Source: Google Trends
The signal: Last month, our senior editor Zack Crockett wrote about the big business behind Mount Everest. Everest has seen a 10x increase in traffic over the last 20 years, but it’s also inspired the latest adventure sport: Everesting. In the age of COVID, where traveling to Nepal isn’t really in the travel books for anyone, we wanted to touch on a new trend that has been "climbing" in interest for years.
Here’s how Everesting works: You pick any hill -- literally any -- and cycle up and down it until you’ve climbed 8,848m, without sleep. They claim the challenge is "fiendishly simple, yet brutally hard. Everesting is the most difficult climbing challenge in the world."
As of writing, there have been 4,587 successful "Everestings" across 96 countries, growing in popularity each year since its inception in 2014.
The opportunity: This popular new challenge fits with the idea that "beauty adventure lies in your own backyard." Without the need to fly to Nepal or paying tens of thousands of dollars to risk your life, you can seek "the thrill" with any ‘ol hill. But Everesting has cleverly drawn on people’s love of competition, using game mechanics with their Hall of Fame and through encouraging "Everest-ers" to "claim" countries that have yet to be "Everest-ed." And of course, they’ve monetized the sport, by selling their very own line of apparel.
These companies differ from the struggling efforts of Tough Mudder (which went bankrupt), Warrior Dash (also went bankrupt), or Spartan Race in a few ways:
- People can "play" on their own terms. They can Everest when they want on whatever hill they want. It’s still hard as hell, but they don’t need to be free when Tough Mudder happens to be in their city. As Andy van Bergen said, "The cycling version does not involve taking three months off work and burning a bunch of fossil fuels. All you need is a bike, a hill, and a lot of determination."
- Because the activity is accessible, people can engage as often as they want. Some choose to "Everest" many times in their life.
- These brands are effectively ecommerce companies. There are few upfront costs to their venture (i.e., they don’t need to rent a sh**ton of land and require 5k people at their next event). They can attract 5 people from X and another 2 from Y and another 28 from Z who can Everest and then engage with their brand online.
Sports, meet ESports. ESports, meet Zwift.
Speaking of accessible exercise… we’ve all heard of Peloton (both the controversy around its latest holiday ad and their stock picking up +50% since bottoming a week ago). But for many people, Zwift has fallen under the radar. The app claims to "turn indoor training into a game" -- allowing you to escape your living room and exercise across a desert, the future NYC, or up a volcano.
Aside from the impressive $164.5m raised to date, Zwift says its users have doubled every year since launch, with 1m users in 2018 (total -- not active). But just like Everesting, Zwift operates on competition and community, organizing over 1k races, including national championships in 15+ countries. Companies that are able to concept a new sport, together with a clear distribution channel (in 2020, this is often a digital community), will be the ones to get ahead. And just like other at-home experiences, Zwift is getting a "corona-bump."
And… just for fun:
Here are a few other emerging sports that you might not have heard of (many of these will have to take a seat on the bench until post-COVID times, but they’re worth keeping an eye on):
- Teqball: Created TeqTV to attract new Teqers.
- 360Ball: Also has grown through building a community and playback of videos online.
- Earthing: A sport combining running and swimming -- which, unlike a biathlon, is in search of the "fastest human on Earth" across only 110m.
- Chess boxing: Exactly what it sounds like.
- Octopush: Underwater hockey, which is taking off in the UK.
- Kabaddi: An indigenous Indian sport with two teams of 7, which is also gaining in popularity.
- Sepak takraw: AKA "kick volleyball."
- Bossaball: A hybrid of volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics, played on an inflatable court with a trampoline.
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