Robert Ritchie, The Casual Dinker

Thank you for tuning in. I'm Greg. I'm Mike. And we are the Pickleballers Next Door. We are for the Joes and not the pros. Your courts, our court. Thanks for tuning in to Pickleballers Next Door. I'm Mike. Oh, I'm not Mike. I'm Greg. Hey, I'm Greg. Maybe not. I don't know. Today's the turnaround day. But anyways, how was your week, Mike? My week was good. Busy, busy, busy. I did. We got it yesterday. I got to play. We played pickleball yesterday. I was grumpy. A little bit. It's okay. It's okay. That's Mike is. So I have to tell you that when we were at PickleCon, we lost in a game. And Mike had to pout in the bathroom for like 20 minutes. I did really I literally did. We played for a paddle. And I said if I won, I would buy the paddle. No, if you lost, if I lost and and we thought, Oh, this is no big deal. I was gonna buy it anyway. But we got spanked. Bad, bad, bad. But anyways, today we have Robert Ritchie from casual dinker. We're gonna hear his story how he got involved with pickleball. And let's dive into this. Let's see. Let's hear a little bit about you. All right. Well, thanks for having me, guys. I really appreciate it. Not a problem at all. So like you said, I'm Robert Ritchie. I own casual dinker pickleball apparel company. Primarily we do shirts and hoodies and that kind of stuff. You know, a lot of a lot of jokes on our on our shirts, but I take it serious. So yeah, I got into pickleball in 2022. I moved down. I mean, I was in the United States Air Force. I retired in January. Congratulations. Yeah, 21 years. Yeah. Wow. Long time. But it goes by quick. And then you realize, oh, shit, I'm really old. What have I been doing with my life? Yeah. I do that every day. Yeah. So my mother in law was like, I play pickleball. And I was like, What's that? Is that like bocce ball for old people? Kind of? Yeah, pretty much. And then she took me out and me being a very competitive person. And I played racquetball for a while. I was like, this sport is amazing. Oh, yeah. The addiction comes. And that's, that's how it started. Yeah, it got addicted, started playing at least three days a week. And I started looking for shirts and stuff. And I couldn't really find anything looked on Etsy found some horrible design shirts. And was seeing that there wasn't really a good market out there that was supplying people with really good design shirts, you know, that stem from jokes, just really cool designs. And I was like, Well, why not? I his phone's going as soon as we get started. I used to draw and paint in high school and stuff like that. I come from an artistic family. So I was like, Yeah, let me just throw some stuff together. And I did and my family loved it. And they said I should open up my own place. So I have questions. Yeah. You ever thought about putting some of those designs on canvas selling those? I don't know if they go well on canvas or not. There's no there's no good pickleball though canvas. I mean, like pictures. There's a few painters. I've seen a few designs. But yeah, you know, put them on canvas, put them up in a pickleball facility and put a price on them and see what happens. I guess I'm just saying, you know, just spitballing. We only want 20%. So no worries. I got the contract ready. Yeah, I mean, I've seen some horrible paintings sell for like 3000. Children splatting paint, right? Come on. What is that? What is this? So well, yeah, that's pretty much my story. And I would say it's all uphill from there. But you know, it's, it's a work in progress. I've never owned a business before. So that was a struggle learning you know, what to do with your money, what not to do with your right, utilizing YouTube, and then going out of my comfort zone of talking with people. You know, you have to get your name out there. So yeah, it's been a it's been a blessing to be honest, because it's helped me grow as a person. And so you've been playing pickleball for what, three, four years? I would say three years now. Okay, so you're a five. Oh, no, not yet. Close. No. By what you've seen today. Yeah, definitely not a five. Oh, same, same. So yeah. But I would say I'm a solid three, seven to four to depending on the day. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, you've been playing three years. But when you first went into it, didn't you feel like you were like, I'm a rock star a year later, you're a four. Oh, I was playing old grandmas. Of course, I'm gonna feel like a rock star. Right. But I just didn't meet the right grandmas to whoop my butt. Yeah, yeah. So I've met a few of those grandpas and grandmas in Connecticut. And I always say like, I'm not afraid to body bag an 80 year old because like, I've been body bagged by an 80 year old. Yeah, I played a 12 year old last week and got stomped. Yeah. I mean, you know how I get grumpy. I mean, want to talk about being grumpy. So when I was in St. Louis, I played in a tournament. And my wife and I call call them the double mint twins because they were wearing pink and white. Okay. They murdered us murdered us. I mean, that's when the that spin serve was still all the chainsaw serve. Yeah. Whatever it was, man. I was standing in the middle, ready to receive this ball. It hit the court. It bounced into the other court. And I was like, What am I supposed to do? Regardless? Yeah, they kicked the crap out of us. Not just the serves everything. They just kicked the crap out of us. And my partner at the time was not happy. And try to me try to intimidate them. And I was just like, whatever, you know, it is what it is. But that's why I like the sport so much. Yeah, you can play with a 12 year old, you can play with a seven year old, you can play with an 80 year old and get your ass handed to you. Yep, I agree. I love that more knee wraps that they have an elbow wrap. Yeah, careful. Better watch out. That's the way racquetball was. Oh, yeah, usually racquetball. You know, if the person's really good with their aim, they'll stand right in the middle of court while you're diving and just busting your ass to go back and forth to get the ball. Or do you love that serve? I was a racquetball player. It hit that corner just roll. Yep. I mean, they can get over. Isn't that called a splat? I you know what, I don't know. But I think what I would do to try to get it. I've never played racquetball. Oh, man. It was a crazy sport. Yeah. If it wasn't, you know, if it can have more people and more social, yeah, but it was about getting in there and going nuts. Yeah. Yeah, I would say the community wasn't that big when I played not comparative to pickleball. And that's another thing why I love pickleball. Just the community is so amazing. I've met so many great people playing pickleball. Now you're going to meet to shit every once in a while. Oh, yeah. But that's with everything. But overall, in general, the community is so supportive. And they're willing to take a body bag. And, you know, go on there with our day and play, you know, give you a handshake or something. And if you don't meet that shithead on the course on the court, maybe that should head to you. Well, and also we call it the exit. You get to exit life for a minute. Yeah, like you when you go on the court. No, there's no phones. There's no TV. There's no satellite. You're with four people. Yeah, you're having a good time. Yep. Two to three hours goes by fast. I agree. Yep. I mean, that's what I used to do a lot of hiking. When I was first stationed in Utah, just because you got the mountains right there. It's beautiful, amazing hiking. And that was my release. But now pickleball is my release. Yes, yes, yes, it is. It's the greatest man. Yeah. So I almost burped. So I had to pause for a second. I'm sorry. How did you decide you wanted to go into the Air Force? So I was going to go to Pittsburgh Art Institute right after high school. We did a tour me and my family. And everything sounded good there. They liked all my artwork that I brought and presented came from a poor family. So they weren't really going to be able to afford it. And then so we went back home to my small hometown. It's right by Penn State University, State College, Central Pennsylvania. And I started to realize that I am going to be moving to a major city. And that just fractured my whole life of prospects of what am I going to do? Where am I going to live? How am I going to afford everything? Is it going to be a big culture change? So I decided not to, right. So I worked in a cafe in my hometown for about six months. And then my uncle called me from North Carolina. He's like, Hey, I got a job for you. Why don't you move down here so you can do some with your life? Like, cool, I'll be down and left in two weeks. Nice. And it was right outside Charlotte in Concord. worked there for about seven months doing belt conveyors, screw conveyors, construction kind of work for sewage treatment plants. Awesome work. But he's like, Are you going to go to college? And I'm like, I don't know, you know, just on defense, the typical teen thing, you know, not right. Want to know what you want to do with your life. So he's like, Well, go check out the Air Force. I was like, Okay, so I went in, and they're going through all the jobs that I qualified for after I took my test. And one said, Oh, you get you get to work with NASA. I have no idea what this job is. But it looks like you get to work with space and NASA. And I always loved space. I'm like, sign me up. So I left three, three months later, and they didn't hang you out high and dry for that job? No, it wasn't. Well, it wasn't an experiment. High and dry, as in it's an awesome job. And I'll explain what the job is. It's nuclear weapons, ICBMs, or weapons of mass destruction that we have in our northern states. No, I'm not a rocket scientist. I'm just a wrench turner. You know, so no, that's cool. Yeah, that's cool. It was a lot of fun. But the only downside to that job is the only basis are North Dakota, Montana, and then Cheyenne, Wyoming. And where did I go? My first base? North Dakota, 40 miles south of the Canadian border. Oh, cold as grew. I mean, the coldest that I experienced and had to work out in was negative 68. Oh, my gosh. And that's with windchill. Wow, that's fun. Yeah, that's fun. You have all your fingers and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Parts of the parts are some parts of them. So I took one. I avoided one culture shock of major city life and then took another culture shock of extreme cold weather. Arctic, Arctic Plains. But I loved it up there. To be honest, you know, you get used to it. Yeah, of course. And then when it's like 15 degrees out, everyone's in their shorts and t shirt grilling and washing their car. When you see penguins come by. Well, it's funny because like, I was in a when I when I learned to play pickleball, I was in Alaska really close to the Air Force Base up there. It's a joint base. Okay. Yeah, joint military. So like Army Air Force. Anchorage or Anchorage. Okay. I forget the base name. I forget what it's called to be in the Air Force. They're like, Oh, what planes you work on? It's like, I don't even know what planes we have in the Air Force. I'm just warthogs. Yeah, I just work on boosters. Right? Don't don't bother me with that stuff. Yeah. No, that's cool. And then so you were playing obviously pickleball while you were in the Air Force. Correct. And did you hate to say this suck anybody into it with you? In the Air Force? Unfortunately, no. So my shop was very small. We're working on that. Well, I was working on the newer weapon system that's taking over the current one. And so it was just a shop of five guys. Two of three of us were military and the rest were civilian. And the other two guys, they had other things going on in their life. I tried to suck them in. They did buy some shirts from me. But other than that, yeah, not so much. Nice. And so is it all underground? What your shop? No, no, it's online. It's casual dinker.com. No, no, no, no, the, um, the military military shop where you were wrenching all boosters. Yeah, this was it kind of scary, too. So you're working in a missile silo in the middle of nowhere. Okay, I'm gonna tell you right now. One of the number one places I want to live is in a missile silo. I've seen some really awesome. Yes. Yeah. I forget either they were either Titan or Nike. Yeah, the Nike missile bases. Oh, I don't I'm not familiar with. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Titan Titan was a weapon system. Yeah. Yeah. And Nike was a missile. I did not know that. I swear. I've seen Nike missile bases. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm an idiot. But I swear to you. Because there's a there's a website where you can go find all these properties. Yeah. They want a little bit much for him. Yeah. A couple million or whatever. But they need total renovation. Oh, 100% Yeah. But you have to keep whatever's in it, right? Yeah. Some of the radiation or any of that. You get to keep the radiation for sure. Your animals are glowing. The northern the northern ones that we currently are operating are relatively small compared to the ones that you can get in Kansas and stuff. Okay. So I've seen one in New York that has like a like an airstrip. Oh, I was like, damn, the one and the one I really wanted in Kansas was like $300,000. That was bad. But then you'll have to spend like a mil just to but it was 48 acres. Wow. And all fence but that's in Kansas. It was that. See, here's the problem, right? It's in Kansas. And I mean, I was it was a friggin missile base. And I was just like, 48 acres fenced. And you can make your own golf, you can do whatever you want. You could, you know, all kinds of pickleball courts. Yeah. And then because I always wanted to like just roll up, park my car, get out, hit the button and the thing just lowers into the movies and how awesome would be incredible or just like a little porta potty, right out in the middle of nowhere, but that's actually interest to your house. That'd be so cool. That'd be so cool. Yeah. Any crazy stories that you know, that they know it's 22 years, crazy story that happened. And you know, so yeah, I'll, I'll talk about one when I was stationed in Minot, North Dakota, on my first time, because I was up there, I did two tours there. There was this group of activists that came up there. I forget where they're from. I would say California, but I could be wrong. But they dressed up in clown suits, and jumped over the fence and tried to infiltrate. Yeah, the launch facility. Well, it didn't go too well. But they threw red paint everywhere. And like tried, they broke some screws off and stuff. They got arrested and did some jail, jail time. But the leader of the guy, he's a pastor, I believe. Yeah, he was a pastor, but I can't remember exactly where. So that was about the craziest time. Bunch of clowns running all over. There was a handful of clowns jumping twice. Were they in a little car? And then I was stationed in California at Vandenberg Air Force Base. When I did space launch, I actually launched satellites through a miniature program. Wow. Got to work with SpaceX, DARPA, and stuff like that. Nice. There was a lot of protests, nuclear weapon protests out there all the time. I can imagine. That was pretty cool. I almost got to do that, too. But I was working the front gate, helping the cops because it was a high deployment base. So they just needed some extra help. And there was a protest when I was out there checking IDs, and they crossed the line. And I was like, are we going to go get them? And they're like, yeah, let's go. And then the boss came in and said, hey, we're going to go get you. And it was a really quiet neighborhood. And he was trying to get out of the shell. I was working the front gate helping the cops because it was a high deployment base. So they just needed some extra help. And there was a protest when I was out there checking IDs and they crossed the line and I was like, are we going to go get them? And they're like, yeah, let's go. And then the boss came in and he's like, no, no, you can't because you're not actually a cop. You need to stay here. I was like, oh man, yeah. And so while you were playing pickleball, and in the Air Force is when you decided to do this t-shirt thing. Yeah, exactly. I wasn't, my job was kind of boring in a sense where we just go to meetings, take notes. That's not what I like. So I needed to find another way to entertain myself. And yeah, so starting my t-shirt company was that because it took a lot of research because I'm going into this blind. I don't know anyone in my, none of my family members own businesses and I don't, I'm not friends with anyone that own a business. So really, like I said, YouTube was my best friend. Yeah, no, I get that. That's incredible. I mean, it's the best way to build business, honestly. You can learn so much on YouTube. You do. Unreal. Yeah, anything you want. But yeah, we were out at Pickle Con. That's where I met you. I know you two had a little bit of a love affair somewhere else. No, no. That was our first actual meet. That's right. That's your first time you met him. You talk about this a lot. You talk about this happening a lot, Mike. Yeah, yeah. So I guess we'll go into that story. I was following Greg here on Instagram, on his Instagram, which is Pickle or Die. Pickle or Die. Yeah. You know it. And he was repping Bread and Butter. And I love that company because I just think their designs are awesome. Their files are awesome. Their marketing's out of this world. It is. I mean, Doug is such a cool guy and I really hope that I get to meet him someday. You and me both. Yeah. I'm really trying. I'm really trying to get down there and meet the dude. Yeah. But, so I was following him on Instagram so I knew what he looked like and everything because I'd watch his videos and whatever. I'm sorry. I thought they were good. I thought they were really good. And then I seen him walking past the booth area and I was like, oh my God, that's Pickle or Die guy, Greg. And so, yeah, I ran over. You know, my introvert was gone at that point in time. I was like, what a better opportunity to meet him. So, yeah, came over and met you guys and then we hooked up from there and then we made some shirts for you. Yeah, we collabed on a shirt for my Instagram, the Pickle or Die. It's still on the website if you want to go buy them. And it's an awesome shirt. It really is an awesome design. You had awesome designs there though. They were really good. And they really, I mean, the ones, even the one you're wearing right now is awesome. Oh yeah, my ACDC ones. Yeah, it's really good. It's the best seller. Everyone loves it. Yeah, he's crazy. I come here the other day. We're going to do a podcast. There's a net pulled out. He's got people walking by and he's right there. It was right down there. What a better opportunity to do that though. Exactly. It's random and people are like, what is this? And then you explain. And you want to know what's really funny? Is the two women that actually played with me? Yeah. Are from Kansas City. They were, I think they were at Pickle Con and they know the Char Bar. They love the Char Bar. Did you get to go to the Char Bar when you were there? Is that the, was that the place that was giving out the free barbecue? Yes. Yes. Yeah, I was there quite often. You went to the building though? You went? No, I did not go to the building. Man, so there's four courts indoor there, two outdoor and their food is, we couldn't, we couldn't hardly walk when we left. We had this, they bring this tray out. It was called the Womp Platter. Womp Platter. And we could eat. You can tell we're not small guys. And I swear to God, we went home with like 14 pounds of food. Yeah, we ate and we were like, and then we went home with 14 pounds of food. Classy place though. Really good. I mean, great place. This guy's like a movie star. That's why when I, I never know where we're meeting people, but now I'm kind of getting it. Like I come to, I'm coming to, I come to our podcast and there's a net out and he's playing with people. Yeah. So that door, that door you walked out of? Yeah. Mike walked out of and was like, the hell's going on? I love it. Did you watch this one? And he went, we had a snow day and there was ice. And guess where he's at? He's on a lake making a pickleball court. Yeah, where in the heck was that? That's down by my house. Oh, Chatsfield Lake. Yeah. How thick was the ice? I'm not, I'm not saying that you're. Whatever, dude. Whatever. Mike. You know what? I'm going home. A little piggy be on that ice. No, it was. I didn't think it was that cold here to be able to. Oh, we had. What about an inch and a half to two inches? Oh, it was. To walk on it. Easily that. It was probably like, it was seven plus. Oh, wow. Um, we had had a couple weeks of like really cold. Yeah. And actually my wife and I were walking our dog out there and I was like, you know what? I'm going to come out here and clear this shit off and play and it took me a whole day to clear that section out. I was, I went home and I just like sacked out on the couch. I was just like, I, I was going to go back that night and play, but there was no way I went back the next day. Took a friend. We spray painted lines. Only half only. So I'll tell you that hat one spray can. We'll do the kitchen and half of a court. You want to talk about pickle? Barely. This meant this man does nothing but think about pickleball barely love his stuff. Yeah. Now that was awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, that was fun. So this net is by this company called strickle and they were like, hey, you know, let's we like your stuff. Can we send you a net? I was like, yeah, you can send me a net and then they were like, hey, you know, make some videos and blah, blah, blah. And that's what I made is that ice one and then that's the second one I made. So yeah, we got we went to pickle con and we're, you know, we've never been there, right? It was the first time. The first one and we went to the PBA was there which I think that's why the pickle con had a little bit of yeah, we discussed that earlier earlier. Yeah. Yeah. So but he's like a movie star. I was starting to be like his bodyguards like signed autographs like you were not the only one people would just run up or talk or oh, I haven't been there. You haven't seen you in a while. I was like, what is this? That's because his Instagram was on fire. So I ran into a lady that I played with in St. Louis. And when I was in St. Louis, I I was one of the people because so she's a referee and when I was in St. Louis, I played on a court while she was trying to get certified as a referee and now she's like roughing in the NLP, NPL, whatever, whatever it is the senior pros and I ran into her and she's like no way and I was like, whoa, this is crazy. And you know, like and then we're at the PPA because it's pretty close to St. Louis and I ran into a couple few more people that I knew there from St. Louis. He's sitting in the stands with people. I'm just sitting by myself and he's a blah blah blah talking walking around. I'm like, it's like a movie star. So that's the great thing about pickleball. It's still small enough to where everyone still knows each other. I agree, especially if you're making waves in it, right? Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So where do you see your future in pickleball? Where do you see your business going? Well, hopefully up 100%. No, we're going to work. Yeah, we're going up all together. I currently work for a DoD contractor and I would love to quit that job and do more stuff with pickleball. Okay. Now tell us what you and your girlfriend just discussed that I quit my job. We buy an RV and then travel around and go do different pickleball events. Who's this? Sounds like some guys. I know. I know. Who's that? Who's that? Pickleball is that a star? Yeah. So that would be amazing. I'll give you places to go. I'll give you places not to go. Yeah. So yeah, we'll see if that happens or not. Obviously, I can't. I got a 14-year-old boy, awesome kid, but I just don't want to leave him home alone a lot. You just leave him with an iPad and a phone and you're good. Oh my God. They call him a PC gamer nerd. You don't need to be gone. He won't even know you're not even there. I know. He barely comes out of his room as it is now, you know, for except for food. Yeah, dad. How come you haven't fed me yet? Yeah, come on. I'm hungry. My subscription to Xbox is exactly. What's your problem? Internet's down. Oh, yeah. That's how you do it. Hey, just turn it on. I don't know. It's off. It must be off. Yeah, I tried to get him to play pickleball and he's like no, I'm gonna play a man sport like tennis. I'm like, oh, but he bring them over here. I'm gonna ask just like me. So I'm gonna punch him. Yeah, no, I love it. I love the smartass. I love the I love the shit talk. I love all of that stuff. So yeah, I got that primarily from the military and cussing all the time, which I, you know, I try not to do as much anymore, but I cuss a ton. Actually got a verbal warning at the Masters because I kind of threw an f-bomb when I made a really crappy shot. Oh, yeah. Goddamn refs. Sometimes we got to beat them in your kills, right? That was that was fun. But so tell them tell everybody where they can get your stuff. Tell them about your Instagram. Tell them all this stuff. Yeah, so I have a website. It's casual dinker pickleball.com Instagram's casual dinker pickleball. I do have a TikTok. It's just casual dinker, but I'm probably going to drop that because I don't really like TikTok even though it helps promote the business and stuff, but it's just annoying making videos since it is just me. I do everything make the designs run the website a lot of work. It is but I really enjoy it. I mean, I think I have the largest pickleball selection when it comes to designs on the market currently, which is my claim to fame because I come out with new designs every two to three weeks. Well, you had just brought us a couple of paddles to yeah, I brought you two guys. I brought you two paddles some shirts and hats and stuff. We're excited. Yeah, and his designs are really good. You guys need to check them out. Go go online. Everything's 25% off for 2025. Correct. That's really good. I figured I might as well. I don't mind taking the hit, you know, that way people get some really quality shirts and I pay extra for a good quality shirts and I'll tell you they are quality. I absolutely love the shirts that I have from him. They're comfortable. They're breathable. Yeah, they're playable. Yeah, exactly. They're for all on and off court and God damn it. People love them. That is true. The people that have them. They said they love them. So yeah, I'll tell you I do. Yeah. Yeah, and he said he'd do some custom stuff. Have you really wanted right? Yeah. Yeah, if you're really looking for custom stuff in the sense of like, you know, you got a club or you got a group of people that you play with and you but you want specialized shirts and reach out to me definitely shooting it and I am on Instagram or anything like that or you can email me at casual dinker dot gmail. So or add gmail. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Well, Robert, we really appreciate you being on and we love you and you bring gifts to us. I mean, we're not going to complain. Yeah, I get more. And we'll try and get out to Utah. I know we it's a lot of places that we need to be. Yeah. Yeah, the kitchens good, you know, you got the the Pickler which started out there. Yeah, it's blowing up out there for sure. Yeah. Yeah, we got to get some play in together. Oh, yeah, 100% definitely. Well, thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you. We'll see you next week. See you soon. I just want to say thank you to a sweet sip for supporting the podcast. A sweet sip is a very delicious CBD drink non-alcoholic for great flavors. It helps me take the edge off when I'm going to play in a pickleball tournament. If you want to get some check them out at drink a sweet sip .com