In just a few months, Niverville will be home to an exciting new concept in youth and adult entertainment. Unleashed Rage Rooms Inc. is getting ready to smash it at 61 Main Street.
Rage rooms, also known as anger or smash rooms, are the twenty-first century’s answer to stress relief. The rage room concept is considered recreational therapy, or self-therapy, as it provides a safe and controlled space for users to vent their frustrations or defuse pent-up stress while they smash items such as electronics, dishes, and ceramics.
Tyree Milton-Gordon and Becky Nielsen are the co-conspirators behind Unleashed Rage Rooms Inc. This Winnipeg-based duo is thrilled to make Niverville the home of Manitoba’s latest rage room.
“We want to bring [to Manitoba] something that is unique and innovative,” Milton-Gordon says.
According to Milton-Gordon, their rage room will be different, but at this point he wants people to come out and see exactly what it is that sets it apart.
The concept may be relatively new to Manitoba, but it’s certainly not new to the world of amusement. According to a website called Rage Roomly, there were just over 500 rage rooms in the United States in 2022. It was projected that there would be 750 by 2024, an increase of more than 150 percent.
Milton-Gordon believes that word of Niverville’s rage room will spread quickly once they’re in operation. This has the potential to set Niverville up as a tourist destination.
Candice Bakx-Friesen, the realtor behind the space to be leased by Unleashed, agrees with Milton-Gordon.
“Looking at it from a small-town perspective, to have a destination [business] is always important,” Bakx-Friesen said at a recent council meeting. “Any small town would love that sort of thing coming into their town instead of the same money always circulating through. [It’s] no different than the corn maze, but there you don’t get people, after doing the [maze], going for dinner locally or stopping at the local gas station.”
At that same council meeting, Milton-Gordon assured council that all measures would be taken to put client safety first by providing face shields, safety goggles, construction gloves, and by requiring closed toed shoes while in session.
The space, he says, will be monitored and extensive precautions will be taken for cleanup and sterilization once a session is complete. Items that are recyclable will be recycled and disposal will follow town bylaws.
These steps, Milton-Gordon says, go above and beyond what is currently taking place at many rage rooms in the U.S.
Milton-Gordon is a big believer in the power of this kind of stress management and he sees a growing need for this service.
“If you think about how things are going and the trend that we’re [moving] towards, it just seems like more people are getting more stressed and it’s just not getting better,” says Milton-Gordon. “And now we’re seeing younger folks and kids that are stressed and a lot of people, truthfully, can’t afford to go and see therapists.”
Of course, stress release isn’t the only objective here. For many, smashing things is just good fun and, he adds, a form of exercise, too, since people can work up quite a sweat while they’re venting their frustrations.
Milton-Gordon and his partner envision a total of three rage rooms in their leased space, as well as a small waiting area. Sessions will run between 15 and 30 minutes in length and anyone 13 years of age or older will be eligible to use it, with parental consent being required for children.
All bookings will take place online.
“Having an online booking system just makes total sense,” Milton-Gordon says. “The website we’ll be creating will allow people to not only see what we’re about, in terms of price and safety measures, but [it will] provide a short video… [So] before they decide to attend a session, they have a really good idea of what they’re getting themselves into.”
Milton-Gordon says there will be staff on site prior to every session to ensure that users aren’t under the influence of any substances before entering a rage room.
“We don’t want to promote people going into these sessions drunk or just not themselves. So on the website we’re going to emphasize that anybody that’s under the influence of any sort will not be [allowed] a session.”
For Milton-Gordon and Nielsen, this will be their first foray into the rage room business. But they believe they have what it takes to make it a success. Nielsen comes with an entrepreneurial background while Milton-Gordon has years of experience in the supportive care and emergency services fields.
