Entertaining Across the Country: Laser Trooper Laser Tag

Photos by: Emma Highfill | Rose Wheat Photography & Grace Place

Kip Walker has been self employed basically since he was 15 years old. In high school, he started his own company doing digital entertainment and working as a DJ for weddings, special events and at clubs. Walker was worried that technology advancements would put him out of business, so he started to look into other ways to earn a living. It wasn’t until he went with his kids on a youth group trip to play laser tag that he discovered his new career path.

“It was the first time I ever experienced laser tag and I had a blast! I was the oldest one out there playing, sucking wind, dripping wet, having a ball,” Walker said. “That’s when we talked about opening a laser tag business.”

With the help of his wife, Paula, and three kids, he started Laser Trooper Laser Tag.

“We researched it for about six years and eventually started with a mobile business doing birthday parties around town,” Walker said.

Since opening its first mobile unit, Laser Trooper Laser Tag has grown and expanded its operations all over the United States doing laser tag events for colleges, corporate team building events, fund raising for schools as well as individual parties. Laser Trooper Laser Tag arrives at a customer’s location with an experienced team that sets up an arena that can be either outside or inside and can be played accurately in a space as big as 435 feet wide.

“We’ve played this on horseback; we’ve taken over old rock quarries, four story buildings and basketball field houses. The only thing we have said no to so far is scuba diving laser tag,” Walker said. “We said ‘no, this isn’t going to play very well under water. Electronics and water; its not going to work.’”

Laser Trooper Laser Tag is the only company in the United States to use LaserMax equipment. In fact, the next closest place to use this equipment is in Ireland.

Walker chose the equipment he uses because he wanted to be different from other laser tag places and give people a laser tag experience like they had never seen before.

“There’s no vest, so you don’t have to put on a sweaty, nasty vest after someone just got done using it,” Walker said. “And there is no headgear. It is not easy to keep those head gears as clean as they need to be.”

Walker says another selling point was that while most systems require WIFI networks in order to function properly, their equipment works more like wireless microphones.

“I don’t have to set up a dozen WIFI portals and then worry about signals overlapping,” Walker said.

Shortly after opening the mobile laser tag unit, Walker was able to acquire a stationary location at Westridge Mall in Topeka. Currently, Laser Trooper Laser Tag is open on the weekends and offers three game formats. One format is for people 16 and older and has a more realistic feel to the game.

“There are a lot of preconceived ideas of what laser tag is or isn’t. When you mention laser tag, most people think of a bunch of 6-year-olds running around in black light and fog trying to shoot each other in the back,” Walker said. “In reality, we are laser tag for adults, but we let kids play.”

Not only is the laser tag equipment unique, Walker says he makes sure no one gets bored by playing the same arena over and over.

“Most people build one arena and that is the way it stays forever. Every three months we change ours up,” Walker said. “The arena we have now won’t exist this time next year, it will be totally different, that way people don’t get bored with playing the same thing.”

Walker says that playing Laser Trooper Laser Tag is better than playing a video game.

“It’s like stepping into your favorite video game, but you have to get off the sofa and actually work,” Walker said. “I have people tell me all the time that it’s the best cardio workout they have had in years!”