Clip ‘n Climb High Climber
Hugely successful New Zealand-based indoor climbing centre brand Clip ’n Climb now has more than 100 centres around the world, including 16 in the UK. Co-founder, John Targett, talked to GAP to tell us exactly how he got to the top….
So, John, how did this all come about? “Clip ‘n Climb is an idea that emerged in 2004 out of a collaboration between myself and a Kiwi called Tim Wethey who was a designer and builder of traditional artificial climbing walls. I had emigrated to New Zealand with my family from Ireland where I had sold my business. I was looking for a new business opportunity in Christchurch. Tim was keen to build, own and operate an indoor climbing centre in the city but was not confident that it would be particularly profitable due to the prevailing Mediterranean style weather and the large number of natural crags for climbing within 15 minutes’ drive.
“I had spent three years in the amusement industry in
John Targett & Tim Wethey
the early 1980s selling Bumper Boats for Eurounion who were based in the south west of England. During that period I travelled extensively throughout Europe and took part in many amusement trade shows. This knowledge of the industry, and my penchant to ‘think outside the box’ got me wondering how we could make climbing more accessible and attractive to non-climbers. Climbing is a wonderful activity that is healthy and challenging but one that is perceived as full of risk by those outside the sport. Around that time, ‘sit-on-top’ kayaks had emerged on the market and quickly became very popular. The secret to their success was that they eliminated the perceived risks of capsizing and getting trapped in a (conventional) kayak. This was achieved by removing the superstructure and using a triple hull configuration. The latter made sit-on-top kayaks incredibly stable on the water. Two changes that that were to provide game changer in terms of the popularity of paddling. During this time Tim and I visited a lot of indoor climbing centres to benchmark them and to see what we could learn. My observation was that they were not designed for younger people with short attention spans. Additionally the vast majority of routes were ‘set’ by adults for adults. Physically and technically the younger climbers could not reach many of the holds on a route. Routes in conventional climbing gyms are identified by the use of a set of single coloured holds eg the red route, the green route etc. However when the youngsters climbed they needed to grab holds of any colour to get to the top. This meant that every route felt much the same and boredom quickly set in.”
16
www.globalamusementsandplay.com
So, in effect, you gamified it? “My thinking began to focus on the need for variety in the climbing challenges and an environment where people did not feel intimidated by experienced climbers. Overall I was trying to figure out how to ‘dumb down’ climbing while at the same time making it safe and exciting activity, one that was hugely attractive to kids but one which also attracted adults who just wanted to ‘give it a go’. Golf suddenly came to mind, a serious sport at the top level but also available in shortened versions like Pitch and Putt, and in fun versions like crazy golf and adventure golf. The objective was the same … get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible but it was working on so many different levels. This was a bit of a Eureka moment and I began to visualise a climbing centre full of uniquely different climbing challenges.”
Where did you take it next?
“I created about 15 initial wacky ideas to share with Tim and others in the local climbing community and got a hugely positive response. They say timing is everything in terms of new products and new ideas. Too soon and no one is ready or the technology doesn’t exist, too late and someone else may have struck first. We were very fortunate that in the USA someone had come up with a great idea to eliminate the risk that a Belayer (the person who controls the safety rope for a climber) could make a fatal mistake. Their game changing solution was to have an Automatic Belay system. This device was to prove crucial to the creation of Clip ‘n Climb and the business model it made possible.”
Having got to the ideas stage, when did it start to become a reality? “We made the decision to proceed and within 18 months we had purchased a building, built a conventional climbing gym in one half and Clip ‘n Climb in the other. We opened the doors and Clip ‘n Climb was an immediate success. We sensed it was scalable and contracted a team of design engineers to take our prototype climbs and turn them into a modular kit-set format that would enable the equipment to be manufactured, delivered and installed economically and efficiently. We very quickly made two sales in New Zealand and then our first export sale in Canada.”
And how many centres are there now? “Today the company is enjoying exponential growth and we celebrated the opening of the 100th centre in December 2016 in Amsterdam, but in reality we were already well on our way to 130 either open or under contract. To cope with demand we have production
February 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28