Our Organic Deodorant Story
Our independent, 100% family owned (mother & son) company handmakes certified organic body care products in small batches using 100% natural, vegan, noin-gmo, edible ingredients. We are a Certified B Corporation that transparently and provably puts people over profits. Learn more here.
Our values of family, responsible agriculture, sustainability, no animal ingredients, cruelty free practices, handmade, small batch start with the mom, Debbie.
Debbie is a proud Wisconsinite that has lived in Utah, Nebraska, and Illinois, states before moving her family to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her Midwestern roots run deep as does the values learned and practiced in America’s heartland. She raised her kids (of which Nathan is the most handsome) to be honest, hardworking, mindful people. Moreover, she offered her children support whenever called upon most often through being there and lending a hand. The occasional cash bailouts were very much appreciated too.
Nathan, the son, stopped wearing deodorant in 2000 after the first natural deodorant he tried didn’t work for him. At the time he was a being a cheap, lazy college student and it wasn’t until 12 years later that he started wearing deodorant again – his own.
Debbie encouraged and supported Nathan’s early interest in science which culminated in Nathan’s award winning master’s degree concerning buskers in London. Nathan’s first foreign anthropology research was conducted in rural Jamaica in 1999/2000.
At 19, Nathan went to live and worked along side members of Westmoreland’s Rastafarian community as part of a Ball . Utilizing the ethnographic method known as participant-obsevation, Nathan worked practiced hand farming and selling the result in the local Sav-La-Market (or street corner).
Nathan’s research resulted in museum exhibits, conference papers, and academic articles. More importantly, it transformed Nathan’s worldview. He became a vegetarian, later a vegan, started buying local and organic, and started using only natural body care products because what you put on your body is just as important as what you put into it.
The Deodorant King of Chicago
Nathan gave himself the Ferris Bueller inspired title after launching North Coast Organics in the summer of 2012. If you recall, Nathan stopped wearing deodorant in 2000. Well in 2011 Nathan became a bike commuter in the hot, humid Chicago summer. After stinking up a first date (unfortunately there wasn’t a 2nd!), Nathan decided to start wearing deodorant again. He was surprised that only certified organic deodorant available wasn’t that great. Nathan decided to make his own. The original recipe can still be found at Whole Foods to this day!