B2B · E-commerce
A climbing hold distributor bringing nine brands under one roof for gyms and routesetters.
The story
Rock Candy Holds had earned its reputation over nearly two decades of manufacturing climbing holds in Ohio, with a catalog of more than 1,000 shapes. When the business decided to expand into distribution under a new name, selling not just its own holds but a growing roster of other climbing brands, it needed a brand system, website, and marketing strategy built from scratch to support that shift.
Before
The challenge
Rock Candy was embedded everywhere in its audience's mind. Our job was to build The Candy Shop into its own entity, with new messaging, a new visual identity, and a new domain, while making sure Rock Candy kept its own story instead of disappearing inside a distributor.
As the portfolio grew to include acquired brands like Mimic Holds and Dimension Volumes, the challenge expanded again: turning separately acquired brands into one coherent, easy-to-shop platform, all while shifting the customer base toward commercial gyms and routesetters rather than individual climbers.
The numbers
We've been working with The Candy Shop since May 2025.
year of online sales growth since 2020, on track for 2026 after five straight years of decline.
of last year's online sales reached by early October, with a quarter still to go.
brands under one roof, up from 4 at launch.
of online revenue traced directly to our marketing.
Overview
Timeline
We built the initial Candy Shop concept on Rock Candy Holds' existing Shopify site. Unsure at first whether the idea would stick, the team tested it by tacking the new concept onto the established Rock Candy brand.
After a summer of proof, The Candy Shop earned a full, standalone identity: new logo, color system, messaging, and domain. Moving from rockcandyholds.com to candyshopclimbing.com meant carefully managing the migration so neither brand lost the SEO ground it had earned. Every touchpoint, from branding to email, moved to the new identity.
After months of preparation, The Candy Shop made its public debut as a fully independent brand at a 20x20 booth, with swag, product demos, and on-site communications. The brand went from selling nothing the year before to nearly selling out the booth.
The Mimic Holds site launched, translating its real-rock 3D scanning story into its own brand presence, and Dimension Volumes came fully online under The Candy Shop umbrella. With the homewall market slowing, focus shifted toward commercial gyms, multi-location buyers, and routesetters, the audience with the most room to grow.
Results
The Candy Shop is now a reliable, central distributor of climbing holds, macros, and volumes in North America.
What started as an extension of Rock Candy Holds is now its own platform: one place for climbing gyms, routesetters, and commercial buyers to shop a curated roster of respected brands, including Rock Candy, Mimic, Dimension, Decoy, EP, Ocelot, So iLL, Alchemy, and Trango.
Rock Candy kept its own story and manufacturing legacy intact, while The Candy Shop turned one cart, one payment, and simpler ordering into the easiest way to buy commercial climbing product.
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