Coloradans are crafty people, providing an array of artisanal, sought-after consumer goods and services. The three entries in this category emphasize durability, functionality, and a finely-attuned sense of aesthetics.
Meier Skis
Denver
Founded: 2009
Privately owned
Employees: 12
Industry: Consumer & Lifestyle
Products: Skis
Colorado abounds with craft businesses, including highly-regarded food and beverage makers. But it also houses the “World’s First Craft Skiery” in Denver, where patrons can sip craft beer while watching ski-makers at work.
Meier’s skis incorporate wood from beetle-kill pine trees. And the company has forsaken toxic epoxies for its very own sticky binder, made from “pine resin and recycled vegetable oil.”
“Handmade skis from Colorado trees!” declares this environmentally minded company. Take the highly regarded results — from the nation’s top maker of skis east of the Rockies — up to the powdery slopes.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/meier-skis
Black Hound Design Company
www.blackhounddesigncompany.com
Arvada, Colorado
Founded:
Privately owned
Employees: 17
Industry: Consumer & Lifestyle
Products: Furniture
No need for hangdog interior additions, when Black Hound’s in business.
Black Hound provides restaurants, businesses, and homes across the country with customized furniture and fixtures, featuring eye-catching aesthetics. Employing an array of artisans, the company excels at woodworking and metal fabricating.
Crafting goods for clients from coast-to-coast, the company utilizes its Colorado supply chain and likeminded regional businesses to get its individualized jobs done; for instance, diners across the country sit at tables with tops made from beetle-kill wood, sourced from within the state.
Clearly, Black Hound has made a name for itself with influential architects and interior designers. The company notes, “Between 2018 and 2019, our net income increased by 74 percent.”
Parasoleil
Denver
Founded: 2006
Privately owned
Employees: about 50
Industry: Built Environment
Products: Laser-cut architectural panels
Parasoleil’s panels offer functional utility as railings, shade screens, and cladding, serving a variety of indoor or outdoor purposes. But they also incorporate sculptural elements, which heighten the overall aesthetic appeal. Patterns, laser-cut out of the metal, cast abstract shadows — as well as silhouettes of leaves or branches — as the sun strikes the company’s shade screen panels. The company offers a wide variety of eye-catching finishes, including the snow-hued Pike’s Peak.
CEO Uriah Bueller told CompanyWeek, “We focus on creating innovative tools to give architects and designers a better way of using patterns in their built environments.”
The company’s durable work can be appreciated over a meal or drink at the Denver Botanic Gardens’ outdoor bistro, as well as at bars, malls, universities, and hotels across the land.
CompanyWeek profile: https://companyweek.com/article/parasoleil
