Riveter (Asheville) changes and new management

According to multiple staff and published communications, the formerly silent partner of Riveter, Eric Macleod, has pushed out beloved owner/manager Elizabeth and plans to remake the gym into a more conservative/christian image. Reported changes include a conservative dress code (like no exposed belly buttons), the cancellation of organized BIPOC, LGBTQ, women, etc groups, closing the bar, and closure on the Sabbath (Saturdays). The upstairs yoga area is being closed and converted into an apartment for Eric. Few if any of the staff will return when they reopen.

Even if some folks are okay with the changes, the alleged circumstances surrounding Elizabeth’s forced outage through prolonged litigation and the staff’s job losses sound pretty shitty, and I feel like anyone who remains a member is supporting that shittiness.

Lots of people came to Riveter for the community they found on Mondays. With the destruction of Cultivate’s roped gym, the only alternative for those turned off by the changes will be Cultivate’s new Boards and bouldering locations, and those are unlikely to appeal to many non-boulderers

you cannot be serious. conservative dress code? cancelling groups? closing on Saturdays???

When you own a place, you get to do what you want?

Outrageous!

FrankPS wrote:

When you own a place, you get to do what you want?

Sure. And an ideal free market likely functions best with informed consumers

true. let me be clear: in no way do I want to infringe upon their rights to mismanage a business. i'm just bummed because that sounds stupid

wow what a pile of shit this guy is if this is true.

How dare they try to stop me from exposing my beautiful hairy bellybutton to the world while I flash attempt the pink problem.

Mega church in the morning, gym climbing in the afternoon.

Brie Abram wrote:

According to multiple staff and published communications, the formerly silent partner of Riveter, Eric Macleod, has pushed out beloved owner/manager Elizabeth and plans to remake the gym into a more conservative/christian image. Reported changes include a conservative dress code (like no exposed belly buttons), the cancellation of organized BIPOC, LGBTQ, women, etc groups, closing the bar, and closure on the Sabbath (Saturdays). The upstairs yoga area is being closed and converted into an apartment for Eric. Few if any of the staff will return when they reopen.

Even if some folks are okay with the changes, the alleged circumstances surrounding Elizabeth’s forced outage through prolonged litigation and the staff’s job losses sound pretty shitty, and I feel like anyone who remains a member is supporting that shittiness.

Lots of people came to Riveter for the community they found on Mondays. With the destruction of Cultivate’s roped gym, the only alternative for those turned off by the changes will be Cultivate’s new Boards and bouldering locations, and those are unlikely to appeal to many non-boulderers

Climbing gyms are different from other business's in that many of them try to foster a sense of community. That paid off during the Covid shutdowns where some members at my local gym voluntarily kept paying membership fees so the staff could keep getting checks -- even though the gym was closed. People don't do that for supermarkets, airlines or hotels. I don't know if anything like that happened at the Riveter after Hurricane Helene but even if it didn't that sense of community has actual value for a business. Throwing it away seems senseless but if it happens as described above I expect they will lose a good bit of business. 

Emil Briggs wrote:

Climbing gyms are different from other business's in that many of them try to foster a sense of community. That paid off during the Covid shutdowns where some members at my local gym voluntarily kept paying membership fees so the staff could keep getting checks -- even though the gym was closed...

I visited riveter when I was traveling through NC & found a very friendly community, welcoming staff & interesting setting. I read OPs post & dug a little to see if it was true (kinda hard to believe tbh). If you go to riveter's insta, you can see that some people were offering to continue supporting the business/community during the rebuild/renovation. It's inspiring to see that but also disappointing to confirm the planned changes. But who knows, employees might welcome the fact that they have a guaranteed day off on Sat to go out & climb or do life stuff. If the proposed change affects the bottom line, maybe they'll go back to the way things were. Businesses like Chick-fil-A & hobby lobby are big enough to absorb the loss of revenue for 1 day, small businesses like riveter? Who knows. Helene hit the whole community (not just climbing/yoga) & it kinda sucks that it's not pulling together like they should after a disaster like that. Hope you guys get it worked out. 

I stole the "bodies are beautiful but wear a shirt" sign at SMAC hahaha

sucks the riveter is taken over by a clown now, will be steering clear, gonna be a lil bit of a drain on sierra nevada too that area was too good to be true

also you can just go one last time and like hide a fish and tartar sammich behind a cabinet, its the little things all of us can do ;3

This is a real bummer and that guy sounds like a real dingus.

I don't know if anyone can weigh in on this but its my hope that Cultivate will one day be able to offer a facility with rope climbing again? 

Andrew Giniat wrote:

This is a real bummer and that guy sounds like a real dingus.

I don't know if anyone can weigh in on this but its my hope that Cultivate will one day be able to offer a facility with rope climbing again? 

What what whaaaaattttt??!? CULTIVATE IS BOULDERING ONLY??? I knew cultivate was bad but i didn’t know they were  absolutely morons, how dumb do you gotta be buy a fully functioning very profitable business and then think to yourself how do we make it worse????    Fuck

too many rich people running gyms not enough climber owned gyms 

Cultivate had a roped climbing gym, but it was destroyed in Helene. They just opened a small Boards facility that is simply Kilter, Tension, Moon, and Spray Boards. They apparently plan to open a normal bouldering gym maybe this spring. But yeah, no roped climbing

I heard that Cultivate actually had waterproofed windows and doors on the ground level, because they were in the floodplain, but the water was so high it got in their second story windows and flooded the whole building. RIP :'(

Yukon Cornelius wrote:

I heard that Cultivate actually had waterproofed windows and doors on the ground level, because they were in the floodplain, but the water was so high it got in their second story windows and flooded the whole building. RIP :'(

Ya during year one of that building, it flooded down there(big surprise its a flood plane) and the water came up into the building via the drains even tho the doors and windows first floor were closed up. And it will flood again wanna take bets on when?

FrankPS wrote:

When you own a place, you get to do what you want?

Outrageous!

As do consumers get their choice of where to spend their dollar. Nice to see you are still trolling the new posts page for shit that doesn't even remotely apply to you, what a life.

T Lego wrote:

As do consumers get their choice of where to spend their dollar. Nice to see you are still trolling the new posts page for shit that doesn't even remotely apply to you, what a life.

Ha! Once it's posted on the Internet, it applies to everybody. Including you, apparently.

Happy New Year.

T Lego actually lives in Asheville, so this does apply to him. Frank... we are all begging you to give it a rest in 2025.

Yeah, I sometimes go to the Riveter when I visit friends in Asheville. Or at least I used to. Unsure if I will continue to support a business that operates this way. 

AVL has been through a lot lately, and a lot of people are leaving the area, either because their home got destroyed, or because the housing market is now fucked because so many homes got destroyed, or because their jobs are gone. The community at large is really going through it, so it's really extra shitty that the new management doesn't want to keep the staff around or continue group meet ups that can be so important to people.

Yukon Cornelius wrote:

Frank... we are all begging you to give it a rest in 2025.

Misinformation...