He’s got game

MONROE – The game Bob Knight created isn’t played on a computer or video console, doesn’t have lots of moving parts and looks deceivingly simple.

That may explain why it seems to be a hit with nearly everyone who picks it up.

Knight, who lives in Monroe, calls Find It a “totally contained adventure.”

Headquarters: Snohomish Principal owner: Bob Knight Employees: Five Founded: 2003 Web site: www.finditgames.com.

“It’s really one of those items that once you put it in someone’s hand, they can’t put it down until they find every single item,” said Marlece Wasmund of Inside Passage, a Seattle-based toy sales firm that represents Find It.

Contained in a clear plastic cylinder capped by wood or plastic ends, Find It has been mistaken at first glance for a bird feeder. Inside the cylinder, however, four dozen small items – ranging from a button to plastic letters to a fishing hook – hide amid recycled plastic pellets.

The challenge is to find all the items inside just by spinning, twisting or shaking the cylinder. Checkoff sheets, which list each of the items in the cylinder, are sold with the game.

“It’s literally all ages,” Knight said. “The box says 8 to 98, and it literally is.”

Knight said he’s heard from parents who say Find It can occupy their children like few other things. Designed to be left on a coffee table, it also is sold at airports because of its suitability as a travel game.

“People who are traveling love it,” said Judy Matheson, owner of J. Matheson Gifts in Everett, whose store was one of the first to carry Find It last year. “Last Christmas, it was one of our hottest items.”

At the Toy Chest in Mill Creek, it’s also been one of the best sellers, said William Guinn, son of store owner Bill Guinn.

“It’s done really great. We’ve sold a ton of them,” Guinn said. Many employees, he added, find it hard not to play with a display model of the game.

Those feelings aren’t unique. Knight said his company, Find It Games, has shipped about 40,000 games since March 2003.

The volume of business this year is likely to quadruple over last year’s, he said. Already sold in independent toy and gift stores across the United States, Find It recently began shipping games to stores in Europe and Canada.

Knight has three children. He said he and a friend began brainstorming ideas for new games after years of playing them. “We’ve always had game night and believe in doing family things,” he said.

After hitting on the basic idea for Find It, Knight hired a market researcher and eventually had focus groups try out the game and help him refine his prototype. He also developed a business plan and set up a three-person board of directors before jumping in with both feet.

Then there was the packaging. Knight worked with a designer to get the smallest details right.

“Packaging can make or break a product, and I’m a little proud of ours,” he said.

There was a purpose behind that careful planning and outside advice.

“Not that I didn’t have experience – I’ve been in business for 20 years,” said Knight, who also has run a commercial lighting firm and other businesses. “But I built this business with the idea that we’re going to build a multimillion-dollar company.”

Knight has similarly strong feelings about how he wants to reach that point. So far, he’s resisted the lure to have Find It sold in large retailers’ toy sections. Instead, he likes dealing with specialty stores that stock games and novelties.

“I don’t see us as a Wal-Mart, Target or Costco item,” he said.

When Wal-Mart buyers expressed interest at this year’s Toy Fair in New York, Knight said his fellow exhibitors couldn’t believe it when he spurned the attention.

He said his wife and children have been supportive throughout the launch of Find It, even when they gave up vacations in favor of promotional trips. Knight estimated that 85 percent of the money used to start the business came from his own pocket, with private investors providing the rest.

While Knight keeps an office in Snohomish, the main manufacturing site and shipping warehouse for the game is in a small business park in Monroe. While he may eventually have to move manufacturing overseas to compete with other toys, his local operation employs about five people.

Knight said the challenge of discovering the smallest of objects is addictive to many Find It players. In the kids’ version, the penny and the marble are the hardest to find. In the adult version, a fishing hook and pin are the most difficult-to-spot items.

Finding the penny can become an absolute obsession, Knight said.

“It can take days or even weeks to find it,” he said. “I’ve even had people go to the lengths of taking it to an X-ray machine to make sure the penny’s in there.”

With two versions of Find It on the market, Knight said he plans to introduce two more in the next year. The possibilities include making animal- or sports-themed versions, he said.

For now, Knight’s focus is on making sure he ships out enough games to meet the holiday demand.

“Right now, we’re just gearing up for Christmas,” he said, looking around the Monroe warehouse, with stacks of boxes ready to ship. “As far as I’m concerned, Christmas has begun.”

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.