 this trend is making gym projects more competitive in higher profile markets.
“Private equity has allowed some gyms to expand rapidly,” Palmer put it pointedly.
A perceived increase in private equity may help gym operators invest in larger climbing gyms, but larger spaces still require more raw materials, and multiple brands observed a roadblock on the supply side of the equation last year which may have contributed to the drop in the gym growth rate and count of large gyms. Businesses can only sustainably grow so fast and climbing wall suppliers may have needed more time in 2019 to catch up to the continuous demand for new climbing gyms in North America. For the last 10 years, the climbing gym industry in the US jumped to over 500 gyms, more than twice its level at the start of the decade and a significant demand for climbing wall suppliers to match in a relatively short span of time – especially as those gym projects increase in size and complexity. However, we received no comments from climbing wall suppliers to confirm these observations.
“What I have seen more this year is more complex real estate developments which have encountered unforeseen delays. Wall builders have also been very busy, and it feels like they are at capacity. I’ve seen gyms delayed just due to the wall builders’ schedules,” said Palmer.
“We’ve also heard that several major wall builders are backed up, meaning projects can’t open as fast as people would like them to. Basically, the interest is there but the logistics are a challenge,” said Hueftle.
Not all gyms chose to compete in higher profile markets last year. Gyms continued to proliferate geographically across North America, with new development taking place in all eight divisions of USA Climbing’s competition boundaries. Development also took place outside the continental states. The new El Bloque bouldering gym opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico last Summer.
In fact, smaller states and areas traditionally lesser known for climbing boasted perhaps the most development in 2019. Of those 34 new US gyms that opened in 2019, many were in Ohio and Massachusetts (four gyms in each state), whereas larger states like California and Texas only saw four gym openings altogether in 2019. Colorado, however, also welcomed four new gyms.
Regionally, the booming area was the Midwest. In addition to those new gyms in Ohio, two gyms opened in Illinois, one in Iowa, one in Indiana and one in Missouri. All but one of these new gyms are bouldering-only or smaller full-service gyms with less than 15,000 square feet of climbing surface.
In terms of climbing type, the growth of bouldering gyms versus full-service gyms in the US in 2019 hovered at 2:3, also the average ratio for the past decade (two new bouldering gyms per year for every three new full-service gyms). 14 new bouldering gyms opened their doors for business last year, a return to the norm following the small spike in new bouldering gyms last year (nearly half of all gym openings in 2018 were bouldering gyms).
One place where that ratio did not hold true is Canada. According to our research, 80% of the new gym openings in Canada in 2019 were bouldering gyms. Four bouldering gyms opened in British Columbia (Wip Climbing, Flux Climbing, Gym of Rock and The Hive Surrey), more than any other province, and three bouldering gyms opened in Ontario (Hub Climbing Mississauga, Gravity Climbing Gym and Grand River Rocks Waterloo). One bouldering gym opened as well in both New Brunswick (Fredericton Bouldering Co-Op) and Quebec (Klimat).
The only two full-service gym openings we found in Canada last year occurred in Ontario (Pinnacle Indoor Climbing) and Quebec (Le Relief). Altogether, the number of new climbing gyms in Canada increased to 11 in 2019, up from 8 gym openings in 2018.
We found eight full-service gyms in the US and one in Canada that permanently closed in 2019, with a geographic expanse that ranged from Hawaii (Volcanic Rock Gym), California (Sanctuary Rock Gym) and Nevada (RockSport) to Arkansas (La Casa Pollo) and Minnesota (Midwest Climbing Academy). Remarkably, every one of these gyms were full-service gyms; we found zero bouldering gyms that closed in North America in 2019.
The reasons for the closures varied, but most gyms and brands that we reached out to pointed to property-related issues, a trend mentioned five years ago in our Gyms & Trends 2014 report. According to a Facebook post, La Casa Pollo was “shut down…for being a couple days late on the exorbitantly high rent.” Rocksport also cited an inability to renegotiate a lease as its reason for closure.
In February of 2019, Sanctuary Rock Gym closed after more than two decades in operation. Owner Michael Bascou announced that the gym’s property owner had sold the land for a new hotel and affordable housing complex. In reportage of the closure, Bascou expressed a desire to re-open the gym somewhere else—“either a full gym with ropes, or a smaller gym with just bouldering.” This month, the gym officially reopens as Sanctuary Climbing & Fitness at a new location in Seaside, California.
Without a doubt, climbing’s first adult-level Olympic Games set to take place in Tokyo this Summer is on the minds of many gym climbers and professionals alike. What effect the event will have (and has already had) on the climbing gym industry in North America is yet to be seen, but multiple brands are optimistic the Olympics will positively affect climbing gym business, both in terms of the number of new gym openings and the revenue of existing gyms.
“We do believe that there will certainly be an Olympic ‘bump’ in the years following 2020 and that climbing’s inclusion in the Olympics is a very good thing,” said Seth and Zoe Johnston, Founders & Owners of Teknik climbing holds.
At the same time, multiple brands also acknowledged the possibility of the recession anticipated by some economists negatively impacting the climbing gym industry in 2020. When overlapping the S&P 500 stock market index with the US climbing gym growth rate over the past 30 years, the two economic indicators bear a striking resemblance. It’s not surprising to imagine in the long run gym climbing – a leisure activity – will approach the same rate of change as the overall economy in which it takes place. For this reason, gym professionals should balance optimism with realism and remain vigilant in pursuing data-driven business strategies.
“I know that a few [gym operators] held back from expanding any more because of a future recession,” says Kenny Matys, President & Founder of Atomik climbing holds.
Despite those possible headwinds, based on the 75 announced gym projects, we expect the climbing gym industry in North America to have its best year ever in 2020. Even if just over half of the planned gyms open, the gym growth rate in 2020 will be higher than in 2019. We anticipate additional small projects that haven’t yet been announced will succeed in opening this year. Together CBJ expects at least 60 new commercial climbing gyms to open in the US this year, but only time will tell if our prediction is correct.
Climbing Business Journal is dedicated to researching and reporting on climbing gym activity in North America.
That is why we put in extra effort for this Gyms and Trends report. When our analysis showed that gym growth in 2019 was the slowest in years, we needed to be sure. We delayed publishing the report and embarked on another wave of research to vet the data more carefully than ever before. We contacted the major wall suppliers of North America, as well as other service providers, to double-check the data in this year’s report. And yes, after all that extra effort, 2019 indeed proved to have the slowest gym growth since 2013. However, that drop doesn’t appear to overshadow anyone’s expectations for 2020 gym growth – 75 new U.S. climbing gym projects have been announced to open this year, which would be the most ever in one year.
See the interactive, searchable map that powers the graphic above.
The annual Gyms & Trends report of Climbing Business Journal provides climbing industry professionals with a data-driven update on the commercial climbing gym industry in North America. The industry growth rate and accompanying data is compiled through several different source avenues and is completely original and proprietary to Climbing Business Journal. Any climbing gym is welcome—and encouraged—to update or add their information to Climbing Business Journal’s comprehensive gym map and dataset at the following link. Thank you to the team who has supported this research over the years, including Mike Helt, Marlowe Kulley, John Burgman, Joe Robinson, Scott Rennak, Jamie Strong and most of all Jon Lachelt.
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