It’s summer. Kids are out of school and families are home together. Past generations may associate summer break with long hours playing in the sun or backyard barbecues. But in the era of personal digital devices, summer break often carries a different reality for Gen Z — months of staring at screens, scrolling on social media, or digital gaming.
Getting ready to play ball!
Alex and Kelsey Carroll, young parents, and co-founders of Caliber Games find this trend alarming. I sat down with them to talk about why they believe yard games are part of the cure to excess screen time.
Jeff Fromm: What gave you guys the idea to start a yard game business?
Kelsey Carroll: We have a lot of experience with games. One of our first business ventures, Toss Up Events, built large-scale games as experiential marketing activations. We had a lot of success and worked with some of the biggest brands in the country until COVID-19 canceled everything and essentially shut down our business.
Carroll: During the pandemic, we noticed that all these families were stuck at home together but still disconnected from each other because they were spending all their time on screens. We decided to apply our past expertise in developing games to a consumer product line that could encourage people to put down their phones and connect in real life.
Fromm: What do you see as the dangers of all this increased screen time and digitally centered interactions?
Carroll: That’s a long conversation, but in short, we’re just not wired for it. Humans are social creatures designed for community, connection with nature, and physical movement. Technology is great when it helps us learn, do business, and connect, but it can also keep us isolated from each other, indoors, and sitting down all day. You can see the impact of this when you look at studies on increased rates of depression and anxiety, especially in the younger generation.
Fromm: I think most people are attuned to the benefits of being more active and social, but how do Caliber Games’ products address that need any differently than the millions of other sports and outdoor products on the market?
Carroll: The first thing is accessibility. Most adults live pretty sedentary lives where the idea of playing sports with their friends or families is intimidating. They don’t want to sweat, learn complicated rules, or worry about embarrassing themselves if they’re not very athletic. Our games are designed for simple, casual competition that can involve a variety of ages and skill levels.
Carroll: We also noticed within the yard game market, there’s very little innovation or quality expectations. Very few new game inventions are coming out, and the games that are out there tend to be cheaply built and poorly designed. The industry has a lot of potential that hasn’t been unlocked yet because the products just aren’t that good. Caliber Games is introducing a higher level of quality to the market we believe will unlock fresh excitement and more customers. We want to be the YETI of backyard games.
Fromm: What would you want to say to other millennial founders in regards to this trend toward the digitalization of our lives?
Carroll: I’d encourage fellow entrepreneurs to try and see the big picture of the world our products and services are helping create. Sometimes, the benefit to the business isn’t worth the cost to society. That’s obviously a complex ethical question I don’t have all the answers to, but I’d at least hope it’s a question people are asking.
