Ever wanted to break something out of anger or even just for fun? Now you can

A technology problem from a year ago has inspired Xavier Kanu to start a new business now, but it has nothing to do with technology.

Kanu says it was his girlfriend who had the technological issue.

“She was getting frustrated with the computer. You know how technology is sometimes.”

He says he told her, “You’ve got to calm down and relax.”

His girlfriend told him there should be a place people can go, such as a little room where they can vent their rage at anything and everything.

They started looking into it.

“We thought we were the first ones to think of something like that,” Kanu says.

Then they realized that so-called rage rooms already exist.

“They are popping up all throughout the United States in the major cities,” Kanu says.

They decided not to pursue the idea at that time but have since changed their minds.

Frustration Station will open by early December at 1041 N. Wichita just east of Ninth and Waco.

Kanu says it’s not remotely like a fight club or anything like that. In fact, a lot of times people celebrating something — bachelor parties, divorce parties — will go “just to have fun.”

He says he knows of one woman who went to one of the rooms to let out her frustration at having cancer.

Customers will receive safety gear and either a baseball bat or crow bar to spend several minutes hitting glass bottles, plates and other breakables.

Kanu says there will be two rooms that can hold three people at a time.

He hasn’t set the cost yet but thinks it’ll be somewhere between $20 and $25 for 10 minutes.

It’s somewhat ironic that Kanu is starting a rage room given that his other business is Yunete Clothing.

Pronounced “unity,” Kanu started the line because he says there’s “too much division in world.”

“But there’s always common ground, you know?”

Even with the rage room, Kanu says he hopes to offer more than simply a place to let off steam or have fun.

The 29-year-old spent time in foster care after he was taken from an abusive mother, and he says he wants to offer foster children in Wichita the opportunity to visit the Frustration Station.

Kanu says he wants that to be part of what he calls an Own the Day program he’s starting to teach accountability to underprivileged children.

He says even though “some crazy stuff happened” to him, he doesn’t call himself a victim, and he wants to teach that to others.

Kanu has started a GoFundMe page to get support for his new business.

He says he’s previously been in sales but didn’t find that fulfilling. Kanu says being able to help others will be, though.

“That’s my whole purpose in doing this.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2019 at 5:00 AM.