Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Blair and Nat. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Blair and Nat, appreciate you joining us today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

One of our heroes is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia and Black Diamond. His work in outdoor advocacy as well as climate science is particularly outstanding from a business standpoint. Most large companies haven’t quite shown that they care much about the impacts of climate change. Yvon has, throughout his life, always cared for the climate as a lifelong climber. In particular, he recently placed his company under a trust and will spend the future donating the profits to environmental causes, which is why he is such a hero to us as well as an inspiration. The business model for Patagonia in particular is quite an interesting one. Yvon emphasizes the idea of play over work. He has a book called ‘Let My People Go Surfing,” which is a great read for any business owner looking to operate their business in a more non-traditional way. He believes that if his employees are able to go outside and do the activities they love, they’re going to have a much better quality of life as well as a better work ethic and willingness to put in the hours that they can into the company, which is something we like to take into our business model as well. We are both rock climbers, and we obviously like to play a lot even though we have to put in time to work as well.

Blair and Nat, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Nat: We’re both rock climbers and our business is part of the climbing industry. We make chalk bags, which is where you keep chalk to dry off your hands while you’re climbing so you don’t sweat off of the holds. Oddly enough, we are kind of a perfect pairing because I sew and Blair crochets. Together we realized we can make a really cool chalk bag that’s unique and individual. The thing that sets us apart from a lot of other climbing businesses is our emphasis on advocacy work for adaptive climbers. I am an adaptive climber, so the sport is very close to my heart. We are currently sponsoring only adaptive climbers, just because we want to really show off the community of people that very often are not illuminated. The adaptive community is at a growing point right now where we are really working toward being independent and also trying to grow the sport. Right now, our community is fairly small, but with luck and a lot of work we should be able to grow and stand on our own without needing help from able-bodied people. That’s sort of what we’re working toward growing both as a community, and as a company as well

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Blair: I started climbing back in 2018, and as I was collecting all the gear I needed, I noticed that a chalk bag was something I could make myself. So I made up a pattern, crocheted the bag, cut the lining, and I sewed it in. I’ve never been a great sewer so it didn’t turn out the best, but I used it for about 2 years until I met Nat. There has been many variation before then, but Nat has an amazing skill of sewing and pretty quickly came up with a new lining pattern that would make the bag less bulky, more sleek, as well as more marketable. We started manufacturing our own bags, and currently, we are on version three of the chalk bag. We are still manufacturing our bags at home, although we do often outsource to employees for a big part of the sewing portion dude to Nat’s busy schedule and competition season. However, every single bag is handmade and quality checked by us.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

We found that the most effective way to grow our business is essentially the same strategy that companies and gyms have been using in the climbing industry for years: interacting with the community. Going to events such as climbing festivals/competitions and making ourselves known within the community has been incredibly useful for growing our business. A large part of our sales are in person, so we get a real interaction with a large percentage of our clients. We get to let them know who we are as a business, what we do, and why our bags are perhaps a better option than a lot of the bigger businesses. We find it’s the most effective strategy to interact with your community as much as you can. It helps both with growing your clientele and just understanding what the people want/need so you can provide them with a better product

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chaosclimbingusa.com
• Instagram: @chaosclimibingokc
• Facebook: @chaosclimbingokc
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Andrew Appleyard @andrewapple_dp April Chomp @aprilchompfilm Jacob Liao @jacobkliao