How to Open a Successful Trampoline Park, Part 1: From Idea to Signed Lease

By Luke Schueler, Co-Founder, Shock Trampoline

When someone tells me they want to open a trampoline or adventure park, I’m excited for them, and then I slow them down.

The fun part is dreaming up the big stuff, picking signature attractions, picturing packed party rooms, hearing that first-day buzz, and seeing families light up as the park comes to life.

The hard part is everything that happens before you order a single bolt.

If you get the early steps right, the rest of the project moves faster, costs less, and performs better. If you skip them, you can burn a lot of time and money.

A quick note on who we are. Shock isn’t just a manufacturer. We’re operators, too. We’ve spent years opening, running, and refreshing parks, learning where designs bottleneck, which features guests truly use, what breaks, what insurance companies care about, and what a Saturday feels like when the party flow isn’t dialed in.

We’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to. That operator lens is baked into our design, equipment, safety choices, and the way we guide new owners from their first idea to opening day.

This post is the first of a two-part series. Here, we’ll walk you through how we approach the front-half of a project with new owner-operators, from market research and site selection, to funding, leases, budgeting, and high-level design. In Part 2, we’ll dive deeper into attractions, guest flow, operations, staffing, and marketing.

Step 1: Vet the market before you chase a building

The first thing we do is market research. Not a Google Maps drive-by, not a hunch. Real numbers.

What we look at:

• Demographics: Age bands by zip/postal code, the number of families, median income, household size. Are there enough kids and teens within a 15–20-minute drive to support your revenue goals?

• Competition: Every trampoline/adventure park, climbing gym, ninja gym, play café, bowling, and laser tag. Basically, anyone competing for the same birthday dollars and rainy-day visits.

• Demand vs. offer: What value exists today (attractions, price, party experience, food, cleanliness), what’s missing, and what gap we can fill.

• Site context: Is the building embedded in a residential zone or isolated in a light industrial zone? Are you a destination (people come only for you), or on the way (anchored by traffic and retail)?

This research provides a reality check before you fall in love with a cheap lease. It also shapes your concept. If the local age curve tilts younger, your mix and programming change. If the market has two parks with the same cookie-cutter layout, you’ll need a better value proposition, not just different pad colors.

Bottom line: Don’t ask “Where can I get the cheapest 40–60k sq ft space?” Ask “Where does a park like mine make sense, and what makes it special here?”

Step 2: Understand destination vs. retail (it’s the same cost in the end)

In the early days, parks took light industrial boxes because the rent was low. You could land a big shell for a small monthly number. The trade-off? You’re invisible. No street traffic. No anchor stores feeding your guests. To win, you had to spend heavily on marketing just to let people know you existed and to get them to drive straight to you.

Then retail changed. K-Marts and ShopKo’s closed. Malls began emptying. Landlords began wanting experiences to bring families back and help neighboring tenants. Suddenly, big-box retail and mall spaces became available at rates that, while higher on paper, came with traffic, signage, co-marketing, and better adjacencies.

Here’s the simple math I share with clients:

• Destination lease (low base rent) + heavy awareness marketing (ongoing) ≈
  Retail/mall lease (higher base) + lower ongoing marketing pressure

The total spend often lands in a similar place. With retail, you tend to gain easier wayfinding, better party hosting (parking, food options), and a brand lift from being in a well-known center. I’m not saying retail wins every time; I’m saying you must price the entire model, not just the lease line.

Step 3: Line up funding with a real plan

If you’re pursuing SBA or bank financing, you’ll be asked for a business plan with market validation, pro formas, CapEx, and operating assumptions. Many first-time owners get stuck here.

We help by supplying data, layouts, budgets, and operating benchmarks drawn from actual parks. So, lenders see an industry-grounded plan.

Two tips:

1. Show the lender the “why now, why here.” The demographic and competition analysis above belongs in your loan file.
2. Have an industry voice on the plan. Lenders take comfort when someone who builds and runs parks is standing behind the assumptions. (That’s where Shock comes in)

Step 4: Read the lease like your business depends on it (because it does)

I’ve seen good parks killed by bad leases. Before you sign anything, slow down and understand:

• Base rent vs. NNN/CAM. Triple net (taxes, insurance, common area maintenance) can add a big monthly chunk. Price the full monthly cost.
• Escalations and options. How fast does rent step-up? Do you have renewal options, and on what basis?

• Use, hours, noise, and signage. Are trampolines, ninja, foam/air features, food service, and parties all explicitly permitted? What about exterior signage and hours? Any noise restrictions that clash with weekend business?

• Buildout obligations. Who pays for power upgrades, sprinklers, bathrooms, roof repairs, and slab work? What’s truly “turnkey” vs. your problem?

• Termination, relocation, co-tenancy. What happens if the anchor leaves? What if the landlord wants to relocate you inside the center?

If you’ve never negotiated a lease at this size, get help. I’m honest with people who come to us mid-disaster: sometimes a lease “shouldn’t have been signed,” and there’s no clean fix. It is always better to prevent than repair.

Buying vs. leasing? If you can buy the right building, great, that’s rare and usually ideal. Most clients will lease. Either way, the fine print is everything.

Step 5: Set a real budget (tenant improvements + attractions)

Funding in hand and a building shortlisted, we build the budget from two big buckets:

1. Tenant improvements (TI): demo, walls, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), sprinklers, bathrooms, café, party rooms, flooring, lighting, paint, décor, sound, POS/network, lockers, seating, front desk, signage, AV, and security.
   
2. Attractions: trampolines, performance areas, airbag/stunt zones, dodgeball, basketball/Big Hoops, Jump Ringz, ninja/battle arenas, slides, climbing, ropes/zip, tots’ zones, soft play, and parent lounges, etc.

We also carve out soft costs (design, permitting, inspections), insurance, pre-opening payroll/training, inventory, and a contingency. The budget informs the layout. The layout informs of the phased cash needs.

Step 6: Design for revenue per square inch 

Dead space is the silent profit killer. If you pay rent on 50,000 sq. ft. and only 35,000 is earning, you’ve taxed yourself 15,000 sq. ft. every month for nothing. That’s why we design to the square inch.

Most manufacturers sell cookie-cutter attraction modules in fixed sizes. They drop them into all kinds of shells. That’s how you end up with unusable corners and empty aisles. At Shock, we custom-fit every major feature to the actual building: odd angles, L-shapes, columns, low beams, we work around all of it so the space works for you.

What does this look like in practice:

• We import your CAD, mark entry, exits, bathrooms, food, party rooms, and plan guest sightlines for parents and staff.

• We place core attractions according to your target market (e.g., more stunt/performance vs. more tots/soft play) and the local age curve.

• We deliberately fill corners and transitions with earning features (micro-attractions, photo moments, or lounge space that drives F&B), not bare floor.

• We keep circulation wide where it needs to be (safety), but avoid oversized “plazas” that don’t earn.

The goal is simple: every square foot is either earning or serving the guest experience (that earns).

Step 7: Differentiate or be a commodity

If you buy the same fixed-size court set as your competitor and change the pad colors, you haven’t created a reason to drive 20 minutes past them. Convenience will dominate, and you’ll split the market. When a park feels custom to the building, with no dead space, better sightlines and unique features, parents notice and teens talk. That’s the “we’ll drive further” advantage.

Your value proposition can be:

• Better experiences (flow, look, comfort, cafés/parent space).

• Better features (unique arenas, more skill progression, cleaner/safety design).
  
• Better operations (staffing, throughput, resets, party handling).

Ideally, it’s all three. Design is the foundation for each.

Step 8: Choose equipment that pays you back (and keeps paying)

I don’t call our equipment “better” to put others down. There are other good manufacturers. What I ask owners to consider is caliber and lifecycle.

• Durability: We over-engineer for high-traffic commercial use. Less downtime, fewer emergency repairs, and fewer warranty headaches.

• Modularity: Parks plateau between years 3 & 5. You’ll need to refresh to get the next bump. Our systems are built so you can repurpose, expand, or re-skin sections. Open Park #2? Move parts from Park #1 into Park #2 and use your budget to update #1. One CapEx move, two wins.

• Insurance and safety: Underwriters look at the gear and the operator. When you install quality equipment and run proven procedures, it can help your insurance budget. Separate from premiums, fewer injuries are just good business, injured guests don’t return, and bystanders remember what they saw.

Yes, higher-caliber equipment costs more up front. The trade-off is lower maintenance, a better guest experience, stronger safety metrics, and gear you can reuse. Over a 10-year lease, the math is in your favor.

Step 9: Let your market shape your attraction mix

I’ve had owners say, “We don’t want teens. We want 12 and under, it’s less headache.” That’s a valid strategy. You’ll design and staff differently, and you’ll pick a different mix:

• Younger tilt: tots’ trampolines, mini ninja, soft play, slides, climbing with auto-belay, gentle airbag zones, lots of parent seating and sightlines, birthday room capacity, stroller access, noise control, and family bathrooms.

• Teen tilt: bigger performance zones, competitive arenas, dodgeball formats, battle beams, advanced hoops, stunt features, e-sports/AR add-ons, later hours, strong supervision plans, more resets, and throughput focus.

We start with who you want, then build the “what” around them, not the other way around.

Step 10: Partner only with vendors you (or we) would bet a park on

At Shock, we manufacture most of our products in-house. When we don’t, we utilize partners who we trust in our own parks. Whether its climbing walls, slides, or specialty soft play, if a third-party product is genuinely best-in-class, we won’t reinvent it; we’ll spec it. If nothing on the market survives real traffic, we build it ourselves.

This matters because marketing promises don’t equal performance. I’ve seen gear sold as “bulletproof” that begins failing at six months. When you purchase through Shock as a part of a full project:

• You pay what you’d pay direct.
• We schedule, coordinate the installation, and stand behind it.

• If anything is off, you call one number.

Step 11: Plan for safety like your brand depends on it (because it does)

Safety is important for so many reasons beyond the obvious goal of preventing injuries. Safety is also about the guest experience. When someone is injured, dozens of people saw  how it happened and how you respond. That becomes their story about your park.

Design and equipment choices matter here: fall zones, netting, padding profiles, supervision lines of sight, crowding at transitions, clear rules, and signage that match what staff can realistically enforce.

Our equipment is designed to be the safest on the market.

We also design our parks to prevent the obvious problems and reduce surprises. Then, we will help you write the procedures that support the design.

Step 12: Keep the owner’s life simple

A trampoline/adventure park has a lot of moving parts. Owners hire us for the end-to-end experience:

• Market research and site vetting

• Lender-ready plans and budgets

• Lease review and negotiation support

• Concept design, CAD, and guest flow

• Custom equipment manufacturing and installation

• Trusted partner sourcing for non-Shock items

• Safety planning and insurance support points

• Pre-opening checklists, training, and soft-opening prep

When one team can see the whole picture, conflicts drop and schedules hold. That’s how you open on time with a park you can be proud of.

Quick checklists you can use right now

Market sanity check (Print this)

1. How many Kids 4–14 within 20 minutes? 

2. Direct competitors within 25 minutes? Who, capacity, price, quality?

3. What can you do differently that parents and teens will notice?

4. Destination vs. retail: total monthly cost (rent + realistic marketing) side-by-side.

Lease red flags

• NNN/CAM not disclosed or uncapped

• Use clause too narrow for trampolines/airbags/food/parties

• Signage restrictions that make you invisible

• Landlord can relocate you without “make-good”

• Escalations outpacing your modeled revenue growth

Budget anchors

• 10–15% contingency on Tenant improvement allowance

• Soft costs and pre-opening payroll included

• True FF&E list (down to lockers, POS, AV)

• Maintenance line item from day one

What Part 2 will cover

In the next post, we’ll dig into the nuts and bolts:

• How to build the right attraction mix and programming for your market
• Design for throughput (staffing lines, reset time)
• Run party flow that doesn’t break Saturdays
• Turn food, seating, and parent comfort into real revenue
• Launch with pre-opening marketing that works
• Train with clear SOPs and day-one safety playbooks
• Know when, and how to refresh in years 3–5.

If you’re exploring a park and want a quick read on your market or building, send the address and a short note about your goals. We’ll tell you, plainly, if it looks right, what’s missing, and what we’d do next.

You get one chance to open right. Start with the boring work, and the fun stuff goes a lot smoother.

Luke Schueler is the Co-Founder of Shock Trampoline, an operator-led manufacturer that has spent years building and running adventure parks worldwide, turning real-world lessons into safer designs and stronger returns.