Best Made is a dialog. A series of conversations (in one form or another) between people (in one form or another) about the likes of craft, design, materials, work, adventure, books, music, food, and tools.

When I started the company in 2009, email was basically our only means of communication. It's hard to believe, but social media was brand new. There was no Instagram. Like clockwork, every Wednesday at noon, we sent out our newsletter. Quite often the email featured a new product release, but it could just as easily have detailed our latest adventure or an upcoming cast iron restoration class. The engagement of our little newsletter blew the socks off the industry standards.

Sending that weekly email was the highlight of my week. It was a chance to gather our thoughts, our excitement, and our news, and deliver it directly to people who cared (and would let us know if they didn't). This felt like meaningful progress. We ended up building a following on social media, but try as we might, Best Made never felt quite at home there. And before I knew it the engagement on social media turned into something we had to pay for.

Today some of my favorite creators, musicians, writers, and thinkers come to me by way of email (some of which I even pay for). At its best, it's an uncomplicated dialogue that's not distorted by an algorithm.

The Best Made newsletter is my direct dialog with you. On the one hand, it's me, the founder, reporting from the front lines of my company. But more than that it's a place for all of us to get excited and energized by the dialog that surrounds Best Made.

— Peter Buchanan-Smith, Founder