About

WHY CHALKHEADS

Look around most climbing merch and it's the same handful of ideas: a silhouette mid-move, a mountain outline, a small logo on the chest. Safe, sure. But none of it really captures the chaos, the specific stuff, the personalities you actually meet on the wall. If you're in the community, you already know exactly what that means.

Climbing has one of the most specific, most recognizable cultures out there. The dyno guy. The slab wizard. The newbie clapping for their own tiny sends. Nothing on the market was speaking to that. So Chalkheads exists to give the community something that actually represents them, not just a sport, but the people and personalities inside it.

That's the whole idea. Not another logo tee. Actual characters, drawn like they walked out of a 1930s cartoon and straight into your local gym, because that's honestly what it feels like watching climbers move. Chalk on their hands, chaos in their approach, absolutely convinced they've got beta nobody else has thought of.

We make gear for people who see themselves in that, tees first, with charms and accessories now joining them. Designed by climbers, for climbers, not as a slogan, but because that's literally how it started.

MEET THE FOUNDER

Hey, I'm Shawn. By day I run Savvy Kernel, working in e-commerce for sports and retail brands. Climbing has been a big part of my life outside of that, though right now it looks less like sending and more like rehab, patience, and sitting on the sidelines more than I'd like.

The finger that started all this

Real talk, because a chill brand should still tell the truth.

In August 2024 I hurt the PIP joint on my left middle finger, the kind of injury every climber knows and every climber ignores. Instead of resting it, I kept climbing on it. Made it worse. Then, like a lot of us do, I just kept going. It took over a year of ignoring it before I actually started rehabbing, back in November 2025, and I'm still in the middle of that process now.

Around the same time, I moved from Montreal to Singapore. New city, new time zone, and suddenly the climbing friends and community I'd built for years were gone overnight. Combine that with being injured and unable to climb, and it was a strange, quiet stretch. Chalkheads became my way of trying to reconnect, to build something that still kept me close to climbing and climbers even when I couldn't physically be on the wall.

If you climb, you already know part of this story. It's never really just about the finger. It's about not knowing how to be a climber who can't fully climb, the pride, the denial, the fear that stepping back means stepping away for good. That stretch taught me more about this community than any send ever has.

The gear

Chalkheads makes graphic tees built around characters who represent the personalities you meet on the wall: Blaze the explosive boulderer, Koda the earnest newcomer, Zeki the eerily calm slab wizard. Premium, soft-hand cotton, relaxed everyday fit, made for gym sessions, rest days, and everything between.

The lineup is growing beyond tees, with accessories to complement your climbing gear.

Who is this for

Boulderers. Lead climbers. Top ropers. Outdoor or gym, it doesn't matter, basically any climber. The person still projecting the same problem they started in spring. Anyone who's ever iced a joint and shown up to belay the next day anyway. If you've ever seen a character and thought that's so my climbing partner, or worse, that's so me, you're already one of us.