’t want to focus on a Port-
land brand, but wanted a bigger
demographic,” he says. “I wanted to
emphasize the commonalities that
bring us closer together. People
tend to forget the West Coast isn’t
just California.”
The shirt design proved to be a
hit and received an even bigger
boost when former NBA player and
Seattle native Nate Robinson began
wearing it.
Then, in an attempt to increase
sales in the holiday season of 2015,
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Grand Ronde Tribal member Troy Douglass has opened his own clothing store, Cultural Blends, in the Lloyd Center Mall.
If you shop
Cultural Blends
Where: Lloyd Center Mall,
2201 Lloyd Center, Portland.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon-
day through Saturday, and 11
a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Other options: The website
is www.culturalblends.net,
e-mail info@culturalblends.net
or under “Cultural Blends” on
Instagram.
Phone: 503-572-9757
Douglass Photoshopped famed
rapper Snoop Dogg wearing one of
his shirts and posted it to Insta-
gram, asking followers to like and
comment with their favorite Snoop
Dogg song. The rapper heard about
it and reposted it himself, which
turned out to be his most shared
photo of the year.
“That’s a whole crazy story itself,”
Douglass says. “We ended up sell-
ing $10,000 worth of shirts.”
Another popular seller is the
trucker hat in Portland Trail Blaz-
ers’ colors that says “1977” on it,
which is a reference to when the
team won its only NBA champi-
onship.
A friend of Douglass’s stood in
line for three hours at a Lillard
autograph signing to give him a hat
and asked if he’d wear it.
As luck would have it, the timing
was right and soon after Lillard had
a photo on social media of himself
wearing the hat after the team won
a crucial game in the 2014 playoffs.
“We ended up selling 350 hats
that day and he followed me on
Twitter,” Douglass says.
During the next few years, Dou-
glass continued to evolve his brand
and focused on products with mul-
tiple elements of different cultures.
“It works well and I always want
to include the different cultures and
blend them into hip-hop fashion,”
he says. “My line has a real ’90s
vibe and focuses on what brings us
all together.”
In November 2018, Lloyd Center
began a promotion featuring small
“pop-up”-style businesses for the
holiday season. Cultural Blends
proved to be so popular that the
mall management asked them to
open a store within the mall.
Using a grant from Native Amer-
ican Youth and Family Center in
Portland, Douglass paid the lease
for a storefront. Sales have re-
mained steady after the holidays,
even with the traditional dip in re-
tail sales in January and February.
“I want to continue growing this
and wouldn’t be surprised if I get
a brick-and-mortar, stand-alone
store soon,” he says. “We have our
products in 63 stores and I want to
increase that.”
His storefront carries the Cultural
Blends items such as shorts, T-shirts,
jackets, tank tops, jewelry, hats,
coffee cups, air fresheners and water
bottles. There are also other local
and native brands, Skyn Style. Since
it is a large display area, Douglass
also features another local business
in his store, Fallen Legends, which
includes vintage Trail Blazers bas-
ketball attire and accessories.
Douglass has shared his story of
success at NAYA events and hopes
to encourage Native youths to pur-
sue their dreams, even if it makes
them uncomfortable or they are
unsure of how to do it.
“I get up and tell them my story,
and hope it inspires the kids to try
this and utilize social media to build
their business,” he says. “You have to
be as scrappy and creative as possible
and don’t take ‘No’ for an answer.”
Douglass thanks the Grand
Ronde Tribe for helping him to
achieve his goals and get in touch
with his Native roots.
“The Tribe has helped me every
step of the way by paying for college
and now I am getting in touch with
my culture,” he says. “I didn’t really
grow up learning much about it, but
now I am taking the Lifeways class-
es at the Portland office and learn-
ing a lot. Lisa Achuleta (Portland
Tribal Services representative) is
like my second mom.”
Police Department has
non-emergency text line
Ad created by George Valdez
The Grand Ronde Tribal Police Department has created a non-emer-
gency text line at 541-921-2927.
“Even though this is mostly designed for children, I don’t want adults
thinking that they can’t use it as well. If you have a non-emergency situ-
ation or question, feel free to contact my officer via text through this line,”
said Grand Ronde Tribal Police Chief Jake McKnight. “When one of my
officers receives the text, they will call you back when they have time.”
McKnight said that emergency situations still require calling 911.
For more information, contact McKnight at 503-879-1474.