BAD DOG FACTORY IS OFFICIALLY OPEN!

Donate $35 or more in the next two weeks and get a free Bad Dog Factory t-shirt made by the Bad Dog Factory crew. 
(offer ends Tuesday, September 10, 2024).

With a tremendous amount of help and resilience, I am thrilled to announce that we have officially opened the Bad Dog Factory, a makerspace dedicated to the houseless community of Akron, Ohio.

That might not look like much to you. But it represents years of learning, preparation, and work. 

First and foremost, I want to thank our architect 

Hallie Myers Bowie

Architect, LEED Green Associate

from New Leaf Home Design, LLC

She donated countless hours to creating the architectural drawings that were approved by the county. Thanks to her, we officially have our occupancy permit to use this space to do our work. (This is where I went wrong last time. When you buy a building, they just hand you the keys. It doesn't come with an instruction manual. I had been doing auctions in the basement of this building for years. But when I started bringing homeless people in, then the fire department came around and shut us down because we didn't have an occupancy permit to be in there. I had never even heard of an occupancy permit until I started helping homeless people.)

Now we have our occupancy permit to be in this space and to do our work!

Bad Dog Factory is a space where houseless people can come to do work that is meaningful to their lives. 
We are starting with 3 spaces to begin with.

First is our bicycle repair space. 

This is Bobby repairing a bike for our first initiative: We are creating a bike rental program for Akron. But the catch is: it does not cost anything to rent a bike.

We paint our bikes fluorescent green and engrave them with the name "Bad Dog." 

If you see one of these bikes and it's not in use you can just take it and use it for as long as you want. You can't buy these bikes. You can't steal these bikes. All you can do is use them.

And when they break down, just bring them back to the Bad Dog Factory and people like Bobby will fix them up and put them back on the streets. 

This program attempts to solve a couple of problems:

1. Bike theft may be the most significant problem in the houseless community. Bikes are constantly being stolen, which is infuriating and holds people back. They can't rely on transportation for work or appointments. You can't steal what is not for sale. Bad Dog Bikes are free to use as long as you want. And if you see one, you can take it and use it. You aren't stealing it. You are just using it.
2. Bike repair is a skill that is very beneficial to the houseless community. We can teach people a skill that will be useful to them throughout their time on the street. Plus, many houseless people have lost their license for life. So, bikes will always be a part of their lives. We pay people like Bobby $15/hour to repair our bikes.

You are also welcome to come into the Bike Repair Shop to repair your own bikes. 

Items we need for this project include:

• Tubes: 20 inch, 24 inch, 26 inch. 
• Brake cables
• Brake systems (most bikes come to us with no brakes whatsoever).
• Bike tools (We have people sign out tools when they use them. But they are constantly disappearing.)
• Mostly complete bikes that you'd want to donate to the cause
• Lubricant

This is Randy (also a great bike repair person) and Bobby showing off 2 of our Bad Dog Rental Bikes. So far, we have put out five bikes. The goal is 500. We want to flood the market, so no one ever needs to steal a bike again.

Second, is our music room.

It's mostly just for Kenny Boldt right now. But he uses the electric guitar, electric drums and keyboard constantly. My background is music, so I've got some fun ideas on how to grow this.

Things we could use for this:

• Guitars
• Amps
• Drum sticks
• Guitar Strings
• XLR cables

Third, but far from last, is our T-Shirt Making Space.

Here is Kat (with Nino and Hope) showing off our first design:

(I paid her $10 to model this t-shirt. She came up with the idea of having Nino and Hope in the picture, which was no easy job.)

Our tag line is: "There are no bad dogs, just bad circumstances."

We are going to sell these t-shirts and other houseless-made items on our website: https://baddogfactory.com/

But they aren't available yet. We still have things to work out before the store is officially open. We will pay houseless people to make these t-shirts. They are printed on my Cricut vinyl printer. They we weed the design off of the iron on vinyl and then iron them on the t-shirts. We will pay houseless people $15/hour to do this work, as well as package them and get them ready for shipping.

HOWEVER! We thought it would be cool and fun if we offered you access to these t-shirts to you, our amazing supporters.

All of this, every last penny, tarp, tent, and peanut butter and jelly sandwich happens because of you. There is no magic, behind-the-scenes, money fairy that is making all this happen. Everything happens entirely because of you.

So, as a way of thanking you, we thought we'd give a t-shirt (we are just starting with black t-shirts with white lettering for now) to anyone who donates $35 or more in the next two weeks (Tuesday, August 27, 2024, to Tuesday, September 10, 2024) on this campaign.

When you make your donation, all you have to do is tell us what size shirt you want and where to deliver it. We will make these by hand, so give us a couple of weeks to get our act together.

Your donation gives a houseless person a job and a place to work. Work can often give people dignity, purpose, and self-respect. 

I never have trouble finding people to work. My only problem is having enough money to pay them to work. 

I hope Bad Dog Factory sounds as hopeful and exciting to you as it does to me. This is so much more than giving a person a handout. This is giving a person a hand up.

I love you!

Sage