For Sky Zone Trampoline Parks, The Sky's The Limit

Children play at a Sky Zone facility.

Perhaps more than most entrepreneurs, the Platt family knows a thing or two about bouncing back. In 2004, Rick Platt used $2 million to recruit athletes and build a 17,000-square-foot arena in Las Vegas to make his sport Sky Zone a reality. The elaborate design involved trampolines, spinning hoops and acrobatics. It fizzled out. But the venue became popular among local skateboarders who wanted to bounce for themselves, and that sparked a new idea -- open trampoline parks for the general public.

After some renewed interest, Rick’s son Jeff eventually opened a second site in St. Louis in 2006, and since then business has been booming Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports. The initial flop has roared back into profits and a growing number of locations.

From only one site in 2004 and 2005, Sky Zone made its biggest jump in locations between 2010 and 2011, growing from six to 14. Today, the company has 18 locations across the United States, with a strong projection of 38 sites operating by the end of 2012. Among these new locations are four Sky Zones in California, two in Ohio, two in Texas and several throughout the South and Midwest. Revenue has also grown substantially from $412,000 during its opening year in 2004 to nearly $16 million in 2011, according to the company. Sky Zone has a full-time staff of 50 and 500 part-time employees.

On its website, Sky Zone emphasizes franchising a location to “leap into the future with an amazingly appealing and dynamic concept." Results across America have shown that Sky Zone seems to be catching on with all ages.

In Grimes, Iowa, a Sky Zone location is constantly filled with dozens of people looking to play arial variations of dodgeball and basketball according to the Des Moines Register. Three high schools have even scheduled their post-prom parties at the facility. In Indianapolis, “Skyrobics” classes have adults breaking a sweat, to the tune of up to 1,000 calories per hour according to USA Today. In South Bay, California, birthday parties and the expansive spin on their old trampoline connotations and nostalgia drive customer interest in Sky Zone. The Contra Costa Times notes that the supervision and safety measures taken by Sky Zone keep parents at ease that their child won’t end up as one of the 100,000 people that are sent to the emergency room yearly with injuries sustained from trampoline use.

Sky Zone hopes that through diversifying the activities available and interacting with fans and customers plastering YouTube and social media with evidence of the fun they will be able to keep their revival running. With high costs for construction -- to the tune of $1.1 to $1.5 million -- and a sizable demand for real estate space, it may hard to court some investors or franchisees however.

For Jeff Platt, it comes down to ensuring a customer experience that people want to relive. “As you grow a business and get different operators and franchisees, everyone has a different management and training style,” Platt told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “It’s critically important to maintain consistency as you grow a brand, so we want to get our training the exact same way at every location. Your competitors can adopt what you have created and do similar marketing, but they can’t clone your people.”

RATE IT!   |  

VOTE

CURRENT TOP 5 PICK YOUR OWN TOP 5

USERS WHO VOTED

NEW! CREATE YOUR OWN SLIDESHOW

Comments

[ChiefLaughsAtSheep]

09:37 AM on 11/12/2012

This 34 year old believes he just found his calling; his knees - however -- have a decidedly different opinion.

[TOREE]

09:28 PM on 04/21/2012

Do they routinely disinfect the trampolines or will we be reading about fatal skin infections acquired while at the park? I bet a few suits would put the hurts on their profits.

[wolvespj]

10:12 PM on 04/21/2012

Not a big deal, we had these in the 60"s. other than broken bones, no one had any problems

[libdg]

09:05 PM on 04/21/2012

There were local businesses in the late 50's/early 60's called "jump jumps." They installed trampolines in the ground (with a big square hole dug out underneath) and you paid for 15 min. or so to jump. It was great! Liability must be a million times higher now, but it was a lot of fun if you were a kid!

[TOREE]

09:30 PM on 04/21/2012

Had those in Miami growing up. They closed after kids missed the trampoline and got serious to fatal head, neck and spinal trauma.

[teezr6969]

09:04 PM on 04/21/2012

What a embarrassment for a company to say they have 50 full time people and 500 PART TIME people.

[wolvespj]

10:13 PM on 04/21/2012

why????

[PennyRex]

05:58 PM on 11/11/2012

It would really be hard to keep hundreds of people working in these types of facilities on a full-time basis. We have been to one of the locations and the peak hours are on the weekends. Kids are the prime audience and they are in school most of the year. Off hours you would only be getting a minimal number of people at a time and I am sure there are times during the day when the place is completely empty.

[gtizoomie]

08:48 PM on 04/21/2012

Wonder what their insurance premium is??
Right on the front page of my homeowners policy it states "NO TRAMPOLINES".
There must be a reason for it.

[IM5688]

08:47 PM on 04/21/2012

A full time staff of 50 and a part time staff of 500? No doubt, the part timers get minimum wage or close to it andno benefits. Just another corporation success story of how those who can, take advantage of those who didn't. And when this new fad is over and done with in probably 5 or 6 years, the corporation will close down, the execs will count their millions, and the workers will be unemployed with nothing but a part time job to add to their resume.

[teezr6969]

08:54 PM on 04/21/2012

my comment was almost the same as yours. im glad there are a few of us that can see whats going on in this country.

[ObamaLovesAll1]

09:02 PM on 04/21/2012

Those poor poor being being held at gunpoint to work at this place. I hope the cops do something about that.

[WOWMYCAPSARELOCKED]

10:06 PM on 04/21/2012

SEND IN trayvon martin

[yellowberry]

08:44 PM on 04/21/2012

i almost like this theme, however, i see most of the patrons for this, people who are new and inexperienced to using trampolines. all it takes is one bad landing to get the first lawsuit rolling. its great exercise, but you have to be trained to use these things.

[Bnic5]

08:21 PM on 04/21/2012

Anything that helps us become more active while having fun I'm all for. This looks like a lot of fun.

[TOREE]

09:35 PM on 04/21/2012

Then why doesn't someone open a park where you have to peddle to power video games?

[Bnic5]

10:00 PM on 04/22/2012

Doesn't seem like a bad idea. If it was fun in someway why not?

[forwardev3r]

08:14 PM on 04/21/2012

That looks fun.

[superducky951]

08:14 PM on 04/21/2012

Seems like a new sport could come from this. A foot ball or super doge ball.

[wolvespj]

10:17 PM on 04/21/2012

been there, and done that. Just showing my age. They even had power basketball on a trampoline.

[sleepingdogg]

07:55 PM on 04/21/2012

yeah, righ. here, bounce on this.

[reddy2891]

07:31 PM on 04/21/2012

the one in vegas has been here a few years, almost no injuries, extremely affordable, tons of fun, and a great workout, awesome all around. even though the on in the picture ISNT las vegas, but yeah its a great place

[baizatk]

07:30 PM on 04/21/2012

must be the cool kids that are planning their after prom party at a trampoline jumpy store.

[wincek101]

06:47 PM on 04/21/2012

We had those back in the '60s...didn't last long once the broken bones and necks started...

[baydolphins]

06:28 PM on 04/21/2012

all I see is an insurance nightmare