Thirteen years ago, a frustrated Denver climber faced a familiar problem: His go-to chalk was sold out at REI. Reassured by a sales associate that “chalk is just chalk,” he grabbed another brand and headed out to work on his route. It was a disaster. The chalk felt greasy, the holds suddenly seemed impossible to stick, and he left the crag empty-handed.
Curious about what had gone wrong, he turned to his wife, a geologist, who connected him with a materials testing lab. Using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing, they analyzed popular chalk brands, all marketed as 100% magnesium carbonate. The results surprised him: Every one contained impurities.
He saw an opportunity. After sourcing pharmaceutical-grade magnesium carbonate and spending three months experimenting with the formula, Friction Labs was born.
“My business partner Keah and I launched a website, and after a month we made one sale: $14 of revenue for the whole month,” recalls Kevin Brown, co-founder and CEO of Friction Labs. The following month brought in a whopping $17. Still, they kept going.
“Now, 13 years later, we are the only manufacturer of chalk products in the United States and have created the premium chalk category,” Kevin says. Colorado’s outdoor culture played an important role in getting them there. “From day one, we’ve been a proud ‘made in Colorado’ company,” Kevin says.
“Colorado has incredible climbing and climbers. Those endorsements gave our products legitimacy, and people around the world started trying our chalk.”
Friction Labs built its reputation among climbers and boulderers, but its obsession with three variables, purity, particle size, and pH, soon attracted athletes in other disciplines. Weightlifters, track athletes, gymnasts, and even NFL players have adopted the brand. More recently, Friction Labs partnered with US Glove to develop specialized gymnastics chalk and worked with elite climber Daniel Woods on new grip products.
“Athlete feedback and testing are central to everything we do,” Kevin says. “We create many things in our lab, but they don’t become products until they’ve been tested in the toughest conditions by some of the best athletes in the world.”
From $14 in first-month sales to chalk in the hands of World Cup contenders and Olympic competitors, Friction Labs has come a long way from one bad day at the crag. Turns out, chalk isn’t just chalk.
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