How Boulder's Best Toy Store Came to Be
The story of how PlayFair Toys came to be The Planet's Only Toy Store Run by a Somewhat Eccentric Science Professor is laced with irony, fate (some may call it coincidence, but who believes in that?!), and plenty of lightheartedness. From its humble beginnings in a Victorian house on Boulder's legendary Pearl Street, PlayFair Toys has had two common threads - fun and experimentation. It's no coincidence that fun and experimentation are also the underpinnings of science. After all, PlayFair was started as part of an experiment, and it has had two science PhDs as owners. I love wordplay, and PlayFair has truly been a play on words in multiple ways for over 20 years.
Dr. Phyllis Katz, founder and director of Boulder's Institute for Research on Social Problems, conducted ground breaking research in the 1980s on children, play, and stereotypes. Dr. Katz's research showed demonstratively that children were heavily influenced by which toys adults offered them, and that adults would more often than not offer toys associated with gender-based roles. In other words, adults would offer a doll to a girl and a football to a boy. They would do this without thinking about it. Dr. Katz began PlayFair Toys in 1986 as a way to demonstrate to parents the wide array of toy choices that did not involve stereotyping. It was to be a real-life demonstration of the research she was conducting.
Much has changed since that first store opened on west Pearl. Only a few years after its founding, then manager Susan Lounsbury, working on her M.B.A. in retail, saw the greater potential of a business that was offering a unique approach to toys. Ms. Lounsbury purchased the business, moved PlayFair to a prominent location in the heart of Boulder's retail district, and began a mail-order catalog. The response was tremendous. Dr. Katz returned to her research, and Ms. Lounsbury got busy turning PlayFair Toys into a legend. They had two taglines - "Because all children are created equal," and "Come play with us!"
In 1987, just as PlayFair was getting its start in life, and only a few short blocks away, Dr. Marilyn Walker received her PhD in Environmental Biology and continued the career she began in graduate school - studying the ways in which the earth's coldest ecosystems were responding to rapid environmental change. During that time she traveled to many of the world's most extreme environments - on mountaintops and arctic tundra. She published dozens of scientific papers and book chapters. In 2004 she made a bold move and did what she'd secretly dreamed of doing throughout her science career - she bought a business. And that is when PlayFair Toys had its second PhD owner.
Dr. Walker, or Professor PlayFair, as she's playfully known (see, you just cannot escape wordplay…) has maintained the business focus on toys that promote values of fairness and that steer away from stereotypes. But the times have changed, and so has PlayFair Toys. Dr. Walker's on-going goal is to create and maintain a business that helps children find their place as members of a local and global community. That starts with helping them have strong bodies and strong, curious minds. Children are scientists. They experiment constantly, learning through making things happen, watching cause and effect. Toys are always evolving and changing, and so PlayFair is always evolving and changing, offering new merchandise and options all the time.
Today you'll find PlayFair packed with toys that encourage children to move, to explore, to learn. Many of our favorites have been around for generations - a pogo stick today is as much fun as it was decades ago. That bright red wagon will still cart your stuff around the neighborhood. And you never know quite what will happen when the Professor is in. She often creates mischief by shooting rocket balloons across the store. Fancies herself a rocket scientist, it appears…
PlayFair - The Planet's Only Toy Store Run By a (Somewhat Eccentric) Science Professor
PlayFair - Where the grandmothers ride flying turtles
In the heart of Boulder's retail district
Only 20 minutes from Denver
Only 60 minutes from Ft. Collins
Only 90 minutes from Colorado Springs
Only 2 hours from Vail
Only 3 hours from Steamboat Springs
Only 6 hours from Moab, UT
Only 9 hours from Kansas City, MO
Only 13 hours from Dubuque, IA
Only 15 hours from Los Angeles, CA
Only 26 hours from Washington, DC
Only 33 hours from Skowhegan, ME
Only 38 hours from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Only 53 hours from Fairbanks, AK
Our rocket scientists will be happy to help you land here, wherever you come from.
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