Climbing Gyms: The End of the American Dream

For a decade, North American indoor climbing rode an almost absurd growth wave: openings nonstop, money pouring in, a post-Olympics boom. But in 2025, the party’s over. In its annual report, Climbing Business Journal says 73% of gym operators report worsening economic conditions. Tariffs, inflation, slipping attendance, labor tensions—the industry is entering a new era. Here’s a look inside a mini-crisis that could easily jump the Atlantic.

(cc) Alexander Williams / Unsplash

As usual, when she gets to work in the morning, Dana Caracciolo checks her dashboards the way you check lab results. Quick scan of day passes. A look at the retail numbers. A pulse check on memberships. The anatomy of a slowdown.

In the final quarter of 2025, Dana’s coffee doesn’t taste the same. Used to double-digit growth, the manager of Doylestown Rock Gym—an independent, privately owned gym in Pennsylvania—watches the charts flatten out. The drop isn’t a cliff, but it’s enough to set off alarms. And the problem isn’t just in the spreadsheets. You can see it on the ground.

“Customers aren’t buying new gear from the shop anymore,” Caracciolo told Climbing Business Journal (CBJ). “Now they’re blunt about it—they say they can’t afford their little after-session treats. And I’m seeing more and more climbing shoes with holes in them, just trying to squeeze out one more session…”

That detail lands because it’s familiar. Inside privately owned American climbing gyms, it echoes across the accounts CBJ gathered from about a hundred operators for its annual report. Published on February 8, the document functions as a reference point for the North American—arguably global—climbing industry. And the 2025 edition doesn’t bury the lead: 73% of gym leaders say their economic conditions have deteriorated.

That number marks a turning point. It also answers the big question. Is the golden age of indoor climbing in the U.S. over? Yes.

The Cost of the Screw

As with most industry reports, the data does the talking. New gym openings haven’t collapsed—40 new gyms opened in the U.S. in 2025, down from 48 in 2024—but closures have started. Last year, 12 climbing gyms shut their doors for good. Net sector growth landed at 4.7%, down from 6.3% the year before and roughly 10% pre-pandemic.

Nothing here reads like a sudden wipeout. These numbers are measured down to the decimal. But they show a clear trend line—and it’s pointing down.

More worrying: attendance is slipping. CBJ reports traffic declines across every gym category. Small facilities (under 1,000 square meters) saw a 4.9% drop; mid-size gyms (1,000 to 2,300 square meters) fell 3.4%; and large gyms (over 2,300 square meters) dropped 2.1%. Even the big players aren’t immune.

Meanwhile, costs are surging. Eighty-five percent of gyms say their total expenses increased. The biggest hits? Energy, insurance, and, above all, payroll. Eighty-five percent of operators had to raise wage budgets, squeezed between inflation, a shortage of skilled staff, and, in some cases, union pressure.

“I think there’s been a lot of economic uncertainty this year with tariffs and other government policies that have played a role in reducing traffic to our gym”

Javan Bowsher

“Economic and political conditions are more difficult for most individuals and businesses,” summed up Darrell Gschwendtner, owner of Whetstone Climbing in Fort Collins, Colorado.

John Pritchard, owner and CEO of Stone Co. Climbing in College Station, Texas, put it even more plainly: “The heart of the economy is weak. We’ve found ways to hang on a bit, but overall, the momentum we had in 2021 and 2022 hasn’t been there for a few years now.”

Another manager—who runs a gym network and asked to remain anonymous—said it this way: “The boom years are over. It’s now much harder to be profitable if you don’t have the scale and the structure to support institutional growth or mergers and acquisitions.”

Behind the downturn, the climbing world—like plenty of other industries—goes looking for culprits, sometimes half-real, sometimes half-ghost.

First: tariffs. Since 2024, the Trump administration reinstated and increased a set of import taxes on goods coming from Asia and Europe. A big share of indoor climbing infrastructure—holds, modular wall panels, belay systems—is manufactured abroad. That means major chains like Movement, Touchstone, or Central Rock now face supply lines that are more expensive and less predictable.

“I think there’s been a lot of economic uncertainty this year with tariffs and other government policies that have played a role in reducing traffic to our gym,” said Javan Bowsher, manager of Granite Arch Climbing Center in Rancho Cordova, California.

Second: persistent inflation. Energy costs remain high, insurance premiums are climbing fast, and commercial rents keep rising in major metros.

“This is obvious, but everything’s going up,” said Sharon Knorr, director of operations at MetroRock. “And people have less disposable income.”

CBJ’s selected quotes converge on the same shift: customers are tightening up. In economist language, it’s a “compression of discretionary spending.” In gym reality, it’s one less beer after a session, a sandwich instead of the gym’s restaurant, and birthday parties that no longer happen under the ropes.

Nathan Craft, who runs Inner Peaks, a small regional chain in North Carolina, sees the same pattern: “The dedicated climbers keep coming regularly. It’s the casual customers who are dropping off, or new people who don’t come back.” And it’s often that occasional crowd that props up a gym’s revenue—family outings, impulse merch, and birthday packages.

Thanks, Boss

Not every gym is taking the hit the same way. CBJ’s report shows a sharp divide between large chains and independent operations.

On one side: the giants. Movement Climbing (34 locations), Central Rock (29), Touchstone (18). Often backed by investment funds or private capital, these groups are holding up better in the U.S. Their scale lets them negotiate bulk purchasing, absorb cost spikes, and keep marketing budgets aggressive.

On the other side: small independent gyms. For them, the situation is critical. Trapped between inflation and chain competition, many struggle to keep staff. Some close. Others get bought.

Welcome to standard economic Darwinism. CBJ notes that all 12 permanent closures in 2025 involved gyms under 1,000 square meters, mostly in rural areas.

“Memberships and kids’ programs increased significantly—representing all of our growth.”

Laura Bellisle

That accelerated consolidation raises a deeper question: what kind of business model will end up defining American indoor climbing?

Large chains—often tied to private equity (investments in privately held companies)—have to generate margins that satisfy investors. Movement, purchased in 2019 by El Cap Holdings (itself backed by an investment fund), is the clearest example.

In that context, labor negotiations are showing up more often. Since 2021, 18 American climbing gyms have unionized, mainly within Movement, Touchstone, and VITAL. More and more climbing workers are asking for decent pay, protections against harassment, and safer working conditions. Management pushes back, arguing the margins are too thin.

When revenue stalls and investors still want returns, somebody pays. And it’s rarely the investor.

Between Fear and a Second Wind

CBJ’s report also points to a few real handholds—places where operators are finding traction.

The most striking: youth programs. In 2025, kids’ and teens’ enrollment surged in some regions. The Midwest saw an 84% increase in new sign-ups for group classes and competition teams.

“We made youth programming a priority,” said Christopher Deal, owner of Fargo Climbing in North Dakota. “Partly because we needed more sales—and more reliable sales.”

“The feeling I get from gym owners across the entire Western hemisphere is fear.”

Miura Hawkins

Laura Bellisle, owner of Black Hill Basecamp in South Dakota, backed that up: “Memberships and kids’ programs increased significantly—representing all of our growth.”

Technology is another possible path. In 2025, several manufacturers rolled out AI-based gamification systems, height sensors for auto-belay devices, and AI-assisted route-setting management tools. The hope, for some operators, is to keep younger customers coming back and to streamline operating costs.

And bouldering-only specialization keeps accelerating. In 2025, 73% of new gyms opened in North America were bouldering-only facilities. Lower build-out costs, faster customer turnover, and a wider audience. It also reflects a cultural shift: climbing isn’t just a performance sport anymore. It’s become a social, urban, accessible activity.

Even with these pockets of efficiency—and the sustainability angles some operators point to, like Walltopia’s bamboo walls or EP Climbing’s eucalyptus options—61% of operators still expect revenue to increase. That headline number hides huge gaps. Big chains are betting on modest growth. Independent gyms are mostly hoping for one thing: survival.

Back in Pennsylvania, Dana Caracciolo keeps checking her dashboards as part of her morning routine. In early 2026, the numbers haven’t moved. Neither has the crisis.

Like many small-gym operators, she’s learned to steer by feel in an environment that’s turned unpredictable. She’s now part of a generation of founders who—often for the first time—have to accept that the era of automatic, built-in growth is over.

And in a quiet, unavoidable nod to the sport itself, climbing gym managers are also relearning how to sit with a feeling they know well.

Because as another industry CEO, Miura Hawkins, put it: “The feeling I get from gym owners across the entire Western hemisphere is fear.”