Business

From junk to jackets: Oakland retailer upcycles vintage car seats

A brown building with tall doors opened to the ringing sound of sewing machines. Inside were racks of red-and-white leather jackets with pieces of the Cadillac logo, multicolored wrist wallets and leather bags.
It was a typical Thursday night at Platinum Dirt, Page’s leather workshop and storefront on 25th Street. He was turning salvaged material into a duffle bag, part of a resurgence of Oakland-based manufacturing.

Kapor Capital hosts hackathon to promote diversity

Kapor Capital hosted a hackathon competition this weekend to “hack bias” out of the workplace. Dozens of coders, designers, recruiters and advocates—the vast majority of whom were women and minorities—competed in teams to build tech products that prevent bias and increase diversity and inclusion at work.