KARAH Climbing

The coolest climbing brand, launching tomorrow, that is quietly taking over Sheffield's underground climbing style scene...

Photo Credit: KARAH Climbing

Tomorrow (Monday 22nd September), KARAH Climbing’s first ever drop goes live. KARAH is a fledgling climbing lifestyle brand, rooted in Sheffield’s colourful climbing scene, that might just be the next big thing. Student and climber Ed Brown founded the brand from a pure passion for the sport, like many historic brands from the same part of the UK,

‘I think it's inspiring in the way that climbing outdoor brands have been made purely out of the love for climbing and Karah comes from the same place as that’,

he explains over the phone. With help from friends and family, Ed has succeeded in creating an underground label based on gritty graffiti aesthetics, sibling banter and authenticity. This is how a love for the climbing lifestyle evolved into heavyweight tees, oak lifting edges and a brand designed to unite climbers.

What started as a playful graffiti tag scrawled on the dormant walls of Sheffield soon became the KARAH slogan for Ed’s t-shirt designs. ‘Me and my brothers are all very close and I just decided it would be kind of fun to use KARAH as my graffiti tag’. Little did Ed know this would be the basis of his namesake brand. None of them knew the meaning of KARAH though and a late-night Google search revealed the word loosely translates to friendship in Hindi, which really solidified the name with the roots and identity of the brand. Ed confesses, ‘Honestly, I was never very arty, in terms of fashion design, I’ve got no experience whatsoever’, but from a consumer perspective Ed relied on his keen eye and knowledge of the climbing market to shape KARAH’s underground aesthetic. All sketches, designs and logos all come from Ed but a lot of the final images for the t-shirt and lifting edge release came from his close friend Issac, whose Peak District climbing shots transformed Ed’s vision.

‘It all stemmed from us going out climbing in the Peaks, climbing indoors and taking pictures, I wanted a way to put them out there’,

Ed explains. 

When asked about climbing, it's clear it's always been integral to Ed’s lifestyle, ‘I’ve been climbing my whole life, lots of my family do it too’. He talks about Sheffield, and the specific climbing aura of the city, that was key in his decision to study there.

‘Everyone you meet in Sheffield, especially students, are either a DJ or a climber, and if they're not - they're not really worth talking to’.

Ed laughs, crediting the city’s communal vibe and reputation for mountaineering innovation as a huge inspiration for KARAH. 

Photo Credit: KARAH Climbing

The inaugural release features KARAH’s first tee, ‘The Blizzard T-Shirt’ and the oak lifting edge. The t-shirt is made from 285gsm heavyweight cotton, has a functional boxy fit (perfect for bouldering), the logo embroidered on the front and a graphic print on the back. ‘The back print of the t-shirt was taken on a snowboarding trip to Norway’, Ed explains, ‘The boulder covered in snow was captured at the top of a ski lift, then two years later I thought I’ll put that on a t-shirt’. Then there’s the lifting edge which is handcrafted from durable oak, replaceable cord, featuring a universal grip profile. And it is by far the coolest lifting edge we’ve seen. 

‘I’d looked at a lot of lifting edges on the market and used lots before but they are all made from weak pine, which first of all I wasn't a fan of and secondly they are all a bit too specialised, in my opinion’. Ed tells the story of discovering his stepdad’s brother runs a shopfitting business, a.k.a he’s got a workshop. ‘I had had this idea of a lifting edge and I reckoned I could make a good one so I asked him if we could work together’. Thankfully he was keen to collaborate with Ed, who then sent him over dozens of sketches and plans, hoping to bring his vision to life. ‘We finally had a prototype, but he was too busy to give me the time of day for full scale production’, which in Ed’s words was, ‘Crushing and devastating’. But soon enough Ed found a Sheffield based workshop to produce the edges and they came out better than he’d ever imagined.

‘I wanted to create something solid, simple and universal. The grip on this bad boy is beautiful’. 

More than a fashion label, Ed’s vision is for KARAH to become a silent handshake among climbers. ‘I want it to be more than t-shirts. I want it to become a thing in itself’.  He imagines seeing the brand not just on the rocks but among the vibrant social scene of Sheffield, ‘Imagine you're at the pub and you see a random person wearing a KARAH t-shirt. You can nod to them and know we like the same stuff, we’re inspired by the same ideas, we both have this mindset of underground climbing and, best of all, I’ve got a shirt to go with it’. If that doesn't sum up the community that KARAH is quietly building, what does? Upcoming drops will expand beyond tees and edges, cementing KARAH as a standalone cultural marker for the Gen-Z underground climbing scene. Check out the first drop tomorrow at @karah.climbing and keep an eye on Sheffield's crags and streets for KARAH’s tees.

Quotes courtesy of Ed Brown, interviewed on 05/09/25.