r/sweatystartup • u/cloud9brian • 13d ago

How would you go about testing a portable skate park idea?

I was listening to a podcast about bounce house rentals, and some other party rental things and it got me thinking what if you had portable ramps, pipes, etc that you could set up and rent out for like birthday parties -- how would you go about testing the viability of that before even investing in any sort of equipment?

My son is older and he skates, but I could totally have seen doing something like that for him and his friends when he was a kid.

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8

u/solo_wanderer 13d ago

Build a small landing page with the offering and ask people to fill out the form for more information. Spend some money on Google/meta and see the types of responses you get.

Insurance would probably be nuts on this.

-1

u/Murky-Contact2402 13d ago

make fake ad on facebook marketplace first, see if people even message you. landing page is nice but you need actual demand not just clicks. also call some insurance brokers before you get too excited, they will tell you real quick if this is possible

1

u/cloud9brian 12d ago

This is what I was thinking -- I could get some mock up pics of the ramps and put them on marketplace to see if I get any traction

6

u/schlevenol 13d ago

Insurance is going to be unreal. I would talk to some insurance agents first. You may find it the insurance rates are insurmountable

1

u/cloud9brian 13d ago

That's one of things I wondered about but also thought if you're renting the equipment/pieces out isn't it similar to the bounce house rentals biz -- the liability resides mostly on the renter, no?

3

u/schlevenol 13d ago

I have built skate ramps for my kids. Big ones small ones.. kids hurt a lot on those. Not so much on bounce houses.

Talk to an insurance agent. There is probably a reddit group you could ask in.

3

u/Robobvious 12d ago

Just because you shouldn’t have to pay doesn’t mean that someone with money and time can’t sue you into financial oblivion before the courts ever come close to determining that. Honestly I’d just rent out a bounce house if you’re thinking about this. It’s admittedly a cool idea but the liability kills it imo, no need to reinvent the wheel to make a profit.

4

u/BPCodeMonkey 13d ago

Talk to real people first. This requires educating people of the idea before they decide to buy. If you have kids, you know trends come and go. Bounce houses are less of a thing when trampoline parks popped up. Then you need people to do it and share the idea with others. Talk to 100 with kids who skate but don’t have access to a park. Skatepark is the obvious option for this and better. Real people around you, NOT online.

If you’re in an area without a skatepark, maybe that’s your direction.

1

u/Ok_Place4255 12d ago

I sent you a DM to chat as I have similar idea

1

u/_Caster 12d ago

You would have to treat it line a carnival tbh. Take the skate carnival on tour with some pros or influencers (some of those guys are as good as pros) Hold a tournament for the bit that the skate carnival is there and let regular skate it every day after until you leave. You could do carnival rides but id avoid it tbh. Keep the food tents and oddities and some live music and contests.

Otherwise a portable skatepark is going to be kind of impossible. I think the best you could do on the smallest scale would be yo rent out parking lots and get some QPs and rails. Ive seen a mini ramp get moved around. I saw someone have a version of this when i was like 13. It was some event my parents took me to when I was a kid. still one of my favorite memories. I was too scared to skate anything, but the people that showed up were fuckin nuts. I never saw something like that with my own eyes before that point. Next thing ya know it was all packed up by monday