IN SCHOOLS and backyards, for their birthdays and out with their dads, kids are gaga about archery four weeks into the box-office run of The Hunger Games and less than 100 days before the London Olympics.
"All of a sudden sales of bows have, like, tripled," said Paul Haines, a salesman at the Ramsey Outdoor store in Paramus, New Jersey.
A manager there made a sign for the hunting department: "Quality bows for serious archers and girls who saw the movie," he said.
Archery ranges around the US have enjoyed a steady uptick among both boys and girls since the movie began cleaning up at the box office last month, though heroine Katniss - a deadly shot with an arrow - seems to resonate more with girls.
"Katniss is so inspiring," said Gabby Lee, who asked for archery lessons for her 12th birthday in February after reading the wildly popular book trilogy by Suzanne Collins. "I'm not very sportsy," she offers, but now she belongs to a youth archery league near her Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, home.
"It feels really good because I'm usually the girl who sits and reads." While some young archers have been doing it for years, motivated by generations of hunters in their families, the parents of others love it for its focus, independence and because they, too, have kids not drawn to more typical team or contact sports.
At 7, Christa Mattessich is too young for the gruesome dystopian world that thrusts Katniss into the arena for a battle to the death, a battle Katniss wins thanks to the archery skills she honed while hunting game in the woods.
But Christa loves archery just as much and has been shooting for about two years at the same range as Gabby, said dad Anthony Mattessich, a bow hunter in Oakland.
'Hunger' turns US kids into avid archers
IN SCHOOLS and backyards, for their birthdays and out with their dads, kids are gaga about archery four weeks into the box-office run of The Hunger Games and less than 100 days before the London Olympics.
"All of a sudden sales of bows have, like, tripled," said Paul Haines, a salesman at the Ramsey Outdoor store in Paramus, New Jersey.
A manager there made a sign for the hunting department: "Quality bows for serious archers and girls who saw the movie," he said.
Archery ranges around the US have enjoyed a steady uptick among both boys and girls since the movie began cleaning up at the box office last month, though heroine Katniss - a deadly shot with an arrow - seems to resonate more with girls.
"Katniss is so inspiring," said Gabby Lee, who asked for archery lessons for her 12th birthday in February after reading the wildly popular book trilogy by Suzanne Collins. "I'm not very sportsy," she offers, but now she belongs to a youth archery league near her Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, home.
"It feels really good because I'm usually the girl who sits and reads." While some young archers have been doing it for years, motivated by generations of hunters in their families, the parents of others love it for its focus, independence and because they, too, have kids not drawn to more typical team or contact sports.
At 7, Christa Mattessich is too young for the gruesome dystopian world that thrusts Katniss into the arena for a battle to the death, a battle Katniss wins thanks to the archery skills she honed while hunting game in the woods.
But Christa loves archery just as much and has been shooting for about two years at the same range as Gabby, said dad Anthony Mattessich, a bow hunter in Oakland.
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