Despite reports that a sneaker-themed coffee shop was running away from Portland’s Old Town neighborhood, the owner of Deadstock Coffee said Wednesday that he hopes his business has a long life ahead — just around the corner from its current spot.

The business is preparing to move into the cafe space at the Hoxton Hotel, in the same city block as its current shop but on Fourth Street. Owner Ian Williams said he expects to reopen in late February or March.

Williams, a former Nike shoe developer, opened Deadstock as a coffee stand in 2015, and moved into a standalone location the following year.

The business has worked to develop a reputation for its ties to the footwear world — including through Portland Trailblazers collaborations, a running club, and sneaker stencil latte art on the beverages it serves. It opened a second location in Beaverton in 2024.

But Deadstock is shutting down its Couch Street location when sales wrap up on the last day of 2025, and preparing to reopen nearby in a couple of months.

When Williams shared news that the current Old Town shop would close on Instagram, some media reports took that announcement as a sign that the business was fleeing a troubled neighborhood.

Not so, he said.

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“It’s crazy to see everything that’s been written about us abandoning Portland, abandoning Old Town, when really we will never turn our back on this block,” Williams said. “We’ve been here for a long time and we love being here and we actually still see a benefit in the neighborhood.”

Williams acknowledged that Old Town has a long history as a place for “neglected people” — hosting, at various times in history, Black, Japanese, Chinese and Jewish communities due to zoning policies and laws that grew out of institutionalized racism and religious discrimination.

“Now it’s houseless people,” he said. “It’s always been a neighborhood of people who do what they can to make it work.”

He said he sees that history of resilience as a good match for Deadstock’s own approach to community.

This story was reported by Jess Hazel and written by Jess Hazel and Courtney Sherwood.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/12/31/portland-old-towns-deadstock-coffee-isnt-running-away-its-just-moving-around-the-block/