Putterball
PutterBall, another golf-centric backyard game maker, has also experienced a sales spike since March. But the surge in demand presented the three-year-old business which has sold over 70,000 units since they first launched on Kickstarter with a high quality problem. Their busy season typically had hit a couple months later when the warmer weather arrived so they were not able to anticipate it. "We had a big spike toward the end of March but we didn't expect it to come until May or June so we weren't ready for it," explains Jake Worby, PutterBall's co-founder. "We've had to dial back all our marketing efforts and the campaigns that we run because we don't want to run out of stock. We could easily be selling three to four times what we're selling right now but running out of stock would be the worst thing that we could do. We've done it in the past and it takes a while to ramp back up," explains Worby. He would loath to have someone go to the website and see that there are none available. The factory in China that makes PutterBall has been back in action for a few weeks now and their back orders are starting to be fulfilled. PutterBall expects to be full speed ahead by the end of May. In the coming weeks as more states allow their golf courses to open, it's possible the backyard golf game boom may subside. But even if avid players move their diversion dollars to spending on the real McCoy, as long as families are cooped up at home, demand for activities to keep kids occupied should remain hot. Follow me on Twitter.