UNWIND AT GYM OR NEW VIRTUAL REALITY SPACE
Kickboxing franchise finds welcoming audience in Saskatoon, writes Erin Petrow.
Saskatoon’s iLoveKickboxing (ILKB) franchise is not your everyday gym experience.
Owners Brett Fee and his brother Dustin, who already own martial arts studios in B.C., have family in the city and decided it would be the perfect place to open a franchise, thanks to Saskatoon’s small town feel.
“It’s a big city, but it’s a small town,” Fee says. “It was just a gut feeling we had about the city and we were right ... and it’s perfect because we focus so much on the community and we focus so much on building a relationship with our members and Saskatoon is all about that anyway
— so what we’re doing is like a microcosm of the city.”
That gut feeling seems to be paying off, with more than 1,200 people signed up for the trial classes before the studio even opened — putting this location in the top seven of more than 200 locations across North America for pretrial sales.
Fee said some of this success can be attributed to studio manager Teri Hong and the team she assembled to lead the classes — all of whom bring different strengths to the table.
He describes the studio as a “premium” workout experience. Workouts are personalized to help each member reach their fitness goals; members can also get meal plans, a free, quality pair of boxing gloves with every trial membership, and a variety of personal care products to help people feel fresh when they leave the studio.
“The last thing we want is for people to have a bad experience,” Fee said. “We know it can be intimidating walking into a new gym ... so that’s our No. 1 priority is to make sure everybody can keep up and feel like they can do this — and not only do it but get good at it.”
iLoveKickboxing Saskatoon
Owner: Brett Fee and Dustin Fee Address: #106 - 1844 McOrmond Dr. Hours: Monday to Saturday, call for class schedule Website: ilovekickboxing-saskatoonsk.com Phone: 306-667-4067
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DEADLOCK ESCAPE VIRTUAL REALITY ARCADE
After Adrian Wendling noticed a void in the virtual reality gaming market in Saskatoon, he decided it was time to expand Deadlock Escape’s repertoire and open a new location in Riversdale.
With more than 130 single and multiplayer VR games — allowing players to experience everything from shooting zombies to milking a cow — there is something for everyone.
Wendling says the most exciting new addition is the first VR duelling escape room in Saskatchewan, where two teams compete head to head to see who can escape first.
“It’s more creative because you’re not limited to what you can pick up and put down in the real world,” he says.
The new location also offers the Wizard School escape room, a new offering perfect for diehard Harry Potter fans. Wendling says it’s an experience guaranteed to make you feel like a kid again.
Expanding into this location was the perfect move for this new escape room, as it allowed the company to knock down some walls and make it one of their largest rooms yet. The added space and meticulous attention to detail take the player out of reality and make them feel like they are in a real castle, he says.
“They have to feel like they are in a castle for that hour. You can’t just have plain office walls and a couple of padlocks anymore, you have to really go over and above because there is a lot of competition now — the design factor, immersion and technology all have to be more impressive.”
With a wide variety of VR gaming options paired with the VR and Wizard School escape rooms, Wendling is confident that one experience at the VR arcade is more than enough to bring people back for more. Deadlock Escape Virtual Reality Arcade Owner: Adrian Wendling
Address: 539 20th St. West Hours: Monday to Thursday 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 3:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday noon to 11:30 p.m. and Sunday noon to 7:30 p.m. Website: deadlockescape.ca Phone: 306-954-8870 Check Facebook and Instagram