Blazing Paddles - A Pickleball Podcast

Pickleball Drama with Crown Pickleball

• John & Karen Whitaker / Kevin Perkins • Season 1 • Episode 1

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How well can you navigate the world of pickleball? Our guest, Kevin Perkins, the founder of Crown Pickleball, can certainly help you. While sharing his passion for pickleball, Kevin also provides a look at the significant merger of #MLP and #PPA, the two key players in the professional game, and explains why the MLP's format has kept him more engaged and excited about the sport.

Are you curious about how pickleball could improve your life? Kev shares his powerful story about the health benefits of pickleball and how it has changed his life. You'll hear how he applies visibility, spin, and durability principles to his pickleballs and how this strategy has boosted his business in just three months. Kevin also takes us on his journey of setting up a Shopify store, sharing how that experience shapes his business direction and why he believes pickleball marketing needs a more modern vibe. John & Karen talk about avoiding #pickleballdivorce, the reason behind their own journey, and some exciting teasers about the upcoming #Oktoberfest celebration in Southlake, TX.

Finally, Kevin brings us into the heart of the pickleball community with his cancer awareness initiative - the pink pickleball. As he shares how cancer has touched his family, he reveals how he's using the sport to raise awareness and funds for the cause. We explore the fun and competitive side of pickleball, discussing Kevin's experience in tournaments, and he gives us tips on playing pickleball without a tennis background. So, get ready for some fun, insights, and lots of pickleball!

Listen for shout-outs to #KOTC, #TheBadger, #MILP shirts and some very unfortunate puns about Kevin's balls - pickleballs, that is.

https://www.instagram.com/crownpickleball/
https://www.instagram.com/kevinsperkins/
https://dink.pro/products/milp-tee-unisex (sold out, new colors on the way!)
https://dink.pro/products/pickleball-anyone-tee-ladies
https://dink.pro/products/god-bless-pickleball-4th-of-july-tee

Want to find out for yourself? Download the Aim7 app today. Use our url to get a 25% discount and try the app for a free trial before committing. https://www.aim7.com/?via=blazing-paddles

Special thanks to Crown Pickleball for their support and sponsorship! Don't waste money on balls that break, Crown pickleballs rarely crack, are more visible and have a higher spin rate than the competitors.
Use our link to receive a discount on your next purchase! https://crownpickleball.store/blazingpaddles

Have a suggestion for a guest or topic you'd like to see us address?
Hit me up at john@dink.pro or shout out on social:
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Kevin:

Oh my God, if you're looking for a man, don't go to a bar. Go to a pickleball court on Friday night and you're going to find an athletic guy. You've done it a lot, a little lot.

John:

It's here, it's going to happen. Blazing paddles is on the air and we're starting it today. What a day it is. This is a big day in pickleball history September 13, 2023. Mlp PPA finally announced their merger after two weeks of the popcorn eating its funnest drama you can imagine for the sport. And to kick us off, today we're going to talk to Kevin Perkins. He's the founder of Crown Pickleballs and he sent us some. We played with him, but we got all kinds of stuff to talk to him about. So hang in there, saddle up, You'll be glad you did. Let's get on to Blazing Paddles. Kevin Perkins, I can hear stuff now. How you doing, buddy Doing, great Thanks. How are you? We're doing good man. This has been an unbelievable day. September 13, 2023, kind of a big day for pro pickleball today. I don't know if you heard.

Kevin:

Yeah, I know what happened.

John:

Those two crazy kids are going to give it a shot MLP and PPA. They announced their merger today, private equity backing, all kinds of good stuff happening for them, and I think it was a great day for pickleball. I really do, yeah, I mean you kind of could predict it right.

John:

Oh sure, oh sure, you know, I was telling Karen how we originally connected because when this all went down, like I am want to do, I posted something and I am, you know, mainly because I'm just more familiar with it, though I just I like the bracket play, I like PPA style, and I think you, in a respectful way, came back and said, well, let me offer you the other side of the coin, and I thought that was pretty cool and it was like you know what? There's a topic, there's a topic, it's a good spot. And here we are and we're sending you shirts and you're sending us your pickleballs and we're finding out that, like. One of the funniest things was, too, I was listening to the podcast.

Karen:

Oh, look at that, he's got a sluggo. He's got a sluggo representing. That's greatness.

John:

That you sponsored the podcast that I was listening to. You know, I just picked it up like three weeks ago, but then it hit me. I was like, did they just say crown pickleball? And then later Jimmy mentioned you by name and I was like, oh my God, this is meant to be so. How long have you been, how long have you been interactive with that show, or how long have you known those guys?

Kevin:

So I got connected with them via Tyler when they were out for the San Clemente MLP and PPA in June, so that's literally like right down the hill from my house. So I reached out to him and just said, yeah. I just said, hey, you know what are you guys doing for balls or whatever, Like your pod, blah, blah, blah. And then I don't think I heard back from him right away and then maybe a few days later, maybe even that weekend towards the end of the weekend, I probably, after obviously he was done playing, he reached out and said yeah, we're definitely interested and we just sort of hit it off and kind of been working together like that that's fantastic.

Karen:

When we get to that point, we're going to have people just asking to be our sponsors yeah, yeah. So you know, you're our first guest, right, you're telling this.

Kevin:

I do. I saw the transformation. I heard the transformation to pod on. You went from an old subject matter to now this right, yeah.

John:

Yeah, it was kind of a weird deal. I've had a blog for about 12 years. I've been human resources, just a riveting topic.

Karen:

Can you believe a personality like him? Human resources I get that question.

John:

I get that question a lot. But I would write a HR hardball blog and that turned into a pod and then my wife would guest with me and those episodes would always end up being the most popular because it was just more fun. And then it seemed like every podcast we would start talking about pickleball, no matter what the subject or the guest was. We're like what are we doing? Let's just make this flip. So we some of our friends are finally convinced that we're insane because we've just totally flipped this one.

Kevin:

I mean I'm almost embarrassed sometimes how much I'm talking about it or whatever. Both my wife, my kids are like you're not professional, you need to calm down, and I'm like you don't understand. Like this is a thing you know. Be happy, be joyful, play pickleball, anyway, yeah, it's funny. So on the MLP, ppa thing, you know, let's talk about that real quick.

Kevin:

I'm definitely not surprised B. It's kind of sad in a way that they kind of had to. You know, I don't know if it was their negotiation tactic to do that split in the first place or whatever to try to force this issue. I don't know who knows what, whatever terms, were happening on behind the scenes. The upside or the upshot for this is the players for sure, are going to benefit More than likely. There's going to be even more well, there was like $50 million injected from that private equity firm, so fans, technically, are probably going to benefit somewhere or another.

Kevin:

It may be a little bit too, in my view, a little bit too early for something like that. I don't know what the numbers are per se for PPA or MLP, you know, in terms of your ship and things like that, but it definitely has a lot of room for growth. I personally like the MLP format because it is a little bit more engaging and dynamic and exciting. I do don't get me wrong I like all pick of all PPA too, but you know, I just think it's a little bit more kind of strategic in that sense. Whereas, like I'll be honest with you, like I didn't watch a championship Sunday this last weekend at Cincinnati, because who's going to win? John's and Emily Waters right, even though Saxxru did win.

Karen:

Yeah, it can't go on like that forever, though. But I get you. I mean, we didn't either. And I'm going back to your first point about this like, was this already in the works? It totally was in the works. We're talking about billionaires. They didn't know what they're doing. They needed to prove that they could get some hype and get some media attention, and you know, private equity jumping in, that doesn't happen overnight. So I think, yeah. But then now going back to your formats, I mean the MLP style. We actually are doing that in our paddle club, that when we run a tournament, we're doing the MLP style, which is super fun. Now, I haven't seen it, though, done professionally. So that's the other thing.

John:

Well, I mean, like even Tyler Lune, he plays both formats and I think that's kind of cool. That was what was going to be, I think, the real crime of it At least that's how they were posing it. Well then, you're not going to be able to play both formats, which is just that. Would have killed us for it. I think I really do. Oh, to a large extent, and I'm just glad they worked it out, but it's, you know, it's funny too, because we are so into it and following it. I don't know how many little videos I did on it. You asked probably nine out of 10 people that we know in our paddle club. They don't know anything about it, they don't care, they just want to play pickleball, you know.

Kevin:

Yeah, and that's where I was kind of going with the whole idea about like who knows what this will do to the numbers. Because one thing that I you know, that I'm taking advantage of in my marketing and my positioning for my brand and stuff is to kind of be exciting and creative and fun and do stuff like that. And I feel like pickleball is really kind of bland and the way it has been marketed in the past right, you know, with, just frankly, some of the brands, the reps that are in the brands, they definitely, you know, have people that are repping them that don't have a lot of personality and stuff.

Kevin:

you know, sometimes and you know, I don't mean that as like you know, to be a jerk or anything. It's just that you know pickleball needs to figure out where the height zone, the right height level, is, because it's because there's a huge mistake in trying to make it tennis.

Kevin:

Yeah Right, and then you've got to be quiet when they're playing and everything you know right and then on the flip side, though, like I don't know about you guys, but I'm not a huge fan either of like the super smack talky, like you know, fighting back and forth either. So there needs to be a little bit of a, in my view, a little bit of a balance.

Karen:

Well, there needs to be some refinement for sure. I mean, if you watch the interviews afterwards, you go gosh. These people have received zero coaching and then what did that? One guy say he goes, he goes, I just threw up.

Kevin:

I just threw up, I was like that's hilarious.

Karen:

You know John did a meme. Yeah, had he created a meme. It was John Daly and Tiger Woods in the same picture, and-. Guess who pickleball is John. Daly with pickleball and Tiger Woods was Tennis.

Kevin:

Tennis.

Karen:

And I mean you know John Daly's, his clothes are mismatched. He's got a cigarette in his mouth. You know beer in his hand. I mean, that's the difference. Ah, there you go, you're pickleball.

John:

Let's go.

Kevin:

Let's go, I gotta find out.

Karen:

How did you first hear about pickleball? How'd you get involved in it? Because-.

Kevin:

Oh my gosh, that's a funny story. So, like like everybody who hears about pickleball for the first time, I was like pickleball, that, what that's for old people. You know A bunch of.

Kevin:

You know randos, you know like you said doing like dancing over the anyway, and 21 rolled around. We were, you know, obviously coming out of the pandemic and our kids had all are all gone. So we're empty nesters. And my wife was like, you know, you know, what do you think about if we take a class of pickleball, would you be interested, you know, be like a date night, you know? And I was like all right, in the interest in the, in the, in the effort of that, yeah, Sure, that sounds really good. Sure, you know what? I got there and I was like game on bruh.

Kevin:

This is like Right go, human sized ping pong. I am on this all the way right and so like by this, the second class, the second class. I'm like, come on, hit the ball over the net. Ding, ding, ding, let's go, yeah. And just my wife's like like I just created another. You know another thing he can be a monster on.

Karen:

Right.

Kevin:

So, anyway, I, I I attenuated, I brought it down a little bit and enjoyed that that semester class so much and met tons of fun people and just it really propelled us into, like you know, what I feel is what pickleball is all about, which is the social aspect of it, because, honestly, there are so many people and they kind of went around the the class saying why did you do pickleball or why are you here, and da, da, da, da, and I'm almost like 80, 85% of the people are like it sounded fun and I wanted to meet people and like you know, that's, that's just like, it's a, it's almost, it's a 99.9% surety that that's going to happen. If you're looking for something to do, you know there's that, that, that funny video of that, of that girl on the on the interweb saying, oh my God, if you're looking for a man, don't go to a bar, go to a pickleball court on Friday night. You're going to find an athletic guy who's done it a lot. And I'm just like yep.

Karen:

Yep, yep, yeah, you know what that social aspect that's that is, and I, and then the fun we've. We've taught so many people and and we know I mean our club. We have 1200 members and I'll tell you what it any. No one I've I've ever seen come off of a pickleball court where the I mean, I don't like it.

Karen:

I don't like it. And they all are smiling, everyone laughs, even the, even you know chicken and pickles here, right, and I we're, we're at that competitive level Like I'm trying to get better and better and better, right. And I look over still and I see the people who are just learning it and they smiling, they're laughing. They can't play the game worth a crap, you know the ball is going everywhere, but they're smiling and having fun and I just love it. The community it creates too. I mean we have. I have friends from different backgrounds and different ethnicities and different walks of life that I would never have had if it wasn't for pickleball. That's true.

Kevin:

That's true. Yeah, and the health, the health aspect, like I've, I've lost maybe, and since I started, maybe like 40 pounds by now.

Karen:

Oh yeah.

Kevin:

You know, and and it's just you know my knees are a little bit trash, but that's a whole nother subject, hey.

Karen:

I got some advice for you there. I'll turn it on, okay, no, I do.

Kevin:

Actually, yes, I started that process of looking into, like maybe, what the replacements look like and anyway, they said you know, before you do any of that, just go do some prehab and learn. You know your mechanics of how you're doing stuff and, honestly, in like less than a month my knees don't even really hurt hardly.

Kevin:

It's just, it's just been under, it's been understanding like, oh, okay, it's all in the positioning, it's all how I'm bending, it's all how. You know, every now, the realization is, every time he's shot in the net, it's because I didn't bend my knees enough, right, right, right. That loop of like, oh, pain equals hurt, Don't bend knees, you know, makes the game go down a little bit. So, anyway, it's been really positive. But yeah, but back to the social thing.

Kevin:

Really quick, you know, we've, like you said, we've, we've. You know, as a couple, we've met so many people. And then, you know, ever since I started doing crown like, it's even more so. I mean, I'm getting people all over the world literally saying, hey, you know, want to try out your balls, want to, you know, become ambassadors or resellers or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, oh my God, like I just started this company, like nine and three months ago, right, so things are definitely, yeah, it's really accelerated.

Kevin:

You know, we have, we have two balls really, and you know it's kind of my, my marketing strategy to not go into like 20s views and just really focus on just the, the one ball that's always going to work, that's always going to have the, the high you know value that you're going to get from it super good visibility, good spin, doesn't get fuzzy, itis very much Um. And then also the indoor ball. So it's not quite the same color but it's on that sort of spectrum. But this thing is is a lot harder than like the mushy franklins and stuff. So I'm telling you like we, we we do get some feedback of like, oh, I don't like your balls or whatever. That sounds funny, we don't like your balls. But um, hey, man, don't knock my balls.

Karen:

Um, no, I love it. Hey that color is spot on. Like me, my eyes were tracking it so well the other day, and that's and when you play in chicken and pickles. I don't know if you ever played in one, probably not, because they're not out West.

Kevin:

We don't have them out here yet, but I've heard there we have friends that live in Kansas. Uh, in.

John:

Missouri in.

Kevin:

Kansas city area and they said it's, it's like huge.

Karen:

It's huge, but the something about the lighting and the colors or something in there. It takes your eyes a while to adjust, but when we were playing with your balls the other day, which sounds like oh man, yeah, I suggested.

John:

Hey, let's play with Kevin's balls and we but they were very easy to track. This is like that Saturday night live skip with sweaty balls. Hey, melting your mouth, oh my God.

Kevin:

There's no beating them.

John:

I love that sketch.

Kevin:

That's hilarious. We were cause. That is the biggest downfalls the visibility.

John:

You're going to get hurt out there when you get to certain levels, especially inside there we play with a guy who he's a banger all the way through and get a little nervous out there if you can't see the ball. So that was. That was a real nice, real nice realization that the visibility on yours is really outstanding. Have a good night.

Kevin:

Yeah, and I mean it's like you know it's not, it's. It's, it's a, it's a different green, though it's not really it's a. Yeah, I caught one. Okay, so right, for those are keeping score at home. There's definitely those yellow ish balls, the Dura balls, some of the, I think those they're starting to venture into greenish neon, I don't know what the heck they call it, but the reality is that the Dura is crack so fast and you know, this isn't maybe as hard as the Dura, but I do think there's an inherent value. So, again, I'm looking at this strategically speaking and this goes back to the PPA coverage and everything you know. You're talking about a pyramid that looks like this, you know, with just a small sliver of people who care about, you know, the new, the nuances of what Dura does right, and the rest of people just want balls that they can see, that they can have fun with, that. They're going to last a good while and come back for more and not break the bank.

Kevin:

Yeah, we're priced at such we're. We're killing everybody on that front too, by the way. So we, just we just. You know I have approached it from in my past on a tech guy, a product manager, you know, techie person. So I'm really honed in on like user experience, customer experience and making sure that that's really high on my personal priority list. I try not to release stuff unless it's get something I would want, you know, I would want to use myself and I'm by no means again like a five oh player, anything like that. But I do you know, get out there a fair amount and I do you know that's one of the reasons I got into this business is just that the balls really sucked. You know the Franklins get really mushy and fuzzy and then they crack that way and the Dura is like, seriously, if you're playing with like one of your friends or whatever that just crank cranking balls, you might go through three, one of their cans and a hole and anyway, but they have assigned balls.

Karen:

So on net you have to use Franklins and on TCD you have to use Dura, and so it's very good because they hit very different. And so and this is my first season doing TCD, so this is my first time actually even playing with the Dura balls and notice is that they change shape. The Dura balls do yes, not yeah, they, wow, I don't understand that. And the and the seam is so noticeable, but they, but they change shape. It's crazy. I had to, I had to bounce it to serve and I would have to stop and do it again because I'm like I'm going to you know, so how do you?

Karen:

even start like what you were, just like, hey, there's a need here and I'm I'm a tech guy, so I'm just going to create my own wall.

Kevin:

Yeah, I mean just as kind of a thing for a side hustle just to be able to say you know I'm doing something with the community and enjoying, maybe potentially personally benefiting. My thought was to you just sort of experiment and see what would start. You know what was the right approach. But as as I was noodling the variety of, actually I was watching what's the? What's the podcast with Zane and Thomas, the dink or something like that, or pickle pot, I don't know.

John:

Yeah, it might be.

Kevin:

Yeah, they had. They had a private equity guy on there that would play a pickle ball and they weren't talking to him and he was just going off on all the different avenues of making money and I just was like how could I do that? You know, how could I essentially, you know, inserted into this potential stream here? And you know I had a friend of mine and we were talking about. You know, do we do tournaments, do we develop like a facilities type thing, like you know, dream land or whatever, where you've got you know warehouse that you, you open up to charge memberships, do privates, you know that model, all that stuff was just really time consuming and, you know, needing to be gone on the weekends probably.

Kevin:

I just started like that doesn't seem very appealing and so just kind of paddles, like already there was like a billion paddles and I was like, ah, you know. And so then I started thinking about the balls and I'm like you know, that's that's an area for improvement, because a just just out of the gate were. I think we're already kind of competing pretty hard with the, the name brands, on this, maybe not as is known yet, but as far as the quality of the product it's pretty close. But the future of this stuff for what I want to do with it is is, I think, going to make the next step on the whole ball transition, like bringing tech into the ball, being able to measure how many, how many top spins did you do?

Kevin:

You know what? How's it striking at your, on your paddle? You know having some technology that's inherent either in the balls or the paddles or both, and so kind of noodling some options there. But again, part of it is came to it which we think we can. The other part of it is who cares, like who's going to use it and what's the real market there for stuff like that. So you know it's on the road, it's not a priority yet, but we're, you know we have.

Kevin:

We have our lab, you know, kind of doing that kind of stuff too.

Karen:

That's cool. What about noise? Have you heard? That's nothing.

Kevin:

Yeah, so that that's actually. I don't know how you saw that one, because I think I want to say gamma already has a soundless ball.

John:

Right.

Kevin:

But it's like, it's just like a soft, it just soft, it doesn't even totally. Yeah, it's not, it's not pickleball, yeah.

Karen:

Honestly, I think that the pickleball sound is the best on the world. Like when I hear it, she's excited I get excited. I'm like I hear pickleball. It puts me to sleep.

Kevin:

Oh, it's a laundry folded. I was watching pickleball and I fell asleep. Yeah, you know, the whole sound thing is just really kind of a weird argument. I mean if you think about it? Like people complain, oh there's pickleball happening in the courts, you know, by the park or whatever. The same people that, like, buy houses near schools go. You should shut that school down because you know it makes too much noise. Like dude, you know you bought a house next to a park, so that that's.

Kevin:

There's a little bit of like you know, need to be some responsibility, some self actualization there, to what's the difference if, like you hear pickleball in the background or like, let's say, you know there's like a. Oh yeah, football, like a football game on in the grass. You got a bunch of guys hollering and shouting and you know, going back and forth and you know, like what's what? Isn't that louder than the pickleball sound like? So I just kind of feel like people need to like play it and just get over there ourselves and get a box fan.

John:

You know, just put a fan in your room or put an app on your phone.

Karen:

that was a white noise. I'm with you all the way. I think it's ridiculous what you're going to complain because people are what? Outside exercising, having fun, getting a box fan, having fun, getting sun, doing all the things that we should getting healthier, making friends, being social. Come on, it's ridiculous.

Kevin:

Well and so, and so we're talking about a type of person, right? So let's say I get let's say I cracked the code on building you know this type of ball and it's soundless, right. And people are like, okay, we're going to buy that ball at a premium because we want to be good neighbors and that it out, and so then they start playing, but of course there's going to be some noise and like that same person, and like that same person comes out and goes and they're like but we bought the, you bought the special ball. And they're like I don't care, you know it's right.

John:

I can hear your. Your shoes are squeaking too much. I can hear him, and that's what's bothering me now. So we have to get shoes or soundless shoes. Now it's just crazy.

Kevin:

Yeah, exactly so it's not I, yeah, I kind of reject the premise, regardless if I was selling balls or not I. I would just say those people get lives and maybe you know, they might change their tune.

John:

Now, are you, are you purely a virtual store right now? Do you have a brick and mortar?

Kevin:

No brick and mortar, all virtual. So because of my tech background I was pretty quickly able to prop up a Shopify site. Get it, get it humming. We're actually now almost to the point where we're going to probably either start fulfilling with Amazon or shop I and you know, or or just keep you know or just keep inventory on hand. I'm not really sure yet where that's all going, but yeah, no, it's, it's all direct. We have we actually. The next, the next round of inventory is going to have a mesh bag with a hang tag and three balls in it. So we have some pro clubs and pro things you know available for point of sale and stuff like that. But it's not going to be our primary target. We're. I feel like we're going to be so much more successful watching all these episodes of shark. Take. You say just go direct, just go direct. I feel like that's the direction that we're going to go for a while.

John:

Yeah, I think you're smart. To you said you're basically limiting your, your skews, to two items and you focus on it. I think you know we're. I think we can relate to a lot of what you're saying, because we're going to pickle entrepreneurs to pick it up in the pandemic, got hooked on it, looked around us and boy, the current merches crap. It's all cheesy. I mean, how many, how many puns can we make about? I've got a dinking problem, you know it's like.

Kevin:

I don't like, yeah, I mean that somebody is so funny, okay, so. So I've been getting obviously, and parted with a we sponsor tournament though. So we Typically do that, which is fine because I, you know, whatever. That's a secondary topic, but the point is is that this this late, this one had like this hey, you can get on our flyer, and it was like the running pickle guy with the paddle, you know.

Kevin:

And I'm yeah, and just as a favor to the guy I read it is flyer for him. Just because I'm like you can't, you can't be, put that crap out. That's kind of what I was saying, like at the onset of our podcast was that there's so much like retro pickleball stuff. It's not the direction this sport needs to go. It needs to be far more exciting and far more like modern and not so obvious with the sexual puns and that right. You know it's funny to talk about it or when you're on court or whatever. But like there's so many people that these these virtual stores with shirts like you said, that's as big responsibly are, I don't know it's just dry.

John:

It's like it's the same thing over and over. So we just decided it was same thing. I wouldn't if I wouldn't wear it.

Kevin:

We don't make it, it's something that I love my, my milk shirt and I love pickleball.

John:

I love it, great, call out, yeah, that's. It's so funny because that's one where we're like, yeah, should we put that out? That's a little edgy. And we finally did, and, sure enough, that would be the one that's just blows, blows up and we're gonna, which is actually another reorder today, but it's actually great it's a great shirt yeah thank you.

Kevin:

Good, the materials really nice yeah, it is.

Karen:

it's soft and form fitting, I see, yeah, so the funny thing is that it's now become a kind of a woman favorite yeah, they're wearing it the women are buying it now because they want to wear. They think it's hilarious well and that, and I mean if he, I'll just connotation. I get like 50 double takes when I wear like people like what. What is this? Because you know their first thought is milk, right. And then they and they do the double take. What is that?

John:

one confident woman. Yeah. So you you've only been doing your stores been open. You say like three months. Is that it really yeah?

Kevin:

Let's see. I see I kind of was starting to noodle the idea about all specifically April and then I launched, right before the, the tournaments here in town. So that was like the beginning of June, ish, give or take.

John:

That's fantastic. It's been kind of a rocket ride then, in a sense. I mean, you're, somehow you connected with the touring pro and a podcast about my favorite one, by the way, king of the court and you became a sponsor of that. You're, you know, you're actually, you're kind enough to send us a sample, and I guess you're do. You're being asked a lot of that. But if people want to buy your ball, and you know where do they go, they go to crown pickle balls store dot store.

Kevin:

Yeah, right, yes, yeah, if you just if you instagram just type in crown pickle ball, or if you're our facebook, because that'll put up the shop within the the facebook and instagram, or you can go to crown pickle ball, that store, and there's links all over the place. We have, I think, over 30 affiliates now and ambassadors, so that's also growing. That's what that's. One of the things that, strategically, I wanted to do too, is to really Be a part of the community, to not just, you know, sell to it. It's important that everybody feels like it's their ball and their brand, and I think we're starting to get pretty successful on that score.

John:

I think you posted something the other day where you just come back from the local court said everybody there was playing with your ball. What a great feeling that had to be.

Kevin:

My gosh, that was like you know, I don't know there's. You know, anecdotally, like when you, when someone says, oh, that time, that you feel like you know you made it or whatever, you know if it's an actor or something, that was kind of that moment. For me it was just like wow, like I guess all that works already paid off, you know, and literally we were in a garden with the eight court, everybody was playing with one, so that's pretty cool.

Karen:

So tell us about this. Yeah, F cancer Pink ball. That's super cool yeah.

Kevin:

Yeah, so so you know I'm everybody's seen the pink balls and stuff before. Cancer is affects everybody, whether it's them themselves or family members or friends. My mom passed away from it in 2001 and yeah, but she was a trooper. She fought it for like almost 19 years or something before. So she, she was definitely a fighter on that score.

Kevin:

But, like you know, we're getting so close to like cures in for like breast cancer and things like that. Just People that I know who get it. You know they just have a different outlook now. Before it used to be kind of a sense, and now it's like you know, people can live their lives and and have some more. You know More to offer, and so I just want to tap into that right.

Kevin:

So one of the things is just to be able to put out the, the pink ball and Hard to a little bit more for it, whether you play with it or if you keep it on your shelf or even if you don't. You know, play pickleball and you just want to support what, what we're doing. That money's gonna go towards cancer cure or admissions and I Don't know, I mean may not just do it for October, you know, I might just doing it all year? I'm not sure yet, so we'll see. I've gotten tons of tons of interest and we're sponsoring the pink pickleball Tournament in Rancho Mirage in November, so that that'll also. Yeah, so that's also gonna generate some revenue. For I forget who they're specifically doing it for, once a maybe Coleman or one of those eight Organizations, but yeah, so so for me it was just you know, I try to do everything on my branding a little bit edgy and stuff, and so the F? F Astros cancer, you know that's, that's the, the, the brand we're going with for that. Well, that's.

John:

You know what else you're doing. You're doing October fest with we've got this huge, huge ass event that we're tasked with coordinating. We're gonna we're gonna put the crown emblem up on our banner and we're gonna use your balls in the matches at call out. Give you some love there as well, because I think it's really one really cool thing is there are a lot of startups.

John:

You know there's so many startups in this industry because, as old as it is, it's new. It's a new old thing. Three years ago had no idea what this sport was, kind of like you. I walked. I walked by somebody, or in our local gym, and these older folks were sitting, but they were very talented. They look like they were five feet apart just firing at each other and I just grabbed some guy. What is that man? He goes well, that's pickleball. And I said pickleball, all right. So I order a net off Amazon and, like I'm, I do, I sat in the garage.

Karen:

I was like, oh great, another sport that you're gonna start with me and quit. Who's the bigger? Bigger pickle addict me or you?

John:

John, oh, you by far I am such a pickle.

Karen:

I mean I am so thankful he bought that stinking thing. When go ahead?

John:

Oh yeah, so then pandemic, and, like everybody else, were bored to tears. It's like, hey, why don't we take that thing out and go to the parking lot? Because they had, of course, locked up the tennis courts because they were dangerous, you know.

John:

So we set up on a parking lot with our net and for about 10 minutes like yeah, we're in, this is this, is it. And then we started playing six and seven hours a day with friends and bringing out you know, you have music, you got a cooler, you've got the kids running around with on their scooters and we just would play and play, and play and play and we didn't know how to do it and we're always getting hurt and we're always, you know, just playing all wrong, but it was the funnest thing ever.

Karen:

That's why sluggo has this scuff on his on his face, because you know, you, you. He's got determination in his eyes Because that's what you're like, right, when you start playing this game I got to learn this game and then you get hurt along the way, but you're smiling the whole time. No pain, playing through the pain, yeah, I.

Kevin:

Know, I know that's that's a sad but common, common commentary that I've heard about. You know, setting sports stuff down during the pandemic. I just Especially stuff that's outside. You know, like I was, I was Doing a fair amount of swimming so my background is like swimming, water polo. You know, I live by the beach so everything's surfing and water sports stuff like that. But yeah, during the pandemic they actually shut the pool down because I don't know why and it's like, if you think about it, it's outdoors, it's got chlorine in the pool kills germs, yeah, I mean yeah. So I just, I don't know, I just whatever, but I'm a lot of people got there kind of kickoff with pickleball during the pandemic for those very reasons. It's just to get outside and do stuff. So it's really a common story. What do you guys feel like has been like one of your more memorable moments at this point with your, your career, I guess your careers right, as coaches, as Ambassadors, so far?

Karen:

I think, um, for me, one of the most exciting moments is just this, this, the development of this club that I'm on the board for, and it's it's called the South Lake paddle club. We, we, we have to close membership because we can't handle how many people we've gone, grown so fast in one year 1200 people, 1200 people. And so that's like that's, it's my baby. But it's also just so cool because it's because, to me, pickleball creates community and that's just an example of it.

Karen:

Right there now, do all 1200 play? No, they don't, they just want to be a part of it. You know, and I don't care if you go out once a week or once a month or you know whatever. You know we have our hardcore picklers, but also we've also done some cool things, like Dave Weinbach, who's who's on the senior in the senior tour, like Wanted a ton of gold medals and things like that. He's coming down in clinic for our club, like I think the accessibility and I'm gonna miss it because I know that that's gonna go away. You know, six, the last is he the badger?

Kevin:

Yes, he's the badger. Yeah, that guy's, that guy's cool I like him?

John:

Yeah, he's he's funny, he's a character man, he is a running college, I mean when he's doing a clinic.

Karen:

So we did a clinic and then we did a program that evening and In the program. So they played it the style where if you made a mistake, you're the guy who has to come off the court right, and then the other guy who's off the court comes in but, he pointed out in during the play.

Karen:

You know what people are doing Wrong and you know and engage the crowd. That was just a cool thing. And then we've done cool things like the mayor has come out and played pickleball. We had pickleball with the mayor night and and just now seeing this. Now we're like John said, we're doing a three-day event, 27 hours of pickleball during our city's October Fest. Because you know why. They were looking for new entertainment, new ways to draw people there and new ways to keep people. What else is more it can do that better than pickleball? Nothing, I mean. It's the best thing, right?

Kevin:

You're 1200 show off. You're gonna make that city really happy.

John:

No kidding, everybody buy one beer and you just paid the salaries for that for the entire chain that seriously.

Karen:

So what about for you, john?

John:

I tell you what I don't know. Kevin, do you play in?

Kevin:

tournaments. So I played a couple and I want to talk a little bit about that, but I want to hear your take first.

John:

Okay, well, karen and I were married and we played together, which is not as common as one might think, and you probably know this. That's very hard to play with a spouse.

Karen:

Most couples are pickle divorced. They literally will play with their best friends, whatever. It's a rare thing, so go ahead.

John:

Yeah, we were given it everything we got. We were fighting and we were not really on the same page as we're learning. Oh my God, the stress, the stress, the stress. It was miserable and we finally got to a tournament where we got a bronze medal. We actually meddled together for our first time and then, two tournaments later, we got a silver and we decided you know what? We can make this work, we can do this. It's still it's not always smooth sailing, but we're. I think that that's my. The thing for me is, if we had lost the fact that this was something that was ours, that we did together, it wouldn't mean as much to me.

John:

So we found something kind of like. You know, your wife said we're empty nesters now too, and it's like we need something that we do together and I don't want to take another ballroom dance class. So this is good, this is much better.

Kevin:

Yeah, we tried that, yeah, yeah, no, that's great, that's, that's really great. And you know what? You guys, it was really super rare. I mean honestly, like I belong to lifetime down here where they have the PPA and MLPs and they have this, this class in the middle of the day called Aurora. It's the older group of people that play pickleball, so it's, but it's more of a kind of a club than it is pickleball thing. But anyway, there's a couple, there's a couple of couples that play together and they yell at each other and it's not.

Karen:

Oh yeah.

Kevin:

It's not represent like what I endeavor to have every time I play right. Like the last thing I want to do when I play with my wife is to get in a fight with her and go and fight. Like that's not ever something I want to do.

Karen:

You know what I mean.

Kevin:

Yeah, yeah. And so when we do, when we play together, I like I want to make sure that that's the first and foremost thing is to have fun. But again like, the fact that you guys can compete and do well too, that's says a lot about your communication ability and to respect one another. And, and you know, sports isn't always like hey, great job. You know, slap, slap on the back it's. You know, sometimes when you get the ball, it's a problem.

John:

You know, I said, let's have fun Okay.

Karen:

So he was like, let's just, he said this before we went on play he was like kind of doing a little prayer thing Like let's, let's get on the same page and let's you know, let's let's have fun and we go out there, we lose our butts and I'm like, was that fun?

Karen:

No more fun. I go, no more fun, no more fun. So we do not go out there for fun, nope it. It winning is fun, overcoming your, learning a new skill and pickleball.

Karen:

And for me, because I don't have the tennis background, like I'm having to learn everything, I'm creating that muscle memory, which is a good, it's a good and a bad thing. So my learning curve is going to be longer because I don't have that tennis background. But I'm learning pickleball the right way. So I'm playing with ladies who have a long time, you know, tennis players, and they're struggling to unlearn some things from tennis that will not let them get to the next level in pickleball, and so I. So I'm grateful that I don't have that tennis background, but it's frustrating with the longer learning curve, cause in the beginning, like I saw people surpass me quickly and I did not like that. Like I'm just highly competitive, right, but the you know, and the good thing with John and I too, because he doesn't have the tennis background, we do move really well together and that was like a big thing that. That that was probably one of the longest learning curves and fight bigger fights. That we had was where you're supposed to be.

Karen:

You know so yeah but I'm happy you guys playing together.

Kevin:

Do you guys stack or do you guys just play it straight up and switch sides, or you gotta tell them the story honey.

John:

Okay, well, so I'm a natural lefty and about a year and about a year and two months ago, I tore my left bicep while playing pickleball, of course. So I had two choices, of course. I could either learn to play right handed or I could sit around and wait for it to heal.

Karen:

So I decided wait for your wife to go home.

John:

Yeah, yeah, and that would get. Yeah, not like she was going to shut it down. So I learned how to play right handed and actually got pretty, pretty good at it and tore my right bicep. So that was like a month ago. Yeah, just like a month ago.

John:

And it healed remarkably quickly. But I so I can play with either hand now. But we haven't taken advantage of the stack because, honestly, I'm more consistent, I make less unforced errors. With my right, with my left, I tend to try to bang up, bang away and you know, that's, that's when Wind shots.

Kevin:

Yeah, right, right.

Karen:

I always have the hero shots, so Winner shot Right and it's out, and it's in the net.

Kevin:

So that was kind of the thing. Yeah, so it's interesting that you mentioned that, because lately I've been doing some privates with the. There's a. There are the pro at. One of the pros at our club is Walter Lau. He's like a five-oh he. He kind of goes in and out of the qualifiers with with the PPA. So anyway, super good.

John:

I follow one Instagram I do.

Kevin:

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, super nice guy and it's really helping me to undo some really bad habits that I, you know, made over the last two years, because I've only been playing for two years, and part of it's just because, like you're saying, karen, like I don't, I don't, I don't have a tennis background, but I do have like a ping pong background.

Kevin:

So, like I get the kitchen and I get spinning and I get, you know, voling and stuff like that, so, so from that lens, like my whole process was like oh, I need to figure out how to, you know, rip forehands from the baseline and stuff and, you know, get my tennis game going, and all I, all I do is make errors when I do that. Right, instead of focusing on drops, focusing on the, the high percentage, even if it's not a winner, cause it does feel great. I'm not going to lie. That's one of the best feelings is when you, you know, do a shaped top, spin, roll right down the line or right down the middle, and they're just like whoa, what was that? You know, that is like one of the best feelings. However, however, it doesn't happen more than, let's say, five or 10% of the time, right Right.

Kevin:

And so it's some from from from, like you know, just like watching the pros, you know, it's a lot of times I'm like why don't they just rip the ball just now, like they were, the ball is high, it was in the green zone, they kind of just, and instead they just knocked it over. They're playing 40 chess, they're four moons out because then the next one's going to be even better. And so, like I've had to like kind of understand that strategy of the game. Now that I feel like I've got a decent, you know, skill level, now I'm kind of, you know, hoping to. You know, I'm trying not to get into this 4050 business because, honestly, sometimes I watch, like YouTube and they're like watch the 4050 match from the blah, blah, blah, and you're just like that's not 50.

Kevin:

Like these people have a real weird sense about, or their competitive levels like really low or something, and I'm just like, oh man, so I'm not, you know, a big fan of like you got to compete all the time just so you can run up your score and say, hey, I'm an X number right, because I think it's more a function of, like you know, like you know, like you know, 10,000 hours. You know that 10,000 hours gives you the level of expertise that you would want, right? I forget the name of the book. I think it's called 10,000 hours or something, but anyways. So actually, one of the app ideas that I'm working on, I'm kind of talks more to that like, because you know, realistically somebody could say, oh, I've been playing for eight years, but if you play like once a week or once every other week, versus like me who plays all the time and it's like, okay, but I have more time under my belt, so you know.

Kevin:

So where does that put me? Just because I didn't do a tournament, and that's. That's the other kind of like gripe I have with the whole PPA and all P thing too, is they're so hyped up on duper that you're dealing with this much of the marketplace. Most of the people don't give a. You know what about that, so, but they're looking for good pairings, they're looking for good relative matches, and so I think there's there's got to be a better way to do that. So we're actually working on an app that might address that. We'll see if we can get it right or not.

Karen:

Well, I hope so, because we tried duper as a club and it bombed. I mean, of course they didn't tell us that you shouldn't do it for just rec play until it bombed.

Karen:

And then we had a conversation with some, we met, a duper rep and they were like oh yeah, you guys shouldn't have written it. Well, thanks a lot. Now my, I'm like a stinking. I don't even want to look at what I'm rated, because I hate it, because it's wrong and and it made me it made so many people fight out there on the courts because you were fighting for your duper score and that's not what pickleball is about?

John:

Are they? They get mad because. Oh yeah, sure, cause I got the wrong partner this time and you're you're checking, you're targeted them the whole time. My score yeah, yeah that's not fun.

Karen:

Karen's just mad because my dad's tired than hers, yeah. I am mad about that Cause, and you're right though, kevin let me tell you this, and it's not reflective, it's not, and but that's fine, whatever, yeah, I mean, is it?

Kevin:

like Colin Jones? How like the highest partner score and he's not better than his brother Ben? Like that doesn't. That doesn't make sense.

Karen:

Right, so I don't know the. To your point. Um on the, um the playing, oh, the, since I've increased my um, how many hours I've been playing now um, I it's taken me to a different level that I couldn't have got there. It would have taken a lot longer.

John:

Yeah, she'll get to 10,000 hours by probably next Thursday, I think she's. She's been really piling it on.

Karen:

It's so great, I love it, though, like it's so cool when you, when you get something else and yours funny is that, like I just started in these ladies tournaments and or leagues and, um, I don't think they know what to make of me. Like I'm kind of odd, I do odd things and I can pull stuff out that I don't even know what I'm pulling out, and the ladies are like you, just we just started. Yeah, they call. I've called the wall, I'm called um.

Karen:

Tasmanian devil, but my favorite new one is little monster because if a ball is flying. I am flying in that air and I'm going to hit it with my entire body to push that thing, Cause I'm little, I have to use everything I have to get the power. You know, it's fun though that's great, that's really cool yeah.

John:

Yeah, so what's next for you, kevin? We're still on the immediate horizon with you.

Kevin:

So really, just to keep, you know, uh, growing at a kind of, uh, measured pace. Uh, again, this is just meant to be a fun thing, and the fact that it's been going at its rate, that it's going, I mean I feel blessed. Right, I'm not sitting here, you know going. Wow, you know I'm, I'm going to dump $100,000 into this now and see where it takes me, like I'm going to just keep incrementally growing and keep incrementally getting there. Um, that you know.

Kevin:

Again, I I come from tech. I grew up with the internet in the late nineties, so I understand, you know these ideas of bubbles and and accelerations and and so forth, and actually drops to experience a few of those myself. Um, we're definitely in a, in a bubble period for pickleball right now. So, um, my thought process is to just let the bubble carry me as far as it can take me with as little uh effort as possible, and then, just from there, ascertain you know what am I doing? You know I'm always doing that evaluation every time, every time, you know, a big slag of orders comes through. I'm just like man, I can't even believe this. Like, this is great, this is crazy. And so, you know, do I expect that every day or every week? No, but when that happens I'm super thankful. So I'm just, you know, I just want to re, you know, reinforce and and restate how thankful I am for every single order that comes through from everybody who places it on their line.

Kevin:

It uh, it doesn't uh, you know, it takes. It's everyone's money and, and you know, I'm doing what I can to uh to make the products better and ship it out as fast as I can and do it. So I'm doing everything I possibly can to do it. Um, and and someday, you know uh, we'll see, maybe it'll, maybe it'll turn into something. You know, uh, that everybody goes hey, you know eight PPA. Why aren't you using crown? Why are we using this you know that would be.

Karen:

That would be kind of the icing on the cake.

Karen:

You know what? That's super cool. I'm glad we we met you and I, you know this is so early. I keep telling John, I'm like we're so early, we're sorry Cause you know now that when we started there wasn't any merch out there and now there's, everybody's getting in on it and but I'm like it's still so early. This is just. We're still in its infant infancy and um, you know, and we want to do things for to promote the community. It's not just about our shirts, right, or now. We now we bought a pickle roll. Can you believe that we own a pickle roll?

Karen:

You did, oh, we did For this.

Kevin:

You put it in your back.

Karen:

No, we're putting it out there for October fest because we, that was like a three year plan. Well, this October fest thing kind of sped that up, because you can't run an event just playing in the street and make it as cool as, like you know, we got this in our head, so we're going to. Yeah, we, we purchased a pickle roll, we'll be installing it for the first time for October fest, and just fingers.

Kevin:

Yeah, john was telling. Or his email about this sorry dinner, his email about your. Your event sounds amazing, like maybe.

Karen:

I'll have to come out there and, and I think, it's going to be the biggest yeah, I think it's going to be, the biggest pickle ball event that's ever been done, at least it may be in the state of Texas, if not in the surrounding states, for for pickle ball, that wasn't around a tournament. That's, that's what I.

Kevin:

That's what I, that's what it's you should try to get some of the local pros that are out to maybe show up and see if they'll make an appearance. I bet they will.

John:

I bet. We're trying to work in angle right now and we actually we had a meeting today we're going to have some pretty big announcement here soon about some partnership that we're going to have them putting on this tournament. It's, it just went from this thing's going to be awesome to this thing's going to be epic.

Karen:

And we're we're really excited, we're super excited that Nationals is coming here and I'll tell you what the growth of pickle ball in Texas I think it's one of it's rated like one of the top five fastest growing states for pickle ball and so I mean we're just super excited that this is going to happen in October and we can, we can blast out there about Nationals and bring all new perspective. You know, bring new spectators to the sport, hopefully by putting on this event, and they'll be like, wow, I want to. You know we'll promote Nationals and maybe get you know, drive some more people to these things.

John:

Well, and they're going to drive more participants. That's what's going to happen. They're going to do just like we all do All three of us and go. God, that looks fun, I'm in.

Karen:

Yeah.

Kevin:

Yeah, well, I'm super thankful you're you're adopting that for for this, because it's going to be on and we're, we're, we're, we're, we're going to partner with you guys. For sure that's going to be great.

John:

And yeah.

Kevin:

I'm that I like I said maybe I'll find some time to come out, but I'm like three days.

John:

It's going to be a scene man. It's going to be. It always is. It's a I don't unbelievably well attended event, like over a hundred thousand people over the weekend, and this one ought to be the biggest ever. So we're just, you know, knock on wood, get good weather, like should be here by then, and it's going to be awesome.

Kevin:

You guys are, we're, we're outside of Dallas, or yeah?

John:

It's a community called Southlake. It's right by DF. Oh yeah, yeah.

Kevin:

Lewisville, that's right, that's right.

John:

Yep, so we're literally five minutes from DFW airport, and all the little communities right around us are all getting their little pickleball clubs too, so this place is just picking a little crazy.

Kevin:

It's nuts. Yeah, that's awesome, that's so great.

John:

Well, man, it's been our great pleasure to take some time and to get to know you.

Karen:

I'm going to. Yeah, live, love, play baby. That's right, man, see there's mine, yeah, there's mine.

John:

We're going to put all your information to how people can find your products, how people can connect with you on the gram, any other social channels, and we got the sluggo Sluggo's our man and you've been a fantastic. We could depict a better first guest. I'll tell you, you're a great story. Thank you, let's keep in contact. We just became best friends. Thanks��ти. Questionnaire accessing.