A young Spider-man ascends the climbing wall at iJump, fearlessly ascending the heights. Nearby, a group of children play on the famous ninja course. A little further away, groups of children and adults bounce about on the trampolines that are the mainstay of this trampoline park.
But there is more to this place than trampolines.
"Besides the ninja course and the climbing wall, and the trampolines, of course, we've got dodgeball, basketball, a jousting lane, and on special occasions, we even have Nerf wars," said Glen Bingham, owner. "When we designed this place, we wanted to think about the concept beyond trampolines. And it has worked."
IJump, located at 4212 St. Michaels Drive, opened in 2017. Bingham notes that the trend for attendance for trampoline parks that are just trampolines has generally trended down, but IJump has defied the trend, with their audience over time going up.
"Variety was the key," Bingham said. "Putting in these various attractions and giving attendees options."
Then along came the coronavirus pandemic.
"We shut down in mid-March because of the COVID shutdown," he said. "We stayed shut down until June 1. Since we reopened, things were initially slow, then we began to trend better again. The latest trend of negative news did not cause as negative a reaction for us as we expected. Since then, we've had the highest level of party reservations we've seen since we reopened in June. It seems despite some worry about what's going on, folks seem to want to go someplace to have fun. And that's what we do here."
However, the iJump staff works to maintain a safe, clean environment for participants.
"Cleanliness was always a top priority here, even before COVID," he said. "We've always gotten high ratings on that score. Since COVID, we've added additional steps, such as our employees wearing masks as well as other measures to make sure IJump remains safe as well as fun. Fun is the goal and we don't want any of our customers to worry. In particular, in the party room section, we make sure we space out reservations to make sure spacing issues are taken care of. As general manager, safety comes first, fun second, and good quality customer service constantly. My background is managing department stores as well as ownership of various specialty stores. I just apply that experience to IJump and have adapted it to the entertainment business."
Fridays have special events for small children, six years old and under. Called WeJump, iJump entertains them from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., it is Prime Time, two hours for $15, where the lights go down and the music goes up.
For more information, visit them on Facebook or call 903-705-1230.