Posted on April 30, 2017

After each of our updates many of you have asked a similar question. "What's in it for the gym?" Why would a gym go through the effort of setting up Climbalytics? In this update We'll talk about some of those benefits and show you a rough preview of our gym dashboard. We're also taking Climbalytics on the road! There are details below about our upcoming trip and a peek at our new logo!

Climbalytics benefits for gyms

Climbalytics is an interesting project because we have to cater to two audiences. The first is obviously the climber and in our previous updates we've talked a lot about the climber side of the equation. The second audience is the gym. We need the gym to buy into the Climbalytics system in order for any of this to work. We've gotten a lot of questions from climbers about why a gym would be interested. After speaking with a number of gyms we wanted to share some of their thoughts with you all. It basically boils down to two main points.

A gym health report

When you go to the doctor they pretty much always take a few key pieces of information from you: your height, weight and blood pressure. These vital signs give the doctor a quick, high level overview of your health. We believe gyms would be better off with a periodic health report too. By aggregating climber data we can provide that high level overview of how the gym is doing, allowing the mangement, setters and staff to identify problems and new opportunities to stay ahead of the curve.

One "gym vital sign" that our health report shows is the distribution of difficulties of routes, compared to that of climbers. For example, if 90% of your climbers are climbing at a V3 or above, you don't want to have most of your problems set at V0-V1. The distribution of routes grades should fairly closely match the distribution of climber grades. By keeping an eye on these distributions, gyms can ensure that they are providing the best experience for their climbers.

The gym health report shows a few other "gym vital signs" as well as a bunch of more sophisticated metrics for gyms that want to really dive into their data. In the video below, Brandon goes through some of the data we plan on sharing with gyms.

The "cool" factor

The other major reason gyms have told us that they want Climbalytics is the "cool" factor. Providing a fitness tracker option to their climbers gives them a leg up on their competition. It's one more reason climbers should choose their gym. It can be used as a way to encourage first time climbers to become full members and as a marketing tool to encourage climbers to try out, or ultimately choose their gym over other gyms in the area.

Brandon and Aaron are headed to Fort Collins!

Every year the Climbing Wall Association holds a summit for gym owners and companies that build product for climbing gyms. We're super excited to be heading to the CWA Summit this year to meet gym owners and others in the industry. If you're in the area and interested in chatting with us or checking out our current demo while we're there, definitely get in touch. We'd love to talk with you whether you're a climber, associated with a gym or other climbing industry professional.

We've got a sick new logo

We've been working with a super talented designer to help create a logo that represents what we're trying to build. We wanted to incorporate aspects of climbing, puzzle solving and RFID (the main technology that we're using for this project). We're super happy with the result!

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