Since 2006, ClimbAddict Designs has been offering t-shirts, stickers, hoodies, travel cups and more; featuring original graphic art and text-based designs.
We create the designs and decide which merchandise we'll offer. Our products are then produced and shipped through our partners at CafePress and Zazzle; both companies with long-standing reputations for quality in the print-on-demand business. Rest assure, your ClimbAddict product comes with a 100% Customer Satisfaction and 30-Day Return/Exchange policy.
ClimbAddict is owned by Terrie Marcoe(or Happiegrrrl, as she is known online). Terrie started climbing in the spring of 2004 and was addicted the moment she had four points on the wall and asked herself "Now what?" The intriguing mix of problem solving and physical activity was instantly intoxicating, and she has never looked back.
Her first season was spent learning the basics of being a good partner/second, mostly through reading, as she had trouble getting out of the gym. Frustrated by seeing the younger, cuter 20-something girls asked if they wanted to climb at the Gunks, she took matters into her own hands, and when a friend needed someone to take her spot at a beginner climber workshop offered through the Adirondack Mountain Club. Getting on real rock quickly relegated the gym to the status of unhappy substitute, and each weekend Terrie made efforts to find people to climb with, developing a quick instinct for vetting competent climbers to lead the day.
Within weeks, Terrie decided she wanted to lead, but having no proper mentor and enough brains to know she couldn't adequately tutor herself, she spent the money to hire guides and learn gear placement and anchor building. She led her first route the following spring, at a crag called "Lost Wall" in Georgia. On a road trip with some guy who "offered to show her the southeastern crags," he quickly relegated the tour to the one crag mentioned above, where he spent days having her hold the rope while he worked at cleaning a potential FA(later sent and called "Soup Pillow") and nights trying to get her to bed him, using the luring line of "I'll get you your first lead." Only an addicted newbie climber would have fallen for the ploy and stuck the project long enough to make sure she got her lead. She did - a 5.5 which had been climbed only 3-4 times previously, and used as a descent route into the crag by the few people putting up routes there. The lead was done in waning light, and Terrie topped out in darkness. Pissed as hell at the guy for delaying her chance to lead, she was still ecstatic she had gotten it.
Since then, each weekend was spent at the Gunks, or on road trips to the southeast(more belay-slaving away), and Terrie's first trip to Joshua Tree, which has been her Crag Away from Crag ever since.
These days, Terrie actually lives as a caretaker on the Mohonk Preserve, in a log cabin with no electricity or running water, but within 20-minutes walking distance from the cliffs. In mid November, 2010, she takes off cross-country to base herself out of Joshua Tree while she spends her first winter on the road. Hopes are to climb Joshua Tree(of course), Bishop, Red Rocks, Hueco Tanks, and various areas in Arizona and New Mexico.
Terrie has many years experience in design, marketing, and business management. She got her start in business as a handbag designer, working with companies producing product for major retailers such as Bloomingdales, JCPenney, Target, and virtually every chain store in the US.
After realizing she was actually a bad employee because she always tried to run the company she worked for, Terrie decided to start her own company, Talisman Studios, which offered original designs in stained glass.
While Talisman did meet with success, it needed more capital to grow that Terrie could raise. Reluctantly, she closed shop and focused her energy on a companion animal care service in New York City. The company flourished, though Terrie always kept the client base small in order to offer boutique-level customer services such as one-on-one sessions and in-home boarding. As she gained proficiency in the various aspects of operating a customer-based company, Terrie turned her head back to design, looking for a creative outlet that could also provide financial support.
Her next project, also called Talisman Studios, was a hair accessories company featuring ponytail holders made of vintage buttons. Met with immediate success, the hair goods were first sold at Henri Bendel, a 5th Avenue boutique catering to fashionable women worldwide. Alas, operating as a wholesale source to retail establishments proved to be.... a pain in the butt! The hair goods were one-of-a-kind items, and buyers wanted to personally choose the dozen or so pieces they'd order at a time. Finding this unworkable, Terrie chose to offer the hair accessories directly to customers online, through her Talisman Studios shop at Etsy.com. Why not click over and see for yourself?
With all these irons in the fire, Terrie added yet another group of t-shirt shops, looking to expand on general themes as well as a few specialized areas outside of climbing. You can check out these designs at OutrageousTees.com.
Back to ClimbAddict, Terrie created the first ClimbAddict design, "Do Not Drop," in 2006, on a whim, when she stumbled across the CafePress website while searching the internet for "climbing t-shirts." Seeing a plethora of what she felt were fairly horrible designs(which no real climber or even any wannabe climber would ever want), she thought "I can do better than these clip-art pieces of crap." She's been updating the shop frequently ever since as she comes up with new designs. The shop has seen a steady growth since it's debut in November of 2006 and is known for it's original artwork and quirky concepts.
The latest development for ClimbAddict has been the introduction of chalkbags to our offerings in the spring of 2011. The bags are made by Terrie herself, from materials she personally selects, and from patterns she created. The line was begun in the desert world of the Mojave, but hand-sewing from start to finish proved to be unworkable, of course. The bags were nice, but who in their right mind would pay for 20 hours of labor? And so, the chalkbags are cut and machine sewn in a studio beneath the incredible Millbrook crag in the Gunks, and then finished with hand-stitching wherever Terrie may be. Sometimes that's at the off-grid cabin she lives in in New York; others it is in the front seat of her van(her mobile porch) as she winters in the southwest.
ClimbAddict donates goods to climbing events such as bouldering comps, workshops, film festivals and crag clean-ups. If your group is looking for a bit of sponsorship, send us a note through our Contact link and let us know about your event! Please be sure to include a name and contact number to reach you at!
