Russ Nobbs Once A Countercultural Icon, Owner Of Rings & Things Makes An Unlikely Capitalist

Russ Nobbs, card-carrying member of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce, is the same psychedelic missionary who became Spokane’s most famous hippie in 1967.

But he swears he never tried to become a notorious anarchist or successful professional on purpose.

“Everything I’ve ever done in my life has been an accident,” Nobbs joked. “I haven’t made a lot of direct choices.”

Rings & Things, the store that Nobbs has owned for 23 years, is one of those accidents. When Nobbs first came to the Northwest from upstate New York in 1963, the self-respecting hippie supported himself through the least offensive capitalist venture he could imagine: selling beaded earrings.

“My ex-father-in-law’s partner made jewelry, and my wife and I invested our life savings,” Nobbs said. “When he went bankrupt, we took a few hundred dollars in stock and started making these dangly earrings that were in style.

“Since then, we got bigger and just kept changing. As styles change, we change, and we carry different things. We’re not just your average, boring jewelry store.”

He described the River Park Square store as “an alternative jewelry store” where shoppers looking for authentic Native American silver earrings mingle along side gay-rights advocates buying T-shirts and teens waiting in line for nose piercing.

“We don’t fit into niches very well,” Nobbs said. “I had an old woman in here the other day with literally blue hair, shopping for purple jewelry. Her granddaughter had literally purple hair, shopping for blue jewelry!”

Nobbs - who calculated his age to be either 51 or 52 - travels to craft shows around the world to stock his retail store and warehouse. In November he returned from the Guang Zhaou Trade Show in Hong Kong, and he will travel to 11 trade shows for Rings & Things exhibits this spring and summer.

Nobbs launched Rings & Things Wholesale/Mail Order Division, N214 Wall, in March 1991. Within the first year, mail order sales to authorized dealers and producers surpassed Rings & Things’ total retail sales.

Now, he imports beads, crafts and jewelry pieces from over a thousand artisans to stock the wholesale warehouse. With the help of a toll-free phone number, fax, modem and 150-page catalog, Nobbs ships supplies to over 20,000 customers worldwide.

But Nobbs hasn’t always let his entrepreneurial side dominate. After dropping out of college, he came to Washington in 1963 to live at Tolstoy Farm, an anarchist commune near Davenport.

Nobbs moved to Spokane in 1967, when he and a friend set up a psychedelic bookstore in Browne’s Addition and sponsored groovy “be-ins.” Incense and a poster of LSD advocate Timothy Leary adorned the peeling walls.

He also became publisher of a biweekly underground magazine, Spokane Natural, in 1967. The publication’s 1970 Earth Day issue featured photographs of floating beer cans, rusted mufflers and dead birds rotting on the banks of the Spokane River.

Nobbs is still an avid environmentalist who rides his bike to work and encourages employees to recycle. So far, he has found ways to recycle the majority of the store’s waste - from reusable Styrofoam peanuts to plastic bags.

“When a business has to pay its own disposal fees, recycling can really pay off,” Nobbs said. “But for me, it’s more of an ethical thing - you know, to get the 40 people working here to recycle their lunch goods, for example.”

Nobbs - who sports a salt-and-pepper ponytail and a silver ear cuff - joined the local Chamber of Commerce in 1982.

He still hears jokes about how the “self-proclaimed hippie” bowed to the Establishment. But he has learned to integrate his make-love-not-war side with his make-money business side, he said.

“As a boss, I’ve had to temper some of my 1960s idealism. I’ve had to modify my idea that you should use authority as little as possible … and I’m not an absolutist who sees things only in black and white anymore.

“I’m more tolerant of other styles than I was as an activist in the ‘60s, and I’m not as pushy now. Aside from being a lot chubbier, I really haven’t changed all that much,” Nobbs said.