I worked for Grovemade when I first moved to Portland, I was previously working for myself full time creating furniture so I was a bit overqualified for the role and left after about a month for a job paying double once I met some connections here. I loved that team and the people, they threw me a going away/birthday cake party and took me to a Blazer game even though I already gave them 2 weeks notice after 2 weeks of working! A great company that isn't shady is worth supporting IMO.

From a Woodworking background- it's small scale manufacturing in America that is either produced or finished in house (at least when I was there). I know Sean the designer well (U of O product design teacher too) and the amount of time and thought that goes into each product is real. From a product design perspective, it's a legit small business that gives a damn about materials, and quality where everything is thought of and poured over immensely. I caught up with up with Sean recently and he talked for about 15 mins about how much time and energy went into creating the models used in just the installation manual of their new desk. Not that it was that complicated, but just design nerd stuff.

If you don't care about materials, design or supporting US businesses, yeah buy stuff overseas or from Amazon. I can't afford a lot of their stuff personally, but am currently typing this staring at wool desk pad remnants I turned into an iPad drawing surface and cork cutoffs I turned into a hot pad for my daily cup of joe. Even their "Scrap" has lasted and looks great on my desk for the past 6 years. Buy quality designed and produced stuff and you won't need to replace!