Over the years there has been some confusion about the difference between Sentient Archery and Archers of Zoo Lake. So here is a quick history lesson: Archers of Zoo Lake is an archery club, this club has been around since the 1950’s in some form or another but was officially named Archers of Zoo Lake in the early 2000’s. About 10 years ago, I began the process of professionalising the coaching and training at the club. There was a huge lack of infrastructure and the club was really struggling under a volunteer based system. This is unfortunately a common issue in South Africa. At that point the club had about 15 members and the facilities were in a terrible state. It was clear at that point that we needed to move more towards a business type model. So, I started my company Sentient Archery and we set up a contract for us to manage just the training of beginners for Archers of Zoo Lake. This grew very quickly and we took on more and more of the responsibilities from the club in order to keep up with the growth of the business and the influx of new archers. Fast track to 2021 and times of COVID and the club as we know it is effectively dormant and the company is effectively responsible for everything to do with the Zoo Lake range and its community. However, for our archers to be linked to our national federations, a club must still exist. The club has shrunk its responsibilities down to the bare essentials and remains a part of the ecosystem but doesn’t play a large role in the management of the range. Effectively, the club is a group of (mostly competitive) archers formed under a constitution and affiliated to the relevant district, provincial and national archery bodies. While the business is everything else ie: Training, facilities, equipment, administration, etc. A few years ago we complicated the issue even further by adding a second business to handle equipment sales with a separate bank account called Sentient Archery Gear.
So, our goal now is to simplify and clean everything up. The vision is to grow our Zoo lake community and create more autonomy for the Zoo Lake based business. “Archers of Zoo Lake” is a historic name and one we do not want to let fade away. There is a lot of pride around the name and the name itself tells a story; We are the Archers of Zoo Lake, an archery community! A community that has a nearly 70 year old legacy. So the obvious choice for a single brand for our community is “Archers of Zoo Lake. My original company (Sentient Archery Solutions) has had an official name change and is now registered as Archers of Zoo lake PTY Ltd. We have done a business name change to avoid changing bank account details. This means that not much is actually changing for our clients. All that will change is the branding of the invoices and the communications.
The club will share the name and will form inside the Archers of Zoo Lake ecosystem. This is quite common in South Africa. Many of the most successful clubs are built alongside (or within) archery businesses, such as Magnum Archery, Archers Edge, Bowtime & Ultimate Aim to name a few.
Sentient Archery as a brand is not disappearing either, Sentient Archery Gear is now simply “Sentient Archery” and is also keeping the bank account details we have been using for equipment orders. We are just pulling the brands apart a bit and clarifying things. Sentient Archery will focus on creating & supplying infrastructure for the Recurve Archery Community in South Africa. This is in the form of archery equipment supply, training systems, digital resources and so on. Sentient Archery has a vision to one day have many communities in South Africa that use the model we originally developed at Zoo Lake. Archers of Boskruin is the first step in that direction, which is doing very well at the moment and growing nicely.
A few years ago, a client, friend and member of Archer of Zoo Lake, designed a logo and brand identity for Archers of Zoo Lake. This is the branding you see on our club shirts and this is the branding we will be using for Archers of Zoo Lake as a company as well. One brand, one club, one community. We really want to encourage our archers to get behind this brand and help us to grow the community. The last few years have been really tough but our community has shown such amazing resilience and we have high hopes of continued growth and success in the years to come.
