OUR STORY
It all started in a small climbing gym on the outskirts of Tokyo.
In 2008, we began experimenting with chalk in a tiny space behind the climbing walls.
Somehow, we're still experimenting today.
This is the story of how TOKYO POWDER came to be—and what happened after.
Around that time, the quality of a major chalk brand used by many climbers changed, and its friction dropped dramatically. It made our founder, Mitsuo Yamamoto, realize just how much climbing performance could be affected by chalk. Using a small space behind the walls of the climbing gym he was running on the outskirts of Tokyo, he began experimenting.
The first experiments were simple comparisons between different types of magnesium carbonate. We also mixed them with several commercially available chalks to see how their characteristics changed. Those trials eventually led to the idea of blending magnesium carbonate itself, which became the foundation of what we now call PURE. Early prototypes were sold to climbers who visited the gym, and their feedback shaped what came next.
A friend who had joined an overseas climbing trip with one of Japan's leading climbers told us about the surprising effects of aroma. That was enough to send us down another rabbit hole. While experimenting, we discovered a way to give chalk a specific scent, and that eventually became the prototype for EFFECT. Around the same time we also experimented with block chalk and colored chalk, although neither made it through the many practical hurdles required for production.
The scented chalk was well received, and several shops asked if they could sell it. So we gave it a name—TOKYO POWDER—and, almost by accident, became a chalk brand.
Back then, climbers paid far less attention to chalk performance than they do today. For most people, chalk had one important feature: it should be cheap.
“TOKYO POWDER? What's that... wait, you're a chalk company? Seriously?”
Today, specialist chalk brands are completely normal. At the time, chalk was mostly treated as a minor accessory sold by mountaineering or climbing brands, and the main standard for judging it was simply price.
We developed SPEED, with a scent deliberately opposite to EFFECT, and as sales grew, producing chalk behind the climbing walls was becoming impossible. Around the same time, Yamamoto's gym moved to a larger location, where we finally built a dedicated room for chalk development and production. Output increased steadily. This was also when our factory manager joined the team. At that point, the entire lineup was still just PURE, EFFECT, and SPEED.
We could already see the potential of chalk, but we also felt there was a limit to how much friction could be improved by processing magnesium carbonate alone. So we started looking, very much by trial and error, for ways to push friction further.
CHALK CAN CHANGE YOUR GRADE
In 2014, after plenty of detours, experiments, and failed attempts, we began paying attention to several ingredients commonly used in antiperspirants. That eventually led us to a chalk unlike anything we had made before.
BLACK was born—the product that would come to define TOKYO POWDER.
“The right chalk can change the grade you climb.”
For us, BLACK was unquestionably a turning point in the way we thought about climbing chalk.
Two years after launching BLACK, we were going through a stretch where plenty of ideas simply refused to become real products.
Then our factory manager had an idea: “What if it worked like Aquafresh toothpaste, with two different materials coming out together?” That thought led us to a way of combining two ingredients that, at least on paper, should not have been able to coexist. The result was friction that felt almost like cheating.
We called it BOOST. Because it was expensive and came in a very small package, climbers quickly started jokingly calling it a “pay-to-win item.” Plenty of well-funded climbers seemed happy to pay. It also became one of the earliest examples of what is now commonly called a chalk base layer.
At one point, torn pieces of BOOST packaging could be found scattered around World Cup isolation zones, and the IFSC even asked us to submit a full ingredient list.
After BOOST, we kept experimenting. We developed ASTRO, a chalk ball designed to increase friction; REACT, created to maximize chalk performance by changing how the hands are prepared; chunky chalk made from basic magnesium carbonate, something often said to be difficult to produce; and later RX and V3. We have continued to put new ideas into products whenever we thought they were worth trying.
We also expanded overseas. Today TOKYO POWDER is sold in more than 25 countries across the United States, Canada, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. In more and more places, climbers have started to understand the idea that the chalk you use can genuinely affect the grade you climb.
We are grateful to the strong friends who have shared their knowledge and experience with us, to the many athletes who have tested our products, and to the generations of climbers who came before us. We will keep making products that help climbers perform just a little better.
COMPANY
| COMPANY NAME | 合同会社東京粉末 / TOKYO POWDER, LLC |
|---|---|
| ADDRESS |
〒207-0014 東京都東大和市南街1-9-4 1-9-4 Nangai, Higashiyamato, Tokyo 207-0014, JAPAN |
| REPRESENTATIVE | Mitsuo Yamamoto / Representative Member |
| BUSINESS | Manufacturing, processing, and sales of climbing products. |
| JAPANESE INVOICE REGISTRATION NO. | T2012803001485 |