Grovemade Offers Insight On High-End Design And Apple Accessories

The market for smartphone accessories is exploding. It's expected to reach $38 billion in revenues before 2017, and a small company called Grovemade stands out amongst manufacturers.

Ken Tomita and Joe Mansfield anticipated a market for high-end products within the boom and co-founded the company in 2009.

Tomita credited Mansfield for coming up with the idea after the first iPhone was released.

"Fortunately, he had that vision and hypothesised that it was going to be a big part of lives. Not that many people were thinking that way then," Tomita told Design & Trend. "Specifically [about] iPhones. He identified that people were more fanatical about Apple products, especially back then."

Those who appreciate and are dedicated to Apple, commonly appreciate other well-designed, high-end products. The idea for Grovemade came out of that consideration.

Tomita and Mansfield were neighbors independently producing high-end, handmade items in Portland, Ore. before they founded Grovemade. The company remains in the city and has grown to about 20 employees that Tomita describes as a "ragtag crew" that mesh well culturally and are all passionate about its mission.

Ken Tomita, co-founder of Grovemade

"We set out to make the best iPhone case in the world," he said.

After using their individual expertise and do-it-yourself experience, the two can argue they've achieved that goal.

All the cases are made with either bamboo, maple or walnut. The bamboo sheets come from China — no company in the U.S. manufactures them, according to Tomita — and the other woods come from the East Coast of the U.S.

Tomita, who was making furniture before he started Grovemade, added that walnut was not popular 10 years ago but is trending today. When available, they use one from Oregon he said is hard to work with but "gorgeous."

Joe Mansfield, co-founder of Grovemade

Grovemade does almost all of the manufacturing in Portland as a form of quality control. The company isn't against partnering with others, they just can't find anyone who can retain the quality at cost.

That quest for perfection is a double-edged sword.

"We don't think about high-end design like most people should," Tomita said. "That can get us into trouble, but because we do our own manufacturing, we can do that."

Most cases are designed for the largest customer group in the market with the goal to sell as many as possible. Grovemade's refusal to compromise quality means a smaller, niche group but that isn't a bad thing. Their target customers might be fewer in numbers but they're willing to spend $100 or more for well-designed cases.

In terms of protection, Grovemade's cases are merely a shell around a device and priced from $39 to $129. For comparison, the Otterbox Preserver Series (a case with impact bumpers, a built-in screen guard and waterproofs phones to a depth of more than six feet) sells for $89.95.

An iPad case by Grovemade

"I think a lot of people choose our products for the natural aesthetic," Tomita said. "It's kind of like cars. They are all different for specific uses. I kinda feel like that is a good analogy for cases."

Grovemade is a good example of a company utilizing resources it already had to take advantage of a coming market. Perhaps just as importantly, it has remained dedicated to creating the best high-end products.

They know very little about it, but Grovemade has been working on cases for the coming iPhone (likely to be released this year) for six months already.

One might assume accessory companies salivate at the thought of a new device they can sell a new accessory for. That is actually far from the circumstance. Tomita said the turnaround in devices is a weakness for all companies but they have a slight advantage over larger manufacturers.

"I think a lot of people think we get the specs on the iPhone and the truth is we don't. When the phone comes out we're in line, just like everybody else in line, buying a new phone," he said. "It's a race, a sprint, this industry. That's actually kind of giving us an edge."

Since Grovemade does their own designing and manufacturing in-house, they can turn out cases faster than others.

Tomita said conceptually, the new cases for the coming iPhone are already an improvement over their current products.