ROQ
Seattle, Washington
Specs: This fall, Michael Hauss is planning to open ROQ, a climbing-based group fitness facility in Seattle, Washington. According to Hauss, he founded ROQ to “combine the best parts of group fitness” with climbing by using Kilter Boards and rowing machines to craft 60-minute, instructor-led classes—the gym’s flagship offerings. Hauss started “quietly building” the concept for ROQ in full in late 2023, he said, with construction largely influencing the timeline and the expected Fall 2025 opening. “Plus, it gives us time to ramp up momentum in Seattle as the climbing season slows outdoors,” Hauss added. Hauss noted he decided to pursue this kind of gym project in Seattle due to the large population of climbers in the area. “It’s a dense, engaged community ideal for the kind of high-intensity, time-efficient training experiences we’re building,” he said, stating Seattle residents care about performance and intentional experiences.
ROQ is being constructed in a preexisting retail space, which Hauss said gave the team “more speed, less permitting pain, and a great footprint for our format,” compared to other locations they considered. He added the building is “accessible, visible, and fits the high-design, high-performance energy we want.” Additionally, Hauss identified the specific area of Seattle where ROQ is located as being underserved, with room for a gym concept like ROQ’s, while being in proximity to a high population of working professionals and offices. “We fit well alongside the other businesses in the retail space,” he added. The 7,000-square-foot space will feature 2,400 square feet of climbing wall surface, in addition to rowing machines, strength training tools, ceiling-mounted slo-mo cameras used to analyze movement and performance, and saunas. The climbing wall surface will be split among 14 Kilter Boards, four of which are the homewall layout; two of the boards will be adjustable.
While ROQ’s specialty is its classes, the gym will have open climbing hours at least two days a week. The gym will start by tentatively offering 15 classes a week, with the ability to accommodate over 50 classes. Classes will last an hour and will be comprised of 40 minutes of climbing, 10 minutes of rowing, and 10 minutes of off-wall strengthening exercises. Classes will be able to accommodate around 30 people and will be led by an instructor on the small ROQ crew. Hauss plans to hire “people who understand movement, intensity, and how to coach groups under pressure.”
Walls: Maverick Climbing, Kilter/Lemur
Flooring: Flashed
CRM Software: Mariana Tek
Website: www.roqclimbing.com
Instagram: @ROQClimbing
In Their Words: “Don’t be generic. Don’t blend in. Build something that has a point of view—and then build the systems that support it. Climbing is growing, but so are expectations.” – Michael Hauss, Founder and CEO of ROQ
