Fresh Produce co-founder, nephew develop ’50s fridge for 21st Century
You might say these guys were destined to start a refrigerator business. One helped found a clothing company named Fresh Produce. The other, well, his name is Orion Creamer. Their brainchild: a ’50s style refrigerator dubbed Big Chill.
Orion Creamer, left, and Thom Vernon, co-owner of Fresh Produre clothing company, stand in front of the Big Chill, a ’50s-style refrigerator they developed. Their product is a retrofit kit designed to work with modern refrigerators.
You might say these guys were destined to start a refrigerator business. One helped found a clothing company named Fresh Produce. The other, well, his name is Orion Creamer. Their brainchild: a ’50s style refrigerator dubbed Big Chill.
Three years ago, Fresh Produce clothing company owners, Thom Vernon and his wife, Mary Ellen, decided to remodel their kitchen in a 1950s style. She wanted an old fridge, but he wasn’t exactly smitten with the idea.
“They are inefficient and too small,” Vernon said. “And I didn’t want to be the defroster, I did that as a child.”
But Vernon said he liked the idea of a retro-fridge and figured he would be able to find a company that sold refrigerators that incorporated modern technology with old-school design. He had no such luck and from that Big Chill Refrigerators was born.
He brought in his nephew, Orion Creamer, to be his partner in the company. Creamer is a former employee of the international product design company IDEO, which has an office in Boulder. He is the designer of the duo.
Vernon saw the refrigerator business as a good opportunity to help his 27-year-old nephew.
“(Creamer) is in the same stage of his life that I was 20 years ago when we started Fresh Produce,” said Vernon, who co-founded the Boulder-based clothing store chain with his wife in 1984 in Long Beach, Calif.
Creamer said the partnership just made sense. His uncle is the “marketing business guy,” while he is the creative designer.
The duo worked with Boulder-based Mechanical Advantage to design the shape and used Fresh Produce as the inspiration of their color palette. They decided to use a Whirlpool 21-cubic-square-foot refrigerator as the base. The retro-kit is then placed over it, and the family’s vision is created: an old-school fridge with modern amenities.
Buzz about the refrigerators is starting, said Creamer, much of which came after their appearance at a kitchen and bathroom trade show last year in Orlando.
The company is test-marketing the product for appliance dealers and “hip home furnishing stores.” Mostly, they are looking for places that attract people who want something different, Creamer said.
The trend in refrigerators over the past few years has been the Sub-Zero, which hides the refrigerator behind cabinetry style, Vernon said.
“We are doing the opposite of that,” Vernon said. “Our fridges scream color, personality in your kitchen. They are conversation pieces.”
Willow Tree Furniture, at 805 Pearl St. in Boulder, will be one of the first stores to carry the fridges. Owner Norm Blum said he is excited to carry the product.
“It is a definite alternative to the classic refrigerator,” Blum said. “It kind of reminds me of an old Corvette.”
Blum already carries a retro-refrigerator from Germany, but said that Big Chill’s version will cost $1,000 less. Vernon said they will begin to sell their custom refrigerators in April. The Big Chill will be offered in 10 bright colors for $2,200. Extra amenities like an ice maker are available. Full assembly costs $500. If not, the kit takes 11/2 hours to put together.
A prototype is on display at Fresh Produce’s Boulder store, 1218 Pearl St.
From Boulder News