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Enter Our Snazzy Video Giveaway!

Posted on March 07, 2012 by Natalie Slater

Holy guacamole, our Evolution of the Water Bottle video has received over 3,000 views! We had so much fun making the video, and we're psyched to see how many people watched and enjoyed it! To thank those of you who watched, and to encourage you non-watchers to tune in, we've decided to do a little giveaway. 

To enter, watch our video and look for the answers to the following three questions:

1. Name one of the three benefits of drinking from a human skull that were mentioned in the video.
2. Name one of the two disadvantages of drinking from a goat bladder as mentioned in the video. 
3. What is the carbon footprint of a Made in the USA Liberty Water Bottle as mentioned in the video?

Email your answers to info@greyslater.com and we'll randomly select one person who answered all three questions correctly to win a $25 gift certificate to our store! We're accepting the last entry on 3/14/12 so get to watching, and tell your friends!

Good luck!

The Making of "The Evolution of the Water Bottle"

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Natalie Slater

A few weeks ago we teased you guys about a video we'd just wrapped - 'The Evolution of the Water Bottle'. We'd spent that entire Saturday setting up a fake crime scene in Katya's kitchen and photographing Natalie's wide range of emotions (murderous, repentant, disgusted).

Next, Katya mercifully Photoshopped the bags from underneath our eyes and made the blood look more bloody, and Matt stayed up past his bedtime editing everything together with some stellar voiceover work. Natalie stayed home and baked whoopie pies. Mmm...whoopie pies.

A few weeks, a couple of thrifted 80's business suits, a bloody skull and one unfortunate goat later and here we are - showing you our very first video! We hope you learn something about reusable water bottles (mainly that the ones we carry are the coolest) and that you like it so much you share it with your friends! Enjoy!

Greyslater Gets Logo'd Up

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Natalie Slater

Have you seen our awesome new shop logo? Check out our homepage or any of our various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr just to name a few) and you'll see the work of New York-based graphic designer Ken Rosenkrantz. Ken isn't just an uber-talented designer, he's also kind of a mind reader. Allow us to explain by summerizing how our creative consultations went with Ken:

Ken: Sure, I'll work on a logo for you guys. Let me know what you want to do. 

Us: We want it to be Game of Thrones-ish. And orange and grey. 

Ken: OK, here are some designs, what do you think?

Us: These are cool! Can you add a direwolf and maybe a skull?

Ken: OK, here are some more designs. Do you like the wolf?

Us: Yeah these are nice. Now can you do them all over except without a wolf and skull. And maybe add some leaves. Yeah. We like leaves.

Ken: Here you go, a Greyslater coat of arms with a banner and leaves and four stars just like the Chicago flag. It's orange and grey, and it doesn't have any direwolves, but it's still really cool. 

Us: Yaaaay!

We can't thank Ken enough for giving us exactly what we wanted. Go check out his Tumblr to see more of his great work.

Greyslater on Crain's Chicago Business

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Natalie Slater

Oh hey! How's your Tuesday treating you? Cool, cool... you finally got around to cleaning up your inbox and shaking out that area rug? Yeah, that is pretty sweet, way to go. 

What did we do today? Oh, I dunno... appeared on Crain's Chicago Business for one thing! Can you tell we're stoked? Go check out the article and tweet it like crazy! We love seeing new Chicago businesses getting props, especially when it's ours! 

Cupcakes and skulls - a look at the ladies of Greyslater

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Natalie Slater

Whew! It has been a busy month here at Greyslater. We launched our site, scored 500 Facebook fans, enjoyed our first write up, became members of Green America and joined 1% for the Planet. Meanwhile, we’ve been shipping your orders in reused and recycled packaging and gearing up for our very first video!

We thought we’d take time out today, though, to tell you a little bit more about who we are to hopefully give you a better idea about why we do what we do.

First things first, here we are:

Katya                             Natalie

As we stated in our About Us, the two of us met while we shared an office in 2011. Although we might look like an unlikely pair, we were united by our love of donuts, Journey sing-a-longs and well-designed products, among other things. 

Now, judging purely on what you’ve seen so far, see if you can answer the following questions correctly:

1. Who has more human bones in her house, Natalie or Katya?
2. Which lady has an elaborate collection of Japanese miniatures?
3. Who can eat more cupcakes in a one-hour period? 

Let’s see how you did:

1. Who has more bones in her house? That would be Katya. Although Natalie can claim more tattoos of skulls, Katya’s background in paleoanthropology has resulted in her ownership of 3 skulls and a complete pelvis (all replicas, of course!). She also has over 500 photos of human pelvis bones in a binder, but don’t worry about her sanity- they were for a legit research project at the Smithsonian. Keep an eye out for one of the skulls as a star in our upcoming video.
2. Meanwhile, it’s Natalie who has the borderline creepy collection of miniatures. She started collecting them from the Japanese market about five years ago and now boasts two teeny, tiny bakery replicas complete with thimble-sized mini reusable coffee mugs. She’ll never admit it, but she just might sneak out of bed at night to play with them.
3. Who can eat more cupcakes in an hour? While we haven’t officially gone head-to-head- we’ll save that for another blog post- we’re going to go with Katya for this one. Natalie runs a baking website called Bake and Destroy, and served as a guest judge on the pilot episode of Cupcake Wars, but Katya has been known to eat three giant Crumbs cupcakes in a single sitting, while managing to get work done. Rumor has it she’s topped that record, but it’s hard to verify what goes on in the privacy of her own home.

Now that you know what makes us different, here are some things that make us the same:

• We love being Chicagoans
• We are obsessed with A Game of Thrones
• We love indie businesses – watch us shop the Renegade Craft Fair if you don’t believe us!
• We are Google document masters
• We’re proud mamas
• We’re fully committed to bringing sustainable, Made in the USA products to our customers

So that’s the two of us in a nutshell, nice to meet you! We’d love to know more about you – like us on Facebook and tell us a funny fact about you!