From Cast-Off to Climbing Legend Chapter 1

I secretly funded premium climbing gear for my team, covering costs to keep everyone safe and competitive. Until Haley joined.

"Twelve hundred for a set? Sarah, you’re insane!" she mocked in the group chat. Others defended me. "That’s a steal. Custom gear retails for eight grand." "Sarah owns the company. She charges raw cost."

Haley scoffed. "Raw cost? My family’s in retail. I know the markups. Order through me. Two hundred a set." Greed exploded in the chat. "Two hundred? Insane savings!" "Haley handles our gear now." "Sarah, how much did you pocket under ‘friendship’?"

Pocket? Years of one-of-one custom builds, engineered to their exact biomechanics, dominating rankings. Gear no amount of money could buy elsewhere.

I stared at the screen, typed "OK," and stayed silent. If they trusted their lives to two-hundred-dollar gear on a hundred-foot cliff, it was their funeral.

* * *

Two weeks before the regional qualifiers, my teammates texted me their latest physical metrics.

"Counting on you for the gear this season, Sarah!"

Before I could even type out a response, Haley tagged me in the main chat.

"Wait, twelve hundred dollars for a kit? Am I reading that right?"

"That price is... literally absurd."

I initially thought she was complaining that the price was too low, and I was about to explain that taking a slight financial hit was worth it for the team's overall performance.

Instead, she dropped an audio message, her voice shrill and aggressively self-righteous.

"How do you sleep at night charging everyone twelve hundred dollars for something that costs maybe two hundred bucks to make?"

"Sarah, I know people hustle their friends sometimes, but you are absolutely bleeding them dry!"

My fingers froze over the keyboard.

Two hundred dollars? Was she pricing out cheap, plastic knockoffs from Temu?

Jessica, one of our lead climbers, chimed in to smooth things over. "Haley, you're pretty new to the pro circuit, but elite climbing gear is just insanely expensive."

"Sarah runs a legit manufacturing company. She’s hooking us up at cost. A rig like this would easily run you seven or eight grand in a specialized shop."

Haley fired right back.

"I know exactly how this works, Jess. My family runs retail."

"MSRP is just a made-up number. The profit margins are completely bloated."

"When my family sources inventory, even the top-tier gear costs a maximum of two hundred dollars to produce, but they turn around and sell it to suckers for ten grand."

A heavy, awkward silence descended on the digital chat room. Then Jessica typed again, but this time, she tagged me.

"Sarah... maybe you should clear the air here?"

"We totally get that you run a business and need to make a profit, but marking it up six times over? That feels a little... predatory, don't you think?"

Like blood in the water, the rest of the team started surfacing.

"I always thought she was way too eager to handle our equipment. Makes sense now."

"This is honestly messed up, Sarah. Every time we thanked you for the 'friend discount,' were you just laughing at us behind your screen?"

Haley dropped a fake-innocent emoji covering its mouth.

"Oh no, should I not have said anything? I didn't mean to ruin your little side hustle, Sarah..."

"But I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. I absolutely despise people who exploit their friends for a quick buck."

"I used to source gear for my old team, and I charged them the real baseline cost. Two hundred dollars, flat."

"If you guys want, I can lock in that price for the whole roster."

The chat erupted into absolute chaos.

"Are you serious, Haley? Two hundred? That saves us so much cash!"

"Thank God, I don't have to eat instant ramen for a month just to afford a harness."

"Man, to think of all the money I scraped together, only to line the pockets of a greedy corporate shill."

Even Greg, our supposedly level-headed team captain, finally weighed in.

"I blame myself for not doing the market research. I let someone take advantage of this team's trust."

A second later, a private message from Greg popped up on my screen.

"Hey Sarah. Look, the team is pretty pissed off. I need you to refund the money we sent you for this season's gear."

"We're going to route the order through Haley."

"It's nothing personal, but the price discrepancy is just too massive to ignore."