Where do your climbing shoes go when you throw them out early? Unfortunately there’s a good chance that they might end up near a black or Latino neighborhood. That’s because in the US, your race is the largest factor as to whether you live near a hazardous waste facility. Indeed, a recent NYT’s article highlighted that: Black Americans are exposed to more pollution from every type of source, including industry, agriculture, all manner of vehicles, construction, residential sources and even emissions from restaurants. People of color more broadly, including Black and Hispanic people and Asian-Americans, are exposed to more pollution from nearly every source. People of color are also exposed to disproportionate amounts of emissions from power plants, incinerators, as...
Climbers spend millions on new shoes each year, throwing away old pairs simply because of a few holes. NYC resoler Flash Friction aims to change that, and help minority climbers along the way.
Flash Friction is not only NYC’s sole climbing shoe repair shop, we are a Social Justice Enterprise helping low-income climbers while promoting environmental justice. We launched Flash Friction so that climbers in the NYC area have a place to resole their shoes, but also experiment with using climbing shoe repair as a vehicle to promote social change.As our co-founder Ceasar puts it, “Flash Friction is our contribution to the local climbing community during the pandemic, especially to low-income climbers or those from historically marginalized communities like Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. To be able to climb regularly is a privilege. Gym memberships are not cheap. Gear starts to add up. And paid vacation time to go send outdoors is...
