Angled-sash brushes
2.5" and 3" professional cut-in brushes with Chinex/Tynex synthetic-blend filaments, optimized for low-VOC paint compatibility.
Kestrel-Works Painting Tools — premium painting tools for professional contractors, facilities buyers, and federal procurement. Launching late 2026.
The North America painting tools market reached $2.21B in 2023 and is projected to grow to ~$3.0B by 2030. The premium professional tier within that market is growing fastest at 9.8% CAGR.
The category is dominated by century-old incumbents whose product credibility has eroded among working contractors over the past two decades. No major incumbent holds supplier-diversity certifications.
Kestrel-Works sees an opening for a credibility-led, diversity-certified entrant — and is building one.
Three forces converge to make this the right moment: declining incumbent credibility, India's emergence as the most cost-favorable manufacturing geography after the February 2026 trade agreement, and a federal procurement channel that allocates billions annually to women-owned firms with no painting-tools incumbent in scope.
The brand will launch with 6–10 professional-grade SKUs in three product families.
2.5" and 3" professional cut-in brushes with Chinex/Tynex synthetic-blend filaments, optimized for low-VOC paint compatibility.
9" and 4" rollers with microfiber and woven-blend nap, engineered for finish quality and paint capacity.
1.5" and 2" angular brushes for precision cut-in and finish work, with the same filament technology as the sash line.
Starting with six excellent SKUs rather than thirty average ones is deliberate — credibility-led brands win on focus, not breadth.
Manufacturing is anchored by an established India producer with multi-decade export history, under a Supplier Master Agreement modeled on enterprise-grade third-party governance frameworks. The partnership includes raw-material sourcing support, technical know-how transfer, and operational setup assistance.
This eliminates the 6–18-month supplier-discovery cycle that consumes most first-time importers.
A Year-2 decision point will assess whether to establish a US final-assembly cell adjacent to the Los Angeles / Long Beach port complex — the largest container port in the Western Hemisphere.
This would convert the import from finished good to component plus US value-add, and qualify the product for Made-in-USA labeling and Buy American compliance under federal procurement rules.
Channel sequencing is deliberate — operational complexity scales with revenue, not ahead of it.
Validates the product-quality narrative, builds a contractor review base, and generates first-year revenue. Pro-reviewer seeding through contractor YouTube and Instagram channels with documented professional audiences.
Industrial supply houses including HD Supply, Grainger, Fastenal, and MSC. Tier-2 supplier-diversity programs at Sherwin-Williams and Home Depot. Trade-show presence at NPCA and the National Hardware Show in Year 2.
GSA Schedule, SAM.gov registration, California DGS. Direct outreach to OSDBU offices at DoD, GSA, and VA. 8(a) sole-source contract pursuit once certification is awarded in Year 2–3.
For investor, distribution, or procurement inquiries.
Contact Kestrel-Works