DIVERTsessions Pop-Up: COVID safe outdoor Sports and Education facility helps bridge social inequities | Wefunder
The DIVERTsessions pop-up is an outdoor Action Sports and Education facility designed for safe, affordable and accessible participation during COVID to anyone and everyone interested in trying these sports or learning something new. Our program is made up of 6 key attractions. A skatepark, a ski/snow hill, a wave machine, a creative education studio, a live event venue and food and beverage service. The program is very exciting, but why is now the right time to launch something like this?
Action Sports like Skateboarding, Surfing, Skiing Snowboarding and more are growing exponentially in popularity and only stand to continue to grow with the induction of Skateboarding, Surfing and Freestyle BMX into the Olympics in 2021
This popularity is met with very challenging barriers to entry for most of the population because these sports are expensive, they are located far away from urban centers and let's be honest, they can be a little intimidating. This makes accessibility socially and financially inequitable for most, and we are here to change that
The DIVERTsessions pop-up was created by an industry leading team of experts from TopGolf, Nike, Red Bull, Disney, Universal and more to create a convenient, affordable, supportive and COVID safe answer to this pain in the market
DIVERT has a proven track record of success and has scaled into this opportunity by showing it's ability to develop action sports facilities around the world, build a strong brand that led to ~$400k in revenue in merchandise and apparel sales in the first 6 months it was launched, and running national educational programing with companies like Red Bull
If you have interest in becoming an investor in the DIVERTsessions Pop-Up, you will invest alongside industry accredited investors and share in the same financial terms as they do. You will receive all profits from the project until you are fully paid back on your initial investment + an additional 10%. After you have made this 10% return on your investment, the investor pool will then split the additional profits 50%/50% with DIVERTsessions 1 Inc. the company
After this first Pop-Up, we plan to use the capital the company earned to expand to multiple permanent sites across the country, and as an early stage investor, you would be given the option to take your returns from the pop-up and cash out, or leave your money in the company and grow your investment and impact along with us. We would love to welcome you into the DIVERT family and so please read more below if you are interested, or feel free to reach out directly to the founders with any questions at and [email protected] [email protected]
There is a massive untapped market between the number of people who are interested in Action Sports and who can participate. Currently, there are over 52,000,000 potential new Action Sports participants in the US alone which only stands to grow after the induction of Skateboarding, Surfing and BMX into the 2021 Olympics
especially underserved youth or previously excluded populations
At DIVERT, our Founder’s lives were positively DIVERTED by the fortunate interjection of Actions Sports right when they needed it most. These sports taught them valuable life lessons — such as creativity, motivation, resilience, a passion for progression, and appetite for calculated risk, which eventually laid the groundwork for their entrepreneurial futures. 15 years later, DIVERT was born when they realized that they were part of a small, fortunate segment of the population that was able to access, afford and be welcomed into the Action Sports community
After recognizing the apparent social inequality occurring in the very industry they thought so highly of, they set out to create a brand that would make Action Sports and creative education more accessible to underserved populations. The seed for DIVERT was planted and since then we have created a platform that uses action sports to educate, entertain, and empower anyone to "Achieve Their I’mpossible"
This is seen by media viewership, event attendance, and lifestyle product consumption. Even before being inducted into the Olympics, Action Sports, like skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing, already enjoy massive attention and mainstream appeal as shown by media viewership, event attendance, and consumption of lifestyle products
… Now with skateboarding, surfing and freestyle BMX being added to the Summer games in 2021, experts are predicting that these sports are going to explode in popularity due to something we call the “Olympic Effect”
Despite the overwhelming interest Action Sports, there are high barriers that make Action Sports inaccessible to most. These sports are expensive, geographically distant from urban centers, they lack organized programming and they can be intimidating. As a result, only 1% of kids in the United States are able to surf, only 4% are able to snowboard and only 9% are able to skateboard
Companies like Flowrider, Neveplast and a ton of others have created new technologies like wave machines and dry ski slopes that allow Action Sports like surfing and snowboarding to locate anywhere. The best part is that these technologies have the capacity to dramatically bring down the cost of participation and make them convenient and affordable to large urban populations
Big box specialty and retail stores are closing— about 100,000 stores closing with an estimated 75,000 more to close by 2026. This has only been accelerated with the impacts of COVID-19 shutdowns. Yikes. Now, there's ample real estate in dire need of revitalization
Well-capitalized retail landowners are turning to location-based entertainment (LBE) venues to attract guests and save the day. As a result, we are able to get favorable terms and in most cases, financing from the landlords to build out in the empty spaces
Addressing the elephant in the room - the global health pandemic. DIVERTsession was actually designed in direct response to the global health pandemic. We realized we could design and develop a site plan and operating standards that intentionally supported 6' social distancing, enabled simple and straight forward sanitation, and made the New Normal part of the everyday at DIVERT. So that is exactly what we did. Our DIVERTsessions park is an outdoor recreation experience, the safest option of any location based offerings
Add it up— There is a ton of interest in Action Sports, but participation is restricted, this interest only stands to grow substantially with the induction of these sports into the Olympics. There are new technologies that make it affordable and convenient to participate in Action Sports. There is a surplus of retail real estate and financial support for location-based entertainment concepts. There is more demand for social connection and activity than ever and the DIVERTsessions Pop-up program is intentionally designed to thrive in a post-COVID world
This creates a major opportunity for someone to create an Action Sports and entertainment concept that uses these new technologies to make Action Sports more accessible and capitalize on the massive demand for participation in these sports
The DIVERTsessions Pop-Up is an Action Sports and Entertainment outdoor recreation experience where anyone and everyone can benefit from the life lessons, community, and positivity of Action Sports and the surrounding lifestyles. The facilities are made up of 6 critical components. A surf machine, skatepark, artificial snow slope, music, art and media studio, food and beverage program, and event venue. Let’s have a look:
Each athletic area comes with a guide to ensure safe and comfortable progression and we supplement the athletic activities with education in videography/photography, art/design, music production and more, so even if you are not the athlete, there is a place for you to learn and progress at DIVERT
We've worked long and hard to put together an All-Star Executive, Advisory and Project team with the accolades and experience that are unmatched in the Action Sports industry
Our executive and advisory team is comprised of former executives, leaders and operators from TopGolf, GameStop, Disney, Universal, X-Games, Red Bull, Nickelodeon and more
We have partnered with the world's top real estate, architectural, experiential, engineering, construction, operations, and legal professionals who brought you entertainment destinations and themed attractions like Disney World, Universal Orlando, TopGolf, Putt Shack, iFly, X-Games, Ferrari World, Wet'n'Wild, The Crayola Experience, Kidzania and much more
Last but not least, we have acquired contracts with incredible athletes who hold multiple X-games gold medals, Olympic medals, and Guinness Book World Records
(Check our deck for more information.)
If action sports have taught us anything, it is how to take calculated risks. You can't just ride up to a massive jump without working your way up to it. We've approached developing DIVERT with the same mindset by testing and validating key aspects of the business
We spun up a merchandise brand called DIVERTcollective. Within the first 5 months, we generated over $350,000 in revenue and sold over 45,000 units of merchandise and apparel. We developed an entrepreneurship program to test out ability to create engaging programming. It immediately got picked up by Red Bull and used across all their college campuses across the country. We tested our ability to build and manage an Action Sports facility by building a skatepark and community center in San Rafael Costa Rica. To date, it has serviced over 500,000 sessions and is a centerpiece of the community. To test our operations, DIVERT partnered with Vans to produce a single day action sports and lifestyle event that taught over 160 at-risk youth skateboarding, music production, street art, photography, and videography
Our actions to date have caught the eye of multiple accredited investors who have thoroughly vetted our team, concept, business model and timing, and decided this is a smart move with their most valuable asset, their money
To date, the DIVERT team has been supported by its friends, family, advocates, and supporting community who sincerely believe in its founders and the profound impact that DIVERT will have. It only feels right to give the same group of individuals the opportunity to financially benefit from that support versus relinquishing all of it to anyone else who may not have the same beliefs and motivations to see DIVERT be successful. We want DIVERT to be built by the community, for the community
DIVERTsessions revenue comes from the following key sources:
DIVERTsessions’ financial model is based on facility utilization of the capacities of our major attractions which is how many guests are using the attractions or otherwise occupying the space in non-peak times (like weekdays) and peak times (like weekends)
The DIVERT business model drives attendance, and revenue, in a handful of ways that enable people of all races, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds to be able to participate in the Action Sports and Creative Education
The DIVERT programming model offers a number of alternative athletic and educational programs to help youth discover and develop a passion, turn it into a skill and eventually apply it to a successful career and life
Now, we're ready to hit the ground running. We need your help to grow DIVERT. We currently have all vendor and partner agreements in place, a lease for our pop-up activation at the Del Amo Mall in Torrance, CA, the majority of the financing in place, and we are awaiting approval from the city to launch the concept once it is deemed safe and opportunistic post-COVID by government agencies and our own internal network of executives and advisors. Only once we receive green lights from the City and industry experts, as well as gather positive data around other similar concepts performance will we responsibly launch the pop-up to meet the pent up demand for meaningful places of connection
We have thought long and hard about this question, consulted with industry experts, crunched the data and numbers and have come out on the other end with some clairty. First, the good news is, our program is already designed to be a COVID safe outdoor recreations experience no matter when it is launched. That said, we wanted to take extra precautions because our guest safety is always our priority. Spring 2021 is a projected safe zone according to all of the cdc's projections regarding a second wave of COVID-19 (See this article for more information https://www.businessinsider.com/second-wave-of-coronavirus-infections-may-peak-in-fall-2020-5). In addition, it seems that by Spring 2021, a vaccine for COVID-19 will have been developed, which will drastically increase general comfort and sense of safety with going to places like DIVERT
In addition to considerations around COVID-19, our alignment with the 2021 Olympics is an absolute game changer for the success of the business. By launching in Spring 2021 it allows us to get up and running, refine our operations, and align ourselves directly with the pre-marketing and rescheduled 2021 Olympics where Skateboarding, Surfing, and freestyle BMX will make their debut. As a result, we will be able to ride the metaphorical wave of Olympic hype and be the go-to place for future Olympic hopefuls to try these sports in their own community
For as little as $100, you can invest in DIVERTsessions and join us in our mission to create positive change in countless lives and communities through the power of action sports. Back our project, share our story with your community on your socials and no matter what you do, always push yourself and others to
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