ORIGIN STORY
My name is James and I have been climbing since I was a teenager, I spent my early adulthood climbing in wales and have travelled all over in the pursuit of the passion i have for climbing. I have aquired 20 years experience with crafts and construction as my profession and i decided to join these skills together.
The name SOUL HOLDS came from the feeling I associate with wood. I believe any well crafted object from natural materials has character and a bit of SOUL. Our design and style of holds "pops" out of the climbing wall and instantly demands attention, joining the worlds of beauty and aesthetics with a sport that by comparison also has SOUL.
My idea is to revolutionise the climbing industry by creating competitively priced holds and elements using FCS and PEFC registered timbers. I hope that this will attract attention on the climbing world and make climbers, setters, gym owners and other producers aware that there are more sustainable options.
In the future I wish to develop new lines in other sustainable methods, namely thermo moulding of recycled/recyclable plastics, but for that we will have to experience a small amount of success in order to evolve.
OUR VALUES
Fair Trade
Our holds are produced in Netherlands using local labour, we do not believe in exploiting the labour markets of less fortunate countries. For better or worse we are all bound to capitalism, but we can choose to do our best to make the world a better place.
Environmentally Freindly
Traditional methods of creating climbing holds are damaging to the environment.
Polyurethane (PU) a non-recyclable material, working with these chemicals is considered damaging to human health. The same can be said of the chemicals used to produce the moulds for casting.
Fibreglass is another method of hold production that reduces the amount of material used in production, however it requires a lot of layers and therefore hours. Fibreglass is also non-recyclable, these materials eventually become micro plastics that damage the ecosystem
Polyethylene (PE), an alternative production material, whilst recyclable, is more costly to produce and requires more energy to cast and reuse making the offset minimal.
Should our holds one day find their way to a landfill, the product can be recycled as bio-mass (composted or incinerated for city heating) which is an almost carbon neutral process.
OUR PRODUCT
Quality
With many years experience in crafts and construction, we have an eye for detail and constantly strive to create the best quality products possible.
We aim to constantly develop new techniques and research new materials to keep ourselves at the top of our game.
GRIP
We create our grip with different layers of polamide epoxy and sand.
In casting of holds the texture is created in negative space (holes in the hold) where chalk and rubber build up, whereas we create our texture by adding sand.
This means chalk and rubber built up in between the textures are easier to remove than when chalk is built up inside of the texture in cast holds.
SUSTAINABILITY
The simple yet effective design of our holds allows for renovation, meaning your holds can be sanded and re-coated for a fraction of the price of creating new holds. We're also happy to help you to recoat your existing holds that need a bit of extra life.
Should our holds one day find their way to a landfill, the product can be recycled as bio-mass (composted or incinerated for city heating) which is an almost carbon neutral process.
We aim to develop new shapes for all our products to be able to offer a full and growing range of climbing equipment to support our customers and theirs