Meet Danny Ear | Leathercrafter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danny Ear and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danny, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It started out as just doing something out of necessity. Going to REI and buying nylon webbing and taping them together to make weightlifting straps for training. I wanted them in leather but no companies made weightlifting straps in this style in leather that I could find.

I realized the sport of Weightlifting would continue to grow due to the growth of Crossfit. Crossfit introduced people to 2 movements used in Olympic Weightlifting, which is the snatch and the clean & jerk. After participating in Crossfit for 2 years, I realized I just wanted to do the weightlifting aspect of the program and not the cardio and I knew there would be a lot of people who would feel the same. With not a lot of options in leather weightlifting straps in this style out there at the time, I thought it might be a good idea. I love training and I love watching people compete and I believe there should be quality equipment for hard training. It only made sense to start my own company.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Onyx Weightlifting Co, also known as Onyx Straps is an e-commerce business, producing and selling training equipment for the sport of Weightlifting. We are proud sponsors of USA Weightlifting are the Official Straps and Wrist Wraps of USAW. We are used by athletes all across the world and in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, we had 4 athletes who used our wrist wraps take a medal at the olympics.

Onyx started as a passion project for me. Being a weightlifter myself, I wanted to make some quality weightlifting straps with leather. There were companies making weightlifting straps already, however no one was making them in this style, which is more of a traditional style for this sport, as well as having color options. Being a weightlifter and already heading to competitions, it only made sense to introduce my straps to more weightlifters.

I started the company in 2016 and that was the same year the Olympic Trials and USAW Nationals was happening at the same weekend in Salt Lake City. With only relying on Instagram and local meets for promotions up until that point, I decided to head to SLC to meet more weightlifters and network. Luckily met a few clubs that would help me promote via their gym and social media. From there it slowly started to grow.

It wasn’t easy at the beginning. I was running my personal training business, coaching weightlifting at our club, training myself as an athlete and now starting this new business, while knowing nothing about leathercrafting. I spent all my free time watching videos and crafting. I stopped going out with my friends and just focused on training and learning how to make things with leather. I didn’t have a sewing machine so I was hand punching holes and hand sewing everything at the time as well. So my time was very limited and I was getting stretched thin. Luckily my neighbor was a retired seamstress with a sewing machine, She helped me sew my first few batches but her sewing machine wasn’t ideal for leather. I started to outsource some of the work to someone local that helped me with production.

Eventually, I ran the business out of my garage for 3 years and even had to move back to my parents house for a little bit to save money. I had a little tool shed that I ran the business out for maybe 8 months there. In 2019, I partnered with Chris and Sarah and was able to move from the tool shed into a small room inside SoCal Weightlifting. We were in that small room for 2 years and at the beginning of his year we moved into bigger space a few units over.

In 2019, we partnered with USA Weightlifting and became the Official Straps of USA Weightlifting. Through this sponsorship, we were able to attend national level competitions and got to meet weightlifters from across the country. Our name was starting to get out there. We started to make other products designed specifically for athlete’s training in mind over the next few years. Some new wrist wraps designed for weightlifters as well as a leather weightlifting belt. Most companies would make a product that’s generic and the same as everyone else and release it to the public but being a weightlifter myself, I could see how some of this equipment could be designed slightly better for our sport.

One of our most proudest moments as a company happened during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. We had 6 athletes from across the world use our wrist wraps during the Olympics. 4 of those athletes took a medal home for their country. Our good friend Kate Vibert represented the USA and secured a silver medal, the highest medal the US received in the sport since Tara Nott’s gold medal in the 2000 Olympics in Australia.

Some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way are that you can’t do everything yourself. Figure out what you are good at and stick to it but put people in places where they are good at and let them do what they do. Relationships also matter a lot. It’s not just about what you know but who you know and if you establish good relationships with people, that will open doors to more opportunities when you least expect it.

Our team here at Onyx are made up of people who all do weightlifting. We believe that weightlifting as a training method has a lot of good benefits that bleed over into other parts of your life. This constant effort to be stronger by training consistently week after week and month after month. We believe it makes you a more responsible person if you take your training serious. We believe that you gain a lot of confidence in yourself to be able to commit and complete hard tasks just by committing to your training. Being that it’s a smaller sport, we want to help bring more attention to it and support those who are committed to it as well.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
‘Ai Pono Cafe in Costa Mesa for some Hawaiian food. TK Burger in Costa Mesa for some burgers
Nate’s Korner for breakfast burritos
Inspiration Point in Newport Beach when you just want to have time to look at the ocean and think
Irvine Improv for comedy shows
Shabuya for some shabu-shabu
Capital Seafood for dim sum

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Andy Sun, Arnold Arons, Bob Taken, Colin Crane, Chris and Sarah Amenta, Jerry Sanchez, Mike Alcantara.

Website: www.onyxstraps.com

Instagram: @onyx_straps @donyx11 (my personal IG)