Today we’d like to introduce you to Chad Covington.
Hi Chad, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
The inspiration for creating a kendama brand all started with a simple passion for learning new tricks on this century-old Japanese wooden toy. I picked up my first kendama back in May of 2010 and instantly fell in love with everything it was about. The feeling of learning a new trick and progressing as a player drew me closer to the community and culture behind kendama. I began filming tricks and making edits with my friends for YouTube, started traveling to competitions across the US, and began hosting my own kendama competitions both locally and internationally. After doing this for a little more than three years, my brother Shelton Covington, Co-Owner of Sol Kendamas, saw my passion and enthusiasm for kendama and came to me with the idea of creating our own brand. Since then, we have worked hard to establish an identity that keeps us focused on our goals and allows players to be an active part of everything we do. We have a strong focus on creating opportunities for people to establish and foster relationships with each other within the kendama community, as well as teaching more people about kendama, its history, and its Japanese roots. Today, we host the second-largest kendama event in North America, we sponsor a team of twelve professional kendama players from seven US states and two countries, and we have collaborated with several artists/brands across the world.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Creating and running a brand is very challenging, but when you are passionate about what you are doing, you are more willing to face adversity to help make your dreams come true. We want to have a positive impact on everyone that encounters our brand, so it is important that we are focused on our goals because roadblocks can distract us from accomplishing what we need to accomplish. It can also be easy to lose sight of your goals, so having someone to keep you accountable is also a great way to stay focused.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sol Kendamas?
Sol Kendamas is a leading kendama brand based out of the USA. The four pillars of Sol are kendama, coffee, community, collaboration. We help support people that are pushing the limits of trick creation, photography, filmmaking, and graphic design within the world of kendama. We also work alongside kendama culture curators in Tokyo, Japan, Calgary, Canada, and Riga, Latvia. Since kendama still isn’t mainstream, we are able to help develop and form the culture around it and test out new ideas for competitions without disrupting what has been set in place by those who came before us. Everyone we work with helps form that culture little by little each day.
What makes you happy?
Seeing and hearing how our brand impacts others in a positive way brings a lot of joy to us. We want everyone to be happy and find inspiration through playing kendama and attending our events, that makes us happy!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.solkendamas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solkendamas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SolKendamas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/solkendamas
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/solkendamas
