SEATTLE — The Oscars are just days away and a family-owned business from Seattle is headed for Hollywood!
They aren’t accepting an award but they did win the admiration of the award show planners who asked to include their product in this year's Oscar nominee gift bag.
Kattie Blu is proud to run a female-owned business at Pike Place Market and says her husband Jeremy provided the inspiration and expertise to make her vision a reality 13 years ago.
“We wanted to make reusable super fun,” she said.
Drinking Straws.Glass is a grassroots family business that sells reusable, eco-friendly glass straws.
When Kattie was approached to participate in the Oscars goodie bag gift suite she knew it was the perfect opportunity to get her product into the hands of the original influencers — A-List celebrities.
"I’m told to expect around 120-ish celebrities who will visit a hotel suite and get gifts,” says Kattie.
The gift bags for the Oscar nominees have a reported $126,000 value and feature everything from Botox to silk pillowcases. This year the nominees will get a sip of Seattle through custom hand-blown glass straws and each one saves an estimated 580 straws a year from ending up in the landfill.
“The glass straw is cool but when you make it fun and add a piece of art on it — people want it,” Kattie said.
She started specializing in glass straws nearly 10 years before the city of Seattle banned plastic straws.
“I had no idea it would become trendy and we just wanted to create a responsible family business that really makes a difference,” she said.
She says the straws are sturdy and have a lifetime guarantee.
“In 13 years I’ve had to replace less than 1% of the straws we sold,” Blu said.
Metal straws are sturdy but can hide germs and bacteria.
“Before paper straws, hospitals used glass straws because they can be sterilized and you can see that they’re clean,” she said.
Kattie says glass is inert and doesn’t have a flavor.
“It’s also an insulator and I drink my hot coffee every morning with our straws,” Kattie said.
The straws range from classic glass to etched straws and even personalized straws. They also make larger straws for smoothie and Boba fans.
The Drinking Straws.Glass team is officially on the road to Los Angeles and will post fun updates on their social media. To learn more, shop or follow the Oscar fun visit their website. Better yet, they hope people will visit them at Pike Place Market when they return from Hollywood next week!