Red Point Climbing Holds
I fell in love with the sport of rock climbing at a young age and since then, climbing has always been a huge part of my life. My dad and I built a wood-frame climbing wall in the garage of the house I grew up in so I could train and climb for free, but I quickly learned about the cost of climbing holds, which were relatively expensive for a kid in grade 9. I quickly rolled up my 14-year old self’s sleeves and got to work learning everything I could about expanded isocyanate foam, silicone moulding and semi-rigid polyurethane. With some rather unsuccessful first attempts, I eventually developed a good recipe and process.
From then on, Red Point (meaning an successful ascent of a climb requiring more than 1 attempt) was born. Our operation grew after sponsoring provincial and national events across Canada, partnering with designers both local and across the USA and Canada, and eventually scaling up productions until we were bursting at the seems of our little garage.
I was entering the last stretch of my mechanical engineering degree by this point, and time was scarce. We eventually contracted a 3rd party manufacturing company out of the USA that handled our top-tier production and mold making. We could focus on designing the coolest, most ergonomic and innovative shapes available on the market of climbing holds instead of slaving away over barrels of polyurethane and silicone.
Although Red Point has been put to bed at this time, I learned an immense amount of knowledge about entrepreneurship, sales, branding, eCommerce and so so so much more. It laid the foundation of my entrepreneurial spirit for who I am today. I still get a smile cheek-to-cheek at my local climbing gym every time I see the small cursive Red Point embossed on the plastic of one of our climbing holds, and I know that I will continue to for as long as I climb.
