Thanks so much for the support Porter, I really appreciate it! It's hard to believe fourteen years has gone by since I started NWA. Cascadeclimbers.com was where our first customers came from, and it's been a completely wild ride since then.
Though I always lurked way more than I posted, this site was a big inspiration to me when I was climbing a lot. I think it's a shame that social media has largely stolen attention from forums/communities like cc.com. It's hard to build a real community when it is mediated by a mega-corporation thats sole focus is the bottom line.
Unfortunately over the last decade+, just as giant social media companies have drowned out smaller independent sites like this one, the same thing has happened in the outdoor industry generally. A handful of large corporations dominate the market and essentially form an oligopoly. Most of these brands are now publicly traded, owned by large conglomerates, or both. Even the one owned by the planet sells a billion and a half dollars worth of apparel and makes hundreds of millions in profits annually.
As a small independent and self-funded brand focused on technical apparel, it's REALLY difficult to have companies with unlimited resources as your competition. And then to try to make everything in the US where the apparel manufacturing supply chain has all but disappeared...crazy. But we're doing it anyway because we think it's the right thing to do for the people and the earth. I know a lot of you care about the same things we do and if you're not familiar with NWA, please check us out.
To conclude this novel, I'm super grateful for the support from Cascadeclimbers.com. It is an invaluable, independent, resource for Northwest climbers that deserves our attention now more than ever!