Let’s begin with a sense of confidence…. or not. Over the years, I've had the privilege of observing the entire process of making skis, boots, bindings to surfboards. I also co-founded a boardshort company and a mountain bike apparel company. Sum of Everything is the culmination of my life’s experiences. With this in mind, I felt confident I could design and produce a belt as I envisioned it.

Designing the buckle itself wasn’t particularly difficult, but ensuring it would work with the wide variety of webbing options available proved to be a challenge. The next hurdle was finding a skilled artisan who could cast the buckle in brass. To achieve the right relief for the lettering, I collaborated with a jeweler in San Francisco, refining the design through multiple iterations until we got it just right.

The real challenge of the project, however, was the webbing. While solid, mil-spec webbing and thinner options under 2mm are relatively easy to find, I wanted to create a design that would utilize jacquard weaving to enable a design woven into the webbing. The mistake I made was assuming that sourcing 3mm webbing would be straightforward, based on a design I had based my expectations on. As a result, I ended up producing enough webbing for approximately 100 belts in what we call a “sample run” — a smaller batch, to refine and test the design.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to apply all the lessons I’ve learned, (and there were a lot) with plans to explore the use of recycled fishing nets as a potential source for the fibers, adding a sustainable element to the future of the product.