Move over paintball. Archery tag has got this, with bows and foam-tipped arrows as the weapon of choice in a booming business that leaves customers sore but not bruised.
Touted as a cross between archery, dodgeball and paintball, Vaughan’s newly opened the Archery Game is capitalizing on the bow-and-arrow’s current popularity thanks to hit TV show The Walking Dead and blockbuster trilogy Hunger Games.
And so far, it’s working. The Archery Game has an average of 1,200 visitors a month, ages 12 to 45, who range from bankers and lawyers to YouTube pop star artists and everything in between.
The activity itself is loosely managed by the company Archery Tag, which has licensed the game out to individual businesses across the globe, with over 350 licensees in 34 countries. It was visits to archery tag facilities in New York and Vancouver that incited Shawn Huang, one of the Archery Game’s three co-owners, to bring one to Vaughan.
Let’s face it: who doesn’t have a primal urge to shoot their friends? All for under $30 each. End your summer with some serious competition and a great cardio workout.
“It’s a lot more tiring than people think,” says co-owner Kent Chung. “You’ll be dodging and ducking a lot behind the inflatable bunkers, which we adjust in height as the 55-minute game progresses.”
“It gives you a sense of safety, but it’s not a full cover, so it encourages you to run around,” he added.
Visits to the 10,000-square-foot facility begin with 25 minutes of debriefing and target shooting before two teams of four to 10 archers head off to the arena where the warrior-style game begins. With black paintball masks and leather arm guards on, the goal is to shoot the five discs of a target on the field or take out all the players of the opposing team (tip: tag them with an arrow or catch theirs). The bows have a draw weight of 24 to 28 pounds.
Don’t worry, there is literally a grey area called the “safe zone” in the middle of the 6,000-square-foot arena, so people can’t shoot their opponents point-blank.
