After the successful Kickstarter campaign raised $26,000, Runaway Clothes opened its first store in Durham in 2016. If you haven’t heard of Runaway Clothes and think it’s merely a clothing store, you’d be wrong. By combining clothing, art exhibitions, filmmaking and a ton of culture, Runaway Clothes sells apparel uniquely Durham. 

 

If you’re a fan of quick and easy online shopping, Pitch & Primer could be a go-to site for buying men’s clothing online. The Raleigh company was created to allow men to quickly and efficiently buy clothes that suit their individual tastes. After the site launched, the company got to work on a store that would cater to customers who wanted to try on clothes before buying. But this isn’t your typical store. It’s a store inside an Airstream. Check out the Twitter feed to find out where it’s popping by next. 

 

At its roots, the Flourish Market was a mobile store that lumbered around town in Em and Chris Sexton’s van. Since November 2016, it has permanent digs in the heart of Raleigh and sells many of its products online.. The company is partnered with 32 brands that work all over the world to provide dignified jobs and fair wages to aspiring artisans. What’s not to love? Buy some neat clothes, and you’ll be benefiting society. 

 

For the people who have enjoyed the unique and North Carolina-centric items at DECO Raleigh, downtown Raleigh’s new DECO Home store expands on its selection of home goods.. The store is filled with small furnishings, soft goods and accessories that will make your home, well...more homey. 

 

Buying food related gifts for food snobs can be challenging. Thankfully, NC MADE boxes has reengineered the art of food giving since launch in 2014. The website allows people to send local hand-crafted artisanal foods right to someone’s door and in a pretty package. Gift packages start as low as $39. 

 

Swap Socks is for anyone who is tired of wearing the same old boring black or tan socks every day. Founded in 2014 after a successful Indiegogo campaign, Swap Socks sells $32 packs of four mismatched socks that are woven with high grade cotton and nylon to provide what the company believes is the perfect fit. The socks can be mixed and matched however you please. 

 

Sometimes your food needs a kick. Or a really big kick. Trini hot sauce is a mix of robust heat and flavor that promises to add something special to any bland meal. Created in Raleigh by a Trinidad native hoping to copy his family’s recipe, the sauce contains a unique blend of hand-picked Scotch Bonnet Peppers, Scorpion Peppers, mustard and vinegar to create a sauce that will leave you mouth crying for hours. A bottle costs $10. 

 

How well can you predict human nature? That’s the idea behind Duke Professor and internationally known author and behavioral scientist Dan Ariely’s card game. In this thought provoking game, players try to predict decisions that people will make in certain situations. Not only does it make your brain second guess things, but it claims to spawn amazing intellectual conversations between the players, requiring they think critically about each of the decisions they have to make. Each of the answers is backed by careful research, and the decision-making situations in the game have reportedly helped people make critical decisions in real life. Get it now for $24. 

 

Bottle openers are often poorly made. After a few uses, they begin to bend and sometimes break. Pangea Designs has come up with a series of keychain bottle openers that are made entirely out of titanium. What does that mean? It means they’re tough. Really tough. Titanium is one of the strongest metals known to man. They’re also compact, easily fitting on a keychain.. Kickstarter fans have repeatedly supported the brand, first providing $25,000 to bring the Pickpocket to life in 2012 and eventually pooling nearly $130,000 for the PiCO in 2015. A third design is coming soon. Prices range from $11 to $25. 

From the company that brought you kits for making your own soy candles, SoapScience is a new branch of CandleScience that sells soap-making tools and ingredients. The soap is highly customizable. Choose if you want a plastic mold or a silicone mold, then the bases, oils, colorants and additives. Read our story on CandleScience here and grab a kit for your favorite DIYer.

 

Roostery Home Decor & Sprout Patterns (by Spoonflower)  (pictured above)

A leader in digital textile printing globally, Spoonflower empowers creative types to design their own fabrics or wallpaper or buy from the thousands of user-submitted designs. Startups within the venture-backed Durham company took shape earlier this year. There’s Sprout Patterns, which sells pre-cut patterns for apparel, hats or home goods. Roostery Home Decor sells items already made out of Spoonflower fabrics. 

X-Stand 

After the Charlotte designers’ successful Kickstarter campaign, X-Stand is for sale, giving people a way to turn any desk into a standing one. Made of wood and weighing three pounds, this foldable stand for laptops or tablets is sturdy and flexible based on height of person or desk. It’s priced at $89. More on X-Stand here.

 

Ello Raw’s healthy bite-sized dessert packs could solve your last minute stocking stuffing needs. Made from all natural local ingredients by a young Duke University graduate eager to build a recognizable consumer brand, a single bag costs $5—a multi-pack is $20. Check out our story here. 

Based on the miner’s sluice box that separates dirt from gold, Raleigh startup Sluice Hammocks promise the gold standard when it comes to comfort and quality. Child hammocks start at $55 and adult hammocks start at $70. Let the swinging begin. 

After The Root Collective CEO Bethany Tran fell in love with the slum community of Limonada, Guatemala in 2009, she set out to create a woman’s footwear company that would give back to the fashion workers of these impoverished areas. Each handcrafted pair of shoes by Durham-based Root Collective aims to be fashionable, comfortable and rewarding. Part of the proceeds from each sale are used to create jobs for poorly treated and impoverished workers around the globe. Shoes and boots range from $94 to $178. 

 

A team of Raleigh woodworkers launched this line of elegant and practical furniture in 2016. Its bed frames, cabinets and benches are crafted along the basis of the phi ratio of 1.618 to 1. This ensures that each piece of furniture will perfectly embody the clear order of the natural world. All sets are available in clear maple wood and a white coated maple. 

 

Born on the intracoastal waterways of North Carolina, Legacy Eyewear spawned from the idea that each person should have a sleek pair of shades that suit them to a ‘T’. After a successful 2016 Kickstarter campaign, Legacy Eyewear has expanded its line of handmade glasses, which come standard with polarized lenses, dual scratch resistant coatings, 100% UVA/UVB protection and shatter resistant frames. Prices begin at $100. 

 

Using a special blend of open-cell foam and removable cushions, the Nugget Comfort couch is meant to be the most versatile and portable couch on the market. It’s easy to transform, flatten and carry, and best of all, it promises to keep your kids occupied with fort-building, game-playing or napping. For $229, you can get a Nugget delivered to your doorstep in one box. 

 

UNC English Professor and acclaimed author Daniel Wallace is out with a new children’s book that tells the tale of a lonesome hole searching for his place in the world. It came to fruition in a unique way—with the help of the Durham non-profit Book Harvest and American Underground tech company Written Word Media. And it has a unique mission—100 percent of sales go to support Book Harvest’s efforts to provide books to kids in need. Written Word tells the story of the collaboration here. The book costs $20 or $40 for an autographed copy. 

 

Prepare to up your stuffed animal game with a little help from Falafel’s Garden (Fluffmonger). After surpassing a $4,000 Kickstarter goal by nearly $3,000 in 2016, Falafel’s Garden is finally able to send hand crafted stuffed animals right to your home. Each one is made with eco friendly and organic materials including organic cotton thread and hand dyed low environmental impact dyes. Get one now for just $99. 

Founder and CEO Justin Richards created Youth Digital to help students ages 8-14 who want to learn how to code but have no access to classes that teach it. Youth Digital offers both in-person and digital classes that teach students simple techniques, such as creating cool mods for the popular computer game, Minecraft. Youth Digital offers coding classes, design classes and animation courses, and during the holiday season many are discounted. Digital courses typically cost $249.99 each.

People First Tourism, launched by NC State University staffers, lets you buy genuine tourism experiences. Each tour package takes a traveler on a unique adventure that’s sure to be off the beaten path in places like Costa Rica, South Africa or Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Tours start at $50/person and gift cards are available. 

 

Founder and graduate of NCSU, Haley Bohon, created SkillPop so people of all ages can take a class in something that they’ve always wanted to learn. Originating in Charlotte in 2015, the company has expanded to Raleigh and offers classes in subjects such as artisan breadmaking, jewelry crafting and ornament embroidery at prices starting at $30. Read our story on SkillPop here.