On any given day, Justin Barry is usually sporting a fully upcycled outfit.  

Leaning over a sewing machine earlier this month, the 28-year-old is wearing a button-up shirt bought from a thrift store that he bleach-dyed and screen-printed. His pants are a patched up black pair of Wranglers from Goodwill. Atop his head is a donated plain black hat with gear tags sewn onto the front.  

“Tags on hats, beans on toast,” Barry says. 

Barry owns Fdes, an upcycling gear company based in the Flathead Valley. Now stationed full time at The Making Place in Columbia Falls, Barry has expanded his business, bringing people together in the name of creativity.  

Wearing his tag hat, Barry is working on a series of “Frakentotes” — tote bags made from mis-printed sweatshirts — to sell. He just finished a collection of water-resistant jackets made from an old tent. Everything about Fdes, which stands for functional design, is meant to be functional for both the consumer and the planet. 

Barry wasn’t always “artsy,” he says, but he’s always enjoyed making things. As a kid, growing up in Iowa City, Iowa, he wanted to be an inventor.  

“Not in the way that I thought then, but I think I am an inventor,” he says, standing in his studio. “I be making things.”   

After graduating from the University in Minnesota in 2019 with a degree in mechanical engineering and product design, Barry moved west to work with the Montana Conservation Corps in the summer of 2020.  

While in college, Barry began dabbling in the activities he loves today: climbing, biking and hiking. He quickly realized how much gear was required for outdoor recreation, and how much of that gear went to waste. 

“I started taking people’s old gear, stuff that couldn't be used for its original use, and I was cutting them up and making other things I could use,” he recalls.  

He developed product development skills while in college but wanted to expand his sewing and physical trade skills after he finished with Montana Conservation Corps. Looking around, he saw that the Flathead Valley lacked a community space for creatives to work together or share community tools.  

He worked at Markus Community Market in Whitefish while building Fdes as a company in his home, officially launching in 2021. While at Markus, Barry sold tote bags crafted out of misprinted material.  

In 2022, he started taking his creations — belts made from retired climbing rope, screen-printed and upcycled thrifted clothing, wallets made from old ski skins — to farmer’s markets and maker’s markets. As the business developed and grew, so did his passion for it. 

“[The name Functional Design] is self-referential,” he says. “I want to make things better and more ethically. Functionality is like usefulness, but it’s also asking if it’s made in a way that betters the planet. Is it made in a way that benefits the people along the way?”   

It’s a critique of current retail habits. In the modern age, it's important to take waste and figure out how to repurpose it rather than continue to extract from untouched resources, Barry says.  

In July 2023, Barry was able to quit Markus Market and transition to Fdes full time. He started working on commissions, making couch cushions out of an old crash pad and bike packs out of an old paragliding wing. Confined to the walls of his apartment, Barry still dreamt of someday having a studio where creatives could work alongside each other.  

During that winter, Barry and a few other local creatives came together over the initiative. They circulated a survey at the end of 2023 and learned there were others in the Flathead Valley with a similar vision.  

It was a true grassroots endeavor that led to The Making Place, Barry says. After a year of pop-up events, critique nights and workshops, the nonprofit hosted the first Harvest Moon Festival in 2024, the nonprofit's main fundraising event.  

“That first year was a big turning point,” says Barry, who serves as The Making Place’s president.  

In January of this year, the owners of Columbia Falls cafe Uptown Hearth offered a space for Barry’s vision to come to life: a community workshop. With two floors of rentable office space, Uptown Hearth thought the top floor could serve as The Making Place’s home base.  

There are three resident artists, one of which is Barry, with their own studios. A shared tool library includes everything from jewelry clamps to paint brushes and sewing machines. People with memberships can access the space whenever they want to work; there are also day passes, monthly craft nights and community events.  

“It’s a place where I can share my craft,” Barry says. Hosting events and bringing the Flathead Valley Community together in the name of the arts and respect for the planet is a dream come true.  

Barry would like to see the space grow, with more artists availing themselves of the workshop. Barry hopes that Fdes will foster innovation in product creation.  

“If I’m going to be a designer and a maker of things, I see it as imperative to make things in a responsible way because we’re kind of at a turning point for humanity of whether or not we’re going to be able to respect the planet and live within it,” Barry says.  

He wants to redesign the way goods are made, turning waste into new things in an effort to make the world a better place.   

To learn more about Fdes or buy a piece, visit fdesfunctionaldesign.com. To learn more about The Making Place or buy a membership, visit themakingplacemt.com.  

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].