CBJ hosts the most active job board for climbing businesses and organizations. Below are the latest posts from this past week…Comp Team CoachElite Team CoachThe Spot
Colorado
“Looking for an exciting opportunity to share your passion for climbing and shape the next generation of champions? Look no further than The Spot Gym! We’re seeking experienced climbing coaches to join our team and help us take our competitive climbing programs to the next level.”
JOB SEEKER TIPS:
How to List Education on a Resume in 2023
By Eric Ciechanowski
“Including the year you graduated and earned your degree is optional. Adding the year hints at how old you are, which can lead to hiring bias issues. You should skip the graduation year if you’re over 40+ years old. You should include the expected graduation year if you’re working on a degree but have yet to graduate.”Read the full article here
At EP Climbing, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve entered into a partnership with Greenholds, the creator of a groundbreaking, environmentally friendly solution for climbing holds.
Greenholds’ circular system responds to the need for sustainability in climbing walls and provides a solution for gyms, schools and local communities looking to reduce their carbon footprint.
As a pioneering market leader in the world of indoor climbing, we’re constantly looking to the future, so joining Greenholds on its mission to make sportsclimbing more sustainable was an easy decision to make.
We’re excited to be involved in this new generation of climbing holds, beginning with both training and downclimbing holds, which are 100% recyclable and made in the Netherlands using raw materials from waste streams. This collaboration will see EP Climbing and Greenholds join forces to spread the word of sustainability. We believe that it’s crucial to improve our impact and we see this partnership as an exciting opportunity to drive forward sustainability.
GREENHOLDS’ PRODUCT
Get ready to discover the fruit of years of research into materials and engineering! These wear-resistant, lightweight and easy-to-clean climbing holds deliver both high-end performance and a solution that protects the planet.
POSITIVE REVIEWS FROM CLIMBERS AND OWNERS
Following extensive testing in several climbing gyms over the past two years, they have received very positive reviews from climbers and owners. We believe that these new-generation holds have the power to inject some “green” into our industry!
WIN-WIN SOLUTION FOR BOTH SIDES
And, because it’s all about reducing the carbon footprint, you can return your used holds to us, which will then be reused as raw materials to be fed back into the production loop – a win for both business and the environment.
This system clearly demonstrates that it is possible to produce holds sustainably. As if that wasn’t enough of an incentive, when you return your used holds you’ll get a discount on your new ones.
WHEN CAN YOU TRY THEM OUT?
EP Climbing and Greenholds will be attending several trade events together this autumn:
The ABC Conference in Rotherham (UK) on 14 and 15 September
Salon de l’Escalade in Grenoble (France) on 29 and 30 September
Vertical Pro in Friedrichshafen (Germany) on 24 and 25 November
Join us at our stand to find out more about this truly outstanding innovation for sustainability.
Find Out MoreCBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
Image by Climbing Business Journal; all photos courtesy of Stefanie Myr
Today’s guest is Stefanie Myr, a climber of almost a decade and a routesetter for just as long. Myr is currently the head setter at Climb Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington. She began her setting career volunteering at the local YMCA before joining the Climb Tacoma staff. In addition to routesetting, Myr also manages the gym and coaches the youth team. If you’re wondering why she sounds so familiar, it’s probably because you’ve come across an Instagram account she founded and co-manages, called Expensive Boulders. In today’s wide-ranging conversation, Myr talks about social media’s impact on routesetting, aesthetics versus function, her philosophy and approach, and, of course, rock climbing.
Thank you Kilter and Trango for your support!
And thank you Devin Dabney for your music!
Timestamps
00:00:00 – Intro
00:01:53 – The Expensive Boulders Instagram account
00:06:40 – Initial goals of the account and its evolution
00:15:45 – Representation of routesetting on social media
00:21:07 – How does this representation of routesetting impact routesetters?
00:29:03 – Focusing on aesthetics
00:32:14 – Setting advice surrounding social media
00:43:52 – Evolution of Myr’s setting philosophy over time
00:48:13 – Myr’s mentors
00:56:55 – Training a new setter
01:04:38 – Setting harder than you climb
Abridged Transcript
CHEN:I’m wondering whether you could elaborate on maybe some initial goals you had for the [Expensive Boulders] account, what you hope the community would gain from it, and whether it has evolved or not?
MYR: …I think it’s really cool to be able to walk into a gym and see all sorts of different boulders. There’s a lot of variety, but if you look at my account or our account, you’ll actually see that there’s predominantly—I wouldn’t say it’s one type of boulder, but it’s definitely a certain flavor of boulder, and it’s boulders with big holds. You would be surprised to see that on the account and then actually see where I’m from…the gym that I grew up routesetting in, which has only been the last eight years. We don’t have any sort of wall terrain that allows for us to set with holds that big. Even some of our volumes can’t fit on all of the walls that we have. And we are extremely limited as to what we can do in terms of big coordination moves on slab or on vert or anything that forces you to stay close to the wall. Because of the density that we have to have on our walls, because of how small our gym is, we actually cannot really facilitate that…
Getting to the actual answer of your question, a lot of people would always say, “Man, climbing gym memberships are so expensive. I don’t get it…” One of the huge expenses for climbing gyms is holds. And it is absolutely crazy how expensive these holds can get…But my goal with the account was to kind of raise awareness of: “This sport is becoming an industry, and this industry is actually quite expensive. Your 30-second-to-a-minute experience of you climbing one boulder—not only do those holds cost money, but the person who put those holds there, it costs money to have them there. The person that learned how to do that, it costs money to teach them how to do that. It costs money to buy the tools and all of the hardware and all of the everything. The time that it took to teach them how to use their creativity and think of something in their brain and then have it appear on the wall—all of that costs so much money.” And I don’t think a lot of people realize that…
Everything that goes into setting a climb—the holds, hardware, labor, training, time, etc.—all costs money, and the Expensive Boulders Instagram account was created to raise awareness around a climb’s full cost.
Feel free to disagree with me on this, but I think that social media’s representation of routesetting could potentially be skewed. What are your thoughts on that?
Oh, I think it absolutely is…Because if you are on a boulder that is just “pull and be strong,” someone can be really strong and they can hop on it and they can climb it and make it kind of look chill. I feel these days if we see a video on Instagram of someone just climbing something like that and they’re really strong, they make it look really easy. Is it something that’s going to keep our attention? Or are we going to scroll until we find the thing where there’s some dude doing a six-move paddle and then catching something with one arm, and then that’s the kind of movement that happens very quickly and it catches your eye? …It hits that spot in your brain when you see something crazy and outlandish like that because your first thought is: “Oh my gosh, that’s crazy. I could never do that.” …Depending on the gym, most of the routes are not that kind of route, and I feel if that’s all we’re seeing as routesetters, it can be kind of tough to break out of that and get creative just making what you could consider just “original,” “vanilla,” “normal” routesetting where you’re just pulling, which I think is really fun…
Social media absolutely focuses on aesthetics. And sometimes when the climber in the video is really strong and they make something look really easy, it’s difficult to tell the functionality of the climb. So, how do you think this slightly skewed representation of routesetting is impacting routesetters?
I think it’s interesting. At least for me, it has allowed me to get myself into a little bit of a rut and feel a little bit stuck sometimes. Because when it comes to aesthetics versus functionality, I will tell you right now that I’ve set routes that are super aesthetic and I’m like, “Gosh, that is so pretty. It’s literally perfect. I cannot believe how pretty and perfect this is and how everything matches. Everything is turned and set the way that I want it.” But then, in forerunning, one part doesn’t work. And the best solution will give my community the route that is best for them, that they will have the most fun on, that they will gain the most from…It’s all about making sure that for the grade, for the type of movement, the climber is enjoying themselves, they’re having just the right amount of difficulty, just the right amount of risk—all that stuff. There have been times where I’ve had to compromise aesthetics for functionality and be like, “Yeah, this hold does not match the hold set. Everything is dual-tex here, but this one isn’t. But this move is too hard for what this wall, what this set needs it to be, and it needs to change.” And I’ve also had some of my setters go through the same thing, too…
In terms of function versus aesthetics, “the best solution will give my community the route that is best for them, that they will have the most fun on, that they will gain the most from,” says Myr.
You said that generally you’re going to sacrifice aesthetics for function, and 99% of the time I agree with that. But is there any time where you are willing to sacrifice functionality for aesthetics?
I’m sure that there is…If it was something like, “Oh, the route with this perfect aesthetic turns out to be just a touch harder, or maybe they will have to work a little bit harder to keep their feet on.” I think the answer to that would be: If it teaches a good lesson—if it’s something that makes them work harder and end up using better technique or they have to get better body position or something like that—I think that is fine. I definitely have sacrificed the functionality to keep an aesthetic because I’m like, “Well, this will just be a really good opportunity for them to do X, Y and Z with their foot placement.” But if it’s something that I feel would not be beneficial, especially for the difficulty—that would be grossly inappropriate for the difficulty—then I will make the executive decision to be like, “No, we should switch it out.” But sometimes things turn out so perfect that maybe it’s Ok if [the climbers] have to work a little harder. And I think that might be the only time…
So, with your experience on Expensive Boulders and running or now co-running a big social media account, how has the evolution of routesetting online changed your philosophy over the years?
I was thinking about this, and I don’t really know if it has. I think the only way that it maybe has changed it is just what I was saying earlier about putting more focus on creating climbs at lower grades that are eye-catching and look fun. Because it pains me to think about someone walking into the gym and getting so excited to look at a climb, like “that climb looks really exciting,” and then realizing that, where they’re at now with their skill level, they wouldn’t stand a chance on it. Just prioritizing those lower-level climbs…
Harder climbs don’t have to be the only aesthetic climbs with expensive holds in a gym; instead, part of Myr’s setting philosophy is “creating climbs at lower grades that are eye-catching and look fun,” as well.
Going back to philosophy, can you tell us about the major influences or mentors who really shaped who you are as a routesetter, and maybe some major lesson that you’ve taken away from these people?
Well, my most prominent mentor is the owner of Climb Tacoma. His name is Brian. Actually, if you’re curious about Brian Doyle, he owns Climb Tacoma, obviously. He is in the Leavenworth Guidebook. He is a Leavenworth first ascensionist, and he and his best friend Jason own the gym. And Brian pre-COVID was the manager, and he was very involved in the gym…He hired me to work the desk and coach kiddos, the non-competitive team. And then he even said, “Hey, it’d be really cool to get you in routesetting, too. It’d be really good to have a woman on the team.” …And then, yeah, he taught me everything that I know about setting. And one of the biggest things that he has instilled in me is that our routes are here to not only give people a really enjoyable time but also to teach them something. At every level, there’s something that someone can learn, and there is also level appropriateness. I probably would not ask a V0 climber to do a heel hook or a toe hook, but you can introduce those in maybe V2, definitely V3 if you do it in a very simple way that feels very comfy…
“At every level, there’s something that someone can learn,” says Myr, who works to prepare climbers for a variety of climbing movements and environments with her setting.
Let’s say right now you would hire a novice setter with little experience but a lot of psych. Can you run us through as a head setter how you would approach training this setter?
…Well, I think it’s important to understand types of holds. And this is actually something that whenever I teach any sort of Intro to Climbing, a climber’s first day in the gym, I will teach them hold name jargon, so that I can communicate with them. And so, without having that good knowledge base of that kind of communication, it’s really hard to set a route. Because when you’re setting a route, it is a form of communication; you’re asking the climber to do certain movements. So, first I would want to make sure they understand what matching is, what smearing is. Flagging is super important, foot switching—stuff like that. I would want to make sure that they understood that first of all, because you should be asking climbers to do techniques like that in your climbs…
I would probably with a newer setter—it would really depend where they’re at in their own climbing—but I would probably start with asking them to set a really simple movement first…For me, I found that it was very helpful when holds were picked out for me and I was given a little bit of direction, but not too much direction where I felt none of the creativity came from me…And then I always make sure that they know, “Hey, if you get stuck, it’s always good to ask for help. I always want to hear any questions that you have. You can never ask too many questions. But also, at the same time, I want you to feel confident enough to try things…”
Authored by Andrew PotterWeekly memberships are not a foreign concept in the fitness industry, but they are definitely more uncommon, and in the climbing gym industry they’re almost non-existent. Approach did a case study across over 100,000 membership billing cycles at gyms using the Approach software to determine how weekly-billed memberships performed against the typical monthly membership. The results were unequivocal: billing weekly was better for businesses and customers. The goal of this article is to help shed some light on why offering members a weekly billing option could be an important addition to your offerings and help improve your business’s performance.
Supporting Your Operations
The climbing gym industry has seen a lot of major changes and improvements since the first climbing gym stateside opened in 1987, but the way members pay for access has stayed fairly steady. The biggest change has been pricing, which has naturally increased with improved product offerings and inflation, but the way members have been able to pay for access has almost always been monthly or prepaid yearly.This constant begs an important question that many of you are likely wondering: “If the industry standard has always been monthly or annual memberships, why would I introduce a weekly-billed membership? The pros better be pretty amazing in order to consider this addition.” Well, the short answer is that they are, so let’s jump right in.For starters, billing weekly will increase your revenue on that membership by 8% over a year, even if it’s the same weekly cost as the monthly-billed membership. This uptick is possible because when you bill monthly you are billing your members twelve times over the year, so you essentially bill them for 48 weeks, but when you bill them weekly you bill them for 52 weeks. That’s four more weeks of billing that are not captured when billing monthly.Not yet widely offered in the climbing gym industry, weekly memberships could help climbing gyms tap into additional revenue to support their operations, according to analysis of a new case study by Approach. (All data projections by Approach)While no one likes a price increase, a small bump is more likely to be well received when it’s going toward a good cause, like supporting the well-being of the staff running the gym. There’s a tertiary effect when you bill members in this manner, and we will use the recent month of June as an example. If you pay your employees every two weeks on a Friday, then in June you likely encountered paying payroll three times. For some companies, that could make finances a bit tighter. But if you bill weekly, you actually bill your members for a fifth week in June as well, helping to cover the operational costs associated with supporting that same membership.Now let’s dig into some of the fun stuff…data.
Reducing Administrative Headaches
Membership logistics can be challenging to look at statistically because raw numbers change on a daily basis with new purchases, cancellations, members going on and off hold, etc. So, in order to simplify things, we looked at each time a membership was billed and then compared weekly billings to monthly billings. We focused on anonymized data from June 2022 to June 2023 from at least 15 gyms using Approach. Here’s what we found:
Weekly-Billed: Across 94,641 billings, 9081 failed, which equals a 9.5% failure rate (a majority of these failures were due to insufficient funds).
Monthly-Billed: Across 85,510 billings, 15,545 failed, which equals an 18.1% failure rate (a majority of these failures were due to insufficient funds).
Part of the reason that insufficient funds is the most common issue—as opposed to an expired or lost/stolen card—is because on Approach’s system if a consumer gets a new credit card, our processing solution “Approach Pay” automatically updates that card as soon as it is replaced. This automation limits the need to reach out to customers to capture new cards and helps to prevent involuntary churn. In addition, our auto-biller runs multiple times during the beginning of the month in order to recapture payments that were missed.One reason that weekly-billed memberships fail on a smaller scale could be due to the payments themselves being so much smaller. It is more likely that an $80 membership payment will cause a credit card to bounce versus a $20 payment.A lower failure rate for weekly-billed compared to monthly-billed memberships in the case study suggests climbing gyms could benefit in the long-run by offering a membership option that’s less likely to have billing hiccups.The next thing we looked at was cancellations. The question we wanted to answer was: “Do people cancel their memberships at a lower rate when billed weekly versus monthly?” The answer is yes, but the results were not as significant as we hypothesized. The reason could be due to the lack of a large data pool with weekly memberships, but that is a big assumption considering the results for failed payments were significant. Here’s what we found over a one-year period:
Weekly canceled memberships equaled 2.6%.
Monthly canceled memberships equaled 3.1%.
Although the weekly memberships outperformed the monthly memberships, the difference is fairly insignificant. It is our theory, based on our analysis of the data and talking to gym owners, that a majority of the lost dollars unfortunately come from a failed membership billing in which the customer does not return and bets on the fact that their local gym will not take them to collections. If that hypothesis is the case, preventing failed payments could be key in slowing member churn and, according to our findings, billing weekly can help accomplish that goal.
Giving Members Options
Based on our research and our discussions with gyms across the industry, we believe that billing weekly is a great tool that any gym can add to their arsenal. There are also some other positive aspects of weekly billing that are hard to quantify through data but we believe are worth mentioning, so let’s talk about those benefits next.Offering weekly billing gives climbing gym customers more options and could help make the transition from a day pass to a membership more manageable. (Photo by Tara Shupe Photography)One of those positives is that consumers are less likely to cancel a $20 weekly payment versus a monthly payment when, in many cases, the weekly payment is very close to the cost of a day pass. The same goes for membership purchases. A few of the gym owners we have spoken with have an easier time converting members from a day pass purchase to a $20 weekly membership versus an $80 monthly membership, even though they pay the same price every 4 weeks. Lowering barriers to entry makes financial sense for your business, and it’s good for customers and the sport of climbing as well.
Weathering the Unexpected
The next big positive about weekly memberships is that they can actually help your business ride the waves of economic or other shocks. The extreme scenario dates back to the start of the pandemic, when climbers paid for an entire month of membership only to see their gym shut down, raising questions about getting their money back. In the scenario of a weekly-billed membership, you capture a significantly less amount of money upfront than a product that takes 30 days to use.It is our observation that most gyms in the industry use cash-based accounting, with a handful of the larger operators using GAAP reporting. Well, if you realize revenue based upon how much a membership has been used, like in GAAP reporting, then weekly-billed memberships get realized much faster and decrease your outstanding liabilities. Here’s an example: A gym has 1000 members paying $80 a month and they are billed monthly. Halfway through the month, the business has a flood and must shut down. That business has $40,000-worth of outstanding liability that members could ask for since they cannot use the facility, as opposed to $10,000-worth of outstanding liability if all those members had been on weekly billing.Riding ups and downs is part of running a climbing gym business, and weekly billing can help reduce outstanding liability when something unexpected impacts the facility. (Photo by Tara Shupe Photography)The last consideration for offering weekly memberships is dealing with chargebacks. Just about every gym that we have spoken with has had a member who pays for a membership for six months and then calls the gym saying, “I didn’t know that I was paying for it, and I want my money back.” We’ve unfortunately heard stories about some members even using a gym for two to three months and still submitting three chargebacks for their membership. When you bill weekly, there is a greater amount of effort required by the consumer to submit twelve separate chargebacks for three months. Fortunately, most customers aren’t out to game the system, and weekly billing can help gyms and customers avoid getting into this situation at all. Even if there aren’t multiple chargebacks, we believe it’s less likely for someone to submit a single chargeback over a $20 payment versus an $80 payment.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Overall, we believe that in less than five years a significant portion of the climbing industry will be leveraging weekly memberships to strengthen their business and give their customers more options. It’s not a new concept, but in this industry it is not currently widely adopted. Today, we have more and more clients making the decision to sell weekly memberships, and we are excited to see their business performance increase with the offering.Approach’s goal as a company is to build world-class products that help small business owners across the world make their business better for everyone involved. We continue to build features that are changing the game for gym owners, and we’re not stopping anytime soon.
About the Author
Andrew Potter is an American entrepreneur and founder or co-founder of multiple companies (including ROKC climbing gyms and Approach), and community is the heart of his mission.
Conceptualized in 2014 during his third tour in Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment, ROKC began as a dream to make climbing available to everyone in Kansas City.
After dealing with the struggles of operating a multi-facility climbing gym company, Andrew co-founded Approach with the hopes that he could ease the pain that he went through for other gym owners. His goal of providing enterprise-level products for small business owners is still his focus today.
Aside from business, Andrew is still an avid climber and loves surfing on jugs in the Red River Gorge.
Most importantly, Andrew is a loving husband and father to three children.
This story was paid for by the sponsor and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
Trade show season is about to begin, with industry events in the UK, France, Germany and USA in the coming weeks and months. Find those links below – it’s not too late to attend! These shows are a great way for climbing gym professionals new and old to meet and learn from each other, take part in professional development sessions, and get introduced to the latest products and services.Buy today: prices go up tomorrow for the Indoor Climbing Expo in Chattanooga!See The Freshest Job Posts Here
CBJ hosts the most active job board for climbing businesses and organizations. Below are the latest posts from this past week…Gym DirectorMovement
Golden, CO
“The ideal candidate will have a balance of great customer service and leadership skills, as well as excellent administrative abilities. Proven success in developing and managing a high performing team in a fast-paced environment and the ability to see the big picture as well as the everyday details are essential to being a successful gym director. We’re looking for someone who can be part of a highly collaborative team, but also think and execute independently.”
JOB SEEKER TIPS:
The best tips on how to find an out-of-state job
By CareerBuilder
“Out-of-state employees pose a few challenges to the average company. There might be increased costs to accommodate an employee moving to a new city. Their living situation might change, causing them to move back out or cancel their move, which would be inconvenient after already hiring them. Also, for an experienced professional moving to a city for opportunities, there’s a potential that this employee might leave them for another job after a few months. To resolve concerns like these, it helps to develop a budget and game plan you can show in your application and interviews. “Read the full article here
Campo Base, a new climbing gym that will have both indoor and outdoor sport climbing options to go with bouldering and speed climbing inside, is under construction and expected to open this fall in Spain. (All images courtesy of Campo Base)
Campo Base
Burgos, Spain
Specs: Campo Base is a mixed-discipline gym tentatively opening this October in Burgos, Spain. Owned and operated by Campo Base CEO Alvar Hernando and his friends and family, Campo Base became an idea after Hernando visited some larger North American climbing gyms while living in Toronto. “I was fascinated,” Hernando said. “Since then, the idea of creating a climbing gym in my city has been in my head.”
Aside from Burgos being Hernando’s hometown, he said there’s a “considerable number of climbers and mountain enthusiasts” in the city and the Spanish climbing population is growing, so Hernando felt the gym would be appreciated and bring value to his city. “It is impossible to know if this is the best time to open—the future is always uncertain. But with the data we had, it seemed good enough to take a chance,” he shared.
The owners opted to build Campo Base ground-up given their aesthetic and functional criteria for the gym project. “From the beginning, we had some needs that the building had to cover: location, height, approximate size, etc.” Hernando said. “From there, we tried to design a building that would be useful, beautiful and, more importantly, that would be nice to be inside. We want to become the second home of a community of users.”
According to Hernando, those ideas guided many of their design decisions. For example, in terms of balancing aesthetics and function, he decided the climbing walls should be in the spotlight and would be enhanced by natural light, “creating a pleasant space” while reducing the gym’s energy consumption. Additionally, to “emphasize the verticality inherent to climbing” and help climbers feel at home, the team created spaces within the gym situated at different heights. “Walltopia, Cristina Palma and the commercial in our area have done a great job helping us at all stages of the process,” he added.
Still coming together, the climbing walls and interior at the new gym are being crafted specifically for climbers in the area, “regardless of whether they are first-time or expert climbers,” said Hernando.
Campo Base will feature bouldering, lead and speed climbing terrain, in addition to a Kilter Board, training area, cafeteria, and an outdoor climbing area in a garden. After working on the exterior of the building, an outdoor installation “seemed like a good idea for many reasons,” Hernando said. “If we managed to integrate it aesthetically, we would have a very striking building. It would also serve to explain what we do better than a poster [would]. And finally, combined with a garden and installing bar tables outside, it will allow us to create a place where our potential customers want to be.”
Going forward, Campo Base is planning an event series that will include talks, workshops, and courses about the mountaineering world. “We believe that the mountains and climbing are deeply related, and we want to reflect that in our gym,” Hernando said. “We are focused on climbing. We love indoor climbing, and above all we want to give our users the best experience, regardless of whether they are first-time or expert climbers.”
Indoors, the Burgos gym will feature a mix of roped climbing surface, including a dedicated speed wall.Walls: Walltopia
Flooring: Climbmat
CRM Software: BETA Climbing
Website:campobaseburgos.comInstagram: @CampoBaseBurgos
In Their Words: “Of course, all complex projects come with challenges; some can be foreseen from the beginning, others appear unexpectedly…I would say that the most important challenge is to understand that, sooner or later, problems are going to appear. The most important resource to solve these problems is not money or time; it is a team of people you can trust…You have to try to enjoy the process. Try to do things quickly and well, but without being overwhelmed by wanting to move on to the next stage as soon as possible.” – Alvar Hernando, Campo Base CEO
Workers Seek Union Recognition from Midwest’s Premier Indoor Rock Climbing Facilities for Livable Wage, Better Working Conditions and a Seat at the Table
AUGUST 25, 2023, TWIN CITIES, MN – Today, workers from Vertical Endeavors announced to their bosses they have formed a union and demanded union recognition. The company did not immediately recognize their union.
Vertical Endeavors workers signed and submitted cards to the National Labor Relations Board to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers. They are hoping to secure livable wages, better working conditions and want a seat at the table to be able to turn these ideas into reality. There are 90 workers among six locations.
“Unionizing was important for me to better support my coworkers and myself, hold our company accountable for actions, and just making sure that we can ensure safety for us and our customers,” said Esthi Erickson, Shift Manager and Team Coach at VE Minneapolis.
“We want to have a hand in improving our work environment and make outdoor industry jobs more livable for everybody who works in it. We want to help make Vertical Endeavors what the gym goers and staff want it to be. We work really hard at our jobs, we’re all really passionate about it, and climbing means a lot to us so it’s important to us to work together to make it an even better place to work,” said Suzie Miller, Coach, Route Setter and Counter staff at VE Bloomington.
Vertical Endeavors has five Minnesota gyms: VE Bloomington, VE Minneapolis, VE St. Paul, Twin Cities Bouldering, VE Duluth, and one climbing route setter company, Nicros.
In June, workers from REI in Maple Grove won their union election, marking an energized Minnesota labor movement in the outdoor industry.
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UFCW is the largest private sector union in the United States, representing 1.3 million professionals and their families in healthcare, grocery stores, meatpacking, food processing, retail shops and other industries. Our members serve our communities in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico. Learn more about the UFCW at ufcw.org.
Jessica Hayssen
Communications Director
United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 663
https://linktr.ee/UFCW663
(She/Her/Hers)
651.261.8559
CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
Image by Climbing Business Journal; all photos courtesy of Brad WerntzRetail plays a key role in most gyms’ day-to-day operations, while also being a visual component of the facility, so today’s conversation is all about gym retail: what sales strategies work well, what doesn’t work so well; what sells, what doesn’t sell. We speak with Brad Werntz, President of the twoBoulders climbing gyms in Madison, Wisconsin, both of which have retail components. As a longtime gym operator and former sales representative for various climbing brands, Werntz has seen the business value of a well-managed retail area, as well as some potential pitfalls to avoid.Thank you Strati Climbing and Essential Climbing for your support!
And thank you Devin Dabney for your music!
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro05:07 – Boulders’ retail space09:16 – Why Boulders doesn’t sell shoes13:50 – The “cookie cutter” approach to retail16:40 – Mistakes Werntz sees in retail spaces20:40 – Are gyms missing opportunities without an online retail platform?23:20 – Properly stocking a retail space26:26 – Approaching the retail area from a personal standpoint29:38 – Strategies: package deals and promos34:16 – Branded gear47:24 – Desirable qualities in job candidates52:05 – Vending machine bestsellers55:52 – Closing
Abridged Transcript
BURGMAN: Could you give us an overview of Boulder’s current retail areas, how stuff is arranged? An audio walking tour, I suppose, of your different retail areas?
WERNTZ: …Our retail shops in both of our gyms are literally just two 4×8 flat sections to the wall. It’s help yourself. Our philosophy is: Things that touch the body that you can use in the gym is primarily what we sell. There’s a couple of categories that we have that aren’t in that way, but basically we’re talking about chalk bags, chalk, carabiners, tape, and then our own branded swag, which is another conversation that we definitely need to talk about. But we don’t sell climbing shoes. We do sell belay devices and harnesses at our rope gym; we have a rope gym and a bouldering gym. But basically, they’re things that you can use immediately in a gym. So, what we don’t sell—quickdraws, ropes, climbing shoes—those are big categories that many gyms do well with. We’ve decided not to do those because we don’t have inventory space for those and that’s not what our customer comes to us for…Basically, just the high turn, grab it and go, grab it and use it in the gym is primarily what we sell in the gyms, and it does very well. On a dollar per square foot basis, we’re quite high for our retail space because we keep those items that turn, that are high margin, that are easy to replenish, that are low tickets pretty much—easy buys.
Can you explain a little bit about that decision not to sell shoes?
I think it’s unique to us. I know that gyms do very well with shoes; some of my best Five Ten accounts were climbing gyms, for instance. But for most gyms, depending on the size of the gym, you look at your overall traffic and what people come there for. My advice as a rep was you just need four models, maybe six. You need a beginner and an advanced—not even an expert shoe—for unisex, and then you need the same for women. So that’s four models. And then you can take the six by adding an elite shoe for men and women. And then there you are. And you should have two brands probably if you do shoes…You shuffle your mix, but you need two brands because you need two different fits. And then you need the models, and you need a good selection to sell footwear. You don’t just need it because of brand favorites…You need it because they fit differently, and people have different affinities based on how that feels…So, when you take your four to six skews of shoes from two brands and you do a size run of those, you very quickly get into five-figures of inventory [cost]. And so, with five-figures of inventory [cost], that’s inventory that generally does not turn 100% in a year. As a matter of fact, for climbing shoes in general, if you get one turn out of your entire inventory, that’s pretty magic because that means you sold the size five and the size 13 and you had everything you wanted and you fit everybody perfectly and they walked out the door and then you’re into reorder situation…So, it ends up being this $10,000+ commitment preseason that you pray you get out of before you have to liquidate, and you’re always out the size or always out the other model to compare to. And so, you’re just not well positioned to make the sale as often as you’d like to think. Your comment, “Oh, they’re just over there, try them on…” That works for the beginner, which is why a lot of gyms focus on just having beginner shoes. But once people get a little bit of experience, they need to compare, and I believe they should. So, my question to people who think about that is: Can you stock enough shoes to be that go-to point? …If you can convert the inventory, then by all means invest in it. But if you struggle to get to four models, it’s a good question as to why you should even do that.One model doesn’t fit all for many aspects of climbing gym retail, since gyms and gym communities are all unique. At Boulders, some mainstays have been chalk bags, chalk, carabiners, tape, and branded swag.
As you look back at your career as a [brand] rep, are there some—let’s call them mistakes maybe, I don’t know if that’s exactly the right term, but mistakes that you see other gyms doing with their approach to retail?
Yeah, mistake is a hard thing because a [retail] mistake in an outdoor retail store means you go bankrupt. A [retail] mistake in a climbing gym, since it’s not our major business choice, means you can maintain that mistake for a long time…But the mistakes that people make, I think, is going too hard. The math on climbing footwear, for instance, is really expensive. It’s a high four, low five-figure spend to just get a stocking inventory of four models or six models, to get that going, and they don’t turn very quickly…I think the other mistake that I see is making “gear museums”— especially new gyms. Like, “We’re going to have porta-ledges, we’re going to have haul bags, we’re going to have full size runs of every cam, we’re going to have…” And they just become gear museums that you dust every month because you just don’t do the turns that you think you’re going to do in those products. And they’re image pieces that are probably better suited for online purchase at this point because it’s really difficult to stock them and sell them consistently.
What are the keys to keeping a retail space stocked? And what are just the keys to keeping a finger on the pulse of things related to stocking?
…Retail is a whole different business unit. You have to have somebody in charge of keeping it stocked, keeping it merchandised, keeping things turning. And knowing when to reorder when you’re out of things is really critical, especially for things like chalk and tape, the high turning items. I mean, our number one category is chalk. We sell a ton of chalk, and that’s just stacking apples. It’s a commodity. The display works when it’s full, and so you fill it every day and you sell three to five buckets of it or the big blocks every day. But they only sell if it’s full…So inventory is a challenge, especially with supply chain issues. And again, on this preseason model that many companies need at their end, that’s a question you need to ask is whether you can preseason, whether you can turn the goods you brought in, and whether you can reorder, because the footwear is kind of a nightmare from that standpoint. But belay devices, harnesses can also fall under that. And if you’re out of size medium harnesses, that’s a problem. And if you haven’t preseasoned them, sometimes you can’t get them. So, those are good questions to ask as you go into this: Can I maintain this separate business unit or not?“Retail is a whole different business unit,” says Werntz, who advises gyms “to have somebody in charge of keeping it stocked, keeping it merchandised, keeping things turning.”
Let’s talk about branded gear. What sells the most at Boulders? Do you have it made somewhere locally to kind of coordinate with the community, with a local business, or do you have it outsourced to somewhere far away via the Internet? How do you deal with quantity of branded gear?
…Our brand is really flexible, and so we have our own in-house graphic artist, and he comes up with crazy designs that we sell as limited editions. And we try to do six of those a year, and we do them on seasonal appropriate platforms and colors. So, by platform I mean it’s midwinter, so we’re selling a lot of sweatshirts and long sleeve shirts and heavier weight T-shirts, whereas in a couple of months we’ll switch to lightweight T-shirts in brighter colors and tank tops and maybe just a crew neck sweatshirt, and then we’ll move through that. But we create limited edition goods that we’ve actually incentivized our customers to purchase right away, because by [being] limited, they’re limited—maybe we do two size runs per location of the one really cool shirt—and people know they need to grab it really quick. And we broadcast that: “Hey, check out this new limited-edition design.” And people jump all over that. I mean, we sell through those sometimes in the day if they’re cool designs or if the timing is right, and we’ve had some really great runs on that. And what that’s done for us is create all these back years of special edition shirts. And you can kind of see who’s OG in the gym by their shirts. They come in and they’re proud, “Oh, this is from 1998.” And there’s actually a submarket of people trading these things…
On the flip side, we do what we call our generic platform, which is just really Boulders Climbing Gym, just a logo, just really simple. And we’ll do it in seasonally appropriate colors and platforms, and we’ll do six of those a year, too. So basically, every month we’re debuting a new limited-edition platform and then we’re supplementing with what we call the generic or standard platform that’s just kind of a boring, Boulders Climbing Gym T-shirt. And those also sell really well. Particularly if somebody can’t find their size in a limited-edition, they go, “I’ll just buy this one.” They get incentivized to buy a Boulders shirt and they can’t find their size in the limited one, so they buy the general one, and that works really well for us.That’s been huge, and to answer the other part of your question, we do all that locally. We have our own graphic artist, and we also solicit artwork from our community in the form of T-shirt contests, or we’ll reach out to our artist and say, “Hey, love what you did on that mural,” or “I saw this thing, would you design a T-shirt for us?” And in that case, we’ll sell them at full value, but we’ll give all the proceeds to the artist. So, if we sell a sweatshirt for $50, that means they’re getting $25 and we’re just covering our cost. That’s not a money-making venture for us, that’s a branding venture, creating high-quality, limited-edition garments that kind of go into that value transaction mode when people trade them years later…The other thing, too, is we do themed shirts. We do a pride shirt every year; we do shirts that focus on different aspects of our community…We have a strong group, Madison Women Climbers, for instance, and we made a women-themed shirt that was super popular. And it’s still popular; people want that shirt.Among the branded swag in Boulders’ retail lineup are clothing items “that focus on different aspects of [their] community,” such as the gym’s Pride shirts and inclusivity hoodie (pictured).
At the very beginning of our conversation, you mentioned vending machines. Real fast here before we go, what are the vending machine items that you have found sell the best?
…Vending machines are super critical, I think, to any gym because people need to eat and drink when they’re in the gym. And if you don’t supply that, they’re going to bring it, and then you miss that opportunity. We purchase vending machines that distribute more than food and drink. Originally, we had guidebooks in there and we had tape and we had hand files and anything we could stack in there, and we found that those didn’t sell as quickly as just self-serviced. So, we pulled all that stuff out of there, and then we hit kind of highfalutin: “We’re going to sell only organic, only these premium things, only the pure athlete stuff, the elixirs that are going to make us stronger and thinner and more handsome and more attractive. We’re going to be friendly to puppies and pigs and everything else, and it’s going to cost $5 an item.” And every time we put those in there, it’s not that they don’t sell; it’s just that when I go to Costco and buy a 36-bag box of the Frito Lays products and buy the big box of pretzel-mixed sort of things and buy the assorted Gatorade bottle collection, I buy them at like fifty cents a unit and [our customers] just burn through…It ends up being a highly profitable part of the gym. It offsets—we average a 40-margin through all of our things, but it offsets that sweatshirt that should be $100-150 that we’re selling for $50, when we swallow all the margin on it just to get it into the field. So, we average a 40-margin largely because of our vending machine, our tape and our chalk. And then that allows us to be really flexible with higher ticket items that we’re buying and placing for strategic reasons…
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CBJ hosts the most active job board for climbing businesses and organizations. Below are the latest posts from this past week…
