With his strong outdoor and indoor background, Robert Leistner brings a unique skill set and vision to the Blocz lineup – and his role has paid off. In Climbing Business Journal’s 2019 Grip List, Blocz won second under the “Top Volumes of the Year” category. We were fortunate to steal some of Robert’s time to get a better understanding of his perspective on shaping, climbing and setting.
Our designers are the fuel that drives us full steam into the future, and we’re proud to have some of the brightest folks in the industry, like Caroline Nilsson, on our team.
Fifth-generation Yakima farmer and president of Roy Farms, Michael Roy, is capitalizing on the Yakima’s growing outdoor community. With climbing being his main passion outside of farming, he’s now preparing to welcome the first-ever climbing gym to the area!
Including retail in your gym isn’t always an obvious decision. But expanding into retail means supplementing your gym’s bottom line with another revenue stream. And that’s always an option worth exploring. Read Petzl’s thoughts to help you discover the power of retail in your climbing gym.
Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and a historic, culturally rich one at that. It’s home to an international airport, is a stone’s throw away from the Big Apple and is just an hour and a half car ride from the Gunks, a world-class climbing destination. Now, the nation’s third oldest city is set to receive its very first climbing gym, located in the famed Walker House.
Over the past several years, Brad Barlage of Ascension Sales Group has worked with numerous brands to help get their product in climbing gym’s retail spaces. During this time, he's recognized what is successful and what doesn’t work. This blog post includes a list of things to keep in mind when planning your gym’s retail space.
Though there is a passionate climbing group in the area, Latitude Climbing and Fitness – after opening its doors on June 21, 2018 – focuses on introducing people to the sport. With its unique bouldering-only walls, like the Globe, and programs such as bouldering leagues, youth classes, yoga and more, it has since became a hub for and fostered the local climbing community. We sat down with co-owner Marisa Beck to talk about Latitude’s mission, holistic approach and plans for expansion.
While working on The Front Climbing Club’s South Main construction site in Salt Lake City, we were able to steal a few minutes out of James Mobley's busy day to chat about his transition out of a six-figure job and why helping others make their dreams a reality as a foreman at VS gives him profound happiness.
A few months ago, the Golden State’s newest bouldering gym officially opened its doors in Long Beach. Now, with the rise of other establishments such as a brewery and two bars, Central Long Beach has been deemed a ‘new entertainment district.’ Public infrastructure in the neighborhood is also improving, and others are looking at the area as a hotbed of opportunity. We caught up with owner Grayston Leonard to talk about climbing, his new business and valuable advice he has for others looking to break into the industry.
We sat down with North Mass Boulder Co-Founders, Elliott Steward and Zach Donovan, to discuss their inception of and plans for Indiana’s newest bouldering gym.
The quality of a gym’s routestting can make or break its popularity. Set too difficult and no one will be able to climb; set too easy and people will become disinterested. Additionally, safety while working at height is of utmost importance. With a plethora of rigging options and gear on the market, it’s imperative that gym owners and head routesetters choose wisely to help mitigate risk while on the job. With this in mind, we sat down with The Front Climbing Club’s Head Routesetter Eddie Morillas to talk routesetting, working at height and what it’s like to set for multiple gyms with a new location opening on the horizon.
This past summer, Petzl America went on a North American routesetting tour to demonstrate our best practices and techniques with routesetters for working at height. What we encountered was surprising: A community hungry for ways to mitigate fall risk, increase comfort when suspended for long periods and build better systems for hauling and positioning wall equipment. The boom in climbing as a sport --- and the accompanying boom in the establishment of new climbing gyms --- has been met with routesetters and gym operators who are increasingly serious about the rope access work they perform. This is great news, because the truth is that routesetting is a high-consequence work-at-height activity that demands to be taken seriously.
In 2018, Dustin Buckthal founded Sugarhouse Holds, an indoor-climbing hold production company built in Utah, inspired by Utah and on a mission to spread the love for Utah climbing throughout the climbing community. Being one of the more geologically diverse states in America, it’s hard to blame him. In order to help spread Utah climbing adoration, Dustin searched high and low for someone capable enough to execute on his mission. Which leads to Kegan Minock, the shaper behind Sugarhouse Holds (a Vertical Solutions subdivision).
A climbing gym business can be risky in many aspects. It’s important for gym owners to start addressing those risks early on in their project, and to consider all facets of risk management. Those risks range from the subtle fallout from a simple overstocking of your retail space all the way to a customer or worker injury at your gym.
Crux Climbing Center is a 22,000-square-foot facility located in South Austin’s Dawson Neighborhood. With unique services and gym designs like the Future Wall and 24-hour access, owner and Austin local Kevin Goradia has made Crux a competitive player in Austin’s climbing gym community. Continue reading to hear how this gym came to fruition, how it succeeds in the community’s tight-knit scene and how it plans to expand elsewhere.