At the Tokyo Coffee Festival, it was a pleasure to meet Ian Williams, former Nike employee, owner of Deadstock Coffee (snob-free coffee with the mantra “Coffee Should Be Dope”) in Portland’s Old Town and the man behind Colorways, the event series focused on sneakers, streetwear and the modern Portland urban experience.
Ian represented USA at the Tokyo Coffee Festival 2019 (spring) and with Tokyo Coffee Festival 2019 (autumn) coming up, the guest city this time will be Portland. So, it’s going to be very cool to see which coffee companies are going to represent Portland but I have heard how cool the Portland coffee scene and how different it is from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
I’ve read reviews of how cool and low-key Deadstock Coffee is. How one can see a whiteboard next to the cash register featuring the day’s specials, the current soundtrack playing and what kind of shoes that staff is wearing on their feet.
You can find numerous interviews with Ian Williams about his popular coffee shop: Sprudge, Williamette Weekly, Digital Trends, Res Nova Law and more.
I only talked to Ian for a brief while, mainly because his booth was crazy busy!
But I actually like the vibe of his booth and brought back some the American style to their booth (which was different from the other coffee booths) at the festival with skateboards, not looking so professional and just having fun and going with the flow.
Anyway, it was great meeting Ian and Deadstock Coffee at the Tokyo Coffee Festival 2019 and I look forward to visiting Deadstock Coffee Roasters in Portland in the near future.
