Boycott Black Friday

This year we are inviting all climbers to boycott Black Friday. We’re not a big fan of the shameless consumerism on display on the first Friday after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday is pretty bad for the environment. The buying spree fuels climate change and wastes scarce resources to drive sales of cheap goods that will inevitably end up in landfill, often just a few months later.

Buying and using less stuff is also very much in line with the minimalist ethics many climbers adhere to. We try to climb clean lines with a minimum of gear and artificial aid, why not extend that to daily life?

We had our doubts about doing this boycott. We actually have a perfect new product to launch on a day like Black Friday: the Upsalite®-based chalk we announced just a few days ago.

But our gut feeling about Black Friday seems to be shared by the climbing community. We asked and over 80% voted “Yes” on our “Boycott Black Friday” story on Instagram, so here’s what we are going to do:

We will shut down our online sales channels on Black Friday from 0:00 CET until 24:00 PT.

Instead, we are asking you to contribute to our Indiegogo campaign. We will remove all rewards so nothing physical gets shipped that day. We will plant 1 tree for every 5 EUR donated.

Our message for Black Friday is: “Buy Less Sh*t. Plant A Tree. Then Go Climbing.”