It’s The Official Blog

  • Day Jawn is our Grand Opening in Philadelphia

    Day Jawn is our Grand Opening in Philadelphia

    Kismet is the first event that I applied to as a local vendor, this coming June 4, Held Gear will have a booth at Day Jawn, put on by FRNDS Studios. It is a pop up mall of local vendors in the ambience of North Portland’s sculpture gardens, with the ambience of great local DJ’s.

    Following the Day Jawn is Night Jawn, at the warehouse on Watts, it keeps the DJ night going as a stand-alone event.

    Speaking for myself as the new owner, Sean, I love music above all, and I love to dance. I love real, gritty spaces, and creative people. I cannot imagine a better event to reintroduce Held in Philly than this event.

    I also cannot imagine a better built-in celebration for myself. I cannot wait to make a bunch of new friends and party together.

    Held Gear is moving fast regardless of any sales that may or may not happen at Day Jawn. I believe we’ll move a good chunk of inventory, but I quickly establishing new and scrap material to establish Held Belts inside main street retailers across the U.S., while maintaining consistent inventory online.

    Sales have been happening. Customers were very gracious about my hiccups along the way. Held is coming back. And I love it.

    Saturday June 04
    3-10 PM
    Day Jawn
    1717 N. Hancock Street, Philadelphia

    Advance Tickets on Eventbrite

  • Production to Resume Soon

    Last week, the deed was done. I met up with Founder Micah (Twin) in Why, Arizona, spending two nights and three days on his wildlife refuge. Proceeds from Held Gear will benefit his community work.

    I captured video and photos every step of the way. The goal is to cut a little documentary together about the experience.

    In addition to more than 50 units counted on his floor, we can nearly double that after I finish building up existing materials for a new batch of Mammoth, Auroch, Groove, and Sky belts.

    I will purchase new classic black belt material from our fabricator and this will be the first design to go back into production after the above mentioned pieces are complete.

    Contacts for scrap belt material will be redeveloped. It turns out the same manufacturer that Twin worked with in Portland, Oregon has another site in the Philadelphia suburbs. This whole thing is kismet.

    These steps will take place over the course of May. First thing is to build and ship what I can, here in Tucson, today. Next is to complete the transfer of assets to Philly. When that is successful, it’s simply a matter of setting up my shop at home and pushing ahead.

    The community around this brand is beginning to develop again. It is wonderful to behold.

    Full inventory on May 6, 2022, on Twin’s floor.

  • On the Use of Cryptocurrency

    Some might believe that the use of cryptocurrency is a burden on the environment and our energy system and that contradicts the intention behind Held Gear.

    The truth of the energy system and environmental consequence from industrial activity is more complicated than a unit of energy in and a unit of carbon out.

    Bitcoin mining especially requires massive energy, this fact has monetized an area of waste that the people have long ignored: The Grid. In addition to energy loss over distance, there is waste at the production facilities.

    Energy production is dissipated for no purpose as capacity overruns market demand. Bitcoin is one solution to this problem, utilizing excess energy to create a universally accessible banking system.

    The American Dollar is oil. It is not separable, in terms of its power, or carbon footprint. That era is changing and Held Gear is committed to a decentralized future, healthy ecosystems, and American manufacturing at once.

    Held is producing something in America with materials from American manufacturers. The material itself is low-impact and can be sourced as waste product in pieces too small to sell in the standard market.

    Bitcoin and Litecoin are the longest surviving proof-of-work networks that are truly decentralized and operated by the public, and it utilizes a waste product: surplus energy. This is what Held is all about and this company is proud to accept these units immediately.

    Additionally, Shiba Inu is accepted at checkout. Although it is a meme coin, it has value being supply-capped with low transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain.

    All payment solutions for this web shop are facilitated by WooCommerce, with cryptocurrency features provided by CoinPayments tied to a CoinBase wallet.

    If you believe another unit should be accepted, or no crypto should be, please contact us with a strong argument why.

  • Livestream Interview of HELD Founder Micah Perry with New Owner Sean Ongley

    Livestream interview with Sean Ongley

    Watch the new owner of Held Gear discuss the life and times of founder Micah Perry, learning why he decided to transfer his business to Sean Ongley.

    Over the next week, the baton will be passed in the form of training Sean (that’s me) on how to build a belt. The last scraps of material will be sufficient to produce a few more units, in addition to the 35 currently for sale on this website and the Etsy shop.

    Items can be backordered exclusively on this shop, while all items sold at Etsy are guaranteed to be in stock.

    Please watch this video in its entirety if you care about HELD as a brand, its ethics, and you want to understand where it came from and where it is going.

    This isn’t the whole picture but its a good conversation and you get to know us. We are spiritual, ethical, anarchists.