In 2008 Andrew Dahlgren and Leah Grubb - two Philadelphia based designers and makers with much support from the design and craft community - set out to create a store that would sell functional products designed and made in Philadelphia and the Region. After much planning, business plan writing, and budgeting the decision was made to start with an online venue leading to madein-philly.com which officially opened for June 2009. After a few sales, sponsoring Philly Works, and a lot of people saying "creating a brand for Philly made goods is a great idea", six months later, we decided the online store was not the most efficient way to use our energy and skills. Without the marketing and advertising skills and budget to have our store stand out the online venture ran its course. Much was learned and a lot of connections were made.

What we found out while doing the research and organizing for our first product line was there are a lot of people who have been working to promote Philadelphia based productive work. Most of this promotional work is being done for the love of the community, in hopes of growing the network and promoting the highly talented groups of people in the City. Because this work is being done voluntarily there are a lot of disconnected folks.

Now that we have learned our lesson about online stores we are going to use our time, skills, and energies to organize. We are not quite sure what that looks like yet. We hope you have some ideas. Below is a list of Philadelphia based designers, makers, crafters, and producers - as well as many organizations that also promote Philly made work. We know this is list is not complete. If you would like to be added to this list please send us an email with a link to your work.