The space was roaring with overlapping conversations between friends, punctuated by the interjections of “allez” as climbers urged each other on.
Officially opened in February, Batuu has quickly become a third space for climbers both experienced and not, and the Friday night crowd was a clear indication of that.
Between Batuu and Batuu Kids, the gym’s dedicated space for young climbers, is the gym’s inhouse Pinch Cafe, which was just as robust and lively. Here, I sat with founders Zhao and Francis for a chat.
Bringing decades of experience
Introducing Batuu, Zhao, a passionate climber of some 17 years himself, shared that the vision of the space was to bring climbing to more people, with a focus on hospitality.
“The vision of Batuu is that when you come to this place, you feel a little bit better about yourself,” Zhao explained.
“Life is already tough, and I want to create a place with a good bunch of people where you can come and enjoy yourself. Life won’t magically be better, but somehow climbing at this place will make you feel a bit better.”
But what makes Zhao and Francis primed to open such a business? A lot, actually.
Before Batuu, Zhao was a founding member of BUMP, a popular bouldering chain that led a new wave of interest in the sport locally.
“Credit should still go to other gyms such as Camp5, madmonkeyz, Boulder Ventures, and all the great gyms that have been around, that have inspired people to climb,” he added.
Even with BUMP, Zhao had wanted to work with Francis. However, given how popular Francis is with students, the timing didn’t work out.
You might be wondering, just who is this Francis? Oh, just a world renowned climber and route setter. No biggie.
“My background is more on the technical side. After climbing for 30 years, I’ve always had the same vision—to create good climbers for Malaysia. Probably good in terms of going for the Olympics or at least some world ranking,” he introduced himself.
Zhao wasn’t ready to let Francis brush past his significance, though. “He is the only Malaysian route setter to be endorsed by the International Federation of Sport Climbing. It’s world-level, and it’s very difficult to get it.”
Although the partnership between the two climbers didn’t work out for the first venture, the two reunited to combine their expertise after Zhao parted ways with BUMP.
This time, Zhao wanted to have a full-fledged gym with bouldering and rope climbing.
And that’s exactly what Batuu is offering.
Did you know: The difference between bouldering and rope climbing is that the latter involves a harness and rope, and typically has higher ascents.
Finding a safe and viable location
3 Damansara is known to be a quiet mall, mostly serving the neighbourhood crowd. As such, I was surprised that a young and hip climbing gym wanted to set up shop here.
My first assumption—cheap rental.
However, Zhao revealed that it goes beyond that.
“My business philosophy for choosing locations is that there must be a decent brand cafe, a pharmacy, sunlight, and enough safe parking where a girl in a sports bra can still go to her car at midnight safely.”
Zhao pointed out that 3 Damansara used to have a cinema, so the building’s security, lighting, and elevator systems do cater to people who still need to head to their cars past midnight.
And on the topic of safety, I can tell Batuu takes it seriously. Like all climbing gyms I’ve been to, they made me watch a video detailing the rules and etiquette to follow in the gym.
However, Batuu is the only one that quizzed me and made me actually demonstrate a short climb.
I later learnt that the team sacrificed having a more spacious retail space for their merch so that they could have that training area.
But why pharmacies and cafes? Zhao believes that those businesses typically have done enough work to determine the location’s viability in terms of population density and foot traffic.
Aside from those factors, 3 Damansara also allowed them to punch through two floors to build the rope section.
“Zhao spent at least nine months, maybe more, to find a location,” Francis chimed in.
With how much traffic the gym was bringing to the mall, I dare say it was nine months well spent.
Elevating the Malaysian playing field
Speaking to Francis and Zhao, it was clear that these were not just two climbers who wanted to create a cash grab. The two actually have bigger ambitions in mind—ambitions to bring Malaysian climbers to the top.
But what are hopes and dreams without actions? At Batuu, they’re actively trying to groom the next top climbers. For example:
- At the boulder section, there’s a “comp wall” with competitive routes. It was already used last year for the Wall Climbing National Athlete Selection Boulder Series 2024.
- The specs for the boulder area follow the international standard and standard Olympic height, with a wall height of 4.5 metres.
“How do we find the next athletes? We need to start training them from young. And we do that by giving them a place to start first,” he said, referring to the Batuu Kids area.
But they aren’t sidelining regular climbers. For one, they have down climb handholds and footholds so that descents are safer and less strenuous for climbers.
The walls are also reset in a staggered manner, ensuring that regular climbers can find a new challenge when they visit.
Crafting a thoughtful experience
Despite the positive reception so far, though, Zhao and Francis shared that they do not want to take things for granted, and that they wanted to do things right.
“Most of our investors are all active, passionate climbers. That’s the difference,” Francis shared. “We did not find people who just invest to invest.”
So, are these investors already looking to fund the next outlet?
Zhao replied, “We have been approached a few times, and we will evaluate the opportunities. I don’t want to dismiss opportunities, but because we just opened, a lot of capital is sitting here.”
Scaling aside, Batuu instead wants to focus on building the climbing market. Zhao pointed out that sports like pickleball are growing, but climbing also exists as a fun and active recreational activity for those looking for one.
At the end of the day, though, the “moonshot” goal is finding that Malaysian athlete who has what it takes to be a champion.
It’s that drive to find local talent that convinced the team to name the gym “Batuu.” In fact, all the sections in the gym are named with Malay terms such as ombak, pulauu, bintang, and more.
Driven by this passion, Batuu is a sincere attempt to elevate the quality of Malaysian climbers, one climbing hold at a time.
Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post