For years, Tension Climbing has been dedicated to crafting high-quality, handcrafted climbing tools, wooden holds, and standardized LED boards—first with the Tension Board 1 and later with the increasingly popular Tension Board 2—all with obsessive attention to detail and intention. A commitment to innovation, particularly in the training segment of the climbing market, has defined the company for nearly a decade. Now, Tension Climbing is expanding its craft to commercial climbing holds.
This article offers an inside look at all things BEИT—from cicada symbolism to design principles, and everything that makes this new brand a turning point in climbing hold design.
Why BEИT?
Q: What inspired you two to create BEИT, and how does it build on your experience with Tension and the TB2?
Will: "Climbing holds are something I have always been passionate about and hold-shaping was a pursuit I was involved with prior to starting Tension. During the development of the TB2, I developed a digital workflow that I thought presented some compelling opportunities for design, collaboration, manufacturing, and waste reduction. After the successful launch of the TB2, as a team, it became obvious that the next step in our evolution included a separate brand and product line catered specifically to the needs of routesetters in the US commercial gym market and the growing homewall market."
Michael: "Since the beginning, Tension has been driven by innovation—particularly in the “training” segment of the climbing market. Building on that foundation, BEИT represents a natural evolution into another key area of climbing where we can bring the same level of quality, design, and customer fulfillment that has defined our company for almost a decade.
From a brand content standpoint (and something that excites me the most), I want BEИT to be an avenue by which we highlight the identity and profession of commercial routesetting and bring modern setting culture into greater focus. There’s so much life and substance within the craft that I think deserves to be shown to a broader audience."
Why Mirrored Holds?
Q: Why did you decide to make all BEИT holds mirrored?
Will: "When I was routesetting full-time, my crew and I repeatedly ran into a few common gripes. One of the most frequent was the lack of a roughly equal number of “left-handed” and “right-handed” shapes within a set. Left- and right-handed shapes not only make setting interesting but also improve new climbers' early experiences by reinforcing basic sequencing concepts. Providing exact mirror copies of all our shapes helps ensure the setting room is consistently stocked with the holds setters need. That said, I also make sure that all of BEИT’s shapes feel comfortable whether gripped with the left or right hand."
Michael: "There was a point early on when we considered only doing some symmetrical sets while most would be asymmetrical. We eventually landed on having every set include this quality, mainly because it had already become such a distinct feature of Tension. Beyond the various balance-oriented features we've built into our training tools, we also introduced the mirrored hold layout to Standardized Boards in 2016–a characteristic that has since become one of the more widely adopted features in the board space.
As Will mentioned, there are plenty of functional benefits of having mirrored hold sets, not only from a utility standpoint, but also from an aesthetic perspective. I think this feature of our hold lines will make a world of difference in the day-to-day job of routesetters and give them a brand they can rely on for that."
Why Dual-tex Everything?
Q: Why did you choose to make all BEИT polyurethane holds dual-textured?
Will: "All of our polyurethane holds feature dual texture, and all of our macros can be ordered in either full texture or dual texture. While the primary purpose of dual texture is to encourage precise hand and foot placement—usually by restricting the usable surface to the textured portions—it also helps maintain a bold visual impact, even as a climb endures the heavy traffic of today’s modern commercial facilities."
Michael: "Something we did with dual-tex on the Tension Board 2 that we will look to expand on with BENT is to use dual-texturing as more of a purposeful “experience enhancer”.
In a similar way to what we did with the plastic shapes on the TB2, we want to use the dual-texture to create extremely specific ways in which each hold can be used with your hands and feet. Combining this intention with the option to choose your texture (full-tex or dual-tex) for our macros, gives customers more creative layers to consider from shape to shape, set to set."
Why So Many Screw Holes?
Q: Why do BEИT holds have so many screw holes? What is beneficial about that feature?
Will: When designing holds for BEИT I am always thinking about how they will eventually be interacted with by setters and ultimately the gym’s customer base. From the setter’s perspective, having holds that are pre-molded with enough screw attachment points that they can be either bolted or screwed on, streamlines the setting process dramatically. From the climbers’ perspective, I try to strategically place the bolt and screw holes so that it is rare to find a sneaky finger or thumb placement in the bolt or screw opening. I find that this results in a more enjoyable climbing experience.
Why the name BEИT?
Michael:
bent
"Being completely honest, the idea behind the name first came from the phrasal slang use. It was far too easy to pull a tag line from “get bent”--which is both an insult in jest and an invitation to buy our holds. That said, the more I thought on it, the more I was drawn to the name from all different angles and use cases.
Will and I are huge fans of The Matrix, so the scene with the child bending the spoon with her mind made me see parallels with a climber or a routesetter bending their minds to envision climbing or setting the sequence of moves. Similarly, I like how the second adjective use of bent - being determined to achieve something - reflects both the climber’s goal of success within their discipline and the setter’s goal of mastery of their craft.
What about the backwards 'N'? For one, I always liked how a backwards "N" looked in the Nine Inch Nails acronym. Two, it makes you look at the logo just a little longer."
Why the Cicada Logo?
Q: What's the meaning behind the cicada logo, and why did you choose it as BEИT's symbol?
Will: "Two reasons. First, my parents and grandparents (along with baby me) spent time in Japan at various points in their lives, so I had some exposure to a few aspects of Japanese culture from a young age. When I was around 10, I completed a school project on the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, one of the earliest and greatest haiku writers.
His famous poem The Cry of the Cicada left a strong impression on me then, and it’s a piece I have revisited often over the years. I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about its meaning and the variations in its translation:
Secondly, Michael, Gabe, and I—the founders of BEИT—all come from and cut our teeth as climbers in cicada country, roughly the eastern and southeastern U.S."
Michael: "After Will brought up the cicada, we actually played around with CICADA being the brand name. While we eventually landed on BEИT, we still decided to keep the splayed insect as the brand symbol. This was partly because, after doing a good bit of thinking on its symbolism myself, I found so many more reasons why it was right.
The cicada is often a symbol of rebirth, renewal, personal change, and transformation. That seemed to fit with our venture into new territory as Tension approaches a decade in business. The cicada is also the loudest of all insects–symbolizing the “noise” we look to make in the climbing hold industry. The cicada also feeds on nutrients from trees and wood–something that parallels its connection to Tension.
Lastly, BEИT’s splayed cicada is a complex image that also embodies symmetry–a theme that will be as much of a hallmark of its brand as it has been for Tension. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point."
Q: Anything else you'd like to leave with?
Will + Michael: "The last thing we'd like to add -- as we venture on in this and other new endeavors, we'd like to thank everyone else who has supported Tension Climbing over the years. We're extremely grateful to continue to have opportunities to develop new ideas and we wouldn’t be able to do it without you or the rest of the amazing folks behind Tension."
Will Anglin // Co-Founder and President, BENT and Tension Climbing
Michael Rosato //Co-Founder, BEИT/Director of Marketing, Tension
