Redge climbing origin story
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 Alex Honnold 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 run on hangboards, which made it extremely hard to get. 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. 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. I truly love using these portables and started thinking I could maybe help others get their hands on a portable wooden hangboard as well. I got a small batch of hangboards made, to see if there was any interest from fellow climbers. Everyone that did get their hands on one seemed to love it as much as I do.
Thus, Redge climbing was born.
What next?
In the future I’m planning to add more creative handcrafted products to the Redge climbing 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
I’m 32 years old and born and raised in the Netherlands. My parents were born in China and came to the Netherlands to start a better life for themselves and our family. I have mad respect for them for moving to a foreign country, starting with absolutely nothing and building up everything from scratch. They own their own restaurant at the moment and I tend to help them out whenever I can. 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 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. Nevertheless, what I love most about climbing is the hard road towards a send. Whenever something is harder to do I tend to put in 10 times as much effort and energy. 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 don’t find myself in mass produced products and consumerism that is our economy today. This is one of the reasons why I love creativity and working with local artisans. 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.
Thanks for reading and stay safe!