Bill Petticrew, has been playing guitar since he was about eight years old. In the early 1980’s he pulled the strap off of a guitar he bought from a pawn shop. This guitar strap, a FretSling, was unlike anything he had ever seen. This strap was curved so that it fit around his neck better and it was much more comfortable than any guitar strap he had ever used. More than 35 years later Bill is still playing guitar with that same strap.
A few years ago, he began looking for another FretSling to buy. He looked in guitar shops across Houston and at every online store he could find, much to his surprise he couldn’t find one anywhere. After an exhaustive online search Bill discovered that the FretSling name had been abandoned and production of these wonderful straps had stopped. If he was going to have another comfortable, curved guitar strap he was going to have to make it himself.
Seeing the need to have this unique guitar strap on the market, Bill started developing a plan to start a new business producing these guitar straps. He began looking for a source of quality leather, skilled craftsmen who could handcraft quality leather goods.
Bill’s friend Andy Ramos is the Executive Director and founder of Urban Catalyst. For the past 10 years Andy has been working with refugees and promoting community development initiatives around the world. For the past several years he has focused on starting sustainable long-term development projects to help Syrian refugees in the Middle East. One morning, over a cup of coffee, Bill and Andy’s began discussing the idea of making guitar straps there, by Syrian refugee women for the benefit of Syrian refugee children. It was then that FretSling was born, or actually reborn, as a business with a purpose. Due to COVID, we were shut down right after we got started. Over time Andy’s focus has moved to helping with the crisis in Ukraine. But the original concept has remained, and always will. It’s still a …