Ping-pong social club Spin opens a 2nd NYC location
Ping-pong social club Spin has expanded its footprint with a new flagship location in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
Located at 1626 Broadway, the former site of the Carolines on Broadway showroom, Spin Midtown offers locals and tourists alike a new venue to play ping-pong, eat, drink and socialize.
With locations in Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Boston, the new Midtown location (its second in NYC) offers a handful of new and unique features to add to its 10 ping-pong tables surrounded by lounge seating.
The new location’s design features include a bar, reception area and DJ booth, inviting guests to relax and enjoy food, drinks and music in the basement setting. The custom millwork and commercial space buildout was completed by Atlas Builders and designed by architecture and interiors firm New York Design Architects.
At the location, visitors can meet Spinny, an M-One Pong Bot, which provides guests with the opportunity to interact with a robotic ping-pong arm with AI capabilities that optimize play for novices and pros alike. It is the first time a robot of this type has been launched in the United States.
Spin Midtown also features an elevated 20 camera ping-pong bathtub installation, inviting guests to jump into a tub full of the brand’s signature orange balls for a social media photo op.
"We are thrilled to introduce Spin 2.0, a cutting-edge digital evolution of the Spin brand,” said Pieter Vanermen, CEO of Spin. "From neon art integration to immersive social installations and unveiling of Spinny, the U.S.'s first ping-pong robot, Spin is poised to be the ultimate entertainment destination."
In an interview with Chain Store Age, Gregory Godfrey, VP of brand & culture at Spin, said that the company is focused on serving a large demographic of customers and bringing entertainment to shopping centers and retail locations across the country.
“A lot of our core business is millennials, people having fun on a Friday and Saturday night, but additionally we do a lot of events for the corporate audience,” he said. “And so that runs from 25 year-olds up until 50- or 60-year- olds. And I think that's one of the best parts of the brand is it has a diverse demographic. You don't have to be in the best shape or you don't have to be an athlete to come and play ping-pong. It really does run the gamut in terms of age demographic information.”
When it comes to the types of retail spaces that Spin can occupy, Godfrey said the company is versatile, and can adapt to whatever real estate is available. Spin’s smallest location has around 9,000-sq.-ft. of front of house space, while its largest location (Chicago) boasts around 22,000-sq.-ft. of space in a two-story building.
“The things that we deliver like ping-pong, food, beverage, we just need to have space to really have those key aspects,” said Godfrey. “And then the amount of tables or how we design the space or how big or small the bar is, depends on what that square footage is and the ability, most of our locations do have private bars, so it's its own dedicated space with its own bar. So it depends, but I think another great aspect of ping-pong is it's flexible, it's not bowling or all of those things that's really fixed.”
Looking ahead, Godfrey added that Spin’s unique business can bring traffic to shopping centers outside of the holidays, as the locations host private events in addition to offering a nightlife experience.
“We are pretty much a destination location and we are very busy during the holidays, for team building, holiday parties, and things along those lines,” he said. “But we are constantly busy throughout the year. It depends on what city we're in, but we do a ton of intern events in June. And because we're an activity, January through June when it's a little rainy or cold, people come downstairs.”
Spin Midtown is open to the public Monday through Wednesday from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., Thursday from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 1 a.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. with reservations available from $9 up to $59 per table for 50 minutes of play.