In 2020, three brothers in Lebanon broke their climbing shoes and could not find a way to replace them. Covid had shut imports down, the lira had collapsed, and the few specialty climbing brands they used to order from were out of reach. So Georges Issa, Jad Issa, and Elias Issa sat down at their parents' dining room table and started fixing the shoes themselves. That is the company Climberspace grew out of.
Five years on, the brand operates out of Qlayaat in Lebanon, has a national community of climbers around it, and an annual festival that pulls them all together. The dining room table is gone. The repair workshop is not.
From broken shoes to a resoling business
Resoling is still the spine of Climberspace. Climbing shoes wear down heavily at the toe and edge, and most pairs are thrown away when the rubber gives out. Climberspace strips them down and rebuilds the sole, putting another season or two of climbing into footwear that would otherwise end up in landfill.
The model is upcycling at the product level: a small repair operation that keeps high-quality gear in use in a country where importing replacements is expensive. That positioning has put Climberspace inside Lebanon's circular-economy programs. The company is an alumnus of Berytech's Cleanergy program, and was previously enrolled in the USAID-funded DAWERR activity for waste valorization.
What the catalog actually looks like
Beyond resoling, Climberspace stocks the kind of gear local climbers used to import individually. Loose chalk, climbing tape, and a climbing brush sit alongside a small apparel line with names that lean into the scene: Fried Fingers, Mount Hummus, Home Is Where You Climb, Just Fall, a Massoud tee, and caps.
A collabs section adds pins, posters, stickers, a climbnote, and a rocket pocket, plus the brand's own Lebanon and Cyprus climbing guidebooks. The shop runs online at climberspace.com, with a workshop track offering climbing instruction for newer climbers.
Spacefest, the part the brothers love most
If the shop is the engine, Spacefest is the heart. The annual gathering pulls together climbers across levels for a multi-day festival, and the founders describe it as the project they pour the most of themselves into each year. It has effectively become Climberspace's public face: the place where customers, climbers, and the brand all converge.
Ecosystem recognition
The business has picked up notice outside the climbing community as well. On top of the Berytech and DAWERR programs, Climberspace appeared on Season 1 of Shark Tank Lebanon, pitching two days before this year's Spacefest. The brothers walked away without a deal, but kept the visibility and the validation that comes with a televised pitch.
Where Climberspace goes from here
The team has not publicly mapped out a long roadmap. Spacefest is back on the calendar, the resoling workshop continues to handle pairs week after week, and the apparel and guidebook lines keep expanding. Climberspace started as three climbers refusing to throw their shoes away. It now sits at the centre of a small, real, growing climbing scene in Lebanon.
Visit Climberspace to shop the store, book a resoling slot, or learn about Spacefest.
