CWA Blog Archive-Member Spotlight Oso Climbing Gyms

Member Spotlight Oso Climbing Gyms

Pdf Summary

This member spotlight tells the improbable success story of Oso Climbing Gyms, which opened its doors for the first time in May 2020, when most businesses were bunkering down to ride out the COVID storm. Located in Dallas's Design District, the roughly 36,000-square-foot facility is more than a bouldering gym, it functions much like a community center, with robust fitness and yoga offerings and expansive locker rooms featuring showers and saunas. CWA writer Alexandra Wojcicki connected with founder Chris Whittaker to understand launching a gym during such tumultuous times. Whittaker reframes the pandemic timing as carrying a rare advantage. Being born in the pandemic has very few privileges, he says, but one is that Oso was born with cleanliness and safety in mind as part of its ethos, baked in from the start rather than retrofitted. He's candid about the uncertainty: many COVID health and safety insights now taken for granted weren't yet available when Oso was opening. Texas was one of the first places in the country to reopen gyms, and with that came the challenge that there was no playbook for what they were supposed to do. The throughline is that Oso turned the seemingly disastrous timing of opening during a pandemic into a defining strength, building safety and cleanliness into its very identity and pioneering operations without any established guidance. For operators, the spotlight demonstrates that even the most challenging circumstances can be navigated, and even leveraged, with the right mindset.

Asset Caption

A member spotlight on Oso Climbing Gyms, which opened in Dallas in May 2020 as others bunkered down. Founder Chris Whittaker reframed the pandemic timing as an advantage, building cleanliness and safety into Oso's ethos from day one. The 36,000-square-foot community hub pioneered operations with no playbook, thriving against the odds.