A fab shop that accidentally became a brand.
Two people, one shop floor in Battle Creek, Michigan. A CNC, a press brake, a powder-coat line, a dog. We design the objects, we cut the steel, we ship the boxes. No factories offshore, no middle distributors, no "inspired by nature" brand copy.
We started with a question, not a business plan.
Stateside Fab started the way a lot of bad ideas start: one of us asked "why is every trash can in the world ugly?" and the other one said "I can weld." A weekend project became a prototype, the prototype became a Kickstarter, the Kickstarter became a Shopify, the Shopify became this.
We'd been working in industrial fabrication for a decade combined — steel for HVAC cabinetry, for automotive fixtures, for architectural hardware. Boring stuff, done well. But the consumer-goods aisle always felt like it skipped a generation: offshore-molded plastic, landfill-designed, ugly-on-purpose. Meanwhile, we had a shop that could produce genuinely beautiful metal objects at small scale, and no one was asking us to.
"If a thing has to exist in your house anyway, it should earn its spot. Loudly if possible."
So we started designing the objects we wished existed. A trash can shaped like a sculpture. A leak sensor with a swear word for a name. A parent brand named for where it's all made — and a promise that every serial number came off our shop floor, not a cargo container. The absurd names keep us honest. If a product idea doesn't earn a good name, it probably doesn't earn a drop.
Trashique launched in March 2026 and sold through its 2,500-unit run in six weeks. O-Shit followed a month later. We've got drop 03 on the shop floor as we write this, and drops 04 and 05 sketched on the wall. One weird-useful object at a time, for as long as the press brake still works.
— M. & J.
From weekend project to small serious company.
Shorter than most founder stories because we're still in the first year. We'll update this as things happen.
"Why is every trash can ugly?"
M. asks this in a kitchen. J. bends a prototype from a single stainless rod that weekend. It holds a bag, looks like a sculpture, and weighs almost nothing. They keep it.
Shop lease, first press brake.
Sign a 1,400 sq ft lease in Battle Creek. Buy a used hydraulic brake, a small CNC router, and a powder-coat oven rebuild-kit. Still have the receipts.
Kickstarter for Trashique.
"A trash can that looks like a sculpture." 1,812 backers in 18 days. We run out of steel mid-fulfillment. Learn a lot.
O-Shit prototype works.
A family member's water bill triples because their upstairs toilet has been running silently for 6 weeks. J. builds an ultrasonic sensor in a weekend. The name is a joke that everybody keeps using.
Stateside Fab goes public.
Launch the umbrella brand. Ship Trashique drop 01 (3,500 serial units) and O-Shit drop 01 (4,000 serial units) in the same month. Wear out a rod bender, replace it the next week.
You are here.
Drop 03 is on the shop floor and extremely weird. We'd tell you what it is but that would ruin the joke. Get on the list.
Drop 03 lands.
Kitchen-adjacent, unexpected, priced fairly. First 200 list members get a founder's-badge serial variant.
Us.
Every email from the shop is written by one of us. No agency, no ghostwriter, no intern. If you reply to a newsletter, we read it — usually within the day.
Trained as an industrial designer. Spent 8 years drawing cabinetry for enclosures nobody would ever see. Now draws things people actually put on their counters. Makes the weird calls.
Former automotive fixture welder. Can take a 4×8 sheet to a finished powder-coated assembly in one afternoon. Writes the firmware for O-Shit at night. Walks the dog.
Four rules we try not to break.
Short list, written once, revisited every year. If we ever violate one of these for the sake of growth, we'll tell you in a newsletter.
If it has to exist, it should earn the spot.
Every product solves a real problem or delivers a daily moment of joy. Usually both. Nothing ships because we think it'll "look good in a feed."
Made here. Welded by us. No middlemen.
We design, cut, bend, weld, powder-coat, and ship every unit. Battle Creek, Michigan. A CNC, a press brake, and a very opinionated dog.
Weird is a feature.
We don't round off the strange part. If a trash can wants to look like a sculpture, good. If a leak sensor wants a swear word in its name, also good. The friction IS the point.
One drop at a time. No infinite catalog.
Two products out. A third in July. We'd rather make five great objects over a decade than fifty okay ones over a season. When a drop's done, it's done.
Where the weird gets made.
1,400 sq ft on the east side of Battle Creek. Not pretty, but very well lit. Visitors welcome by appointment — we've given about a dozen tours so far.
See the line, get on the list, or say hi.
Everything ships from our shop in Battle Creek. If you have a question we haven't answered, the contact form gets to both of us.