Making Tables Out of Old Bowling Alleys, Seriously
It’s not an unfamiliar feeling—that nagging certainty that the career path you’ve chosen isn’t quite what you need it to be. But what do you do? Well, if you’re Jim Malone, you start a revolution. Malone tells us, “I realized I wasn’t very passionate about the work I was doing. So, I decided to try something completely different.”
Started by Malone in 2008, CounterEvolution “is a reclaimed furniture company that produces and sells original designs made primarily from reclaimed bowling lanes but also from other reclaimed materials.” The Brooklyn Flea was one of the first places where CounterEvolution sold its wares—both the Flea and CounterEv launched the same year—but now you can find CounterEv’s tables and countertops in places like Shake Shack and Sweetgreen.
One of the things Malone finds most rewarding about working with environmentally-friendly, reclaimed materials is that he is “creating products that are enjoyed in homes and restaurants—and will be for many years to come—with the knowledge that it’s happening with a minimal impact on the environment.” This particular acknowledgment of both responsible sustainability and attention to design is part of what has become known as the Brooklyn design aesthetic. And if this aesthetic just happens to subconsciously reference the bowling alley in The Big Lebowski? All the better.
CounterEv.com