Indoor climbing walls have become particularly popular in the last five years or so. And it’s no surprise why, there are many advantages to having access to an indoor climbing wall, including being able to climb in the city, where rock and mountain climbing options are limited, interact with others that enjoy climbing, learn how to scale indoor walls, and help the environment by not adding more holes and litter to already popular climbing locations.
Many gyms have indoor climbing walls but now, they can also be found in amusement parks and offices. It was hard to believe, 17 years ago, when Walltopia first opened, that indoor climbing would ever become so widespread. However, with its rising popularity Walltopia has become the leading manufacturer of climbing walls worldwide, with 2,691,000 total square feet built and 42 projects currently being worked on in the United States.
Walltopia started as a small company in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1998, where its headquarters still remain. It has since become a corporation spanning across six continents, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Their idea was simple; create climbing walls for inside use, so people living in the city, away from any natural place to climb, could enjoy the many benefits of the sport. However, selling the idea of indoor climbing walls, when Walltopia first opened was difficult, especially in the United States. Climbing was not as popular in the 90’s and early 2000’s as it is today. Certainly, the competition did not want another company, in an already small industry, building climbing walls. People working at Walltopia knew to become a true competitor they would have to change the way people thought of indoor climbing. Walltopia would have to take their climbing walls in a different direction, and could no longer just try to duplicate outside climbing places. Something had to change.
So, instead of trying to mimic the outdoors, like other climbing wall companies did at the time, Walltopia decided to make climbing walls with distinct indoor qualities. “We are the ones that said, we are not bringing the outdoors indoors, this is the indoors, and once we said that, it kind of meant that we could do whatever we wanted. We could have LED lights, you could have colors, there are no rules,” Adam Koberna, US Sales Manager explained. But these kinds of changes were not easy to sell at first, especially to the U.S. market. Most people wanted to recreate the outdoors in their inside facilities and it was difficult for Walltopia to convince existing climbing gyms to change their minds.
“We had to prove ourselves,” said Koberna, who was reluctant to the change himself. “My initial reaction was this is going to be really hard and the initial reaction of the client was, ‘that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen, I’m never going to buy that.’ Now, people are like, ‘Hey, check out those LEDs. How do I get those in my climbing wall?’” So, slowly the buyers’ minds started to change. “I’ve sold a lot of climbing walls that were meant to look like that rock, or meant to look like that rock, and that’s kind of run it’s course,” Koberna stated. Now Walltopia’s indoor walls are the most popular worldwide, as the total square footage proves, showing just how much a sport can change and evolve over time.
Part of the reason Walltopia became so popular, Koberna says is because they were producing the best product when indoor climbing walls became very popular. “At the time it was very unique, and it’s become very common now. Walltopia’s become the benchmark for what a climbing wall should look like and what a customer expects,” explained Koberna. He also described how they sell both to the facility owners as well as the actual climbers themselves. Walltopia makes modular products that can be easily repaired, and instead of constructing the wall at the indoor facility, the construction takes place at a Walltopia factory. This allows for onsite assembly, as opposed to onsite construction. This pleases the customer because as Koberna said, “We come in and do assembly instead of doing production.”
Koberna says, that with these indoor climbing walls they are seeing people, who would not, or could not climb in the past, come in and try it out. When he first started climbing, he says, “It was to get away from people,” but now, with the popularity of indoor climbing walls, climbing has become a much more social sport. Walltopia is even working on a program that will allow its users to connect with people across the world, so, as Koberna describes, someone from Atlanta, Georgia could create a course and then someone in Berlin, Germany could duplicate that course and the two climbers will be able to compete with each other.
Walltopia plans to continue to make climbing walls more mainstream over the next ten years. They are currently working on walls in Chicago, and other cities that will eventually be able to connect with other climbing walls worldwide. Walltopia just finished a project in Bozeman, MT that is half old school climbing wall and half new school, giving the clients a choice as to which wall they can use. The company is also working on The Collider Activity Center in Bulgaria, where its headquarters are located. They are trying to introduce an entire new kind of climbing experience by integrating their already different indoor climbing walls, with other events, such as music, art, social activities and gatherings.
Koberna said he never imagined indoor climbing walls would become so popular. “I’ve been doing this a long time, we knew it was going to get bigger, but I don’t think any of us had any clue it would get this big this fast.” The people who started Walltopia did it because they enjoyed climbing. Koberna said, “This is what we’re going to do because we love it, and it worked.” Now, climbing is no longer a sport for people who live close to mountains, thanks to Walltopia. It is a sport anyone can enjoy, sometimes even from the convenience of their own work place.
To learn more or find a climbing location near you, check out Walltopia.com, or follow them on Twitter @walltopiabg, Instagram @walltopia and Facebook
