Lehigh University graduate Briana Gardell from Freehold, N.J. throws a Goblie. Gardell developed a product called Goblies -- paintballs you throw by hand -- while she was in the Technical Entrepreneurship masters program at Lehigh.
The Bethlehem start-up company behind throwable paintballs called Goblies has inked a deal with Michaels craft stores to sell the products and Play Paint, which is designed to be used in water guns.
The company, Mezzimatic LLC., was founded by Briana Gardell, whose homework assignment as a Lehigh University graduate student inspired Goblies. She was tasked with making an egg out of soap, and the soap inspired the throwable paintball. Goblies are are cross between water balloons and paintballs. The paint inside is like a powder used in color runs.
She developed the prototype while in Lehigh’s Technical Entrepreneurship masters program 2015. Gardell, who graduated in 2015, secured enough funding through Kickstarter to launch the product as a do-it-yourself kit, and Goblies were first sold online and at The Da Vinci Science Center. The product has since been exhibited at the New York City Toy Fair in 2016, and the number of outlets selling it has expanded.
Goblies, registered as a trademark in February, are now sold in packs of 40 paintballs for $6.99 on Michaels.com and are available at stores. Monday’s price online was $5.
Mezzimatic, a name inspired by her grandparents’ surname Mezzacappa, is based at SoBeCoWorks, 1349 Lynn Ave., to take advantage of the city’s Keystone Innovation Zone, according to a news release from the Bethlehem Economic Development Corp.
Gardell’s company received $30,000 in grants and will be able to take advantage of up to $100,000 in KIZ tax credits annually. Last year, companies received $519,408 in investments from the program.
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