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What Are We All About - The Zappo Game American Story

Posted by Gian Zamora on 7th May 2017

What Are We All About - The Zappo Game American Story

Here at Zappo Game, we started it off with humble but sincere beginnings. Back in 2010 one of our family members with a partner website that independently sells decorative products for the large event industry, but which also has in the past worked in the Southern New England area importing native and trendy products from our home country of Peru, was looking to expand their offerings and provide to customers a new and fun game for them to enjoy. The historic and popular South American game known as "El Sapo" or "Juego de Sapo" (The Frog, Frog/Toad Game) for which our family grew up knowing, seemed like a really interesting concept to bring to the North American market. This wonderfully simple but masterfully created precision game has been known to people in Peru for decades upon decades and historic records tells us that it was brought over from Europe a few centuries ago, having had beginnings influenced by bar games played in England, Spain, Portugal, France and was adopted by people all over the new continent during the colonial period. Forward to 8 years ago when this merchant family member of ours gets in touch with providers and manufacturers of the game back in Peru and decides to create a partnership in order to import the game over to our local home area of Hartford county Connecticut. Seeing how the game had already made a few surprising appearances here in the US particularly in southern states, it seemed reasonable to give it a shot and sell something that was beginning to gain interest with trendy consumers of foreign games and experiences. 

It was at this period a year later that his sister, another savvy seller and hardworking young businesswoman decided to look into the business that was starting to gain traction and joined forces to promote the game here in our state. We went to local fairs, we promoted them in restaurants, we took them to outdoor events and recreational areas to get people's inputs and also get their feedback on how things could be improved. She then within that year made an agreement to independently set up a website and branch the "Sapo Game" under its own label and brand and work on it much more to improve, modernize and provide better access to customers in the New England area. She then partnered up with her nephew a young up and coming marketing and Graphic Design major who has since then assisted tremendously with the promotional operations of the business. Our combined experience with other family members as well who had periodically joined to provide their assistance in executing the manufacturing, sales, promotional aspects have helped us grow in the past 7 years and we are always on the look out for new and interesting ways to make this great game even better.


A few years ago we decided to end our import partnership with our provider in Peru in order to focus on the manufacturing aspect ourselves and also to put our own spin and sophistication to the game which had yet to be seen here in the states. We opened up shop in Hartford and have hired a craftsman and carpenter to aid in our efforts to bring a more polished game, with better materials, better quality wood, better attention to detail and also to help make our updated games a more premium experience. We would love for you to see for yourself the new and improved version we have and also to be on the look out for the new variations we are working on. Our mission is to design a better version of this historic game for a wider audience and give people the opportunity to try something that is fresh, simple, fun but most of all made with passion and care. 

Thanks for visiting our site and for any further questions about our origin story, message the Zappo Team and we'll be glad to let you know more about ourselves!