Been thinking about buying something from Industry Nine? Maybe it’s the MEATengines min-max medal member 1/1 rear hub? Or, possibly, building a dream wheelset with a colourful 0.52° Hydra setup, a rainbow of I9 spokes, and some Kamloopsian-made carbon hoops made by We Are One? A headset, a stem?
Whatever North Carolina machined masterpieces you’ve been considering, I’ve bumped today’s single-speeding your mountain bicycle content to tomorrow in this effort to echo some information that they have up on their website and social media.
While Industry Nine is back up and running – making and shipping products – it’s going to take a lot of work for Western North Carolina (WNC) to recover and I9 is trying to do its part to help:
“Our warehouse has become a distribution center in partnership with PODER Emma, delivering critical resources to those in need. Forklift loads are alternating between pallets of potable water and custom wheel builds. I9 employees are rotating between coordinating community supply runs and entering hub orders.“
Additionally, from now until the end of October (Oct, 31st) they are donating 10% off all their retail sales to be split between three local community organizations helping with the recovery efforts: PODER Emma Community-led Development, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue, and MANNA Foodbank, Asheville.
Industry Nine has a long letter up on their website – which you can read here – called ‘Dear Friends of Industry Nine,’ but I wanted to pull a few quotes from it. They’re not in order, or I suppose ‘re-ordered’ would be the more accurate way of describing them:
“Since the disaster hit, i9 employees have volunteered 1,000+ hours to support our WNC community. Neighbors bringing food and water to neighbors. Long hours with chainsaws clearing roads to reconnect isolated communities. Volunteer-led search and rescue missions in rural Appalachia. Staff members conducting wellness checks, delivering supplies, and carrying buckets of water up stairs for elderly residents to flush toilets. Driving across state lines to bring back essential food, water, and supplies.“
…
“We’ve committed to paying all of our employees full wages throughout this crisis. While we have resumed normal business operations in a limited capacity, we are also continuing to pay some employees who are volunteering within the community…”
“Forklift loads are alternating between pallets of potable water and custom wheel builds. I9 employees are rotating between coordinating community supply runs and entering hub orders. Continuing to pay our employees was an easy decision, but it comes with significant financial challenges. We can only do this if we continue to sell our products.”
Anyway, there are clearly more direct ways to donate to Hurricane Helene relief, and, in this increasingly hard (for many) modern world, for those that like to focus more locally, there are certainly worthy organizations doing great work in your community as well. But, if you were thinking of buying something nice from Industry Nine, why not pop the order in before the end of October?
Not only will your cash result in some sweet bike parts for you and contribute to a living wage for someone in NC, but 10% of the spend will go to three community groups doing great work in I9’s hometown.
Welcome to MEATengines, I hope you enjoyed this piece. Any questions, concerns, or comments, feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail or join us at r/MEATengines.
To donate directly to recovery efforts in WNC, our friends at Endless Bike Co. suggest: “If you want to help, please donate to the NC disaster relief fund through this link. You can also donate to these grassroots, boots-on-the-ground non-profit organizations: Beloved Asheville, Caja Solidaria, and El Centro.”