Today we’d like to introduce you to Braeden Furgeson.
Hi Braeden, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We moved to South Carolina from Utah in the fall of 2018 and decided to start a shaved ice stand in May of 2019. We traveled the east coast and when we were attending a county fair in New York, we saw the Rage Room concept. Madison went and tried it out and came back saying that we had to open one of these in Utah. We came back to Utah in September of 2019 and started searching for a way to open Smash it.
We found a location in Ogden at 2254 Washington Blvd, and we started construction on November 5th. We had no other income at the time, so we had to build fast. We opened for business on December 13th of 2019. Business was good and we knew we wanted to expand, so we found a location in Salt Lake City and signed a lease for that space in February of 2020. Then the Coronavirus happened and we had to shut down completely in the month of April. We then limped back during that summer and opened the Salt Lake City location on July 8th, 2020. We then had a great winter season and we helped a lot of people relieve stress, and just have a great time smashing!
In May of 2021, we signed a lease for our new Ogden location, as our other Ogden lease was a temporary lease. The new Ogden location is much bigger, and has much bigger rooms so that we can have up to seven people smashing together at the same time! We have learned that people like to smash together with their friends. The new Ogden location should be opening within a month, and then we will be remodeling our Salt Lake location to have the bigger rooms as well.
We recycle 100% of the items we smash. All of our glass goes to Momentum Recycling, and all of the rest goes to MeTech Recycling. We were awarded Small Business of the Year by the Small Business Development Center for 2020, so that was a really cool award for us because it validates all of the hard work that we have put into Smash it.
We are also expanding currently and are opening stores in Logan, Sandy, and Orem this year. Then early next year we will be expanding into the Kaysville, Draper, Lehi, and Spanish Fork areas. We love to Smash it and want everyone to be able to experience a great way to relieve stress, work through some tough emotions, or just have a great date night or party!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The Coronavirus obviously was a major hurdle, but we also had other setbacks as well. We were originally going to build the rooms inside a semi-trailer and then take the trailer to different college campuses and park it there for a week or two, but we couldn’t get any of the schools to agree to that, so we decided to pivot and open up the stationary location instead.
We also didn’t have a lot of funding, so we had to get really creative with our financing options, and cut costs wherever possible. We also really had a hard time finding enough products to smash, and we had to shut down multiple times during the winter on our busy days. We have since found a new supplier that can supply all of our stores and more to come.
Our Smashers love our Throw Zone, which is a place where you throw glass items at a metal wall and watch them shatter. But the problem we had was that we couldn’t get enough glass to smash. So we discontinued providing glass to smash for a while, but we are currently in talks with a manufacturer to get glass items directly from them. So we would have brand new bottles ready to smash again. This should be happening within the next few months.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Smash it’s our mission is to provide the Wasatch Front with a fun and exciting way to get rid of all those bad emotions. Things like stress, anxiety, anger, heartbreak, grief, and depression. We provide a safe and controlled environment for you to come to smash your stress away in the rage room, also knows as a smash room.
Many people think we are only a space for people with anger issues. More truthfully, we see most of our Smashers coming in because they want to have a cool date night, and then while they are smashing, they actually work through some emotions that they weren’t planning to.
It’s pretty cool to see someone who has recently gone through a breakup, or experienced a loss, go into the room looking just fine, and then to see them leave the room with tears streaming down their face because of how powerful and cathartic smashing can be.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
For Smash it, in the next few years we will be expanding quite rapidly. Because we now have a contract with a supplier that can get us enough stuff to smash, we can now expand to these other areas in Utah that we want to be in.
I think that as people start to realize just how therapeutic Smash really is, there will be a large increase in people coming in just to relieve a bit of that daily stress.
Pricing:
- $2 per pound for Smashables and glass that we provide.
- There is a 50% discount if you bring your own items to smash
Contact Info:
- Email: smashitslc@gmail.com, Smashitogden@gmail.com
- Website: www.smashitragerooms.com
