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   How climbing gyms took over the world
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                 <h1 style="margin:0; font-size:30px; line-height:125%">
                 </h1>
                 <h1 style="margin:0; font-size:30px; line-height:125%">
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   How climbing gyms took over the world
                  </span>
                 </h1>
                 <p style="font-size:18px; line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="font-size:18px; line-height:125%">
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   <em>
                    Climbing has gone from a niche activity to a suburban routine. But will expensive real estate prices slow it down?
                   </em>
                  </span>
                 </p>
                 <p style="font-size:13px; line-height:125%; font-weight:bold">
                 </p>
                 <p style="font-size:13px; line-height:125%; font-weight:bold">
                  <br/>
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   BY
                   <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="aQ+NAHat" rel="noopener" style="font-weight:bold; color:#192733; text-decoration:none !important" target="_blank">
                    KELLI MARÍA KORDUCKI
                   </a>
                  </span>
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The moment I sent my first indoor bouldering problem — rock-climbing speak for completing a ropeless route — I knew I was hooked.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  It didn’t matter that I was afraid of heights or that my upper-body strength was middling at best. By shifting my center of gravity to maintain balance and tension on the wall, I felt what it was like to defeat gravity.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Fast-forward four months, and I’ve poured dozens of hours into my local climbing gym’s plastic-studded walls. Setting aside the knuckle calluses and elbow tendinopathy I’ve acquired from the hobby, I would climb every single day if I could.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  I’m in good company. According to the latest
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="skgRdZxR" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   industry report
                  </a>
                  from the Climbing Business Journal, there were 875 climbing gyms operating across the US, Mexico, and Canada by the end of last year — more than ever before. Upwards of
                  <strong>
                   7m
                  </strong>
                  Americans are climbers, with many
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="Oat3RzBv" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   shelling out
                  </a>
                  more than
                  <strong>
                   $1k
                  </strong>
                  per year for climbing gym memberships.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Climbing has always attracted a loyal base of diehards, thanks to the sport’s addictive combination of brain-teasing puzzles, playful agility, and, not least of all, its adrenaline-pumping element of danger. But until relatively recently, indoor climbing walls were few and far between, largely treated as training mechanisms for “real” climbing on outdoor crags.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The steady rise of dedicated climbing gyms has effectively transformed the sport, bringing a once-niche activity to the mainstream, redefining the very notion of what it means to be a climber, and setting the sport up for even more growth — if the real estate market allows.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <h2 style="margin:0; line-height:125%; font-size:18px">
                  From dirtbags to gym rats
                 </h2>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  With origins in Alpine exploration, rock climbing
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="VjMyB1OY" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   developed as a sport
                  </a>
                  in late-19th century Europe. But it wasn’t until the 1950s and ’60s that recreational climbing gathered steam
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="hmqXLTws" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   in the US
                  </a>
                  , when postwar economic growth expanded the nation’s middle class and, in turn, Americans’ pursuit of leisure.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  In the decades that followed, outdoor climbing was effectively reserved for those with ready access to crags and gear, who had ample time and energy to burn. The archetypal climbers were young men without families to feed or full-time jobs to hold down, free to devote their waking hours to becoming one with the rock. In the spirit of surf and ski bums, tent-city communities of itinerant “dirtbag” climbers formed around big-wall meccas
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="BIlEnjrV" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   like
                  </a>
                  Yosemite National Park, whose notorious Camp 4 campground is widely
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="8qbThHgM" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   credited
                  </a>
                  as a cradle of modern American climbing.
                 </p>
                </div>
               </div>
              </td>
             </tr>
            </tbody>
           </table>
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             <tbody>
              <tr>
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                <img align="middle" alt="Four young children climb a gray indoor rock wall with numerous colorful holds." src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.hubspot.com%252Fhs-fs%252Fhubfs%252FOct%252019%25202025%252Fkids-climbing.jpg%253Fwidth%253D1160%2526upscale%253Dtrue%2526name%253Dkids-climbing.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5odWJzcCIsInRpbWUiOjE3NjA4NzQ4OTEuNDI0Mzg4fQ:1vARzv:T00FZSkJpraYsQfuCmv2r90wkBCHFwooNbFtuLj7Tb8" style="outline:none; text-decoration:none; max-width:100%; font-size:16px" width="580"/>
               </td>
              </tr>
             </tbody>
            </table>
           </div>
           <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="" role="presentation" style="" width="100%">
            <tbody>
             <tr>
              <td class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:16px; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; padding:5px 10px 10px">
               <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_module" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="module" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-2" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="rich_text" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-2_" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   <em>
                    <span style="font-size: 12px;">
                     Kindergartners climb a wall in Denver. (Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
                    </span>
                   </em>
                  </span>
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Bit by bit, the indoor climbing structures that were always a part of climbers’ off-season training regimens evolved into the gyms of today.
                 </p>
                 <ul style="line-height:125%">
                  <li aria-level="1">
                   In the mid-1980s, French climber François Savigny
                   <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="AvdhOHJY" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                    developed
                   </a>
                   the first plastic bolt-on holds and climbing panels, which he went on to sell across Europe through his company, Entre-Prises.
                  </li>
                  <li aria-level="1">
                   His innovations inspired the ragtag team behind Metolius, a Bend, Oregon climbing company that began experimenting with resin holds, hangboards, and modular tiles. Around the same time, another Bend, Oregon climbing company called Vertical Concepts entered the fray with its own take on resin-based holds.
                  </li>
                  <li aria-level="1">
                   These developments and others paved the way for the country’s first commercial climbing gym, the Vertical Club, which opened in Seattle in 1987.
                  </li>
                 </ul>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Although many Americans are only just beginning to take notice, indoor climbing gyms have steadily proliferated ever since. “The industry’s growth has been averaging 4-to-8% annually for decades with no down years,” says
                  <strong>
                   Scott Rennak
                  </strong>
                  , the owner and publisher of Climbing Business Journal.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Rennack tells me that today,
                  <strong>
                   95%
                  </strong>
                  of the US population lives within 30 minutes of a climbing gym — a reality that he says has been “a long time coming.”
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The 2010s marked an inflection point. Until then, the global industry had looked to Europe for the latest trends. But in the aftermath of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, American metros had a resource at their disposal that their overseas counterparts did not: Space.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  “Real estate became affordable, so you had big buildings that were really cheap,” says
                  <strong>
                   Adam Koberna
                  </strong>
                  , a longtime climber and former independent climbing gym owner who now serves as the US president for the Bulgarian climbing-wall manufacturer, Walltopia. “In Europe you can't drive to the suburbs to go to this big giant building that somebody built on this big empty piece of land. But you can do that in the United States.”
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  By then, companies like Walltopia had commercialized “economical and functional” indoor climbing systems that lowered the financial barrier to entry for independent gym proprietors. The sport had also enjoyed enough cultural exposure to demystify it to new prospective gymgoers. Even if the average person hadn’t climbed an indoor wall by the start of the last decade, they were likely to have at least channel-surfed onto a climbing competition broadcast by the
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="SWLSviGQ" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   X Games
                  </a>
                  .
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  It was the perfect storm for the dawn of a new era: the age of the climbing megagym. “They just started getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” Koberna says. “People were just trying to outdo themselves. That was pretty fun.”
                 </p>
                </div>
               </div>
              </td>
             </tr>
            </tbody>
           </table>
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             <tbody>
              <tr>
               <td align="center" class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; text-align:center; padding:10px 10px 0px; font-size:0px" valign="top">
                <img align="middle" alt="An illustration showing the rise of U.S. climbing gyms, with a smaller climbing wall marked 353 (2017) and a much larger one marked 622 (2023)." src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.hubspot.com%252Fhs-fs%252Fhubfs%252FOct%252019%25202025%252FRise-of-Climbing-chart.png%253Fwidth%253D1160%2526upscale%253Dtrue%2526name%253DRise-of-Climbing-chart.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5odWJzcCIsInRpbWUiOjE3NjA4NzQ4OTEuNDI0NTExfQ:1vARzv:8urG4dKCNWiJi8q5re_iuD3_-v1YABVFQrQThHKL_T8" style="outline:none; text-decoration:none; max-width:100%; font-size:16px" width="580"/>
               </td>
              </tr>
             </tbody>
            </table>
           </div>
           <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="" role="presentation" style="" width="100%">
            <tbody>
             <tr>
              <td class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:16px; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; padding:5px 10px 10px">
               <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_module" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="module" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-4" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="rich_text" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-4_" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   <em>
                    <span style="font-size: 12px;">
                     Olivia Heller/The Hustle
                    </span>
                   </em>
                  </span>
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Koberna tells me that it was also during this time that indoor climbing entrepreneurs finally “cracked the code” for viable urban gyms in major cities like New York, with
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="HBtSwyRl" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   new facilities
                  </a>
                  averaging in excess of 15k square feet and initial capital expenditures clocking in between $1.4-$2.1m in today’s dollars.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  After getting hired by Walltopia in 2012, Koberna’s very first build was The Cliffs in Long Island City, which proved so successful that its owners went on to open two additional New York City outposts — one of which is now my home gym in Brooklyn — that were later
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="NgZB520n" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   acquired
                  </a>
                  by the national chain, Movement, in late 2023.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <h2 style="margin:0; font-size:18px; line-height:125%">
                  Creating climbing communities
                 </h2>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The gradual spread of climbing gyms has incrementally reshaped the culture of the sport — and, in places without mountains or existing climbing scenes, built new climbing communities from scratch.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  A shining example can be found in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the independent climbing gym Adventure Rock has served topography-starved locals since 1998.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  “Our approach has always been about introducing people to climbing, since this isn’t a region where people naturally encounter the sport outdoors,” says co-owner and COO
                  <strong>
                   Craig Burzynski
                  </strong>
                  . “That’s challenging, but rewarding. We’ve built a vibrant community in a place that might not seem like a natural fit.”
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  In a city whose beer-brewing legacy carries on in its
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="zXZQdHwD" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   notoriously booze-centric social culture
                  </a>
                  , the climbing gym offers a welcome alternative venue for getting together with friends. “Climbing gyms are like bars for active people,” Burzynski adds with a chuckle.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The community-centric atmosphere of today’s climbing gyms signals a departure from the sensibility of bygone eras, when climbers styled themselves as
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="8jtWVGPe" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   misfits and loners
                  </a>
                  set apart from society at-large. That shift informs the way climbing gyms are put together.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  “When we're designing a climbing gym, we're looking at the non-climbing spaces as much as we are our climbing walls. Because how people hang out and stay in the gym is just as important as the design of the walls,” Koberna says. Where the early training gyms of yesteryear reflected the sport’s broader ethos of “wanting to get away from people,” Koberna continues, today’s gym climbers prize a family-friendly atmosphere, clean facilities, and welcoming staff.
                 </p>
                </div>
               </div>
              </td>
             </tr>
            </tbody>
           </table>
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            <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="hse-image-wrapper" role="presentation" width="100%">
             <tbody>
              <tr>
               <td align="center" class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; text-align:center; padding:10px 10px 0px; font-size:0px" valign="top">
                <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="8cbhhUdd" style="color:#00a4bd" target="_blank">
                 <img align="middle" alt="A man hangs mid-air while lead climbing on a tall, colorful indoor rock wall. Several people are visible below." src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.hubspot.com%252Fhs-fs%252Fhubfs%252FOct%252019%25202025%252Fman-climbing-rock-wall.jpg%253Fwidth%253D1160%2526upscale%253Dtrue%2526name%253Dman-climbing-rock-wall.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5odWJzcCIsInRpbWUiOjE3NjA4NzQ4OTEuNDI0NjMyfQ:1vARzv:lFX3fEQ7-EWkEYV4f88te8phCIhyW2Or2pBK3Xu9jJY" style="outline:none; text-decoration:none; border:none; max-width:100%; font-size:16px" width="580"/>
                </a>
               </td>
              </tr>
             </tbody>
            </table>
           </div>
           <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="" role="presentation" style="" width="100%">
            <tbody>
             <tr>
              <td class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:16px; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; padding:5px 10px 10px">
               <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_module" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="module" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-6" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="rich_text" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-6_" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   <em>
                    <span style="font-size: 12px;">
                     The Earth Treks climbing gym was the largest in the world when it opened in 2018 in Englewood, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
                    </span>
                   </em>
                  </span>
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The popularity of indoor climbing has helped to make the sport more accessible to a broader swath of the American population, injecting new diversity into an activity that had long been the domain of young white men.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  A 2019
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="l4EFZvs6" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   report
                  </a>
                  from the American Alpine Association found that while white men still made up the majority of total climbers in the US, non-white athletes made up one-fifth of the nation’s total climbers, and nearly half of indoor gym climbers were women. The debut of gym-style competition climbing in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics further expanded the sport’s visibility, bringing powerhouse women climbers like Janja Garnbret and Brooke Raboutou to the global stage.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <h2 style="margin:0; font-size:18px; line-height:125%">
                  Beyond the megagym
                 </h2>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Though climbing’s rising popularity shows little sign of slowing, the industry faces its share of ongoing challenges. High construction and real estate costs make large facilities risky to build, and regional markets remain widely variable. While these constraints challenge the primacy of the climbing megagym, they’ve given rise to new innovations that are steering the market forward in new directions.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The years following the pandemic have seen the advent of
                  <strong>
                   training boards
                  </strong>
                  , standalone frames with customizable settings that users can manipulate with their phones.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  “You can adjust the wall angle to be vertical or 60 degrees overhung, and it takes like a minute to adjust, or you'll press a button and it'll light up a route for you,” Rennak says. For larger gyms, training boards are “effectively a must-have amenity,” according to the Climbing Business Journal’s 2024
                  <a data-hs-link-id="1" data-hs-link-id-v2="7LkBDpAV" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   report
                  </a>
                  on gyms and trends.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  These adjustable boards also offer newfound flexibility, scalability, and investor security for independent gym proprietors, helping to turn smaller cities and even towns of fewer than 50,000 people into viable climbing markets. Instead of building costly walls, a small gym owner can set up a few training boards, which
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="UPoQ3wsT" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   cost $10k
                  </a>
                  for a standard set and
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="IxoCyNVG" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   more than $80k
                  </a>
                  for higher-end models, and call it a day.
                 </p>
                </div>
               </div>
              </td>
             </tr>
            </tbody>
           </table>
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            <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="hse-image-wrapper" role="presentation" width="100%">
             <tbody>
              <tr>
               <td align="center" class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; text-align:center; padding:10px 10px 0px; font-size:0px" valign="top">
                <img align="middle" alt="A free-standing, adjustable climbing training board, called the Moonboard, is shown in a gym setting." src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.hubspot.com%252Fhs-fs%252Fhubfs%252FOct%252019%25202025%252FMoonboard-climbing-wall.png%253Fwidth%253D850%2526upscale%253Dtrue%2526name%253DMoonboard-climbing-wall.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5odWJzcCIsInRpbWUiOjE3NjA4NzQ4OTEuNDI0NzQ5MX0:1vARzv:qaeDm5eDBjr-G95pRFCn_xXu0Hz5UiaxP9PNMj20ork" style="outline:none; text-decoration:none; max-width:100%; font-size:16px" width="425"/>
               </td>
              </tr>
             </tbody>
            </table>
           </div>
           <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="" role="presentation" style="" width="100%">
            <tbody>
             <tr>
              <td class="hs_padded" style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:16px; color:#192733; word-break:break-word; padding:5px 10px 10px">
               <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_module" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="module" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-8" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                <div class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_widget hs_cos_wrapper_type_rich_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="widget" data-hs-cos-type="rich_text" id="hs_cos_wrapper_module-2-0-8_" style="color: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit;">
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  <span style="color: #192733;">
                   <em>
                    <span style="font-size: 12px;">
                     A free-standing training board called the Moonboard. (Moon Climbing)
                    </span>
                   </em>
                  </span>
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  Even the fanciest training board is a bargain when compared with permanent wall installations.
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The climbing wall manufacturer Impact
                  <a data-hs-link-id="0" data-hs-link-id-v2="Bs5Yzef0" style="color:#192733" target="_blank">
                   estimates
                  </a>
                  average costs between
                  <strong>
                   $250k-$750k
                  </strong>
                  to build a full-sized gym with 4k to 12k square-foot walls in a leased space, a number that doesn’t include monthly rent. Those prices rise exponentially when a project involves a ground-up build or an extra-large space.
                  <br/>
                  <br/>
                 </p>
                 <p style="line-height:125%">
                  The originally projected price tag for my
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                   40k square-foot
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                  , purpose-built home gym in Brooklyn was a cool
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                    $18m
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                  . Looking ahead, Rennak anticipates further specialization of gym offerings — including training-focused setups — and continued growth in smaller and mid-sized markets.
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                  He also predicts major expansions in previously underrepresented population centers where a lack of mountains meant that rock climbing was never a part of the regional outdoor culture.
                 </p>
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                 </p>
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                  “Florida's popping right now, and Texas is similarly getting a lot of new activity. We’re seeing places like Dallas go from having only one or two gyms to having eight or 10. Eventually, that’ll be 20 or 30.”
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