NerdyKeppie About Us

About NerdyKeppie

If you can't buy it, start making it yourself!

Because we couldn't find the Pride or nerdy clothing that our family wanted, Spider sought solutions for family members and friends. He focused on comfortable, stylish options which fit a variety of expressions and body types. We hold to this ethos years later - we want our clothing to be ethically sourced, well-made, and as affordable as possible for our community. Oh yeah, and with pockets!

When people started asking where they could get Spider's designs, we opened NerdyKeppie. 'Keppie' is 'head' in Yiddish, and with our focus on geeky and nerdy items, the name created itself: everything in here comes from our nerdy heads.

NK is primarily run by a Jewish family in Portland, Oregon. Our designs that we don't personally manufacture ship from our partners across the world, direct to your front door, when you order them -- no waste! We hope you enjoy what we make as much as we enjoy making it.

Spider Perry (He/They), Co-Owner

Spider began NerdyKeppie in 2016 to provide LGBT Judaica to their daughter. A longtime Queer and Disability activist and blogger, author, and public speaker, he initially intended NerdyKeppie a side business.  But the orders kept coming, so now they spend the lion's share of their time designing new products and doing everything that someone else doesn't do.

Spider also writes queer fiction and poetry on Patreon, and has written for Onyx Path Publishing and StarTrek.com, among others.

You can find him on Tumblr at @vaspider and BlueSky at @vaspider.gay.

Emet Perry (She/They), Co-Owner

Emet joined NerdyKeppie in mid 2017, stepping away from a career as a mortgage broker.  They now serve in the role as head of Production, managing the shop's order flow and keeping the production line moving.  She also oversees the layout and design of NerdyKeppie show spaces.

One part pack mule, one part seamster, one part emotional support Viking, Emet's most important contribution to the shop is in making sure Spider has coffee so that he can continue churning out the designs that make NerdyKeppie so unique. 

You can find them on BlueSky @UrbanProle.

Jake Lucas (He/Him), Operations Lead

Jake joined NerdyKeppie in 2017 to cover customer service during conventions/vacations, and start tackling a backlog of behind-the-scenes tasks. Promoted to Operations Lead in 2021, Jake maintains the shopping sites, designs products, makes/keeps track of roughly 667 spreadsheets and documents, and everything else that isn't handled by someone else.

Jake is also a DIY musician and multi-instrumentalist, Zoom assistant, nature enthusiast, 11-year vegan, Austin Powers cosplayer, and Katamari master. He lives with his partner Roman and their rescue cat, Scrambles. His favorite Star Wars is The Last Jedi.

You cannot find Jake. Jake will find you.

Erykah Fasset (She/They), Customer Service

Erykah is a bi/grey-ace writer and casual sea witch out of West Michigan. She's written for Scion 2E, Vampire: the Masquerade 5E, Trinity Contiuum, and Pip System Primer. When not writing, she is wrangling her very own Cerberpug. You can find her at @rosiewrecksit on Twitter or at www.erykahfassett.com