Watch Us Learn How To Throw Axes In The West Loop

By aaroncynic in News on Sep 30, 2016 7:00PM

If you’ve ever felt the urge to huck a sharp heavy metal blade at something, or wanted to hone your skills at axe throwing, the West Loop has you covered.

Bad Axe Throwing, located just around the corner from the Bottom Lounge near the corner of Lake and Loomis, specializes in teaching novices and allowing the experienced the opportunity to heave axes at targets at an indoor range. According to Julian Rutkowski, who manages the Chicago location, it’s the first such facility in the United States. The company currently has 10 locations in Canada.

“Chicago has that blue collar legacy and feeling as a Midwestern city,” Rutkowski told us. “But we’re also such a diverse city that everybody in Chicago is open with trying something new. That’s why I think Bad Axe is gonna work here.”

We took a trip to Bad Axe during a recent open house they hosted, and our good friends at Chicago-based multimedia firm Dark Catt Studios came along to film us learning how to throw. Check it out:

Bad Axe is open by appointment-only for the moment, and caters to group outings such as corporate team outings, birthday and bachelor parties. Participants must sign a waver, but Rutkowski and his team closely monitor throwers, and there have not been any kind of accidents reported at any of the company’s facilities. Events last about three hours. Bad Axe also has plans to start an eight-week throwing league beginning mid-October.