Category: News

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Inventory Clearance

    The Held Gear homepage, as previously posted, is now open. The inventory listed is highly limited, it only represents the remaining stock of 37 units that Twin holds in storage in Why, Arizona.

    To raise funds toward relaunch, some items are exclusively up for presale on this website and will ship in May. Another batch is set aside for the Etsy store where customers are waiting patiently for the store to reopen.

    Given the total clearance of existing stock at retail price, there will be enough revenue to acquire new materials and restart production.

    Belts can be custom sized, although our off-the-shelf sizes comfortably fit waists from 28 to 42 inches.

    All units can be reinforced with grommets. This option is presented as an additional item and should show up in your cart as such, if you choose it.

    To restore the complete Held catalogue, or get close to it, this will be the goal of 2022. Adding new products and working with designers, this is the exciting future of Held Gear for years to come.