Can you believe it’s been 10 years of Scout Books!? In this post, we take a look back at our big decade of making little books.
In 2002, Laura and Austin Whipple were a couple of intrepid DIYers who were inspired to buy a printing press in order to publish eye~rhyme: a poetry and lit magazine made with friends. Before long, that project expanded to an all-around print shop called Pinball Publishing, producing everything from business cards to silkscreened posters. We printed a lot of fun projects in the early days! Posters for artist Nikki McClure, wooden signage for Stumptown Coffee, chapbooks for Tom Waits, and so many more.
In 2009, in the little shop off of SE 10th and Grant, the Scout Book was born: a clever pocket-sized format that paired a durable chipboard cover with 32 pages of 100% recycled paper. It was a hit, and one year later, we launched Scoutbooks.com. The one millionth Scout Book was shipped in 2012, and the shop expanded to its current headquarters in 2013. By 2014, we had transitioned to exclusive Scout Books production.
The company has always been centered around a love of books and the magic of communication through the power of print. However, sustainability has also been a focus, and the business was built around conscientious choices. In 2017, Scout Books received B Corp Certification, joining the ranks of Patagonia, New Seasons Market, Seventh Generation, and more than 2000 other Certified B Corps worldwide who are working hard to use their business as a force for good.
Our team worked hard for that certification to become a reality, and it took more than 18 months to complete the assessment process. Scout Books established better policies, documented processes more completely, and made clearer our commitments to staff, the community, customers, and manufacturing methods.
Our quest for a better business didn’t stop there, though! In 2018, we planted 1000 trees to give back to Planet Earth as part of our More Trees, Please project. In 2019, we’re well on the way to planting 1500 more as part of our Future Forests initiative, which aims to be tree-positive by planting a tree for every order. We believe the future can be bright, but it’s going to take all of us, and we’re definitely going to need more trees.
So thank you for helping us make the world a better place, one book at a time. It’s been more hustle and craft than abracadabra, but turning your creative ideas into books feels pretty magical to us. Thank you for being a part of our ten years of magic!
