Blue Swan Boulders and Iron City Boulders
Orlando, Florida and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Specs: Henrik Suihkonen opened his first Kiipeilyareena gym in Finland in 2010, before founding the Scandinavian gym development company Moments in 2019. Suihkonen then approached Dean Privett, former Head of Sales at Walltopia, about his interest in expanding Moments to the U.S. For Privett—who said he had been working practically “every kind of job in the climbing industry” while knowing he would open his own gym one day—the collaboration felt like the right opportunity at the right time. “Every job I took in a climbing gym or in the industry was with the knowledge that I was doing it to learn more about opening my own climbing gym,” Privett elaborated. Privett joined Moments in May of 2019 and started planning the project. Moments wanted an entry point to the United States, so the company tasked Privett with opening two gyms in the first year of operation in two different U.S. markets. Blue Swan Boulders opened in Orlando, Florida, in September 2020 and months later, in January 2021, Moments opened Iron City Boulders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Being from Pittsburgh, Privett said he was biased and wanted to open a gym in his hometown. He then identified Florida as an underserved market. “I did an analysis of available climbing in modern climbing gyms and square footage to the available target demographic,” Privett said, determining Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville to be desirable markets. Then, the process moved quickly. He flew to Florida and spent a couple of days looking at buildings, eventually finding a building he thought would work well in Orlando. He called the landlord, who wanted to have a gym in the space. Privett signed the lease two weeks later and by the end of Summer 2019 had leases signed in both Orlando and Pittsburgh.
From his time at Walltopia, touring spaces with clients, Privett gained on-the-ground experience with climbing gym projects and developed his own preferences for a future build. “In the end, you’re really just looking for a rectangle with structural integrity that can accommodate climbing walls and a good location—as simple as that,” he said. “And of course, when you have a landlord that’s willing and interested in the concept, it makes that process a lot easier.”
For the Moments expansion project, Privett’s plan was to essentially open and run the Pittsburgh and Orlando gyms together. Privett said both leases had been signed within six months and the gyms had identical construction schedules. He also designed the facilities very similarly. “My goal for any gym I would open in any market is just to provide the best possible climbing experience. And so, there weren’t really considerations into facility differences,” Privett explained. “My original intention with the gyms was to create kind of a scalable and replicable model, given the distance that they are apart from one another.” So, even though Orlando and Pittsburgh are about 1,000 miles apart, the architectural design and concept planning were done simultaneously. “It was pretty easy to reuse a lot of the shapes, so to speak, in terms of bathroom design, front desk, and even the wall geometry,” he said, adding that he designed the walls with the help of Bulgarian-based Altline Studio. The walls were designed “to optimize the routesetting program,” Privett said, noting his experience as a head routesetter contributed to the goal of ensuring wall panels were large enough for bigger volumes, the slab was not too slabby, and wall angles were not so sharp in some places, for instance.
The commonalities between the two gyms extend beyond the walls, Privett said. For example, he chose the same light fixtures, cabinets and lockers for both locations. “There’s a couple reasons for that, and one is economies of scale,” Privett explained, noting how buying more of something often comes with a better price point. Another reason for the similar buildouts was to simplify the creative and sourcing aspects of the design process. “This allowed my design and concept process to be a little bit more efficient,” he said. In terms of amenities, Privett described himself as a “plywood and plastic guy,” who prioritizes the climbing-focused amenities. “I think 99% of your customers come in for the plywood and plastic on the walls,” he said. “So, I put a lot of effort into making that part of the product the best possible.” He does, however, find it necessary to also offer some basic programming, such as an introductory, “how-to-use-the-gym” class as well as youth teams.
For future builds, Privett predicted that “we’ll continue to see simpler and larger planes” and larger spaces dedicated to training equipment like boards. He also foresees more smaller gyms coming into the market, as well as more youth-specific gyms. “Anybody who has a gym and also has a team knows that there are inherent struggles and conflicts between the types of climbs that your youth climbers need to train on to be successful and what your average commercial climbing gym customer wants,” he said. “So, I think it would be interesting to see if there can be more of a model—probably starting in bigger markets where there’s enough youth climbers—around facilities that are exclusive to teams.”
Walls: Walltopia
Flooring: Climbmat
CRM Software: Rock Gym Pro
Blue Swan Boulders Website: blueswanboulders.com
Iron City Boulders Website: ironcityboulders.com
Instagram: @BlueSwanBoulder and @IronCityBoulders
In Their Words: “The most important thing is remaining an active and interested end user of your own product. I think there are a lot of gym operators that move away from climbing once they open gyms. It is a challenge to work where you play and play where you work. But I think one of my strengths as an operator is that I’m really in tune with the product and how it’s used. And if I go to a new city, I go to a climbing gym and I have a ton of fun climbing indoors…There’s no point in opening a business unless you love doing it, in my opinion. So, I think staying true to the reason why you opened a climbing gym will make running one a lot more fun.” – Dean Privett, Moments VP and Blue Swan Boulders and Iron City Boulders Owner
