December 13, 2024 • 41 mins
What happens when burnout from the film industry's hectic pace becomes a catalyst for an eco-entrepreneurial journey? Join us for an insightful conversation with Shelby Treichler, the creative force behind Cactus to Pine, as she shares her transformative path from working in props in bustling cities to finding peace within the climbing community. Shelby's journey is a testament to the power of passion and adaptability, as she reveals how she turned discarded climbing ropes into unique, eco-friendly products, building bridges within the climbing world and beyond.
Shelby takes us behind the scenes of her innovative upcycling process, where creativity meets sustainability. From crafting can cozies out of recycled climbing ropes to hosting workshops at festivals, her journey is filled with challenges and triumphs in equal measure. Through her storytelling, you'll discover the deep connections climbers have with their gear and how Shelby's creations honor those personal histories.
Mike Andress
Host, Exploration Local
828-551-9065
mike@explorationlocal.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happens when a creative spirit swaps the glitz
of the film industry for therugged charm of rock climbing
and eco-entrepreneurship?
Meet Shelby Treichler, theforce behind Cactus to Pine.
Shelby's journey began withburnout and a high-paced career
and evolved into creatinginnovative, sustainable products
from discarded climbing gear.
Each piece that she createstells a story of adventure,
(00:22):
community and ecologicalmindfulness.
Creates tells a story ofadventure, community and
ecological mindfulness.
In today's episode, shelbytakes us on her path from
selling her house in Atlanta toembracing a nomadic lifestyle in
a converted camper that doublesas a mobile workshop Equipped
with a laser cutter and apassion for creativity.
Shelby travels across the US,connecting with climbers at
festivals and crafting piecesthat breathe life into places
(00:42):
and people she encounters.
So, whether you're curious aboutupcycling inspired by nomadic
adventures or just love a goodstory about following passions,
stick around.
Shelby's insights into buildinga sustainable, purpose-driven
business might just spark yournext creative idea.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You're listening to Exploration Local, a podcast
designed to explore andcelebrate the people and places
that make the Blue Ridge andSouthern Appalachian Mountains
special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel thespirit of adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
(01:26):
Let's go Well.
I'm excited to have ShelbyTreichler in the studio today.
She is the maker and owner ofCactus to Pine, which is a
company that upcycles climbinggear to keep old gear out of
landfills by making really cool,creative products.
Shelby, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Really really cool company.
You're doing some amazingthings.
You have a really interestingbackground and I'd love to start
there first, talking a littlebit about your experience in the
film industry and what sort ofgot you into this space of
creating these really coolproducts.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So I went to school to study film and I knew I
wanted to work in the filmindustry and, unlike a lot of my
friends, I actually did end upworking in the industry that my
degree was in.
So I started working in thefilm industry even before I got
out of college and it was mydream job.
I was working in props, startedin Wilmington, north Carolina,
and then I moved down to Atlanta, georgia, where there's tons of
(02:19):
production, and I was reallylucky and worked really hard.
But I got on some big shows andit was going great, except for
I was starting to get a littleburned out.
I loved the work that I wasdoing, but the hours are really
hard.
There's some of the best peoplein the world working on films
and then there's some of thekind of not nicest people and
(02:39):
there was just a bit of whiplashwhere I would spend eight
months working on a gig, youknow, and then I would get off
and then I'd be completelyunemployed and I was in my 20s
and I'd go traveling and burnall my money and then come back
to work and have to earn it allback.
And that was great for a whileuntil it kind of wasn't, and at
that time I started rockclimbing and I'd always been
(03:00):
kind of outdoorsy.
I liked going to travel to beable to hike and loved road
tripping to different nationalparks around the country.
But I didn't have thisconnection to the land quite yet
, and that's what rock climbinggave me.
So I started rock climbing inAtlanta, georgia, in like 2018.
And I wasn't really good at it,which is fine, but anybody
(03:21):
who's like I talked to aboutthey're like that doesn't matter
.
Blah for me.
I still wanted a way to connectto the community and that's
always been through my art andthe stories of the art and stuff
.
So it started with just acouple of stickers.
I was doing a bit of graphicdesign for the film industry.
I knew how to do some likeillustration, so I had these
just kind of insider jokestickers that I made and I was
(03:44):
just giving them out to friendsinitially, and then one day
someone at the gym was like, oh,can I grab a couple extra?
I'll pay you for them.
And I was like what Money?
You'll give me money for these.
I didn't know anything aboutrunning a business.
I didn't know anything abouthow to price things or profit
margins or revenue or anythinglike that.
But I just started making thesedesign stickers and selling
(04:06):
them and all of a sudden I hadthis kind of little side
business going on and I wasearning a couple hundred dollars
a month just selling stickerson Etsy to my climbing friends
and all across the country atthat point.
And one day I was in the gym andI saw one of the guys who
worked there throwing away theirold ropes that they would use
for their lead climbs, but theirtop rope wall too.
(04:26):
And I was like what are youdoing?
Like why are you throwing therope away?
And they're like well,liability, blah, blah, blah.
And they even had to go as faras they had to cut the rope down
into two like two to three footsegments before throwing it in
the dumpster because they wereafraid some dirtbag climber
would come, take the rope outand go climbing on it.
And I just I always liked makingthings and the idea of just
(04:48):
throwing rope away.
I was like no, don't do that.
Like, just give it to me, I'lldestroy it by by creating
something out of it.
And I Googled, like what dopeople do with old rock climbing
rope?
And there's this mat, this kindof like woven rug that I call
the gateway craft, becauseeveryone who has a climbing rope
tries this mat.
At one point One of the ropemanufacturers, edelred, even
(05:11):
includes instructions on how todo it in their ropes, but like
when they sell them, and theidea is just like when you're
done with it, here's somethingyou can do.
And they show the pattern, theover under woven pattern.
And I made one of those rugsand I was like, oh, I hate this.
It's really hard, especially ifyou're doing with all one rope.
It's almost 50 meters of rope,you're pulling it through.
So much friction and I was justlike I don't like doing this, so
(05:34):
like, what else can I do?
And posted in 2015 on how tomake this rope bottle holder.
And they did it by using alighter to fuse the rope
together and I tried doing itand I liked the idea, but, using
(05:55):
that tutorial, I didn't likehow it turned out.
It didn't feel super sturdy, itwasn't very clean looking, and
so for the next couple of monthsI just played around with it
because I wanted to make one fora mason jar.
I drink everything out of amason jar.
I like carrying them around.
I frequently drop them andbreak them, and it's also like
it's a little cumbersome, youknow it's not, you know, you
have no handle.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, there is, I guess, if you have some, some
models of them.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, or if you make your, yeah, yeah.
So I made one, initially for amason jar, but then also was
just making them for cans andsame thing, just posted them
online and people liked them,and that's kind of been the
whole idea behind every productI've made is it's just something
that I want and or need, andthen someone else is like, oh
(06:39):
yeah, I would take one of thosetoo, and then I got to figure
out how to make it profitableand how to manufacture on larger
scales and stuff, but it'salways just stuff that I want to
make first.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah.
So in 2020, I had kind of beendoing all these little things on
the side.
I was also like pouring candlesand making these gear racks out
of retired bolt hangers and thefilm industry shut down
completely.
When COVID hit, everybody wasout of work and for the first
time in my you know, quote,unquote adult life, I had free
time and nothing kind of on theother side of like when's the
next gig starting up?
So I was like you know what ifI just threw myself all in and
(07:16):
just see what I can do with thisbusiness?
At the time I was also lasercutting.
I had bought a laser cutter andwas like learning how to laser
cut.
So I also had this other kindof like weird business where I
was making trellises for indoorplants.
So between all of that, I wasjust putting all this time and
energy of the frustration ofbeing, you know, stuck at home
into this business and by theend of 2020, I was earning
(07:37):
enough that I was like, with afew small lifestyle changes, I
could not go back to the filmindustry, which I'd already been
like playing around with.
I'd been taking summers off andworking other jobs and trying
to figure out if I left the filmindustry like what would I do?
That was my identity for solong, and so, as I found this
avenue out through my work, Iwas just going to say like all
right, let's just ride this waveand see what happens.
(07:58):
But mid 2021, I was doingpretty good with it.
So I decided to sell my housein Atlanta.
I bought a truck and a trailer,a camper, and decided to take
my business on the road, andI've been traveling around since
then.
Just recently came back to theAsheville area.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Now, that's so cool, and when you first started you
actually I was seeing on yourInstagram page where you
converted the back of thatcamper into your production
studio so you truly could takethis whole gig on the road.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, my woodworking tools were stored and there's
this one exterior panel that youcould get to through the
outside of the camper.
That was all my woodworkingtools, all the rope.
I would get these like ropesand huge waves, and so they
usually just lived in the backof my truck because I didn't
have anywhere else to store them.
My laser cutter went into thiscompartment under my bed, so I
would lift up the bottom part ofmy sleeping bed and there was a
(08:49):
laser cutter under there thatvented out the side and I did
the whole business out of thatas I traveled around to climbing
festivals in Colorado andWyoming and Idaho and Utah and
just traveling around andselling my stuff on the road.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
That's cool, and at that time, what were the things
you were selling?
Was it still the stickers?
Or you had started to sellthese koozies that you were
crafting and making, and peopleobviously at climbing festivals
are going to be so taken by this.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, the stickers.
I still everything that I'vemade.
I still sell some version of it.
Mostly like at the verybeginning I was doing like
t-shirts with the designs, butt-shirts are hard and I've
mostly.
I still do the sticker designs.
But I haven't released a newsticker design in a while, just
because I'm kind of moving awayfrom it.
But the big thing has been justhow fun it is to work with
these ropes.
(09:34):
It's such an interesting medium.
The more that I learn aboutthem and how they're
manufactured and the differenttypes, the more I get inspired
to make different things with it.
And then, as like the businessis growing, I'm also just the
quantity that I'm putting out iscrazy right now.
So I'm having to.
It's been a crash course inlearning how to run your own
business and keeping up withthat part of it too, as I'm
(09:56):
trying to scale up.
But yeah, all through thiswhole time it's been.
I just sold a gear rack theother day and I still, you know,
whenever my buddies are outre-bolting, they'll let me know
when they've got old bolthangers and I'll make a donation
to the local climbing coalitionon behalf of them if they get
me the old bolt hangers and thenI'll make some gear racks.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Oh, that's so cool.
That's so cool.
All right, so before we goreally deep into the koozie
piece with the ropes and thatseems to be like the lion's
share of what it is you're doingwhat else?
So we've got stickers, we'vegot the koozies, we've got some
art.
Is there anything else thatyou're doing in there as well?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, so I do have a climber candle line Yep, a scent
sense is what I call it.
So for those I do research onflowers and trees that grow in
different crags around thecountry.
So you could get a New RiverGorge one, you could get an
Indian Creek one, smith Rock,and so it's like what you could
smell while you're climbing inthose areas which has been
really fun because I've gottento climb in almost every single
(10:50):
one of those areas as I traveledaround and kind of confirm like
oh yeah, smith Rock does have alot of juniper trees, like that
works.
But it's also fun, when I popup in these different festivals,
for people to be to see theirhome crag, their local crag,
represented in a candle, youknow.
So that's been really fun.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Give us a visual of of this mason jar and of this
koozie that's going around.
I've seen them in person.
I've seen, in fact, I think thefirst place I saw them was um
wrong way campground.
Yeah, that's where I saw it, ontheir little kiosk.
They were the first people tocarry me.
Oh, no way, yeah, yeah, okay,good, I met them at the Get In
Gear Festival.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And Joe came up and was like I got to have them you
know, oh good, good good.
Yeah, standard cozy as we callit, because the other version
which I slip into sometimes isactually trademarked.
So a can cozy insulatedbeverage holder.
I use a single piece of rope.
It takes 11 feet of rope tomake one can cozy.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
No way.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, which most people don't think, because it's
like yay, big, you know.
So just slightly smaller than acan.
But one of the things I reallylike about my design is I never
want you to see where the ropebegins or ends.
So it starts at the very bottomwith a very tight coil and from
there it just spirals up aroundacross the bottom and then
around the outside of the canand when it gets to the right
(12:02):
height which is just low enoughthat your lip doesn't touch it
when you're drinking it, becausethat could get gross after a
while it loops down into ahandle and it's all one piece of
rope.
The handle loops down, attachesto the bottom and it comes back
up and then it looks almostlike it folds into the cozy
itself.
So you don't see where the ropeends unless you look inside,
(12:23):
and then you can see.
But when you're holding it itall just looks like one piece of
rope, and the glue I use isvery precise in where I place it
, so you can't even see a glueline.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
So for anybody that's listening, and you were talking
about old ropes, old climbingropes, and if you've been to a
gym you know they can get chalkyand dirty and there's a reason
that they retire these ropeswhen they retire them.
But you have a washing process,so it's not like when you buy
one of these cozies you're goingto get all this, all the stuff
that comes with the climbinggyms.
No, that like what.
(12:55):
If you could talk about that alittle bit, because that's the
part that really kind of blew meaway yeah, well, again, this
was all.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I learned this the hard way because there wasn't
anybody doing this on the scalethat I was trying to do it on
the common way of washingclimbing ropes.
When you're still climbing onthem, you want to make sure you
don't compromise the safety, sothe recommended way is to soak
it in a tub with this veryspecialized soap Hand scrub it
People will make.
(13:21):
They'll take like PVC pipe andattach bristles to the inside
and run the rope through it.
And that's how initially I wasdoing it.
I was hand washing every rope.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
You had some shoulders and back and biceps,
didn't you?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I know, I know that's a yeah body built by washing
rope, but it's hard and also alot of times I would be in
weather that was not conduciveto this, especially doing it in
a camper.
As I'm traveling around,sometimes I'm on limited water,
like I'm off grid, so I had todiscover a way to do it, using
laundromats basically, and thereare specific washers that you
(13:53):
can find.
They're like industrialextractors that are for like 60
pound loads and I think it'smostly people who are doing like
sheets and comforters and stufflike that.
I have a process of weighing myropes so that I never do more
than 40 pounds because they getheavier when they get wet.
And there was also the hardproblem of I would want to be
able to wash five and six ropesat a time and when you put up a
(14:15):
whole bunch of ropes in togetherand you spin them around, you
get a giant knot.
Yeah, yeah yeah, so at first Iwas kind of parceling them out
into these mesh bags andbringing them into the
laundromat and doing them.
It was harder to dry thembecause they were very condensed
at that point.
And this is all.
The whole process has beendocumented on.
I share everything about mybusiness on.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Instagram.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
The high highs and the low lows of just watching
this process of figuring thisstuff out.
So a lot of people, when Iposted this, one video went
viral on TikTok of me sitting ata laundromat like trying to
figure out how to wash theseropes.
And a lot of people are like,oh, you should try daisy
chaining them, which I knewdaisy chaining just to like
store electrical cables likefrom set and stuff like that.
(15:02):
I had never thought about itfor ropes.
Electrical cables like from setand stuff like that.
I had never thought about itfor ropes.
But a lot of people who do likesearch and rescue or firemen
say that that's how they would.
You know, they would daisychain them and then hang them to
dry.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So I watched a YouTube video on how to daisy
chain and the first couple oftimes the idea is, if you do it
correctly, if you chain itcorrectly, when you unchain it
it comes apart so easily, justfalls apart basically, and as
long as you knot it on the endreally well, it holds through
the washing cycle, which isgreat.
So when I get the ropes they'realways dirty.
I always daisy chain them, washthem, air dry them if I can.
(15:36):
But we're going into a seasonright now where I'm going to
have to use the dryer and thencoil them back up and then I
have a storage system in mytrailer right now keeps them all
separate so I can like build asI go.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Oh wow, what a process.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It is, but it's also a lot of times I get the ropes
kind of for free.
I'm not buying them, I'm notbuying my materials, I do a
trade.
So for me it's always beenreally important that my
business is not relying ondonations from people.
It's a mutually beneficialthing.
So if gyms are getting me theirold ropes, if businesses are
(16:11):
getting me their scraps of theirproductions, or if even
climbers are finding meindividually, I want to be able
to make a koozie or a bowleither out of their ropes, which
is cool because like gyms canbe like hey, you're buying a
koozie or cozy out of the ropethat you just climbed on.
Or climbers can be like oh, Igot my first whip on this, or I
got my first trad lead on this.
(16:31):
They have stories behind them,and so I can make a bowl or
koozie out of it, give it tothem and then upcycle the rest.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, I love that.
Well, so how many stores haveyou been able to get yourself
Because you can buy this online?
Right now, you can buy thisfrom your website.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
So it's been an interesting year because I
started wholesale at thebeginning of last year, which I
hadn't really been doing before.
I had a couple I have like.
One store for BridgesOutfitters in Chattanooga was
the very first store to carry mystickers and anytime I've got
something new they're like wewant to be, we want to carry it
so they've always been availablein certain areas.
(17:10):
But as far as me just havinglike a wholesale side, so I have
stuff on Etsy, I have likemonthly, or what should be
monthly, drops on my website,because the hard part is color
Once a rope is gone, it's gone.
So I will make 10 out of thisblue rope that I've got, and so
it's hard for me to keeplistings updated online.
(17:31):
I sell in person at certainevents and markets and then
right now, last time I checked,I was in 92 wholesalers or
retailers.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
And, as an artist, you're probably always thinking
about what I can do next.
Is there anything that's sortof in your brain of oh, I'd love
to try that or I'd love to trythis?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The big thing right now that I'm kind of leaning
into is like more of aneducational thing.
I've started hosting a lot ofworkshops and the idea is one
still trying to support myself.
As you know, this is my fulltime income, but trying to
inspire more people to upcyclingis like a muscle.
You know some people it comesreally natural to them, and some
people you kind of need to liketeach them how to see things
(18:10):
creatively and all it is ishaving some sort of problem or
like artistic vision and justfiguring out how to do it with
what you've got.
So for the ropes when I havethese classes, it's either it's
usually their bowls or coziesthat we're making and I tell
them how I make it and I givethem some tips and tricks.
But then I encourage them to bekind of as artistic as they
(18:33):
want If they want to imagine adifferent handle on it.
They want to imagine, insteadof it for a can, making it more
of like a beer sign and justkind of trying to inspire people
to also think about whatthey're throwing away and how
they can use it differently.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Oh, that is so cool.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, and that's been popular so far.
Or like what are some of thethings that you've, what are
some of the sessions or some ofthe educational moments that
you've had?
Out in the community.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, the first chance I got to do it was
actually um, I go up almostevery year this was the first
year I hadn't done in a whilebut to the International
Climbers Festival in Lander,wyoming, and it's such an
amazing festival.
The community is so supportiveout there and they just it's a
three or four day festival wherethey've got tons of workshops
(19:24):
and they have an art crawl andthen they have like a trade fair
for two days and I always setup my booth and I do really well
, not just as like, as far aslike selling things, but also
connecting with people.
That's where I met the Sterlingrep for the first time and
they're like let's figure out away to get some of this rope to
you.
And so the one year I hadtalked to them about maybe doing
a workshop like this, because Ialso go to a lot of these
climber festivals and I loveclimbing and I will take any day
(19:45):
at the crag that I can andcarry in the rope.
But I'm not a good climber and,honestly, I'm not really trying
to get better at climbing justenjoy it.
I'm a five fun climber.
I bring the beer and I bringthe stoke.
Is what?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I say hey, yeah, you need it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
You need it therefore , yeah, I can relate but it's
also some of the most beautifullike days that I get to spend
with my friends and you're inthese gorgeous places, seeing
spaces in ways that most peopledon't get to experience them,
like from the side of theserocks, like looking out and
everything.
So I still love doing it.
But when I go to thesefestivals, a lot of the
workshops there are very gearedtowards this kind of like you're
(20:18):
trying to get better.
And I was like what if there'sjust a craft class, for you know
people who are there and maybethey're there with a friend or a
significant other.
And I was like what if there'sjust a craft class for you know
people who are there and maybethey're there with a friend or a
significant other?
And I was like what if we justhave like a crafting afternoon?
And I pitched the workshop andthey were down.
They were so supportive, so Ibring all the materials and the
instructions.
And we made bowls the firstyear and it was so cool because
as we were sitting there in thecity park, people would be
(20:40):
walking by and just want to sitin.
So I was just rapidly cuttingmore rope and filling more glue
bottles so, as people wanted tojoin in cause.
It looks fun, and so that wasreally cool.
And so since then I've taughtmaybe 10 of them.
I've done yeah, I've donecollaborations with gyms.
Riveter Gym here in Ashevillehas hosted me for a workshop.
(21:00):
Gyms out in Chattanooga I'vedone a collaboration with um.
There's a chattanooga their,their outdoor recreation group,
um, like get outside type thing,they hosted a workshop.
And then I've just done acouple of them, like pisgah
climbing school, hosted like awomen's weekend, and asked if I
would come that afternoon.
Luckily it was actually brightwhen it was going to be raining
(21:21):
and so they couldn't be outclimbing anyway and so everyone
got to like make their own cozyand take it home with them.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
So that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's, it's, it's startingright now.
It's just hard for me toschedule it because, again, I'm
in survival mode with production, which is again a good problem
to have but it's just reallysomething that I would like to
lean more into.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Cool.
Have you ever thought?
I'm sure you have.
You know, because there's a,there's always a reason to have
something at a brewery you know,or the paint, the art, or go
into an art studio or a ceramicstudio or something like that.
That would be the dream.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, as if I could start doing like a regular
series and and especially causeI know um, some of these places
like they can't like some ofthem can exclusively in, like
the 16 ounce tall boys, so wecould make a tall boy can cozy.
Or, if they use the plasticcups because they're not allowed
to have like the reusable cups,we can make a cozy that fits
their disposable cups that theyuse so that it's a little easier
(22:14):
to hold it because those are soflimsy.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
So I was like, let's make it fit whatever you're
doing, you know.
So there's definitely ideasthere.
It's just right now timemanagement.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, I totally understand that.
Yeah yeah, just a few minutesago we talked about some of the
stories that were part of therope and you mentioned that
people would give you theseropes and you would make crafts
or you'd make these cozies orwhatever it is they want.
It's almost like theycommissioned you to make this
thing for their rope.
I have to believe there's moreof those stories, those types of
stories, that are out there, ormaybe not, but if there are,
(22:45):
I'd love to kind of dive intothat a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, it was something I wasn't anticipating
when I started, because when Ifirst started doing this I was
new into climbing.
I didn't really understand kindof the connection that people
would have to their gear,because I didn't have any
connection.
All my gear was brand new, Ijust bought it at the REI or I'd
been gifted it from someone.
But I learned about it from thevery first guy who got me some
rope.
I had just put out on aFacebook climbing group that I
was trying to start doing somecrafting and if anybody had any
(23:15):
old ropes laying around I wouldlove them.
And I said I wasn't even makinganything yet but I was like
I'll do a trade, like forsomething.
You know, even back then Iwanted to gift something.
Um, and this guy contacted meand he's this old school climber
who had been climbing foreverand he's like, hey, I've
probably got six ropes sittingin my closet right now that I've
(23:35):
been holding onto Cause I can'tjust throw them away.
But if you're going to dosomething with them, they're
yours.
And I was like that's amazing.
So he was, they're yours.
And I was like that's amazing.
So he was.
We met at the gym and hebrought him out and every rope
had a story.
He remembered, he rememberedwhere he'd climbed on them and
and, and he wanted to share themwith me.
Like that, as he was likehanding these ropes over to me,
it was like, just make sure, youknow, I climbed in this place
(23:57):
with this one and I climbed herewith this one, and it just felt
like a like almost aresponsibility, because then, as
I made cozies and then I wouldsell them to other people, I'd
be like, oh, someone climbedhere on this one and so it's
like it traveled with the piece.
And it was such a thing that itawoke something in me that to
give back to him.
He didn't want anything.
(24:17):
I tried to give him a cozy.
He's like, no, no, I don't needanything.
But what I ended up doing was Imade a shadow box and I took one
piece of each of the rope hehad gave me and I made sort of a
pattern behind it and then Ileft some empty space so in the
future, if he retired more ropes, he could add it into the
shadow box.
And on the front of the shadowbox, kind of silhouetted, I put
good catch, because that's whatthese ropes are they catch you,
(24:39):
you know.
So it's a good catch, and thenit just that was what kind of
primed the pump, and wheneversomebody would bring me these
ropes, if they didn't tell meright off which they usually
told me I would ask them.
So at that same festival, theLander Festival, I had a guy
come up to me on crutches and hehad just broken his leg, like a
(25:00):
couple of days before, and hewas giving me the rope that he
had been climbing on when hebroke his leg and he was like I
don't want to see it anymore andI was like it's all right, dude
.
So I took it and I had justdeveloped a new product at the
time.
I call my cruisies.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
They hang around your neck, so it's like a hands-free
cozy, yeah, and so there's astory behind those two.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
But it was so perfect because he was on crutches, so
I tried to give him a cozy atfirst and I was like, actually
you need one of these because hecouldn't carry a drink while he
was moving around on crutches.
Some of the products are likethat too, with the stories.
I had someone reach out to me acouple of years ago and asked
if I would make a cozy for Benand Jerry's ice cream pints, and
they sent me one of their ropesand it was like a tradition of
(25:44):
theirs to share ice cream forlike this person and their
partner, and so I made them, andI couldn't even post it online
right away because I didn't.
I wasn't sure if they bothfollowed me or if only one
followed me, so I didn't want tospoil the surprise, but they
got to give it to them and I put.
When I finally posted online,people went crazy for it.
They're like, oh, like icecream cozies, like that's such a
(26:05):
good idea.
So I got to like that's thestory behind it is.
And then, more recently, peoplewho have lost friends or loved
ones or significant others, andclimbing was how they connected,
and so they will bring me theirold ropes and ask me to make
something out of them.
So they contact me afterthey've lost someone and they
(26:26):
bring me their old ropes, andusually it's because they want
to gift things to other people.
So I had a friend who was likeyou know, we lost this climber
and we'd really like to be ableto give like stuff to his
parents or one guy who's likewe're going on a camping trip
and we all want to toast to himout of his old rope and so we'll
make something.
And so these stories come to meand again, these aren't really
(26:50):
mine to share, necessarily, so Ididn't really put it out there,
but I wanted people to knowthis was calling it a service
feels kind of crass, but a thingthat I could do for them,
because climbing is like for alot of us it's our life, it's
how we spend all of our freetime, it's our entire friend
group, it's what we spend all ofour money on, and this gear is
(27:13):
part of that.
And so having a way to kind ofmemorialize it and remember
these people that you knoweither we lost from climbing or
some other way, it's just been areally like beautiful part of
this?
That again, none of this, noneof this, even doing this as a
living.
I never expected any of thisbecause I didn't see anybody
doing something like this andmaking a living out of it, so
(27:34):
I've just fallen into it all thetime.
So I've fallen into thesestories, I've fallen into these
designs and I've fallen intothis life.
But it's been so beautiful andI feel so privileged when people
share the stories of theirropes, even if they're, you know
, if they're sad or if they'reheavy.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, Well, that's the beautiful part about it and
that's where the really the artreally kind of comes in, because
there's an expression you knowpeople look at things and they
interpret things differently,and but what these things mean
to people and I love the wordthat you just use, memorializing
, because that's exactly what itis I mean, if you it's a loved
one or you know, trying to havea remembrance of some type of of
an experience of a person, of aplace and to be able to look at
(28:12):
that thing, and it does thatfor you is is huge, and then
it's utilitarian too.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
so yeah you know it's carrying all the yeah, and it's
it's part of like my life.
I think, the way that we can.
I don't like to say that I'mmaterialistic, but I think the
things that we surroundourselves tell stories about us.
That's why I worked in propsfor 10 years.
The things that we have aroundus and part of our daily rituals
, they can remind us of people,and I sit every day at a
(28:40):
workbench that I inherited frommy grandfather and I use sewing
tools that I inherited from mygrandmother.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
So cool.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And so it's.
You know if every day they candrink coffee out of a mason jar
surrounded by a cozy from afriend's rope?
It's a way of like keepingpeople around, the materials,
upcycling.
Keeping the materials around,but also keeping the stories
around.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So cool.
Yeah, oh, I love that,absolutely love it.
Well, let's pivot a little bitand talk a little bit about that
lifestyle on the road, what itwas like when you actually went
full time, because that is notfor the faint of heart at all,
and I'd love to just kind ofdive into that just a little bit
as well.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, I was a little prepared for it.
When you work in the filmindustry, you work contract work
.
So you take a gig.
You don't know exactly how longit's going to last, because you
don't know how long the productis going to go.
You have a rough idea, you know, and I was pretty lucky because
, as a props person, I usuallygot a little bit of
pre-production andpost-production as well as
production.
So I'd work an eight-month,ten-month gig, which you know
(29:41):
was most of my year, and then Iwould take the time off.
So this kind of like ebb andflow of income I was used to.
It's really different, though,when you're responsible for
every part of it.
So I was just very prepared tokind of lean into the dirtbag
thing and just be like well,I'll just make my art when I
make my art.
You know, I was not prepared tohave an LLC.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Right, right, what happened to the fun I?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
know, I sold out.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
No, but no, it's how it's become sustainable which is
the big thing, and that's as myhobbies have shifted a little.
Like I said, I don't climb asmuch as I used to.
I've gotten more into biking,especially being here in Western
North Carolina.
There's different things.
The climbing out here is realdifferent, but there's just
different things that have kindof caught my eye and I still, I
love my work, I love even justwhen I have to sit down and make
(30:34):
50 koozies in a day.
I love it.
I, just every single one I make.
I'm like that looks good, whichis great, you know.
But there's other parts of itthat you can't just produce, you
have to do accounting.
I've had to get really good atsocial media, which is both a
blessing and a curse to say thatI'm good at it, which I can
(30:55):
just tell by numbers andstatistics.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Oh, you're good at it .
Okay, you're good at it, allright.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Well, I got the film background.
That helps too, and, again,like finding a way to do it
authentically.
For me it was just abouttelling the stories of what I'm
doing.
So when I leaned into thedirtbag thing, it was more so
one I knew I didn't want to stayin Atlanta anymore.
So I was like, well, where,where do I want to live?
Which is such a privilege, likeif you're self-employed and you
get to pick where you live, notbased on how you earn your
(31:24):
income.
That's not something a lot ofpeople get to do.
So, having grown up in theSoutheast my whole life, I
remember the first time I flewinto Denver it was dark out.
I drove a couple hours out toColorado, which is this magical
mountain town like tucked intothe Rockies, and I woke up the
(31:47):
next morning and it was thefirst time I had like seen the
Rockies like for real.
And it blew, it broke my brainand that's what started and this
was.
This was when I had just goneout of college.
This was the beginning of mewanting to be out West.
So as soon as I had my life onthe road, I drove West and I was
Colorado and I was Wyoming andI was Utah and Oregon, all the
(32:07):
way down to New Mexico, and Iwas just kind of bopping around.
I would stay.
The longest I ever stayed is Istayed in Salt Lake for six
months and I thought that wasgoing to be it like.
But there's something about itout there that is both like very
magical and alluring like thedesert, the high desert, the red
rocks, all this type of stuff.
And alluring like the desert,the high desert, the red rocks,
all this type of stuff and all Imissed was the Blue Ridge
(32:28):
Mountains.
I just thought about home andalso I was coming home every,
you know, holiday season.
All my family still lives inNorth Carolina and as soon as I
would come through, I wouldalways come across I-70 down
through Nashville, and then Iwould hit North Carolina in the
Blue Ridge Mountains and it justfelt like home.
(32:49):
And at one point I just couldn'tdeny it I was kind of tired of
living on the road.
I was like, well, I'll go backand check out Asheville and see
what's going on.
And at the time, too, mybusiness had been changing,
because when I was on the road,I was selling at festivals, but
I also had an online business.
But it's really hard to notonly have a manufacturing, where
I wish I would have thoughtabout making jewelry or
(33:09):
something, something small,compact you know, you're gonna
have like a whole, like cartonof beads right you know?
no, I needed to make like 24inch gear racks and carry around
like two by six lumber with me.
That's what I decided to do.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I'm glad you decided to do what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I am too so.
But there was a thing where Iwas like I just wanted space.
I knew my business felt like itwas kind of contained by the
life I was leading, just becauseI could only do so much at a
time.
It was very ebb and flow.
I would get a couple of ropesand then I would make stuff and
then I'd be out of ropes for awhile and then I'd get and I
didn't even have a mailingaddress, like I couldn't even
get stuff mailed to me.
(33:45):
And so when I decided I waslike, well, I need a home base,
I want to be close to my family.
I remember spending summers here, like or like every weekend
when I was at UNC Wilmington.
I loved going to UNC Wilmingtonfor film, but I'm not a beach
person, respect the ocean, butnot not like my hobby.
I would come up and be spendingweekends in Pisgah Forest
(34:07):
sleeping in the back of my truck, and so I was like, well, let's
just go back and let's seewhat's going on here.
And as soon as I came back Ijoined the Outdoor Business
Alliance and started meetingpeople and connecting with
people and had a little like.
Initially I was renting alittle storage unit down in
Fairview but I was living upnorth of the city so I was like
(34:28):
commuting 40 minutes, which wasa lot.
It was not my favorite thing.
So what I ended up doing was Ibought a separate trailer.
So I have a little uh like 6 by12 enclosed trailer parked next
to my camper.
So now I have the workshop isits own trailer and then I have
a living trailer.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Moving up in the world.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I know I just have space, and what I've seen is my
business has responded to it Alittle bit of stability, being
able to build upon things, beingable to build on my systems
that I have, and productivity,and so that's how, in the past
year, the wholesale has managedto grow exponentially.
So I actually just recentlyclosed on some properties.
So, I'm pretty rooted now inthe Western North Carolina
(35:10):
region.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
That's so good.
Yeah, that's so good.
What an inspiring story.
Yeah, I mean absolutely, and Ilove the fact that you can take
something that once was makingit into something that's going
to be around for a very longtime, and it's not just a
product.
That's what I think is reallycool about what you do.
It's not a product.
There's a story behindliterally everything that you've
done, and all your materialshave their own story, as you
(35:31):
were saying, which is so, veryso, very cool.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's kind of the even things that I'm making
now.
There are times where I'm like,oh, I could make this and
either someone's already makingit or they're doing it better.
I couldn't improve or expand onthe design so I don't want to
make it.
But it's always just about thestory of it and I don't know.
(35:56):
It's just.
I want to feel good about whatI'm producing and what I'm
putting out there.
I'm trying not to be even moreof a burden on the planet.
So certain products like I getasked to make dog collars or dog
leashes a lot.
I don't know how I'd find thathardware used and it would be a
liability concern if you had areactive dog on a leash that I
made with upcycled hardware andit broke and the dog got off or
something like that.
So I've always just kind ofstayed away from stuff that I
(36:18):
couldn't figure out a way to use, mostly upcycled components.
Some of my earlier stuff, likeI make cozies for tumblers, like
coffee tumblers, and everytumbler has a different size.
You know Yeti versus Hydroflaskversus Perani, like they all
have different specifications.
They're flat walled or they'retapered, and so I just had been
buying stainless steel tumblersin bulk and I make them with
(36:39):
that.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Oh gotcha.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, but then, like now, I'd love to be able to say
like oh no, you can order it inhydro flask 12 ounce or prani 12
ounce or something like that,and then I don't have to buy
these things in bulk and sellthem, cause that's the idea is
like that If everything that Idid was an had an upcycled
component, it would make me feelbetter about what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Oh, I absolutely love that.
Well, this is so cool.
Thank you so much for just kindof sharing and unpacking this
story with me.
I'm glad you're connected tothe Outdoor Business Alliance as
well.
I'm glad that is something thatis helping.
I would imagine it's helpingyou to sort of catapult, find
some grounding, find your place,the whole nine yards.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, that's actually been a really interesting thing
.
When I first joined, I onlyjoined really to get into
getting gear fest because I waslike I don't know what the
outdoor business alliance is.
But it's been really coolbecause usually at these things
I struggle with a bit ofimposter syndrome because I'm a
little like one person, smallbusiness, artsy business and
then I'm sitting there next tothese like giant manufacturers
(37:37):
that ship stuff all around theworld and so it can feel a
little intimidating.
But the cool thing has beensome of the collaborations I've
got to do.
Very recently, for example, Igot to do a collaboration with
Eno Hammocks and Pirani ForEno's 25th anniversary.
They were doing this limitedrelease specialty hammock using
an artist from the Blue Ridgearea that did the special print.
(37:58):
So they asked if I wanted toupcycle some of their old
materials into these things thatthey were going to do for a
giveaway.
So, I made custom cozies forPerani a crossbody one and then
a handled one and they use oldcarabiners from Eno Hammocks and
old tags from Eno stuff.
So getting to work with some ofthese brands like what are
(38:19):
y'all throwing away and how canI use it for something better
has been really cool, becausethere's so much manufacturing
going on here in Asheville.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
So much, yeah, yeah.
And you're right.
Even though you could be asmall business like yours and
the ones that are shippingnationwide, you really don't get
that vibe when you're out inthe mix with these folks.
They're so collaborative,they're so willing to share,
they're just good, good people.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah Well, we're all outdoors people, so we all show
up in the same Blundstones andPatagonia outfit.
So it's the great equalizer itis.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I've been saying that more and more and more and it's
absolutely the truth.
Well, shelby, this has beenreally, really cool, and I'm not
going to say on air what I toldyou I was going to buy when we
were off air, but I have alreadythe Christmas presents in mind
for people I want to buy for,and I know that it's going to be
well-received.
You make some great stuff.
I wish you all the best as youkind of scale this thing up,
(39:13):
because it's not easy.
You've hired a couple of people, which is great, so you're
expanding there and I guess youwill scale when scale is ready.
Yeah, scale when scale is ready.
Yeah, if I want to, if I feellike there you go there, you go
Well, um, all right, before Ilet you go, though.
So we talked about Etsy.
We know your website, Um, tellus your Instagram handle how we
can follow you and how we cantrack your products.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yes, the best way to keep up with things is either my
Instagram or my Tik TOKInstagram more recently, but Tik
TOK also, which is at cactus toTO pine, with underscore for
spaces, so cactus to pine.
And then, if you go to mywebsite, you can sign up for my
newsletter.
I usually only use it wheneverI'm doing a drop, so people can
learn about drops that arecoming out and then follow me on
Instagram to see where I'mpopping up locally.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Very nice, yeah, very nice.
Well again, thanks so much.
I love the products you'remaking.
I can't wait to get my hands onsome for myself.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
From turning burnout into brilliance, climbing ropes
into art and a camper into amobile workshop.
Shelby's story reminds us thatcreativity and sustainability
can thrive in the mostunexpected places.
If you loved today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
leave a review.
It helps more people discoverstories like Shelby's.
You can also follow ExplorationLocal on your favorite podcast
(40:27):
platform for more adventures andpassion-driven living.
And if Shelby's journey sparkedyour interest, be sure to check
out Cactus to Pine's uniquecreations and workshop
opportunities at cactustopinecom.
Be sure to subscribe toExploration Local so you'll be
the first to know when a newepisode drops.
Join Mike on Instagram andFacebook and drop him a note at
(40:48):
mike at explorationlocalcom ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode or if you'd justlike to say hello.
Until next time, we encourageyou to wander far, but explore
local you.
What happens when a creative spirit swaps the glitz
of the film industry for therugged charm of rock climbing
and eco-entrepreneurship?
Meet Shelby Treichler, theforce behind Cactus to Pine.
Shelby's journey began withburnout and a high-paced career
and evolved into creatinginnovative, sustainable products
from discarded climbing gear.
Each piece that she createstells a story of adventure,
(00:22):
community and ecologicalmindfulness.
Creates tells a story ofadventure, community and
ecological mindfulness.
In today's episode, shelbytakes us on her path from
selling her house in Atlanta toembracing a nomadic lifestyle in
a converted camper that doublesas a mobile workshop Equipped
with a laser cutter and apassion for creativity.
Shelby travels across the US,connecting with climbers at
festivals and crafting piecesthat breathe life into places
(00:42):
and people she encounters.
So, whether you're curious aboutupcycling inspired by nomadic
adventures or just love a goodstory about following passions,
stick around.
Shelby's insights into buildinga sustainable, purpose-driven
business might just spark yournext creative idea.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You're listening to Exploration Local, a podcast
designed to explore andcelebrate the people and places
that make the Blue Ridge andSouthern Appalachian Mountains
special and unique.
My name is Mike Andrus, thehost of Exploration Local.
Join us on our journey toexplore these mountains and
discover how they fuel thespirit of adventure.
We encourage you to wander far,but explore local.
(01:26):
Let's go Well.
I'm excited to have ShelbyTreichler in the studio today.
She is the maker and owner ofCactus to Pine, which is a
company that upcycles climbinggear to keep old gear out of
landfills by making really cool,creative products.
Shelby, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Really really cool company.
You're doing some amazingthings.
You have a really interestingbackground and I'd love to start
there first, talking a littlebit about your experience in the
film industry and what sort ofgot you into this space of
creating these really coolproducts.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So I went to school to study film and I knew I
wanted to work in the filmindustry and, unlike a lot of my
friends, I actually did end upworking in the industry that my
degree was in.
So I started working in thefilm industry even before I got
out of college and it was mydream job.
I was working in props, startedin Wilmington, north Carolina,
and then I moved down to Atlanta, georgia, where there's tons of
(02:19):
production, and I was reallylucky and worked really hard.
But I got on some big shows andit was going great, except for
I was starting to get a littleburned out.
I loved the work that I wasdoing, but the hours are really
hard.
There's some of the best peoplein the world working on films
and then there's some of thekind of not nicest people and
(02:39):
there was just a bit of whiplashwhere I would spend eight
months working on a gig, youknow, and then I would get off
and then I'd be completelyunemployed and I was in my 20s
and I'd go traveling and burnall my money and then come back
to work and have to earn it allback.
And that was great for a whileuntil it kind of wasn't, and at
that time I started rockclimbing and I'd always been
(03:00):
kind of outdoorsy.
I liked going to travel to beable to hike and loved road
tripping to different nationalparks around the country.
But I didn't have thisconnection to the land quite yet
, and that's what rock climbinggave me.
So I started rock climbing inAtlanta, georgia, in like 2018.
And I wasn't really good at it,which is fine, but anybody
(03:21):
who's like I talked to aboutthey're like that doesn't matter
.
Blah for me.
I still wanted a way to connectto the community and that's
always been through my art andthe stories of the art and stuff
.
So it started with just acouple of stickers.
I was doing a bit of graphicdesign for the film industry.
I knew how to do some likeillustration, so I had these
just kind of insider jokestickers that I made and I was
(03:44):
just giving them out to friendsinitially, and then one day
someone at the gym was like, oh,can I grab a couple extra?
I'll pay you for them.
And I was like what Money?
You'll give me money for these.
I didn't know anything aboutrunning a business.
I didn't know anything abouthow to price things or profit
margins or revenue or anythinglike that.
But I just started making thesedesign stickers and selling
(04:06):
them and all of a sudden I hadthis kind of little side
business going on and I wasearning a couple hundred dollars
a month just selling stickerson Etsy to my climbing friends
and all across the country atthat point.
And one day I was in the gym andI saw one of the guys who
worked there throwing away theirold ropes that they would use
for their lead climbs, but theirtop rope wall too.
(04:26):
And I was like what are youdoing?
Like why are you throwing therope away?
And they're like well,liability, blah, blah, blah.
And they even had to go as faras they had to cut the rope down
into two like two to three footsegments before throwing it in
the dumpster because they wereafraid some dirtbag climber
would come, take the rope outand go climbing on it.
And I just I always liked makingthings and the idea of just
(04:48):
throwing rope away.
I was like no, don't do that.
Like, just give it to me, I'lldestroy it by by creating
something out of it.
And I Googled, like what dopeople do with old rock climbing
rope?
And there's this mat, this kindof like woven rug that I call
the gateway craft, becauseeveryone who has a climbing rope
tries this mat.
At one point One of the ropemanufacturers, edelred, even
(05:11):
includes instructions on how todo it in their ropes, but like
when they sell them, and theidea is just like when you're
done with it, here's somethingyou can do.
And they show the pattern, theover under woven pattern.
And I made one of those rugsand I was like, oh, I hate this.
It's really hard, especially ifyou're doing with all one rope.
It's almost 50 meters of rope,you're pulling it through.
So much friction and I was justlike I don't like doing this, so
(05:34):
like, what else can I do?
And posted in 2015 on how tomake this rope bottle holder.
And they did it by using alighter to fuse the rope
together and I tried doing itand I liked the idea, but, using
(05:55):
that tutorial, I didn't likehow it turned out.
It didn't feel super sturdy, itwasn't very clean looking, and
so for the next couple of monthsI just played around with it
because I wanted to make one fora mason jar.
I drink everything out of amason jar.
I like carrying them around.
I frequently drop them andbreak them, and it's also like
it's a little cumbersome, youknow it's not, you know, you
have no handle.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, there is, I guess, if you have some, some
models of them.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, or if you make your, yeah, yeah.
So I made one, initially for amason jar, but then also was
just making them for cans andsame thing, just posted them
online and people liked them,and that's kind of been the
whole idea behind every productI've made is it's just something
that I want and or need, andthen someone else is like, oh
(06:39):
yeah, I would take one of thosetoo, and then I got to figure
out how to make it profitableand how to manufacture on larger
scales and stuff, but it'salways just stuff that I want to
make first.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah.
So in 2020, I had kind of beendoing all these little things on
the side.
I was also like pouring candlesand making these gear racks out
of retired bolt hangers and thefilm industry shut down
completely.
When COVID hit, everybody wasout of work and for the first
time in my you know, quote,unquote adult life, I had free
time and nothing kind of on theother side of like when's the
next gig starting up?
So I was like you know what ifI just threw myself all in and
(07:16):
just see what I can do with thisbusiness?
At the time I was also lasercutting.
I had bought a laser cutter andwas like learning how to laser
cut.
So I also had this other kindof like weird business where I
was making trellises for indoorplants.
So between all of that, I wasjust putting all this time and
energy of the frustration ofbeing, you know, stuck at home
into this business and by theend of 2020, I was earning
(07:37):
enough that I was like, with afew small lifestyle changes, I
could not go back to the filmindustry, which I'd already been
like playing around with.
I'd been taking summers off andworking other jobs and trying
to figure out if I left the filmindustry like what would I do?
That was my identity for solong, and so, as I found this
avenue out through my work, Iwas just going to say like all
right, let's just ride this waveand see what happens.
(07:58):
But mid 2021, I was doingpretty good with it.
So I decided to sell my housein Atlanta.
I bought a truck and a trailer,a camper, and decided to take
my business on the road, andI've been traveling around since
then.
Just recently came back to theAsheville area.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Now, that's so cool, and when you first started you
actually I was seeing on yourInstagram page where you
converted the back of thatcamper into your production
studio so you truly could takethis whole gig on the road.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, my woodworking tools were stored and there's
this one exterior panel that youcould get to through the
outside of the camper.
That was all my woodworkingtools, all the rope.
I would get these like ropesand huge waves, and so they
usually just lived in the backof my truck because I didn't
have anywhere else to store them.
My laser cutter went into thiscompartment under my bed, so I
would lift up the bottom part ofmy sleeping bed and there was a
(08:49):
laser cutter under there thatvented out the side and I did
the whole business out of thatas I traveled around to climbing
festivals in Colorado andWyoming and Idaho and Utah and
just traveling around andselling my stuff on the road.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
That's cool, and at that time, what were the things
you were selling?
Was it still the stickers?
Or you had started to sellthese koozies that you were
crafting and making, and peopleobviously at climbing festivals
are going to be so taken by this.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, the stickers.
I still everything that I'vemade.
I still sell some version of it.
Mostly like at the verybeginning I was doing like
t-shirts with the designs, butt-shirts are hard and I've
mostly.
I still do the sticker designs.
But I haven't released a newsticker design in a while, just
because I'm kind of moving awayfrom it.
But the big thing has been justhow fun it is to work with
these ropes.
(09:34):
It's such an interesting medium.
The more that I learn aboutthem and how they're
manufactured and the differenttypes, the more I get inspired
to make different things with it.
And then, as like the businessis growing, I'm also just the
quantity that I'm putting out iscrazy right now.
So I'm having to.
It's been a crash course inlearning how to run your own
business and keeping up withthat part of it too, as I'm
(09:56):
trying to scale up.
But yeah, all through thiswhole time it's been.
I just sold a gear rack theother day and I still, you know,
whenever my buddies are outre-bolting, they'll let me know
when they've got old bolthangers and I'll make a donation
to the local climbing coalitionon behalf of them if they get
me the old bolt hangers and thenI'll make some gear racks.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Oh, that's so cool.
That's so cool.
All right, so before we goreally deep into the koozie
piece with the ropes and thatseems to be like the lion's
share of what it is you're doingwhat else?
So we've got stickers, we'vegot the koozies, we've got some
art.
Is there anything else thatyou're doing in there as well?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, so I do have a climber candle line Yep, a scent
sense is what I call it.
So for those I do research onflowers and trees that grow in
different crags around thecountry.
So you could get a New RiverGorge one, you could get an
Indian Creek one, smith Rock,and so it's like what you could
smell while you're climbing inthose areas which has been
really fun because I've gottento climb in almost every single
(10:50):
one of those areas as I traveledaround and kind of confirm like
oh yeah, smith Rock does have alot of juniper trees, like that
works.
But it's also fun, when I popup in these different festivals,
for people to be to see theirhome crag, their local crag,
represented in a candle, youknow.
So that's been really fun.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Give us a visual of of this mason jar and of this
koozie that's going around.
I've seen them in person.
I've seen, in fact, I think thefirst place I saw them was um
wrong way campground.
Yeah, that's where I saw it, ontheir little kiosk.
They were the first people tocarry me.
Oh, no way, yeah, yeah, okay,good, I met them at the Get In
Gear Festival.
Nice.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And Joe came up and was like I got to have them you
know, oh good, good good.
Yeah, standard cozy as we callit, because the other version
which I slip into sometimes isactually trademarked.
So a can cozy insulatedbeverage holder.
I use a single piece of rope.
It takes 11 feet of rope tomake one can cozy.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
No way.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, which most people don't think, because it's
like yay, big, you know.
So just slightly smaller than acan.
But one of the things I reallylike about my design is I never
want you to see where the ropebegins or ends.
So it starts at the very bottomwith a very tight coil and from
there it just spirals up aroundacross the bottom and then
around the outside of the canand when it gets to the right
(12:02):
height which is just low enoughthat your lip doesn't touch it
when you're drinking it, becausethat could get gross after a
while it loops down into ahandle and it's all one piece of
rope.
The handle loops down, attachesto the bottom and it comes back
up and then it looks almostlike it folds into the cozy
itself.
So you don't see where the ropeends unless you look inside,
(12:23):
and then you can see.
But when you're holding it itall just looks like one piece of
rope, and the glue I use isvery precise in where I place it
, so you can't even see a glueline.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
So for anybody that's listening, and you were talking
about old ropes, old climbingropes, and if you've been to a
gym you know they can get chalkyand dirty and there's a reason
that they retire these ropeswhen they retire them.
But you have a washing process,so it's not like when you buy
one of these cozies you're goingto get all this, all the stuff
that comes with the climbinggyms.
No, that like what.
(12:55):
If you could talk about that alittle bit, because that's the
part that really kind of blew meaway yeah, well, again, this
was all.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I learned this the hard way because there wasn't
anybody doing this on the scalethat I was trying to do it on
the common way of washingclimbing ropes.
When you're still climbing onthem, you want to make sure you
don't compromise the safety, sothe recommended way is to soak
it in a tub with this veryspecialized soap Hand scrub it
People will make.
(13:21):
They'll take like PVC pipe andattach bristles to the inside
and run the rope through it.
And that's how initially I wasdoing it.
I was hand washing every rope.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
You had some shoulders and back and biceps,
didn't you?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I know, I know that's a yeah body built by washing
rope, but it's hard and also alot of times I would be in
weather that was not conduciveto this, especially doing it in
a camper.
As I'm traveling around,sometimes I'm on limited water,
like I'm off grid, so I had todiscover a way to do it, using
laundromats basically, and thereare specific washers that you
(13:53):
can find.
They're like industrialextractors that are for like 60
pound loads and I think it'smostly people who are doing like
sheets and comforters and stufflike that.
I have a process of weighing myropes so that I never do more
than 40 pounds because they getheavier when they get wet.
And there was also the hardproblem of I would want to be
able to wash five and six ropesat a time and when you put up a
(14:15):
whole bunch of ropes in togetherand you spin them around, you
get a giant knot.
Yeah, yeah yeah, so at first Iwas kind of parceling them out
into these mesh bags andbringing them into the
laundromat and doing them.
It was harder to dry thembecause they were very condensed
at that point.
And this is all.
The whole process has beendocumented on.
I share everything about mybusiness on.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Instagram.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
The high highs and the low lows of just watching
this process of figuring thisstuff out.
So a lot of people, when Iposted this, one video went
viral on TikTok of me sitting ata laundromat like trying to
figure out how to wash theseropes.
And a lot of people are like,oh, you should try daisy
chaining them, which I knewdaisy chaining just to like
store electrical cables likefrom set and stuff like that.
(15:02):
I had never thought about itfor ropes.
Electrical cables like from setand stuff like that.
I had never thought about itfor ropes.
But a lot of people who do likesearch and rescue or firemen
say that that's how they would.
You know, they would daisychain them and then hang them to
dry.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So I watched a YouTube video on how to daisy
chain and the first couple oftimes the idea is, if you do it
correctly, if you chain itcorrectly, when you unchain it
it comes apart so easily, justfalls apart basically, and as
long as you knot it on the endreally well, it holds through
the washing cycle, which isgreat.
So when I get the ropes they'realways dirty.
I always daisy chain them, washthem, air dry them if I can.
(15:36):
But we're going into a seasonright now where I'm going to
have to use the dryer and thencoil them back up and then I
have a storage system in mytrailer right now keeps them all
separate so I can like build asI go.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Oh wow, what a process.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It is, but it's also a lot of times I get the ropes
kind of for free.
I'm not buying them, I'm notbuying my materials, I do a
trade.
So for me it's always beenreally important that my
business is not relying ondonations from people.
It's a mutually beneficialthing.
So if gyms are getting me theirold ropes, if businesses are
(16:11):
getting me their scraps of theirproductions, or if even
climbers are finding meindividually, I want to be able
to make a koozie or a bowleither out of their ropes, which
is cool because like gyms canbe like hey, you're buying a
koozie or cozy out of the ropethat you just climbed on.
Or climbers can be like oh, Igot my first whip on this, or I
got my first trad lead on this.
(16:31):
They have stories behind them,and so I can make a bowl or
koozie out of it, give it tothem and then upcycle the rest.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, I love that.
Well, so how many stores haveyou been able to get yourself
Because you can buy this online?
Right now, you can buy thisfrom your website.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
So it's been an interesting year because I
started wholesale at thebeginning of last year, which I
hadn't really been doing before.
I had a couple I have like.
One store for BridgesOutfitters in Chattanooga was
the very first store to carry mystickers and anytime I've got
something new they're like wewant to be, we want to carry it
so they've always been availablein certain areas.
(17:10):
But as far as me just havinglike a wholesale side, so I have
stuff on Etsy, I have likemonthly, or what should be
monthly, drops on my website,because the hard part is color
Once a rope is gone, it's gone.
So I will make 10 out of thisblue rope that I've got, and so
it's hard for me to keeplistings updated online.
(17:31):
I sell in person at certainevents and markets and then
right now, last time I checked,I was in 92 wholesalers or
retailers.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
And, as an artist, you're probably always thinking
about what I can do next.
Is there anything that's sortof in your brain of oh, I'd love
to try that or I'd love to trythis?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The big thing right now that I'm kind of leaning
into is like more of aneducational thing.
I've started hosting a lot ofworkshops and the idea is one
still trying to support myself.
As you know, this is my fulltime income, but trying to
inspire more people to upcyclingis like a muscle.
You know some people it comesreally natural to them, and some
people you kind of need to liketeach them how to see things
(18:10):
creatively and all it is ishaving some sort of problem or
like artistic vision and justfiguring out how to do it with
what you've got.
So for the ropes when I havethese classes, it's either it's
usually their bowls or coziesthat we're making and I tell
them how I make it and I givethem some tips and tricks.
But then I encourage them to bekind of as artistic as they
(18:33):
want If they want to imagine adifferent handle on it.
They want to imagine, insteadof it for a can, making it more
of like a beer sign and justkind of trying to inspire people
to also think about whatthey're throwing away and how
they can use it differently.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Oh, that is so cool.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, and that's been popular so far.
Or like what are some of thethings that you've, what are
some of the sessions or some ofthe educational moments that
you've had?
Out in the community.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, the first chance I got to do it was
actually um, I go up almostevery year this was the first
year I hadn't done in a whilebut to the International
Climbers Festival in Lander,wyoming, and it's such an
amazing festival.
The community is so supportiveout there and they just it's a
three or four day festival wherethey've got tons of workshops
(19:24):
and they have an art crawl andthen they have like a trade fair
for two days and I always setup my booth and I do really well
, not just as like, as far aslike selling things, but also
connecting with people.
That's where I met the Sterlingrep for the first time and
they're like let's figure out away to get some of this rope to
you.
And so the one year I hadtalked to them about maybe doing
a workshop like this, because Ialso go to a lot of these
climber festivals and I loveclimbing and I will take any day
(19:45):
at the crag that I can andcarry in the rope.
But I'm not a good climber and,honestly, I'm not really trying
to get better at climbing justenjoy it.
I'm a five fun climber.
I bring the beer and I bringthe stoke.
Is what?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I say hey, yeah, you need it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
You need it therefore , yeah, I can relate but it's
also some of the most beautifullike days that I get to spend
with my friends and you're inthese gorgeous places, seeing
spaces in ways that most peopledon't get to experience them,
like from the side of theserocks, like looking out and
everything.
So I still love doing it.
But when I go to thesefestivals, a lot of the
workshops there are very gearedtowards this kind of like you're
(20:18):
trying to get better.
And I was like what if there'sjust a craft class, for you know
people who are there and maybethey're there with a friend or a
significant other.
And I was like what if there'sjust a craft class for you know
people who are there and maybethey're there with a friend or a
significant other?
And I was like what if we justhave like a crafting afternoon?
And I pitched the workshop andthey were down.
They were so supportive, so Ibring all the materials and the
instructions.
And we made bowls the firstyear and it was so cool because
as we were sitting there in thecity park, people would be
(20:40):
walking by and just want to sitin.
So I was just rapidly cuttingmore rope and filling more glue
bottles so, as people wanted tojoin in cause.
It looks fun, and so that wasreally cool.
And so since then I've taughtmaybe 10 of them.
I've done yeah, I've donecollaborations with gyms.
Riveter Gym here in Ashevillehas hosted me for a workshop.
(21:00):
Gyms out in Chattanooga I'vedone a collaboration with um.
There's a chattanooga their,their outdoor recreation group,
um, like get outside type thing,they hosted a workshop.
And then I've just done acouple of them, like pisgah
climbing school, hosted like awomen's weekend, and asked if I
would come that afternoon.
Luckily it was actually brightwhen it was going to be raining
(21:21):
and so they couldn't be outclimbing anyway and so everyone
got to like make their own cozyand take it home with them.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
So that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, yeah.
So it's, it's, it's startingright now.
It's just hard for me toschedule it because, again, I'm
in survival mode with production, which is again a good problem
to have but it's just reallysomething that I would like to
lean more into.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Cool.
Have you ever thought?
I'm sure you have.
You know, because there's a,there's always a reason to have
something at a brewery you know,or the paint, the art, or go
into an art studio or a ceramicstudio or something like that.
That would be the dream.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, as if I could start doing like a regular
series and and especially causeI know um, some of these places
like they can't like some ofthem can exclusively in, like
the 16 ounce tall boys, so wecould make a tall boy can cozy.
Or, if they use the plasticcups because they're not allowed
to have like the reusable cups,we can make a cozy that fits
their disposable cups that theyuse so that it's a little easier
(22:14):
to hold it because those are soflimsy.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
So I was like, let's make it fit whatever you're
doing, you know.
So there's definitely ideasthere.
It's just right now timemanagement.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, I totally understand that.
Yeah yeah, just a few minutesago we talked about some of the
stories that were part of therope and you mentioned that
people would give you theseropes and you would make crafts
or you'd make these cozies orwhatever it is they want.
It's almost like theycommissioned you to make this
thing for their rope.
I have to believe there's moreof those stories, those types of
stories, that are out there, ormaybe not, but if there are,
(22:45):
I'd love to kind of dive intothat a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, it was something I wasn't anticipating
when I started, because when Ifirst started doing this I was
new into climbing.
I didn't really understand kindof the connection that people
would have to their gear,because I didn't have any
connection.
All my gear was brand new, Ijust bought it at the REI or I'd
been gifted it from someone.
But I learned about it from thevery first guy who got me some
rope.
I had just put out on aFacebook climbing group that I
was trying to start doing somecrafting and if anybody had any
(23:15):
old ropes laying around I wouldlove them.
And I said I wasn't even makinganything yet but I was like
I'll do a trade, like forsomething.
You know, even back then Iwanted to gift something.
Um, and this guy contacted meand he's this old school climber
who had been climbing foreverand he's like, hey, I've
probably got six ropes sittingin my closet right now that I've
(23:35):
been holding onto Cause I can'tjust throw them away.
But if you're going to dosomething with them, they're
yours.
And I was like that's amazing.
So he was, they're yours.
And I was like that's amazing.
So he was.
We met at the gym and hebrought him out and every rope
had a story.
He remembered, he rememberedwhere he'd climbed on them and
and, and he wanted to share themwith me.
Like that, as he was likehanding these ropes over to me,
it was like, just make sure, youknow, I climbed in this place
(23:57):
with this one and I climbed herewith this one, and it just felt
like a like almost aresponsibility, because then, as
I made cozies and then I wouldsell them to other people, I'd
be like, oh, someone climbedhere on this one and so it's
like it traveled with the piece.
And it was such a thing that itawoke something in me that to
give back to him.
He didn't want anything.
(24:17):
I tried to give him a cozy.
He's like, no, no, I don't needanything.
But what I ended up doing was Imade a shadow box and I took one
piece of each of the rope hehad gave me and I made sort of a
pattern behind it and then Ileft some empty space so in the
future, if he retired more ropes, he could add it into the
shadow box.
And on the front of the shadowbox, kind of silhouetted, I put
good catch, because that's whatthese ropes are they catch you,
(24:39):
you know.
So it's a good catch, and thenit just that was what kind of
primed the pump, and wheneversomebody would bring me these
ropes, if they didn't tell meright off which they usually
told me I would ask them.
So at that same festival, theLander Festival, I had a guy
come up to me on crutches and hehad just broken his leg, like a
(25:00):
couple of days before, and hewas giving me the rope that he
had been climbing on when hebroke his leg and he was like I
don't want to see it anymore andI was like it's all right, dude
.
So I took it and I had justdeveloped a new product at the
time.
I call my cruisies.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
They hang around your neck, so it's like a hands-free
cozy, yeah, and so there's astory behind those two.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
But it was so perfect because he was on crutches, so
I tried to give him a cozy atfirst and I was like, actually
you need one of these because hecouldn't carry a drink while he
was moving around on crutches.
Some of the products are likethat too, with the stories.
I had someone reach out to me acouple of years ago and asked
if I would make a cozy for Benand Jerry's ice cream pints, and
they sent me one of their ropesand it was like a tradition of
(25:44):
theirs to share ice cream forlike this person and their
partner, and so I made them, andI couldn't even post it online
right away because I didn't.
I wasn't sure if they bothfollowed me or if only one
followed me, so I didn't want tospoil the surprise, but they
got to give it to them and I put.
When I finally posted online,people went crazy for it.
They're like, oh, like icecream cozies, like that's such a
(26:05):
good idea.
So I got to like that's thestory behind it is.
And then, more recently, peoplewho have lost friends or loved
ones or significant others, andclimbing was how they connected,
and so they will bring me theirold ropes and ask me to make
something out of them.
So they contact me afterthey've lost someone and they
(26:26):
bring me their old ropes, andusually it's because they want
to gift things to other people.
So I had a friend who was likeyou know, we lost this climber
and we'd really like to be ableto give like stuff to his
parents or one guy who's likewe're going on a camping trip
and we all want to toast to himout of his old rope and so we'll
make something.
And so these stories come to meand again, these aren't really
(26:50):
mine to share, necessarily, so Ididn't really put it out there,
but I wanted people to knowthis was calling it a service
feels kind of crass, but a thingthat I could do for them,
because climbing is like for alot of us it's our life, it's
how we spend all of our freetime, it's our entire friend
group, it's what we spend all ofour money on, and this gear is
(27:13):
part of that.
And so having a way to kind ofmemorialize it and remember
these people that you knoweither we lost from climbing or
some other way, it's just been areally like beautiful part of
this?
That again, none of this, noneof this, even doing this as a
living.
I never expected any of thisbecause I didn't see anybody
doing something like this andmaking a living out of it, so
(27:34):
I've just fallen into it all thetime.
So I've fallen into thesestories, I've fallen into these
designs and I've fallen intothis life.
But it's been so beautiful andI feel so privileged when people
share the stories of theirropes, even if they're, you know
, if they're sad or if they'reheavy.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, Well, that's the beautiful part about it and
that's where the really the artreally kind of comes in, because
there's an expression you knowpeople look at things and they
interpret things differently,and but what these things mean
to people and I love the wordthat you just use, memorializing
, because that's exactly what itis I mean, if you it's a loved
one or you know, trying to havea remembrance of some type of of
an experience of a person, of aplace and to be able to look at
(28:12):
that thing, and it does thatfor you is is huge, and then
it's utilitarian too.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
so yeah you know it's carrying all the yeah, and it's
it's part of like my life.
I think, the way that we can.
I don't like to say that I'mmaterialistic, but I think the
things that we surroundourselves tell stories about us.
That's why I worked in propsfor 10 years.
The things that we have aroundus and part of our daily rituals
, they can remind us of people,and I sit every day at a
(28:40):
workbench that I inherited frommy grandfather and I use sewing
tools that I inherited from mygrandmother.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
So cool.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And so it's.
You know if every day they candrink coffee out of a mason jar
surrounded by a cozy from afriend's rope?
It's a way of like keepingpeople around, the materials,
upcycling.
Keeping the materials around,but also keeping the stories
around.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So cool.
Yeah, oh, I love that,absolutely love it.
Well, let's pivot a little bitand talk a little bit about that
lifestyle on the road, what itwas like when you actually went
full time, because that is notfor the faint of heart at all,
and I'd love to just kind ofdive into that just a little bit
as well.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, I was a little prepared for it.
When you work in the filmindustry, you work contract work
.
So you take a gig.
You don't know exactly how longit's going to last, because you
don't know how long the productis going to go.
You have a rough idea, you know, and I was pretty lucky because
, as a props person, I usuallygot a little bit of
pre-production andpost-production as well as
production.
So I'd work an eight-month,ten-month gig, which you know
(29:41):
was most of my year, and then Iwould take the time off.
So this kind of like ebb andflow of income I was used to.
It's really different, though,when you're responsible for
every part of it.
So I was just very prepared tokind of lean into the dirtbag
thing and just be like well,I'll just make my art when I
make my art.
You know, I was not prepared tohave an LLC.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Right, right, what happened to the fun I?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
know, I sold out.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
No, but no, it's how it's become sustainable which is
the big thing, and that's as myhobbies have shifted a little.
Like I said, I don't climb asmuch as I used to.
I've gotten more into biking,especially being here in Western
North Carolina.
There's different things.
The climbing out here is realdifferent, but there's just
different things that have kindof caught my eye and I still, I
love my work, I love even justwhen I have to sit down and make
(30:34):
50 koozies in a day.
I love it.
I, just every single one I make.
I'm like that looks good, whichis great, you know.
But there's other parts of itthat you can't just produce, you
have to do accounting.
I've had to get really good atsocial media, which is both a
blessing and a curse to say thatI'm good at it, which I can
(30:55):
just tell by numbers andstatistics.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Oh, you're good at it .
Okay, you're good at it, allright.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Well, I got the film background.
That helps too, and, again,like finding a way to do it
authentically.
For me it was just abouttelling the stories of what I'm
doing.
So when I leaned into thedirtbag thing, it was more so
one I knew I didn't want to stayin Atlanta anymore.
So I was like, well, where,where do I want to live?
Which is such a privilege, likeif you're self-employed and you
get to pick where you live, notbased on how you earn your
(31:24):
income.
That's not something a lot ofpeople get to do.
So, having grown up in theSoutheast my whole life, I
remember the first time I flewinto Denver it was dark out.
I drove a couple hours out toColorado, which is this magical
mountain town like tucked intothe Rockies, and I woke up the
(31:47):
next morning and it was thefirst time I had like seen the
Rockies like for real.
And it blew, it broke my brainand that's what started and this
was.
This was when I had just goneout of college.
This was the beginning of mewanting to be out West.
So as soon as I had my life onthe road, I drove West and I was
Colorado and I was Wyoming andI was Utah and Oregon, all the
(32:07):
way down to New Mexico, and Iwas just kind of bopping around.
I would stay.
The longest I ever stayed is Istayed in Salt Lake for six
months and I thought that wasgoing to be it like.
But there's something about itout there that is both like very
magical and alluring like thedesert, the high desert, the red
rocks, all this type of stuff.
And alluring like the desert,the high desert, the red rocks,
all this type of stuff and all Imissed was the Blue Ridge
(32:28):
Mountains.
I just thought about home andalso I was coming home every,
you know, holiday season.
All my family still lives inNorth Carolina and as soon as I
would come through, I wouldalways come across I-70 down
through Nashville, and then Iwould hit North Carolina in the
Blue Ridge Mountains and it justfelt like home.
(32:49):
And at one point I just couldn'tdeny it I was kind of tired of
living on the road.
I was like, well, I'll go backand check out Asheville and see
what's going on.
And at the time, too, mybusiness had been changing,
because when I was on the road,I was selling at festivals, but
I also had an online business.
But it's really hard to notonly have a manufacturing, where
I wish I would have thoughtabout making jewelry or
(33:09):
something, something small,compact you know, you're gonna
have like a whole, like cartonof beads right you know?
no, I needed to make like 24inch gear racks and carry around
like two by six lumber with me.
That's what I decided to do.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I'm glad you decided to do what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I am too so.
But there was a thing where Iwas like I just wanted space.
I knew my business felt like itwas kind of contained by the
life I was leading, just becauseI could only do so much at a
time.
It was very ebb and flow.
I would get a couple of ropesand then I would make stuff and
then I'd be out of ropes for awhile and then I'd get and I
didn't even have a mailingaddress, like I couldn't even
get stuff mailed to me.
(33:45):
And so when I decided I waslike, well, I need a home base,
I want to be close to my family.
I remember spending summers here, like or like every weekend
when I was at UNC Wilmington.
I loved going to UNC Wilmingtonfor film, but I'm not a beach
person, respect the ocean, butnot not like my hobby.
I would come up and be spendingweekends in Pisgah Forest
(34:07):
sleeping in the back of my truck, and so I was like, well, let's
just go back and let's seewhat's going on here.
And as soon as I came back Ijoined the Outdoor Business
Alliance and started meetingpeople and connecting with
people and had a little like.
Initially I was renting alittle storage unit down in
Fairview but I was living upnorth of the city so I was like
(34:28):
commuting 40 minutes, which wasa lot.
It was not my favorite thing.
So what I ended up doing was Ibought a separate trailer.
So I have a little uh like 6 by12 enclosed trailer parked next
to my camper.
So now I have the workshop isits own trailer and then I have
a living trailer.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Moving up in the world.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I know I just have space, and what I've seen is my
business has responded to it Alittle bit of stability, being
able to build upon things, beingable to build on my systems
that I have, and productivity,and so that's how, in the past
year, the wholesale has managedto grow exponentially.
So I actually just recentlyclosed on some properties.
So, I'm pretty rooted now inthe Western North Carolina
(35:10):
region.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
That's so good.
Yeah, that's so good.
What an inspiring story.
Yeah, I mean absolutely, and Ilove the fact that you can take
something that once was makingit into something that's going
to be around for a very longtime, and it's not just a
product.
That's what I think is reallycool about what you do.
It's not a product.
There's a story behindliterally everything that you've
done, and all your materialshave their own story, as you
(35:31):
were saying, which is so, veryso, very cool.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's kind of the even things that I'm making
now.
There are times where I'm like,oh, I could make this and
either someone's already makingit or they're doing it better.
I couldn't improve or expand onthe design so I don't want to
make it.
But it's always just about thestory of it and I don't know.
(35:56):
It's just.
I want to feel good about whatI'm producing and what I'm
putting out there.
I'm trying not to be even moreof a burden on the planet.
So certain products like I getasked to make dog collars or dog
leashes a lot.
I don't know how I'd find thathardware used and it would be a
liability concern if you had areactive dog on a leash that I
made with upcycled hardware andit broke and the dog got off or
something like that.
So I've always just kind ofstayed away from stuff that I
(36:18):
couldn't figure out a way to use, mostly upcycled components.
Some of my earlier stuff, likeI make cozies for tumblers, like
coffee tumblers, and everytumbler has a different size.
You know Yeti versus Hydroflaskversus Perani, like they all
have different specifications.
They're flat walled or they'retapered, and so I just had been
buying stainless steel tumblersin bulk and I make them with
(36:39):
that.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Oh gotcha.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, but then, like now, I'd love to be able to say
like oh no, you can order it inhydro flask 12 ounce or prani 12
ounce or something like that,and then I don't have to buy
these things in bulk and sellthem, cause that's the idea is
like that If everything that Idid was an had an upcycled
component, it would make me feelbetter about what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Oh, I absolutely love that.
Well, this is so cool.
Thank you so much for just kindof sharing and unpacking this
story with me.
I'm glad you're connected tothe Outdoor Business Alliance as
well.
I'm glad that is something thatis helping.
I would imagine it's helpingyou to sort of catapult, find
some grounding, find your place,the whole nine yards.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, that's actually been a really interesting thing
.
When I first joined, I onlyjoined really to get into
getting gear fest because I waslike I don't know what the
outdoor business alliance is.
But it's been really coolbecause usually at these things
I struggle with a bit ofimposter syndrome because I'm a
little like one person, smallbusiness, artsy business and
then I'm sitting there next tothese like giant manufacturers
(37:37):
that ship stuff all around theworld and so it can feel a
little intimidating.
But the cool thing has beensome of the collaborations I've
got to do.
Very recently, for example, Igot to do a collaboration with
Eno Hammocks and Pirani ForEno's 25th anniversary.
They were doing this limitedrelease specialty hammock using
an artist from the Blue Ridgearea that did the special print.
(37:58):
So they asked if I wanted toupcycle some of their old
materials into these things thatthey were going to do for a
giveaway.
So, I made custom cozies forPerani a crossbody one and then
a handled one and they use oldcarabiners from Eno Hammocks and
old tags from Eno stuff.
So getting to work with some ofthese brands like what are
(38:19):
y'all throwing away and how canI use it for something better
has been really cool, becausethere's so much manufacturing
going on here in Asheville.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
So much, yeah, yeah.
And you're right.
Even though you could be asmall business like yours and
the ones that are shippingnationwide, you really don't get
that vibe when you're out inthe mix with these folks.
They're so collaborative,they're so willing to share,
they're just good, good people.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah Well, we're all outdoors people, so we all show
up in the same Blundstones andPatagonia outfit.
So it's the great equalizer itis.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I've been saying that more and more and more and it's
absolutely the truth.
Well, shelby, this has beenreally, really cool, and I'm not
going to say on air what I toldyou I was going to buy when we
were off air, but I have alreadythe Christmas presents in mind
for people I want to buy for,and I know that it's going to be
well-received.
You make some great stuff.
I wish you all the best as youkind of scale this thing up,
(39:13):
because it's not easy.
You've hired a couple of people, which is great, so you're
expanding there and I guess youwill scale when scale is ready.
Yeah, scale when scale is ready.
Yeah, if I want to, if I feellike there you go there, you go
Well, um, all right, before Ilet you go, though.
So we talked about Etsy.
We know your website, Um, tellus your Instagram handle how we
can follow you and how we cantrack your products.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yes, the best way to keep up with things is either my
Instagram or my Tik TOKInstagram more recently, but Tik
TOK also, which is at cactus toTO pine, with underscore for
spaces, so cactus to pine.
And then, if you go to mywebsite, you can sign up for my
newsletter.
I usually only use it wheneverI'm doing a drop, so people can
learn about drops that arecoming out and then follow me on
Instagram to see where I'mpopping up locally.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Very nice, yeah, very nice.
Well again, thanks so much.
I love the products you'remaking.
I can't wait to get my hands onsome for myself.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
From turning burnout into brilliance, climbing ropes
into art and a camper into amobile workshop.
Shelby's story reminds us thatcreativity and sustainability
can thrive in the mostunexpected places.
If you loved today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
leave a review.
It helps more people discoverstories like Shelby's.
You can also follow ExplorationLocal on your favorite podcast
(40:27):
platform for more adventures andpassion-driven living.
And if Shelby's journey sparkedyour interest, be sure to check
out Cactus to Pine's uniquecreations and workshop
opportunities at cactustopinecom.
Be sure to subscribe toExploration Local so you'll be
the first to know when a newepisode drops.
Join Mike on Instagram andFacebook and drop him a note at
(40:48):
mike at explorationlocalcom ifyou ever have a suggestion for a
future episode or if you'd justlike to say hello.
Until next time, we encourageyou to wander far, but explore
local you.
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