RecRe on the Road: Brooklyn Bridge Park
When we started RecRe in the Spring of 2021, the goal was originally intended to be a rental service that activated public parks with games and sporting equipment. Since then, we have found a fantastic community in the higher education industry. But, every couple months, we would have a conversation along the lines of “what if we put a box in a park…”. We couldn’t get that original vision out of our head.
After 18 months of conversations with one of the most iconic parks organizations in the country, we are thrilled to see our original vision come to reality. We partnered with Brooklyn Bridge Parks to bring RecRe to the public, and offer rentals free of charge.
We launched just in time for Memorial Day weekend, and saw a fantastic opening weekend of usage. The usage numbers have continued to hold strong in the 30 days since we launched.
What’s more, park goers are using RecRe to improve their park going experience! Here are just a few examples of renters feedback from opening weekend.
“Amazing experience. Thank you for this initiative!”
– Brooklyn Bridge Park Renter
“Super cool that you guys have this available thank you!”
– Brooklyn Bridge Park Renter
“Excellent system”
– Brooklyn Bridge Park Renter
Check out this short video to see the Brooklyn Bridge box in action. Be sure to keep reading below for more on the usage trends that we’ve uncovered since launching at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Rentals: A Closer Look
When it comes to discovering usage metrics, we have been blown away by the numbers over the last 30 days. Parks are meant to be spaces where community and activity meet, and RecRe is fueling that mission. Here are the most popular items being used at Brooklyn Bridge Park:
- Pickleball Set
- Ping Pong Set
We’ve found that pickleball sets were rented out for an average of 2.14 hours at a time. Multiply that by the nearly 150 pickleball matches that were played and you get tons of opportunity for public engagement!
One of the coolest stats we gathered was the number of rental hours logged over the course of our first month in the park – over 565 hours! When we dive down a little deeper, we see that 42% of rentals occurred between the hours of 6pm and 8am. This pattern suggests that our customers are more likely to rent items for their evening activities, highlighting the importance of keeping the inventory prepared for the surge of park-goers that arrive after park staff have gone home.
We hope this is the first of many RecRe boxes that activate outdoor spaces and encourage park goers to utilize the great spaces that surround us. If you manage a space that you think is underutilized, send us an email.
Be sure to follow along with Brooklyn Bridge Park, and many others on our LinkedIn & Instagram pages.
