I don't see how you could think there would be no confusion. Your Kickstarter page shows you offering t-shirts, polos, and hoodies; various types of garments. Holden Outerwear sells t-shirts and hoodies (though no polos); various types of garments as well.
I'd agree with your conclusion if you were a graphic design company or in any other unrelated industry, but the fact that you're selling garments using the name "Holden" and an existing mark holder sells garments using the name "Holden" seems pretty clear-cut to me.
A quick search yields these active trademarks [edit: hopefully these are permalinks]:
Here's the goods and services covered for the first (word) mark:
IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: clothing, namely, jackets,
sweaters, sweatshirts, pants, t-shirts, shirts, vests and
outerwear, namely, snow pants, snow jackets, snow suits,
insulated and thermal pants, jackets, and shirts;
headgear, namely, hats, caps. FIRST USE: 20020000. FIRST
USE IN COMMERCE: 20020000
The second is the mark in stylized form which is in cursive like yours is.
Fair use with geographic distinction is a complicated topic, with recent court rulings (ie, KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc. v. Lasting Impression I, Inc); we did our best to grok this, but in the end, it simply isn't in anyone's interests to fight.
We are not keen on harming another company to build our own. Our hope was that this would not be the case, as there is very little overlap: Holden Outerwear makes branded t-shirts only, while focusing on Outerwear; we make non-branded shirts.
Let's turn this into a positive, find a great name we all love, and get these shirts made! I'm as eager as all of you for the first run, my closet could use an upgrade.
I'd agree with your conclusion if you were a graphic design company or in any other unrelated industry, but the fact that you're selling garments using the name "Holden" and an existing mark holder sells garments using the name "Holden" seems pretty clear-cut to me.
A quick search yields these active trademarks [edit: hopefully these are permalinks]:
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85334319&caseType=SERI...
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78378687&caseType=SERI...
Here's the goods and services covered for the first (word) mark:
The second is the mark in stylized form which is in cursive like yours is.