About

How Redgeclimbing was born

Hi I’m Tin, I’d love to share you my life story, flex all my climbing achievements and pretend I’m as good as Adam Ondra or Chris Sharma. In reality though, I have absolutely zero worthy climbing achievements. Wait what? None? Yes none! It’s most likely that you are a far better climber than I am! I started climbing in 2019 and immediately fell in love with the sport. Just like anything in my life, when I start becoming passionate about something, I try to fully dedicate myself to it. A few months in, I sprained my ankle pretty badly while bouldering and had to stay off the walls for almost 8 months. When I finally was able to climb again at the start of 2020, I quickly progressed to climb harder grades.

Then in 2020… COVID19 hit us all. Starting March 16th, 2020 all the gyms in the Netherlands had to close for an undetermined period of time.

With the foresight of losing all my progress again in mind, I had decided to get myself a wooden hangboard in order to maintain my progress. One of the issues I faced was that I didn’t want to drill any holes in my wall. I did however have an Iron Gym pull-up bar at my disposal. So, I had decided to go for a portable hangboard. The problem was that due to the Corona crisis and lockdowns there was a major run on hangboards, which made it extremely hard to get one. Since I have a background in product design I had thought about how I could make one myself that fits all my needs. It suddenly hit me that I once had a bunch of wooden menu card holders made by a local professional woodcraftsman. I figured I had nothing to lose and asked if he could make my design come to life. He quickly responded to the unusual request as he found it an interesting challenge to make something he had never made before. He then made the hangboard that I’m still using today, the Redge Vers. Everyone that used the hangboard seemed to love it as much as I do. This made me decide to sell some hangboards as a hobby. A few years in this hobby has outgrown itself. Nowadays Redgeclimbing is a registered company.

What next?

In the future I’m planning to add more creative handcrafted products to the Redgeclimbing portfolio, which are made from natural material, durable and produced locally. I believe in simple and functional yet aesthetic products that will last you a lifetime, designed by people who are doing it out of passion, rather than for the money. I’m sure that if you try out one of our products you’ll start to love them as much as I do. If you’re interested in any of the products, collaborations or have any questions you can always contact me at info@redgeclimbing.com and I’ll get back to you personally.

Some actual background info

My parents were born in China and came to the Netherlands to start their journey and create a better life for themselves and our family. I have nothing but respect for them for moving to a foreign country without speaking the language, starting with absolutely nothing and building up everything from scratch. After working for a few years, they started their own restaurant. At that time I was born. I remember growing up happily in the restaurant and up to this day I still occassionaly help them out in the restaurant. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve really been into sports. I used to play soccer, transitioned to skateboarding, running, fitness and now climbing. I’m sure every climber you know says the same: “I wish somebody would have told me how awesome climbing is when I was a kid. Maybe I’d be able to climb higher grades now.” The same applies to me. Nevertheless, what I love most about climbing is the hard road towards sending a project. The process of projecting fuels my love for the sport without really caring about the grade. My passion for climbing escalated quickly. After starting Redgeclimbing as hobby, I started working as manager of Boulderhal Zuidhaven in Utrecht enabling me to occupy myself with my passion both in my personal as professional life. I graduated at the Delft University of Technology with a bachelor degree in product design and masters degree in strategic product design. I’ve worked for some companies, but quickly realized that I didn’t find happiness in mass producing products and consumerism, which is our economy today. This is one of the reasons why I love creativity and working with people. Be they local artisans, climbers, content creators or something unexpected. Every product should be a work of art and made with love. I love to travel the world and gain new experiences. If I fail to respond quickly to any message it’s probably because I’m somewhere traveling or on an adventure.