Pickle For The People

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 court, our court. Hey, welcome. Today we're going to be talking to Matt from Pickle for the People, and we'll be doing a review on Prospect Park and the play there. Welcome, Matt. Thank you. Yeah, good to be here. Good. We're happy to have you. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your company? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like most pickleball paddle companies. We got started after the pandemic when everyone was looking for something to do to get outside and still social distance. And as we grew with the sport, we realized the paddles we had started with just weren't cutting mustard. So we looked at the next level and we saw how expensive they were, like $250, $300 for a pickleball paddle. So having done some importing, exporting and some manufacturing before I dug deeper into it and I realized there's a better way to do this. So I wanted to kind of make a company that could help the little guy and get these premium paddles without the premium price tag. That's really great. I mean, was it a tough journey? Yes and no. There's a lot of R&D and a lot of vetting of suppliers and trying to find the right partnerships. But once you figure that part out, it's been pretty smooth sailing since then. I love the logo. How'd you come up with that? It's we're trying to go with a nice retro. I was born in the 80s and we wanted to keep it like kind of 70s, 80s retro vibe. I think nostalgia is the way to go. We agree. We agree. That's us. We're right in the 60s, 70s retro. I'm the old guy. Well, Mike was born in the 50s. Hey, let's don't go that far back. What's interesting is what you're, you know, truly like us, we believe in the everyday Joe and that's what you were looking at too. And I think that's what attracted us all together, you know? Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is all about players over profit. We're trying to make sure that we have high level professional level paddles available for people and it's not price prohibitive where you can actually get a thermal formed carbon fiber paddle for less than, you know, 150, which is unheard of. It really is. And you have this thing that I think is pretty interesting. Why don't you tell us about your buyback program? Yeah. So having started this again, we started off with the cheap Amazon paddles and we realized that all of these paddles are made of plastic and they're all just going to end up in the landfill. So we were, what can we do to keep these paddles out of landfill as long as possible? So we're actually giving folks, incentivizing folks to donate their paddles to us, these old ones, these ones that they bought off Amazon or Walmart or wherever. And we can actually have partnerships where we can donate those to various schools, underserved communities, under championed communities, and try to get spread the joy of pickleball while keeping it out of the landfill because we're trying to be as eco as possible. Can you go into that more, the eco friendliness and how it's made? And I know that you have a hemp version. Yes. Yeah. So I was looking at when we started this company and I started, you know, going after the professional paddles, the carbon fiber paddles, and I'm just trying to make them more affordable. But after we looked at it and looked at the carbon footprint involved with all of that, I thought there's got to be a better way. So we're looking at alternative materials, such as like a hemp fiber, because we're living in Colorado. There's no doubt. There's no shortage of hemp laying around. We're actually getting that kind of woven together into the surface material that can mimic carbon fiber. And are you buying hemp from hemp growers or is it just kind of like a, you know, like a byproduct of everything else? Yeah, so we're trying to source it more locally. We're trying to move all the productions back here. So we can say that's 100% US made. Not a lot of paddles currently are. And I'd like to be one of the few that are moving all the production back here. So we're looking at sourcing all of our stuff, especially the hemp from Colorado or, you know, some of the other materials from the States. Do you think that you can maintain the price where you're at now? We're going to try. And that's the whole point is we're not, we're all about getting, if we can get an eco-friendly paddle that's also affordable, I would love to have that be the default paddle. Like if you're in a school and there's just a generic paddle you're going to be playing with in middle school or something, and there's a whole group of folks, they don't need carbon fiber. These kids are just learning how to play. So we can get a carbon negative paddle in their hands and start reducing the carbon footprint of this entire sport. Because there's millions of paddles getting made every day. If like a fraction of those could be sustainable or eco-friendly, that's a huge win. That's incredible. And I'm curious, how much hemp does it take to make one paddle? Oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. So I guess it depends on the size of the plant. But at the end of the day, these fibers are getting pulled apart and then there's, you know, a huge bulk. So we're buying these in bulk by like the half ton. And then they're getting laminated into these sheets. Now is the hemp, I don't mean to be ignorant, but is the hemp the part of like where it grows off of the plant? I've never worked with any of the hemp or, I mean, I might smoke some of the hemp once in a while. That's not hemp you're smoking, Mike. Oh, shoot. I wonder why nothing's happening. That's crack. Oh, that's a little hyper. But how does that work? I mean, I mean, you probably know a little bit more about this. Yeah. So it's just the long fibers of the actual stalk are getting pulled out of the plant. So it's not the flower or the leaves or anything like that. It's all the waste product after they've collected all the flower and they sell that for a ton of money. Now they have all this waste that was going to be put in the landfill and turned to methane, which again, we're trying to cut down on the amount of carbon footprint, not only from the cannabis industry, but also with pickleball. I'm glad I eat beef. Yeah. They're making a lot more stuff out of it than just the paddles. They can make clothing, clothing, a rope, ropes. I mean, hemp composites, they're making like car door panels like you can make it. There's all kinds of options for this stuff. So it's a growing industry and we just need to make it more accessible. I think folks will gravitate towards it. Nice. When it dries out, does it get more flammable? We can test it. We can try it. That would be fun to have a paddle that you could also enjoy. Trying to burn? Well, we hope people aren't on the court trying to smoke your paddle or anything. I'm just saying. Never mind. You make the handle of the pipe. Yeah. Yeah. So do you want to go in a little detail about the other one that you're wanting then for the future? That's actually top secret. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, that's fine. You're trying to extract stuff he told you not to talk about. Come on, man. I know we are doing some R&D and there's some exciting things coming down the pipeline, but we haven't patented it yet or gotten it to production. So I think there's going to be. A couple more steps before I can unveil it to you and we're going to be the guys here to unveil it. So we're going to be here for him. He's one of our sponsors. So we hope to be the first ones to help with that. Well, if you go on their website, pickleforthepeople.com. Dot co dot co. Sorry, not dot com dot co. Their main. When the first thing that pops up is one of my favorite things. It says because it's a paddle, not a racket. And then they have one of their paddles dropping in. I absolutely love that. So as far as designs on the paddles, I think being a kid of the 80s, that magic eye. Yeah. Yes. That magic eye thing. I mean, if you've seen Mallrats, you know what I'm talking about. It's not a schooner on his paddle, but it's I don't. I think it's. Is it just one photo? So I have two magic eye paddles that I've made myself one. Actually, you know what? I'm not going to tell you what the magic guy is. I think I know one of them. And one of them is actually it's on my website and it's the horse. So it's a horse is rearing up. It looks just like Lucifer. OK. Yeah, I think I've seen the other one. You probably have. I'm not going to say it. And that one, I want that to be a surprise for whoever can have the magic eye to see it. It's so much more rewarding when it pops into focus. I agree. Yeah, I agree. And yeah, it takes a little bit of concentration sometimes to get there. Right. Right. You can't be using that hemp paddle too much beforehand. No, no, no. Because things start moving. But yeah, no, I mean, being a, you know, instead of cleaning my room, I was sitting there looking at these magic eye books and I was like, this is such a cool pattern to put on a paddle. So I developed it all from scratch. And what I that was actually one of my first designs. And I was worried because a lot of folks saw it and they go, oh, man, this is such a cool thing. You're you make magic eye paddles. I'm like, no, no, no, no. We have premium carbon fiber thermoform paddles that just so happened. This is just a graphic. Yeah, it's just a cool design. But folks are getting caught up in that graphic because it is so cool. It is that it was it was almost like obscuring or eclipsing the actual paddle itself. Right. I get that. Yeah, I get that. So why don't you tell us where we can go to get these paddles? And I don't know anything else you want to say about them. Yeah. So I mean, these paddles, we sell them on online direct to consumer. That's kind of the whole shtick is how we're able to get it to you guys for so cheap. We're not going to be in a store where there's another layer of marketing or another layer of salesmanship. So it's all direct to consumer pricing. You go to pickle for the people that CEO and they'll get you there. We currently have six different designs to choose from. They're all carbon fiber T700 thermoformed, just like the pro paddles that are going for 250, except you're getting these for one twenty five. I love it. And today, if they if they do a shout out or you want to get ahold of us, we have a special. Yeah, it's PBND 10. You get 10 percent off. 10 percent off. We're all about supporting you. And we think it's a great thing that you're doing. And we will have them in our pro shop. Yeah, we will have them in our pro shop once that gets up and going. So that's another way you can buy them. Oh, man. And the setup you guys have here is just jaw dropping. Like this is so cool to have a setup like this in downtown on 16th Street Mall, Denver. Amazing. It's thank you very much. It's going to be really cool once they finish this brickwork and stuff. About a week ago, it looked like war down here. There's scenery and big fight, like seven foot holes. Yeah, it was wild. It was dangerous to walk out the door. Yeah. Yeah. But it's going to be incredible. I mean, Denver is real. 16th Street Mall is coming back. It's going to be big. I mean, we're and we're happy to be a part of it. So and then having our court here is incredible. So thank you for joining us, Matt. We we had a great time talking to you guys, talking to you and talking about your paddle and your company and stuff. And hopefully we'll get you back on some other time. Yeah, absolutely. For that reveal. Exactly. We want to reveal that. I want to be here. It was great being here with you guys, and I can't wait to come back and reveal all the new technology we're unveiling. Amazing. We look forward to it. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time. Next time. Awesome. Thank you. I'm out. 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 DrinkASweetSip.com