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Chinese rock climbing has just created new history at the Paris Olympics. In the women's and men's speed climbing finals held on August 7 and 8, Deng Lijuan and Wu Peng both lost to their opponents by a narrow margin, but still won two silver medals for the Chinese rock climbing team, which also achieved a breakthrough in China's Olympic rock climbing medals.

"It's the first time for them to participate in the Olympics. Because the competition system of the last Tokyo Olympics is different from this one, there will be a lot of uncertainty in the finals, but it can be said that the athletes of the Chinese rock climbing team have the strength to compete for medals, even gold medals." Just one hour before Deng Lijuan participated in the women's speed climbing finals, Zhao Lei, the former head coach of the Chinese national rock climbing team, predicted to Lanba Sports the performance of the Chinese rock climbing team in this Paris Olympics. In the last Tokyo Olympics, Zhao Lei served as the head coach of the Chinese national rock climbing team and led Pan Yufei and Song Yiling to participate.

Today, Zhao Lei has another identity - the founder of Leipan Technology. His co-founder is Li Shuangfu, the co-founder of Lanxiong Sports. Leipan Technology also launched a rock climbing gym brand "Wopan", and the Beijing flagship gym is expected to open at the end of August. Lanxiong Sports participated in the incubation of the project throughout the process and will provide various support for related businesses in the future.

Leipan Technology was officially established in January this year and has completed nearly 10 million RMB in financing. Wang Shi is the co-founder and the first investor, and Zhou Hongyi is the angel investor. The new round of funds will be mainly used for the research and development and upgrading of the Wopan BAT board and the operation of the Wopan Beijing flagship hall.

"I once led the Chinese rock climbing team to the Tokyo Olympics as the head coach, but rock climbing was not our strong sport at the time, and its mass base in China was not well developed," Zhao Lei told Lanba Sports. "We lacked the technical output of top coaches and top route setters. But through entrepreneurship, I can use my strengths to help the industry and focus on the popularization of rock climbing, so that more people can accept and get in touch with the guidance of high-level coaches. At the same time, I can provide standardized software and hardware for the rock climbing industry to empower the industry's development."

From teaching entrepreneurs to climb rocks, to creating brands and promoting rock climbing

In the WeChat video account "I Climb Zhao Lei", you can often see video content of Zhao Lei leading a group of entrepreneurs to rock climb. Wang Shi, founder of Vanke Group, and Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, often appear in the video.

Previously, Wang Shi had been promoting rowing, while Zhou Hongyi loved live-fire shooting. The two had been long-term sports enthusiasts. They had invited each other to participate in their favorite projects several times, but they failed to make it happen for some reason. Until by chance, the two entrepreneurs discovered that they both liked rock climbing, and Wang Shi introduced Zhao Lei, the former head coach of the Chinese rock climbing team, to Zhou Hongyi, who did not know how to climb.

It was August 2021, and the Tokyo Olympic cycle had ended. Zhao Lei had just finished his work during the Tokyo Olympic cycle and had some free time on weekends to participate in rock climbing teaching for entrepreneurs. In addition, the epidemic restricted travel, so Wang Shi and Zhou Hongyi had more time to exercise together, which also made it possible for the two to jointly initiate the establishment of the Entrepreneur Rock Climbing Club.

Li Shuangfu also got in-depth exposure to the rock climbing industry during this period. As the first Chinese NBA reporter to follow the team to the White House for an interview, he usually plays basketball more often. By chance, he became fascinated with rock climbing and has been training regularly for three years. Li Shuangfu is the co-founder of Lanba Sports and has a deep understanding of the development and changes in China's sports business in recent years. "In recent years, new sports have emerged, but many of them are short-lived. Only rock climbing has not been able to stop its rapid development even due to the epidemic. Whether it is the number of rock climbing gyms or the number of rock climbing friends, the average annual growth rate has exceeded 30%."

With a team of top coaches teaching and a group of friends joining the sport, this group of rock climbing enthusiasts had more time to get together and hone their climbing skills. The rock climbing gym brand "Wopan" was conceived during this period. Wang Shi became their co-founder and first investor, and Zhou Hongyi became an angel investor.

"I have worked very hard with coach Zhao Lei over the past two years." Zhou Hongyi explained the main reason behind his investment in an interview with Sports Illustrated. "Of course, rock climbing is more profound and fun than other sports. I understand that the two of us (Wang Shi and Zhou Hongyi) did not invest to pursue a huge return, but to hope that rock climbing can be accepted by more people."

One thing that cannot be ignored is that the rock climbing industry is now becoming one of the hottest emerging sports.

In terms of online voice, taking Xiaohongshu data as an example, in 2023, Xiaohongshu had about 650,000+ notes related to "rock climbing"; between 2019 and 2023, the number of rock climbing notes published annually on Xiaohongshu increased by 30 times. On the other hand, the growth in demand is also obvious. According to statistics from the National Rock Climbing Association, the number of rock climbers in the country was about 20,000 in 2014, and by 2021, this number had reached hundreds of thousands. In the article "Meeting Friends with Rocks, the Opening Game of the 2023 National Rock Climbing Hall League Kicked off Wonderfully" released on the official website of the Mountaineering Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of China in September 2023, a more specific statement on the estimated number of rock climbers in my country is "nearly 500,000 people."

The above-mentioned favorable factors have obviously made the rock climbing gym business develop in full swing, but the existing problems in the industry are also equally striking.

"The difficulty of the routes is not uniform, the community stratification is not ideal, the service level needs to be upgraded, it is difficult to work in the industry, and the KOLs have poor commercial monetization capabilities." These are the main pain points of domestic commercial rock gyms that Li Shuangfu has summarized during his three years of climbing practice and gym visits. For this reason, he also hopes to provide more new possibilities for the industry through Leipan Technology and the "Wopan" brand.

Don’t do chain business, empower the rock climbing industry

"In the past few years, the rock climbing industry has grown rapidly as a whole, with the number of rock climbing gyms in the country growing explosively at a rate of more than 30%. In the past few years, as long as you opened a gym, you could make money, which led to the industry's barbaric development. But this year, obvious problems began to emerge," said Li Shuangfu. "This is also a problem we anticipated when designing the business model. After the rock climbing gyms are saturated and the growth rate of climbers slows down, it is bound to test more refined operations and service capabilities."

According to the "2023 China Rock Climbing Industry Analysis Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), as of December 2023, Dianping data statistics show that there are 636 commercial rock climbing gyms in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), an increase of 31% compared to the 485 counted at the beginning of 2022.

Previously, Wei Junjie, the founder of Yanshi Rock Climbing, made a rough estimate to Lanba Sports that the city with the most rock climbing gyms in the country is Shanghai, with about 60-70 rock climbing gyms, while Beijing has only 30 rock climbing gyms, and is expected to accommodate about 80 in the end. According to the data in the "Report", as of December 2023, Shanghai has 69 rock climbing gyms, while the number of rock climbing gyms in Beijing has reached 53. Another data in comparison is that according to the rock climbing vertical media "Yandian", Tokyo already had 89 rock climbing gyms in 2019.

"Are there too many climbing gyms?" - Faced with the rapid increase in the number of climbing gyms, questions arise. Whether the number of climbing gyms and climbers will break the previously balanced supply and demand relationship may become a question that the entire rock climbing industry will pay close attention to this year.

"The core problem is that the rock climbing gym industry is still not standardized enough." Li Shuangfu believes that a concrete example of the lack of standardization is that the frequent need to change lines in commercial rock climbing gyms has greatly increased the cost of the venues.

In today's increasingly crowded rock gym ecosystem, route setters usually need to participate in the venue's route change work every half month or a month. However, practitioners with relevant route setter qualifications are still scarce in China. According to the data in the "Report", more than 56% of rock gyms do not have coaches with route setter certificates, and there are only more than 200 route setters with national route setter certificates.

Leipan Technology has also provided its own solution to solve the pain point of standardization. Zhao Lei introduced the standardized product BAT board produced by Leipan Technology to Lanxiong Sports. The BAT board is composed of three rock boards with adjustable angles, targeting different user groups such as beginners, young professional training and senior rock climbers.

Li Shuangfu said: "In addition to hardware support, the software will also provide products such as explanation videos of top coaches, so that rock gyms that do not have sufficient route setters can independently update routes and enable venue operations." In other words, on the basis of standardization, route setters can remotely formulate route plans, allowing rock gym coaches to directly replicate them offline, greatly reducing costs and promoting industry standardization.

Previously, Lanxiong Sports conducted a survey on the cost of rock gyms. In Shanghai, the initial investment of a 300-square-meter bouldering gym is about one million yuan, and the comprehensive gym may cost between 1.5 and 2 million yuan, while the subsequent operating expenses (including rent, water, electricity, labor, maintenance, etc.) are less than 100,000 yuan. In Beijing, according to Li Shuangfu's rough statistics, the hardware cost of opening a rock gym is between 2 million and 3 million yuan, and the technology products mainly based on BAT can reduce the hardware cost to about 1 million yuan, and more importantly, it can reduce the continuous investment in the cost of route setters in the later stage.

At present, the product has reached letters of intent with rock climbing gyms under construction in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Hefei and other places. According to Li Shuangfu, the initial price of the entire BAT version of the system is 590,000 yuan, and it will continue to optimize the UI system, rock point design, joint styling and other aspects in the future.

In addition to promoting industry standardization and reducing operating costs for rock gym operators, BAT boards also have certain advantages for rock climbing enthusiasts. Many rock climbing enthusiasts who have experienced it said that BAT boards are more friendly to novices and can also comprehensively improve the skills and basic skills of rock climbing enthusiasts. Different angles can greatly improve the technical details.

"With BAT boards as core products, after rolling out standardized business on the B-end, selling teaching courses on the C-end has become the subsequent expansion direction of the business." According to Li Shuangfu, for enthusiasts with rock climbing experience, their willingness and acceptance of paying for teaching courses will be stronger. In the absence of guidance from top coaches, paid online courses will also become the first choice for this customer group.

According to the plan, the core mission of Leipan Technology is to promote the BAT boards to more rock climbing gyms under construction or rock climbing gyms that need hardware updates across the country. It is expected that by 2025, 20 to 30 gyms will be established across the country.

Technology Brand、A rock climbing gym brand, but also a lifestyle brand

The "Wopan" Beijing flagship store actually covers an area of ​​over 800 square meters, with a climbing area of ​​approximately 1,200 square meters on the upper and lower floors. It is a large rock climbing gym located at Xianglong Baicanghui, Guangqu East Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing.

According to the data in the above report, the number of large-scale rock climbing gyms with an area of ​​more than 1,000 square meters will increase in 2023, and the proportion will increase from 9.1% to 14.4%. In the future, Leipan Technology will continue to build brand flagship stores in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other places.

During the visit to the venue, Lanxiong Sports found that the first floor of the venue has been basically built. The rock walls are mainly from the well-known Bulgarian brand Walltopia, and the rock points are also from top brands such as Surp and Caiholds. Domestic brands such as Gekko King are also involved. There is still a lot of blank space on the second floor of the rock gym, which will be mainly used for community activities and for experience and display of various outdoor and rock climbing brands.

"In the future, Leipan Technology will also focus on its own brand and develop and research a series of peripheral products to enhance the finger strength, grip strength and other peripheral products of rock climbing enthusiasts," Zhao Lei said. At this stage, Leipan Technology will be the agent of well-known outdoor and rock climbing brands, and will try to develop its own business in the later stage.

Regarding the flagship business, Li Shuangfu introduced that "Wopan" focuses on membership. Currently, it mainly operates two clubs to serve two types of customers. The first type is mainly for customers who regard rock climbing as a lifestyle, with an annual fee of about 50,000 yuan; the other type is mainly for young competitive training groups, with a price slightly lower than the former, at 30,000 yuan. Both clubs are limited to recruiting 100 people. "It is similar to the full coach model of a gym, that is, there will be a coach to ensure safety and provide guidance when you enter the venue. In addition, members can choose various value-added services including private training."

Li Shuangfu also revealed: "The traditional gym membership model is to bet that users will not come after the membership is sold. Ipanma doesn't want to be such a place. Before becoming a member, we encourage potential members to experience and try multiple times until you really like it. Once you become a member, it is equivalent to making a commitment. Together with everyone, we will truly turn rock climbing into a lifestyle and continue to feel the charm of this sport."

Relying on the construction of the flagship hall, community operation will also become a major focus of the "I Climb" brand. Zhao Lei and others found in the process of participating in the Entrepreneur Rock Climbing Club that the interaction within the community is also a natural advantage of rock climbing compared to other emerging sports. "One route, multiple solutions, different climbing methods create a natural social scene. In addition, everyone pursues Flash (successful first climb of a route), which creates competition."

According to Li Shuangfu, under the mechanism of the "I Climb" club, different groups such as entrepreneurs, investors, entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, and media people will continue to interact and break circles. Everyone will work together and communicate in the field of rock climbing. Another major demand derived from community operations is the enthusiasm for participating in rock climbing competitions. On this basis, Leipan Technology will plan to hold offline rock climbing competitions in multiple locations, and will also build an online platform for customers and members to use.

Emotional value, stress relief, hard work, the joy of failure... Many interpretations of the actual reasons behind rock climbing's breaking out of the circle are convincing. What is even more undeniable is that rock climbing is now becoming a new lifestyle. At this time, lifestyle brands based on rock climbing are also worthy of more attention.

"Rock climbing is booming, but the entire industry is still in its infancy. Even with the most objective estimates, there may only be 1 million rock climbing enthusiasts nationwide," said Li Shuangfu. "Only when the industry reaches 10 million people can it really support the growth of a platform like ours, so we must first help the industry move forward and make rock climbing a lifestyle for more people. If we can reach 5 million monthly active users, more than 100 in-depth cooperation venues across the country, and 100,000 people buy paid courses, we can achieve a real scale effect."

The report states that the ecological dilemma of commercial rock climbing gyms in China is that "the standardization and digitalization of (commercial rock climbing gyms in China) are still in the exploratory stage. Compared with the catering industry and the fitness industry, the rock climbing industry has a huge room for improvement." In response to this, Leipan Technology has chosen to try to solve this problem of coexistence in the industry by empowering the rock climbing industry with technology.

It can be foreseen that in the future, whether it is the subsequent operation and development of flagship venues, the introduction of new technological products such as BAT, or online platforms based on communities, they will bring more changes and possibilities to rock climbing, an industry that is still a niche but full of potential.

Statement: This article is original by Lanba Sports. Please indicate the source when reprinting.