It started as a repair bench.
Gearhold began at the repair bench of a Chattanooga bike co-op, restitching the same failed pedal straps every week. Imports with fused edges that split the moment winter got into them. After the fortieth repair, we stopped fixing other people's straps and drafted our own pattern.
We moved one town south to Tunnel Hill for cheap brick, honest freight access, and a 1978 bar-tack machine at an estate sale. Her name is Ruth. She has sewn every strap we've ever sold, and she is not for sale.
We stay small on purpose: one pattern at a time, five colorways, weekly dye lots. If the catalog ever hits page two, something has gone wrong.
Cut, fuse, sew, rig, pull.
A batch takes about ninety minutes on this bench. The hot knife seals the nylon as it cuts at 380 mm. Two plies go under the platen so the loop keeps its mouth wet or frozen. Ruth lays six bar-tacks in #69 bonded thread. We set the 316 stainless buckle and D-ring by hand. Every strap then hangs 300 lb for ten seconds—not a sample, every strap—before it is packed.
Nylon from Carolina. Stainless from Ohio.
Webbing is milled in North Carolina and dyed in weekly lots: 4,400 lb tensile, 25 mm, UV-stable dye. Buckles and D-rings are 316 stainless, machined in Ohio and powder-blasted so they grip webbing instead of chewing it. Marine-grade because road salt is meaner than the sea. No plastic in the loop.
Milled in North Carolina, dyed in weekly lots. Tight 17-pick weave, stiff enough to hold a mouth open over the pedal, soft enough to fold flat in a pocket.
Buckles and D-rings machined in Ohio, powder-blasted so they grip webbing instead of chewing it. Marine-grade because road salt is meaner than the sea.