The Portland assimilation of "Grimm" is complete: The show shops local.

The NBC series filmed in Portland has made the metro area a focus of the show from its incarnation, using local landmarks as backdrops, writing city references into each episode and purchasing locally made products for on-screen use by the Grimms, Wesen, Portland police and citizens of the Rose City.

A number of Portland businesses have benefitted, putting their products and brand names in front of 4 million-plus viewers a week. The latest beneficiaries are four Portland custom bike builders whose bikes were included (and may be recognizable) in the bicycle-themed episode scheduled to air Friday night.

It's vastly different world than in movies, where brands often pay to get their products screen time.

Viewing party

Portland's

, one of the four bicycle builders whose bikes were used in the "Grimm" episode to be aired Friday night, will host a viewing party for the 8 p.m. program on NBC (Channel 8) at The Station, 2703 N.E. Alberta St., where some Circa Cycles will be on display.

Grimm prefers locally made items to prevent the chance of conflicting with a national brand advertised during commercial breaks, said Todd Ellis, property master for Grimm. A bigger brand, advertising to a national audience, wouldn't likely consider a locally made product to be a direct competitor.

Also, a national brand would have to grant the show permission to use an item on television. And then NBC's marketing staff would weigh in, Ellis said. It's just more trouble than it's worth - plus local businesses can lend the show a sense of place.

In Friday night's episode, viewers may notice that the labeling on some of the bicycles is not visible. Those bikes, made by brands that sell in shops across the country, were borrowed from Portland bike shops and had their labels covered.

But the labels for the four Portland builders - Circa Cycles, Breadwinner, Tonic Fabrication and Cycles J. Bryant - remained uncovered during filming of the episode about three months ago. Whether viewers can actually see the labels, after the episode's editing, is another matter.

With Grimm and any other series, it would be a dull television world if shows only had national products with their labels covered.

"It gives the show a much more realistic look than what would normally be very generic," said Ellis, an independent contractor who has been in the props business for 27 years and whose business is based in Ashland.

So Grimm's characters don't always drink beer, but when they do, viewers might have noticed they are holding bottles from Deschutes Brewery or Rogue Ales. Some backpacks have come from Dakine in Hood River, insulated bottles from Hydro Flask in Bend, bicycle helmets from Nutcase in Portland and knives from Benchmade Knife Co. in Oregon City.

Those axes and some of the knives used this season? Crafted by Bridgetown Forge in North Portland.

Other Grimm staff members seek out locally made furniture and artwork, Ellis said. The costume department is on a first-name basis with Nike.

Free product placement can pay unexpected dividends, said Maureen O'Connor, director of Portland State University's advertising program.

Research suggests that after consumers see a product on a TV show or movie, they're "much more aware when they see a website or collateral piece or pass by the store sometime," O'Connor said.

And exposure in Friday night's bike-themed episode can only help enhance Portland's bicycling reputation, as well as provide a potential boost for the four bike builders, said Jonathan Maus, editor and publisher of BikePortland.org.

The city is home to approximately 40 builders, most of them one-person shops with waiting lists of up two years, Maus said.

But a few are bigger.

Zen Bicycle Fabrication in North Portland has seven employees making small to medium production runs. Chris King Precision Components in industrial Northwest Portland employs 130 people and is best known for its headsets and hubs. But about a dozen Chris King employees build its Cielo brand bikes. And Sacha White, who founded Vanilla Bicycles 15 years ago, launched the separate Speedvagen line, employing a bike-building team, to more quickly deliver hand-built bicycles.

"You can only build so many bikes with just one person," Maus said.

The four builders whose bikes are used in the Grimm episode are small shops, largely dependent on word-of-mouth advertising. Or maybe the serendipity of having their frame label seen on a nationally televised program.

"This is how these guys survive - with the Web," Maus said. "You could see something that catches your eye on Grimm. You've got your iPad on the couch with you and all of a sudden you're on that person's website and you're looking."

--Allan Brettman

503-294-5900

@allanbrettman