Jez Tapping

January is when strategies get dusted off, budgets get stretched, and everyone quietly asks the same question: “How do we get more people through the door this year?” Across the climbing industry, the answers sound familiar: Adult memberships are flattening. Marketing costs are rising while conversion is falling. Secondary spend is softer than it used to be. The instinctive response is to push harder on the same lever: more adults, more offers, more noise. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: The...

(And Got a Much-Needed Reality Check) “More climbers than ever - yet for the first time, many walls aren’t growing.” That one sentence sums up 2025 pretty well. If you’ve been around indoor climbing for a while, you’ve probably felt it too. The buzz is still there, new climbers, new gyms, new gear, but beneath it all, something shifted. The easy growth has gone. For the first time in a decade, we’re not just talking about participation; we’re talking about profitability, sustainability, and...

As the climbing industry matures, the movement of physical climbing wall structures - panels, frames, steelwork, bouldering islands, rope walls, auto belay lines, Clip and Climb elements (modular sections) - has increased dramatically. Refits, expansions, relocations, and closures now happen far more frequently, creating a growing market for used climbing wall assets. But despite the demand, there has never been a structured or confidential way to buy or sell the walls themselves. And while...