Authored by Mack Maier
In 2017, the city of Longmont, Colorado, didn’t have a climbing gym. My business partner and I had been running HMH Outdoors, a climbing gym distribution business, for a few years.
We were based in the small, sleepy town outside of Boulder, and it was becoming increasingly busy. We began our climbing careers outdoors, but we also enjoyed the training and convenience of indoor climbing.
With the absence of a climbing gym in Longmont, we were members of a gym in Boulder. It was and remains a nice facility, but we grew weary of the constant commute, especially during Colorado’s long winters.
This story likely hits home with many of North America’s climbing gyms: passionate climbers saw a need for their community and looked to provide a solution.
Opening a climbing gym (or in our case now, three) is not easy. You spend months, if not years, building your business plan, sourcing funding from whoever will give you money, filling out countless forms for banks, putting liens on effectively everything you own, finding investors, etc. It is an arduous, yet rewarding process. All of this work takes place before you ever put a shovel to dirt.
As gym owners, we take great risk to build and open businesses in communities that need them. But this passion alone does not guarantee success. Once the gym is finally open, the real work begins—especially in today’s market, where climbers have a choice of where they spend their hard-earned dollars. Gyms must earn their members and guests.
At least for us, and likely most climbing gyms, membership is the core of the business. Programming, retail, yoga, guest/punch passes and other offerings are important, but getting membership right is essential. We need customers to enjoy the experience of the gym.
Making a Strong First Impression
When someone enters our gym as a new climber, the first thing they are handed, after filling out a waiver and paying, is a pair of rental shoes (and if they are rope climbing, a rental harness and belay device).
Our job as gym owners is to ensure that the customer who walks in the door for the first time has a pleasant, enjoyable experience and wants to come back for more. First impressions mean everything, and if a visitor doesn’t enjoy the experience, they’re unlikely to come back.
Rental shoes, climbing holds, friendly staff, clean restrooms…these basics are what will impact a customer’s first day. If the rental shoes are smelly, old, and don’t fit and don’t perform well, or if the holds are old and not fun and set in a good manner, then it’s hard to get a customer to enjoy the experience and want to return and possibly purchase a membership.
At least at our gym, a pair of rental shoes is paid off after being rented about nine times. We ultimately rent them out hundreds, if not thousands of times. To say their ROI is exceptional is an understatement. I’ve been to hundreds of gyms around the United States and Canada (as well as in Asia and Europe) and I’m always perplexed by the poor state of rental shoes that I often find. Of course, I am biased, since I’m involved with Butora and we have a large market share of rental shoes.
We believe that rental shoes should last a long time and perform as good as they reasonably can. A poor-performing rental shoe that doesn’t climb well or hold up to abuse is absolutely detrimental to a gym’s business, in our experience. That’s why we offer a leading, world-class rental shoe that excels in both performance and durability, and we’ve just added a 5-millimeter outsole to make it even better.
Check out the Butora Habara, as well as the rest of our rental lineup, at www.butorausa.com, and contact your Account Manager or sales@hmhoutdoors.com for more information and to place an order. Our rental shoes are always in stock in the U.S. and can often ship out the same day an order is placed, or shortly thereafter.
This story was paid for by the sponsor and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
Since 2015, Butora has been focused on making high-performance climbing footwear that’s comfortable and lasts a long time—including affordable rental shoe fleets for climbing gyms. At Butora, we think it’s critical that visitors to your gym become long-term members, and a great way to increase the likelihood of membership is by providing a stellar experience, starting with handing them a superb pair of rental shoes. Our popular Habara Markless now comes with a redesigned 5mm outsole and more durable rubber compound for increased durability. Explore our full rental lineup and reach out for wholesale pricing here.
