Episode 52 Friday Pickleball Crew - Friday Pickle - Keep Paddles Accessible!

Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Christana. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Coming soon, January 2026. Denver, your nightlife, your playtime, your entire vibe is about to get a major mood swing. Introducing Mood Swing, the newest, boldest pickleball entertainment venue built for players, partiers, and everyone in between. Fast games, big energy, unreal food and drinks, and a place where your mood lifts the moment you walk in. Get ready, Denver. Mood Swing is coming soon. Hi guys, this is Christana. I'm Mike. And we are here at Third Shot Pickleball, and we are here with Matt Czarnecki. That's right. Did I say that right? 100%. Wow. Okay, wow. I did good. And so Matt is with Friday Paddles, correct? Mm-hmm. Friday Pickleball. And you are one of the founders? Yes, one of the founders. One of the founders, yeah. But we're on a Wednesday, isn't it? Wednesday today? And we're on a Friday? Yeah, we pretend it every day. Every day is a Friday. I like it. Look at how many people here are skipping work to play Pickleball at 3 p.m. Exactly, exactly. So how did it come about to be Friday? So in my prior job, I had started an energy bar company when I was in college. So I was a 19-year-old in a dorm room going into a local bakery, making a bunch of energy bars, and eventually worked on that business for eight years. Wow. Amazing. So it was super fun at the beginning, and then as we raised money and the company grew, it got to a point where I was not exactly having that much fun. And I went to my co-founders and I said, hey, guys, I think we need to do something fun and different to keep ourselves excited and motivated. And we chose to launch a Pickleball company as a side hustle. And we were thinking about a name. We said, man, you know, it'd be nice to work on something else on Fridays. I like it. What if we named it Friday? I like it. So we chose to name the company Friday and then got in touch with the other guys who are on the content side because they actually named their company Friday. Oh, that's funny. And we basically started selling paddles with the Friday trademark. And three months in, we saw this group of guys from Kansas City going viral on Instagram, posting like comedy sketches. Yes. And their handle was Friday. That's funny. And so I reached out to them and I was like, hey, guys, we got a trademark on this name. But, you know, either you need to change your name or maybe we can find a way to work together. We got on the call three days later, and they had a deal on the table with Selkirk for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They got the message from me and they were like, man, we're going to have to change our name. This might ruin the Selkirk deal. And then I got on the phone with them and somehow managed to convince them to join forces and become owners of the company alongside me. Wow. We basically had two Fridays merged. That's so funny. Two of us and three of us and now we're five. That's so funny. That's awesome. That's really good. And now are they still, did you keep the other name Friday too still? Yeah, exactly. So it's all Friday. We are one company. One company on Friday. We are on Friday. I like it. Yeah, you all merge. Yes, we have fully merged. We do everything together and it's been a blast. Travel together, play together. So how did you get into Pickleball? Like just to even get a paddle going, where did that start? Yeah, so I think it was fall of 2021. A friend invited me out to Park City, Utah in September. We were, you know, going around doing some hikes. One day he said, hey, I think you should try this thing called Pickleball. I had no background playing racquet sports. I'd never held a tennis racquet, played ping pong like three or four times. We go out to some local courts and this 80 year old woman absolutely schooled me. It was incredible. And then she, she not only schooled me, but then afterwards she actually taught me how to play. And she was like, here's how you can adjust your shots, yada, yada. We spent like four hours together. And I think I realized in that moment, like one, this is addicting. And two, I loved the inclusivity and the sort of community oriented nature of the sport. And just became absolutely addicted. And since that time, I think I've been playing Pickleball, you know, three to five times a week. Well, it looks like, you know, you've been doing really well. We got to play you and you schooled us. You got to play against the other guys. The other guys are the big, the big dogs. They're 5055 players. I'm not at that level. Isaac was my team player. And you played with the other guy, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I played with you. You? Yeah. No wonder you guys are teaming up on me. Mike Friday. That sounds really good. I'm going to be the sixth. Sounds great. We're looking for one. Wait till you get to know him a little. Oh, hey, hey now. Okay, so I have a question. Are you still doing the bars? No, we actually transitioned. And are they Friday bars? We transitioned ownership of that company in March of this year. So I have been. Okay. So you still had them though? Yeah, they still exist. You know, you could go buy them in a store. What are their names? It's called Verb Energy. They were energy bars. Verb? Yeah. Oh, nice. With as much caffeine as you can get. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're going for a run and you want a little snack, a great way to get caffeine and calories that are healthy and then just bang and go. So that was a hard business, right? Yes. Selling energy bars to grocery stores was very hard. I have a beverage business. Is that right? CBD. CBD. And it's one of the hardest businesses I have ever done in my life. Wow. Yeah. I'd love to do it with them. I'd love to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like can, if you know can. You can-a? C-A-N-N. That's a beverage brand from New York. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Good one. So, but this is more fun, right? Friday pickleball is way more fun than a beverage. It's very different. And I think the biggest difference, you know, our energy bar company, we had investors who were pushing us really hard and saying, you need to sell this many millions of bars every single year. And if we didn't hit those numbers, I would feel bad. Everyone would feel bad. We put so much pressure. And Friday, I think from the beginning we said, we're going to bootstrap this company. We're not going to have investors and we're going to let this thing grow naturally and organically the way it should grow, the way any business should grow. And if it has one year of massive growth and one year of less growth, that's okay as long as our vision is remaining consistent and we're striving towards, you know, the same end goal. How is your growth? It's been great. Yeah. Good. It's been great. Yeah. Well, I mean, you coming out to the public, you know, all these companies, I get it. They go to the big stuff, but you come out here with us people that the normal everyday Joe's playing pickleball. I mean, and I think that's awesome. That says something about you guys right there. Totally. I think as you can tell from looking across the courts here, pickleball is a competitive space. Being a paddle break is very, very hard. But when I think about how Friday can differentiate itself from other brands, it really is the people behind the brand. So Jake, Isaac, and Scott on the content side, posting great YouTube videos, posting great Instagram meals, et cetera. And then us doing in-person events as much as possible is like my number one goal for next year because I freaking love meeting people out here. They love meeting people out here. They get to try paddles. You know, I have a guy who just tried a prototype paddle of ours and he doesn't want to give it back to me. He wouldn't have tried that paddle if I hadn't met him, you know? Oh, you have to. And who you meet, you don't know any... It's amazing the people you meet, like some great people out here all over the world, you know? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you never know who's going to know someone, who's going to know someone. And then next thing you know, you're on court filming a video with the best player in the world. And that's because you came to an open play in Denver one day. It's awesome. Yeah. So what did... So when you... How did you still come... Like this is what I like our listeners to know. So how did you end up saying, we need to make a paddle? Like we all got together and said, we just like our... We don't like the paddles that are out there or we feel like we can make a better one or... Yeah. So we started Friday in very early 2023. You looked at the market in early 2023. There were a few brands that were very dominant, Yola and Selberg. And they were selling $200 paddles that performed well, but were no better than other paddles that were on the market. And you could manufacture for, to be completely honest, a very low cost relative to what they were charging. We kind of took an accessibility approach and we said, it doesn't make sense for someone to have to pay $200 for an entry-level pickleball paddle if they're just getting into the sport. And so we started doing a lot of research and started looking into manufacturers and found a partner and we chose to launch a Friday original paddle where you could get two paddles for $99. Oh, wow. So at the time, it just was so different from anything else on the market. You had Yola at $200 and then you had a Friday original paddle that performed as well as the Yola for effectively a quarter of the cost. And so that was the thing that really catalyzed our growth in late 2023 into 2024. And then the market has actually evolved and moved very quickly since then. And so we've had to evolve and innovate as a brand to really keep up our competitive edge, maintain our competitive edge in the marketplace because there's a lot of great paddles. It used to be that a 3035 player would play with a $20 Amazon paddle. Now 3035 players want a $300 paddle because the sport has changed and everyone wants the best gear. And I get why, because they want to play as the best versions of themselves. It makes so much sense. And so we've really gone up market and the amount of money and time that we're investing in research and development and innovation has absolutely skyrocketed over the last six months. If you're looking for a paddle right now, we're on prototype number 59. And this is different from the way most other brands are running it right now. A lot of factories will come to a brand and say, here are three paddles. Which one do you want? We have a much more intensive hands-on experience. That's why we're in Colorado. We were in a guy's lab this morning firing a cannon, like firing balls out of a cannon at Friday paddles. We fired a ball at 300 miles per hour at a Friday fever. And how'd it do? It exploded. Oh my God. It was good at 150. It was good at 200. It was good at 250. And then at 300, it just exploded. Boom. Did you get that on video? Yeah. I'll show you a picture of it later. Wow. Yeah. It's super fun. Well, it's crazy. We were at the USA Pickleball and we were talking about learning about what you go through and what you have to do to get it to go through. Totally. It's crazy. Yeah. The certification process is lengthy. And you have people like John who lives in Colorado who have built this machinery in their basement that comes close to the testing that USAP runs. So a lot of brands right now are innovating right at the limit of power. And if you go over that limit, you're spending $7,000 to get a fail notification in your email from USAP. So what we're trying to do is engineer a paddle that comes just under that limit of power that's legal that we can submit to USAP feeling confident- Yeah. Save that money. And then we can launch it and bring it out to the wild, you know? Love it. So that's what we're doing. Well, you came in at a great time because look how many paddles now. Everybody has a paddle. If we tried to launch Friday today or six months ago, I guarantee you it would have failed. Yeah. It's crazy. They were saying there's like, in the waiting to be checked out, there's like 2,500 paddles. 2,500 paddles. Different names. Right? Yeah. Different names that are trying to get through the process really fast, you know? And it's nuts. I mean, but it's- It's insane. It's kind of shooting them through to get a paddle. Yeah. It's not taking the time and spending the time like you have done. You know, you've actually taken the time to make a great paddle for a great price. Yeah. Totally. And a great name. We're very fortunate. I like to say that, you know, meeting these guys was like the luckiest thing that's ever happened to us. We entered the space at a good time. And yeah, we really just want to lean in and maintain our edge. It was all about a Friday, right? Yeah. Exactly. Just having fun too. I mean, that's what- Having fun. In a community. Yeah. And I got to play with it. I thought that was a great paddle. That's the one I got to play with right there. Yeah. I played with the pink one and the purple one because of the colors. Yeah. This one has the biggest sweet spot of any paddle. I couldn't believe it. Really? Yeah. It's got a nice snap to it. Here, sweet spot. Here, you're good. Wild. Nice. So where do we find you? How do we find you? You can search Friday Pickleball on Instagram, FridayPickle.com, Friday Pickleball on YouTube. Or if you end up somewhere on a Friday, they might be there. Yeah. Yeah. Most PPA tournaments next year will be at- PPA, okay. Nice. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, we thank you so much. Thank you. You're a lot of fun and fun to play with. And thank you for when you were serving to me, you did not slam it. You were so nice. Oh, I was just having fun. I was just having fun. Yeah, no. That was nice. Thank you. I'm not nice to her. I mean, you saw Mike, right? Yeah. He's like, oh. I hit him back. Oh, yeah. She's not- Everyone's got to be- Yeah. Yeah. No, we thank you so much and we hope to see you. We'll be traveling all over too, so we'll be at some of the PPA stuff too. Yeah. We're going to be at the Friday of the Ducks in January. I love it. I love it. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Bye. Okay, so guys, we're here at Third Shot again and we are here with Scott Peck, and he's from Friday. He's one of the founders of Friday Paddles. Is that correct? Friday Pickleball. Pickleball? Yeah. Well, we heard a little bit about the story of how the Fridays came together. Yeah. That's pretty funny. Very serendipitous. And that's- It is super cool. And you guys were the ones that were doing all the fun stuff on Instagram, and so kind of tell us how that- Making silly videos. And they are silly, and I love the one where you guys are like, oh, this is for old people out there. I love that one. Yeah. Because Mike was probably in on that. Hey, don't you go there. Don't you do it. Anyway. You're probably watching me play. Yeah. That's what it looks like. But that was a great one. Yeah. Yeah. That was a fun one. So how did it all happen on your side of this? Basically, we just, me, Jake, and Isaac, we were buddies. We started playing pickleball together in 2020 in the middle of COVID, similar to a lot of people. Oh, yeah. They kind of took a brief hiatus and played some golf for like two years. I stuck with pickleball. And then towards the end of that period, like at the beginning of 2023, we were like, hey, in pickleball content, there's gameplay and there's instructional. Like there's nobody, nobody's making entertaining, funny- No. No. Oh, and it's so fun to watch you guys. And we're like, there's a gap. We're like, we should do this. It's like- Yeah. We're buddies. We think we're funny. Let's try- You are funny. You are funny. Make some videos and entertain some people. So we just had a Google Doc full of concepts, videos that we wanted to write and film. And we started with Instagram reels. And yeah, we did some of the ones you mentioned, like the stages of pickleball, that one I think- That was so funny. That was probably our most viewed Instagram reel ever. Yes. It was like, I think, I don't know what it's at now, but- Was it on YouTube too? Was that one? Yeah. Yeah. We put it on YouTube as well, but I think on Instagram it got six or seven million views. It's crazy. Wow. That was so fun to watch. Very relatable. You know, everyone that is addicted to pickleball literally has gone through all those- Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. But no, how crazy. I mean, but then you're doing this and then somebody says, hey, we own the name to Friday, right? Correct. And you're like, what? No, we own the name to Friday. Yeah. Our whole goal was like, let's make some funny videos. Let's get picked up by a paddle company, use their paddles, they can dance. And here you are. You didn't get just picked up, now you own a paddle company. Yeah. And it was just so funny. Like, I don't know how much, how in detail he went, but we were ready to put pen to paper to a contract with Selker. He was telling us that. Huge. And then he DM'd us that night where the lawyer was delayed on getting it back to us. And he was like, hey, we have this trademark, we're like, okay, that might be a problem. Let's talk. And immediately as soon as we started talking to Matt, we're like, wow, this guy's great. He's brilliant. He seems like a good person to hitch our wagon to. How fun. Yeah. And we just immediately, it was like, it didn't take long for us to make the decision, no, let's turn down Selker and let's do something really good. Oh my God, yeah. That's amazing. I don't think any of us regret it. I mean. Well, you guys are, I mean, you guys all have a smile out here. You guys are just having fun with just everybody. Yeah. I mean, it's a blast. Yeah. That's what pickleball is. It's social. It's all ages. Like, I could lose to a teenager. I could lose to a 65-year-old. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, you guys are doing really well though. I mean, I think you, I think you play so much now that it's like, I would never play. I was watching you like looking at your watch, like, yeah, okay. What time is it? Is it time to get something to drink? Really good. I mean, really good. Yeah. What a flick you have, man. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Really low too, to the ground. Those guys shouldn't have take the time off to play golf because I bet they can't keep up with you now. It was funny because Jake and Isaac were better than me when we started and they took two years off and came back and couldn't beat me. Now they're, now they're getting very close to being able to. When you let them, when you kind of tired. Yeah. When I, when I need to give them a little hope. So now I'm going to ask you out of all five of you, who is the best player at pickleball? I mean, I just got it. It's gotta be me. I got it. Yeah. Yeah. And he said, and he did say that he said you were the, I think Isaac has the highest ceiling out of all of us. Cause he's just a freak athlete. I mean, he has like a 40 inch vertical. So I mean, it's not, it's a matter of time before he's better than me. But once you get into the higher levels of pickleball, sometimes it takes a minute to really even actually, actually I'm up and I'm four, four, two, you know what I mean? But to get to that next level up like that level is tough. Like, and I know from four or five and up to five, I mean, it's just another level and that's where you slow down. Like all this stuff you thought you were doing, you're doing wrong. All this stuff you think you thought you were really good at, you were doing wrong. You know what I mean? And all of a sudden it's a new game. You know? So now as I start to play these upper players, it's like, wow, this is just different. I've been blessed with the opportunity to play against some pros in our videos. Like we, I mean, we played against Riley Newman and we, I played with my buddy who's like probably a five, five, I mean maybe closer to six. Oh, then he has a five, five and we played Riley and Jake, Jake was playing at probably a four or five level. Now Jake played tremendously this game. I will say that. But it was, I mean, they beat us 15 to three and it's like, we haven't lost that bad in a minute. And it probably didn't look like they were trying. I mean, they were trying, but I don't mean like that, but it's just remarkable the, like the consistency, the anticipation. Oh my gosh. It's just like, it's just, they just are, it's already pre-planned. Like they made a plan before they started playing and they're just like, there it is. There it is. There it is. And when you think about a rating scale too, like for me, I play like five, five, you go two down to a three, five, like if I'm on court with a three, five and you know, it's going to be lopsided. Yeah. And then you have guys like six, five, seven, oh, it's not the same difference from me to them. And I can't even imagine when I came on five, oh, was it right? Five years ago, five, oh, it was like the stuff, you know, and now five, oh, is the new four. Oh, I hate to say that. Yeah. I hate to say it. And you, you just gave a three. Oh. So she's all right. One five. So I'm a beginner and I never played sports. I just ran. I don't. Well, we see why, but I mean, you're getting better and I'm, I'm, I know, right. See what I get. You put up with a lot. No, right. No, no. No, no, no. Yeah. I'm always good. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I moved far away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, what's going to happen is Peck. Right. Yeah. Right. So what's the plan for the future? Like, where are you guys heading now? I mean, it seems like you're adding more people. I almost got hired. I was with your CEO. You know, he was like, cause we were fighting over here on board. Yeah. He chose me over her. So he's like, come on. I'm a salesman. So I'm good. Well, depending on when this episode gets released, I'm quitting my job in corporate America tomorrow. That's freaking awesome. Oh wow. High five. Thank you. Yeah. My boss doesn't know. Don't tell, don't put this out yet. That's going to be a bomb drop tomorrow. But, uh, yeah. Oh, but that would be really good for us to say it before he finds out. Yeah. Or send him the episode. Yeah. It would actually be really good for our Instagram. I don't know how plugged in he is to pick up all podcasts, but. But hey, we sent you a little something. Listen to this before I'm packing up. Yeah. Wow. I mean, we're, we've pretty much been running this via a group chat and a bunch of like five of us all kind of working on a part-time and we've grown the business tremendously. And now 2026 is kind of like, we're going all in. I love it. Cause that's our goal. We're doing the same thing. We're trying so hard to get over here. You know, everybody thinks it's an easy journey, but there's a lot that happens and it's a small world too, right? It's this big world of pickleball, but it's a small world of pickleball when you're in the business of pickleball. Yeah. I mean, I talked to Matt about going full time in March of 2024. And here we are December 2025. Yeah. But it's good. It's a, yeah, it obviously had to make sense for the business and we're ready to go all in. And yeah, I think this, our, some of our main goals this upcoming year is we were really excited about a foam paddle launch that we've been working on. We've tested over 60 paddles. Oh, he was telling us about your, yeah, he was telling us about your test today at 300 miles an hour. That paddle was fun. And the picture of the one that blew up because of how it ran or miles an hour or something like that. Literally a pickleball cannon. What's it have to be at? What is that rating? Is it, what is the rating where you have to like 200, 150 or is that just crazy? Oh, I think we, we were just testing how hard we had to shoot it to break the paddle. Wow. Yeah. And so I think we started at like 130 miles an hour, went up to 180, 250, 300, 300 was what like almost pretty much shot the face through the edge. That had to be fun though. Yeah. Now were you part of the, uh, the bars too? Did you, were you out? Cause he said you guys just sold the bar company, the stuff. Oh no, I wasn't. No, no, no. Energy bars. That was, uh, that was Matt and Andre, the guys that actually started the paddle side of the business. And he was thankful. He says, I'm glad to be out of that business. He was. That's a tough business. Yeah. It's funny. They started Friday as just kind of like a little side hustle, passion project, and then here they are. That's what makes it exciting. You guys are doing so well. Now do you just, you're going to be traveling all over the world and doing your videos and the branding and stuff. It's going to be an exciting year. We're going to, we're going to be traveling a bunch. We're going to get out to a lot of, you know, a handful of tournaments, PPAs, APPs. We're going to be hosting some clinics around the country. Even Prince Edward Island. We're going to be up there, like up by Nova. Wow. How awesome is that? We're hopefully going to do an Asian tour. Maybe go to Brazil. Oh my gosh. It's going to be, it's a vacation. You mean, you need to be off. You guys, right. You don't need to work. Like that's the, one of the biggest reasons is like, I can't, I don't have enough PTO to keep doing it. Plus I want to give all of my energy into Friday. I mean, it's hard having, dividing my time between corporate. We understand. We still own a couple of businesses and we're, our goal this year is to come over here, be number one podcast. So we're trying really hard. That's why we're out here. You know, we wanted to be Friday. We got told we were like, we were here. We were like, we're coming. We're coming to meet this Friday. One Friday at a time. That's awesome. Yeah. Friday on a Wednesday. Friday on a Wednesday. That's two Fridays. It's a state of mind. Everybody wants to have a Friday on a Wednesday. But at the same time, it's a great paddle. You guys are producing a good paddle. This isn't just something you're producing. And as we talked, if you didn't start when you started, I don't know, today there are so many paddles. I mean, we were just with USA Pickleball and we were meeting with one of their guys that does the testing and he's just telling us there's a backup that's so far that it's, you'll never see it. I mean, and, and there, you know, the stuff that's coming, the stuff that's coming through is just a sell, right? I mean, it's not, it's not par like, look what you guys are doing today. You're testing, which is smart because he was telling us what the cost of that is. But you want to do that before you go to the testing. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's becoming a bit of an arms race with, with paddles right now. You got to have some competitive advantages and something to differentiate yourself. And for us, it's been fun. You know, we, we've always tried to make it our mission to make, keep pickleball accessible. Yeah. Because, you know, a couple of years ago, it was $150 paddles like, whoa, that's expensive. Oh, we're going to, we're going to see six and $700 paddles. They're coming. It keeps going and going. And what we're, I mean, people associate price with quality and that's not always the case. I mean, there are some companies like us that take lower margin and charge less, you know, that's just what we do. It doesn't mean our paddles are worse. We have our crew over here. Actually, they're Friday paddle players. Yeah. Yeah. They were just trying your paddle before. Yeah. Before this. Yeah. He has it right there. That's awesome. And so he was just trying out your new one. He said it was like the prototype. Yeah. One of the phones. He said it was really good. Yeah. I mean, we have some connections. Maybe we can work some deals out here. Yeah. We've been, uh, our designer, Andre, he's been ripping through different design options. I mean, we've, we must've looked at over a hundred different designs of paddles because like, obviously one of the things we like the most is the aesthetics of our paddle. Oh yeah. Yeah. We like the colors. We like something be bright, but we've also learned over time that there's a lot of people that don't want a super loud paddle trying to find that balance of where, like, it looks really cool. It's bright. It's colorful. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's a, that's a test. You can tell from 20 feet away that it's a Friday. It's a Friday. Yeah. And that's good. But also like people look at it and think, okay, that is a performance paddle. It's not just like a foofy, you know, beginning, good looking battle. Yeah. Not just about the looks. Well, like me, I, you know, Mike, I was going to say exactly like you, Mike, right? Yeah. Well, we, like I said, but the funny part is every, I play a lot everywhere. We do podcasts all over the, we're going around the United States and we see your Friday paddle everywhere. That's super cool. And for you, that has to be to walk in. They don't know you. And you're like, that's awesome. Like any, anybody that recognizes us or says hi to us at a tournament or at a facility like this, like we just signed a couple of paddles. I'm like, trust me, this means more to me than it does to you. You still have signs. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, it is so cool. I'm just like the most regular guy in the world. And somebody comes up and wants a selfie with me. Well, we want it. We want our sign. We got to get our sign and a selfie. Yeah. So give us a word. You know, I know people can just find you looking up Friday paddles, but is there, what's the, what's your, what's your handle? I, I'm not on social media. I'm just part of the game. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have any personal accounts, but yeah. Friday Pickleball on Instagram. And they can find all your videos there. Yeah. On YouTube. Friday with two Ys. Two Ys. Two Ys. Okay. Matt stole the domain. No, just kidding. And then Friday Pickleball on YouTube as well. Those are the two main places where you can find us. Well, we're so glad. I mean, when Matt, when they told us you're going to be here, like we wanted to meet Jess. So we said, you know, we want to, we want to be with the people, you know, just like us. We're out here meeting the everyday people. Right. Cause these are the people that support us. Really? Yeah. I get it. There's these big tournaments and stuff. And we go to that, but the everyday people are the ones that support us. Yeah. You know, they're the ones actually helping to build our brands. Yeah. So it's great. I love it. So, well, thank you so much for being on our podcast. And we're going to have, we got to do some signatures and signing pictures, handshakes, blood tests. Hallelujah. You didn't know, right? You didn't know that. Sorry. Push-ups. Push-ups. Yeah. You start. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks so much. Bye. Bye. Every professional athlete, from football to tennis, relies on electrolytes to stay strong and recover fast. Why? Because sweat takes away more than water. It drains essential minerals like sodium and potassium. Without them, your body slows down and your game slips. Pickleball is no different. That's why Holi is packed with the electrolytes you need to stay sharp, fueled, and ready to play longer. Visit holiperformance.com. That's H-O-L-E-Y performance.com. And use code nextdoor for 20% off your order. Enjoy doing it. You know, people always ask us, like, do you guys ever get tired of taking photos and whatnot? We're like, we probably enjoy it more than you do. Like, we're honored. Like, we feel very humbled by it. You get to play out there with everybody? How fun is that? Yeah. Even the beginners? You get to team up? It's just, like, crazy that people know us from pickleball. It's really funny. It's like, it's only within the doors of pickleball, it's like, we might get recognized. But outside of that, it's just like, no one knows us. But we walk into, like, a tournament, like a PPA tournament, it's like, oh, people actually kind of know us. Well, same with us. Outside those gates, it's like. Yeah, we tell people our podcast, like, oh, what is your, when we say pickleball, they're like, what? Yeah. You know, what's pickleball? People are still saying that. They still are. People really are still saying. Yeah, I know. I would expect them to say that about five years ago, but. They still are saying, what is it? Or, is that a game with the little ball, the little plastic ball? Yeah. It is that game with the little plastic ball. It is the plastic ball. That goes 80 miles an hour. Yeah, that's right. The way you guys hit. Well, yeah. Actually, this morning, we were doing some paddle testing. I don't know what happened. Oh, you told 300 miles an hour. Yeah. And we, we shattered a fever. Oh, wow. Which our paddles are durable. But at 300 miles. But when you fire a 300 mile per hour ball with no holes in it. Yeah. It does some damage. It does some damage. And then I wore one. I was like, all right, get the paddle out of the way. Let me, let me put my chest up there. Like, happy Gilmore, you know, like 360 days till hockey season. Oh, my God. And we, it wasn't 300 miles per hour, so. Oh, okay. It was like 50 or something. But it probably was still quite a bit. Yeah, it was a good sting. Yeah. Yeah. Like, if you've ever played sting pong. With ping pong. Oh, yeah. But people do it with pickleball. Like, butts up or whatever. Yeah, yeah. If you lose a game, people have to bend over and the other team. Whack. Do you guys have a YouTube of that? I know that in one of our videos, we've sure, for sure done that. But, like, not a video specific to that. So. So, well, you know what? I actually started the podcast. And I just want to say that we're here with Isaac from Friday Pickleball. Because, you know, I want to make sure they know who we're talking to. Which number are you? So, there was number one, number two, number four, number. Do you have a number? I think you're all five. Right? Everybody's five. Whatever. I didn't know we were doing numbers. I don't know what numbers. We didn't know what either. I do have a question for you. Who is the best of the five at pickleball? Oh, it's Scott. All right. Okay. Scott, he's definitely a step above everyone else. But we heard a little bit. We're just going to tell you what we heard. He's worried you're getting right there, though. He's getting worried you're coming right from behind. Yeah, because you guys were playing golf, we hear. He said you took some time off. Yeah. So, we all got into pickleball at the same time, which I'm sure Scott told you. And regretfully, Jake and I put down the paddle for about two years. What? Listeners, do you hear this? And just started playing a bunch of golf. Are you guys golfers at all? I do. I golf. Not very often. I'm still addicted. Like, I try to get out as much as I can and play. But I stopped playing pickleball entirely, and Scott did not. Well, he knew. He's like, this is my chance. This is my gap. He was practicing every day, I bet. So, by the time that we came back to playing pickleball, it was like, oh, Scott's now way better than us. Because when we stopped playing, we were probably better than Scott. Oh, yeah. He did say that you guys were better. But not now. I didn't want to put myself on a pedestal. No. Scott is definitely hands down the best player. But he knows you're coming right behind him. He knows. He knows you're right there. Yeah. We've got some work to do. But it's been fun to improve, and it's been fun for people to notice. You're really good, though. I mean, we watch you play. Yeah. You played against him. You were against him. He was my partner. Yeah. Yeah. He was very gracious with me. Your call, you got that nice flick. I mean, you got the power, too. I'm still working on that. You did a little sneak grip, one from the bottom net up. And I was like, whoa. That thing came fast. Well, thank you. But that's awesome. So do you guys play in tournaments, too? Oh, yeah. We play in tournaments all the time. Oh, nice. We're getting ready to. Actually, I'm playing in a local tournament in Kansas City, which is where myself, Jake, and Scott are based out of. Who's your partner? Me and Jake are playing. It's like a money ball. It's just right around a 5-0. Oh, nice. Nice. We've got like a duper 10, duper 10.2 for the two teams, or for the two players combined. Oh, OK. There's one of those every single month in Kansas City. And it's like $1,000 for the winner. So it's just like a little. We love it there. A little extra to win. And we play in that every single month. And then January, we'll be out in Palm Springs for the PPA Masters. That's huge. Yeah, that's giant. And then. You'll be playing in it? We'll be playing in it. OK. Yep. We are turning 35 in 2026. And they qualify to play the 35 and up divisions. So they're getting a little older. They are getting a little older. I'm still the young buck. But they're going to play 35 plus 5-0 in Palm Springs. Nice. And then me and TJ, who's one of our sponsored pros and coaches in the Kansas City area. He's in a lot of videos. We're going to play just like 19 and up 5-0. So it should be a lot of fun. That's awesome. Yeah, we'll be playing in tournaments constantly. We were in Dallas not too long ago. Jake and I finally won a PPA tournament. We played in Worlds. Wow. Dallas. We played at the 4-5 level. And typically, we always lose. I mean, typically, we come in third or fourth. There's been so many times. But we finally. The competition out there is crazy. I mean, nuts. We were just talking about that. 5-0 used to be like, if you were a 5-0, that was huge years ago. 5-0 is the new 4-0. And honestly, it really is. I mean, 6, 7, 8? Come on. I can't even imagine what that is. What is the highest? It's 7.9. Do you know? It's 7.9 or something. I don't know if there's any 8. No, I think. Is it not? Do you know? I think Ben Jones is the highest rated duper. And he's like a 6. Is it? OK, not quite 7. He's a 9. I don't think anyone can touch 7. So nothing higher than that. OK. I can't even imagine it, though, anyway. Maybe he's not 7. But. Yeah. I thought it hurt 7. He's got the 7. But who rates that? If you don't have anybody to play, how do you rate 7-0? I mean, that's nuts. They play against the same people constantly. Yeah. Yeah. True. True. Someday you'll be there. The algorithm works anyway. You're right there, right? You're coming up. There's a big gap between 5-0s and pros. Because then there's 5-5s who are also very good. I mean, there's levels to everything. There is. There is. A lot of people think they can go pro. And I think it's awesome that a lot of people aspire to go pro and are, like, training very hard. But professionals are professionals for a reason. Oh, yeah. There's levels to it. Yeah, I love it. I'm trying to become. Yeah. But, I mean, I have a lot of work still. I mean, even as a senior, right, you think we're old people, but these old people can got some moves, right? I mean, they are good. Totally. I mean, there's a bunch of 5-pluses, and they are just. They might not be able to move fast, but they know how to move that ball. You know? They can play shots. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So what's your role? So what's your role in Friday? Yeah. So, myself, Jake, and Scott, we do a lot of, we kind of act as like the face of the brand. So, we kind of get to do the fun thing, right? Making all the content, the YouTube videos, working alongside pros, and lately we've been bringing on a lot of sponsored athletes. We're starting to sponsor a handful of junior athletes that are very, very talented and we're trying to make content, come up with ideas and film with other people, travel around. We do tournament vlogs whenever we play in a tournament. So that's kind of like Jake, Scott, and I's thing. That's awesome. And then, yeah, Matt, again, the people with the big brains handle the logistics of the company. You guys all have big brains. Yeah. But we all, you know, we run it essentially through a big group chat together and we're just constantly bouncing ideas off each other and we're constantly testing new paddles. So there's, it's tough to put specific roles onto everyone because everyone's doing a little bit of everything. Sure, sure. You kind of do all hats. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a lot of fun. I mean, we just feel like super grateful to be in a position where we're like playing pickleball and making paddles and people know us because of it and we're able to make an income off of it like we would have never have thought. So we're happy. Is it your full-time? Yeah, full-time. You're doing this full-time? Yeah. So, um, Scott and I will be coming on full-time officially, uh, start of next year. That's going to be awesome. Isn't it awesome? We're really excited about that. Um, yeah. So we're, we're kind of taking some, some big bets in 2026 and really trying to establish ourselves as one of the top brands in pickleball is the goal. And there's a lot of work to go, but you're out there, you're in it. You know what I mean? This, I think that's the biggest difference of all, there's a lot of people making things in pickleball and doing things, but they're not in it. Like you've got, you guys are in it. You're out there. You're part of it. And we have somebody, we have somebody bringing on a team that you might be a sponsor soon. He just is, this is a guy coming up and a good player. He's coming up to the pro level here. So we're, we might have a, might be able to sponsor him and we probably know somebody in Friday that might help you. I like it. Let's do that. Cause this is, uh, yeah, he's already doing coaching, teaching and what a player. Yeah. I don't want to get on the court with them. Nope. That's awesome. How old are you? 18. 18. It's been really cool to see over the past couple of years, how much younger the sport has gotten. Oh my gosh. Four years ago, you mentioned pickleball and everyone's like, Oh, the old person's sport. People still say that, but when you're actually like really in the pickleball world, there's an unbelievable amount of juniors. Like instead of growing up playing tennis, they're growing up playing pickleball and there's kids that are moving cities to go train at certain places and to go play in these tournaments. Kids are homeschooled. They're in online school, travel to every tournament. So I mean, crazy. Like I could have never imagined doing something like that as a kid or my parents putting up with that, but perhaps all the parents and kids that are doing that. And it's really cool to see how young sport has gotten. And I think that puts pickleball as a whole on a great trajectory. It does. We were just not too long ago at a tournament, a 12 year old, and he's close to five Oh, incredible. He, they didn't have any, he didn't have no kids to play, so he had to play at the adult level. Yeah. You know, and we're always kind of laughing because he was just taking names, you know, and I always thought how scary these kids are pretty much the height of the net, right? Like that's gotta be a scary place to be when that ball is coming a hundred miles an hour, but they give it right back to incredible. But I think that also gives them an advantage if they know how to put that top spin on, that ball is staying low. Well, the thing that's great for them too, is they're going to be so good at shaping the ball and putting the ball where they want. Cause when they're 12 years old, they don't have the power that an adult will, but they will at some point. So then they're going to have all aspects of the game. You know, there's a lot of pros, as we all know, that are tennis players. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. And now like, I think as pickleball continues to grow, it's going to be people that grew up playing pickleball that are like the stars. Definitely. Cause there are nuances to pickleball, right? Oh yeah. Totally different than tennis. And so, and there are a handful of really good pros that didn't grow up playing tennis. No, no. No, but I also, I think that you guys also, what I like that you guys are shaping the paddles up. So it's kind of an even more even keel for people too, right? I mean, you're, you're making paddles that it kind of levels up a little bit for some people. I mean, I know some of them make us look good. Like your paddle is a good looking paddle. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I can look good. Yeah. I can look good, right? Yeah, you do. Yeah. We like to add a little bit of flair to it. A little bit of flair to it. I like it. I hear you. That we make a really good high quality paddle. It is a quality paddle. And a good price. Yeah. That's the whole thing. Like we, we like to keep the sport very fun and accessible and I think all aspects of our brand do that. The pricing of our paddles and the quality of our paddles that you're getting with it. And then also, you know, the video, we like to not take things too seriously when our YouTube videos we're playing with throws, we like to joke around a little bit. Yeah. They're great. They're fun to watch. Oh, they're so funny. Yeah. That's why you have so many views out there. Yeah. Because it's entertaining. It's entertaining. Giving people a reason to smile and that type of thing. So. Especially in Pickleball. We try. Yeah. Pickleball, I mean, it's fun, but you're making it even funner. I mean. Yeah. Thank you. And again, like I said, you, you're not doing that testing today. Yeah. You have a, you're shooting at fun, like you're guys, right? You're going to shoot the ball as fast as you can to see what happens, but you're still out there trying to make a great paddle, right? Yeah. I mean, that's something before you send it in, you, you know, when you send it in and you feel real confident. Oh, 100%. And that's super cool. I mean, we've gone through like 60 unique constructions. That's what we were hearing earlier. Yeah. It's hard to keep track of when you're hitting that many paddles and you know, sometimes paddle to paddle, it's like, okay, these kind of sound the same. Are they playing different? No, they play. No, they are playing different. So, you know, and, and every company is, there's a lot of good paddles on the market. Um, but yeah, we, we feel it's very important that we do our due diligence in putting a good paddle out on the market that we are very confident in, but also are getting the opinions of others. Right. Yeah. And I think that's important because I said this too, that when you're a good player, you could almost hand you a wood paddle again and you could probably do okay. Right. So it's nice when you come out here and have people as ourselves that aren't the level that you are or older, you know, like my partner and um, that are, you know, she's older than me. Oh yes. We got to get the idea. I would not have guessed. How many years difference do you think we are? I would have guessed you're 30. Oh my gosh. 35. So Mike, what would you guess his age? Come on. Be nice. I don't know. 78. Oh my gosh. My, my, my partner here. Realistic guess. You are 57. 58. So close. Wow. Oh nice. Look at him. He was just on it. He was right there. Yeah. You did good. You did good. And I kept to the year. You kept to the year. You made me feel good. Yeah. You did get me younger. Yeah. That's good. I don't want to actually guess your age. Okay. 41. Yeah. No. 62. I told him. No. I'm actually older than him. Okay. Okay. I'm actually older than him, which is sad. Yeah. Sad. Yeah. She's older, but she, she's taking care of herself. The pickleball is going to make you young. I mean, I feel young. I just, I just did this crazy test. Like it tested your body. I started pickleball about four years ago. You know, I worked out and stuff, but it wasn't like the same. The cardio you get from pickleball, especially if you play every day and four or five hours. Um, I went and did this test. It says that my age, my B and I is now at a 40 year old. So I, I'm at a four. That is crazy. Crazy. But, but that was crazy. My son's a becoming a professional runner. He's almost 40. They, he's at like a 29 year old. Like it, it tells you like what your age. So yeah, I'm going to start bringing it just, I think it'd be a fun thing where people like yourself, you're athletic to like, go, wow. Do you know what yours is? I feel like mine would be older than I actually am. I don't think so. No. Well, we, we appreciate you so much coming on and being who you are. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you. It's so fun. It was fun to play with you. That was so fun. He was, he picked me just so you know. Yeah. I got it. Yeah. And we, I know you guys may have won, but you know what? We had a better time. Yes. We did. We were smiling more, you know? Yeah. Well, we wish you the best and we'll be watching you. We'll probably be out. You're going to say, I know those guys, you know? We hope to follow up with you guys and say, Hey, they're, they're moving up with us. You know? Yeah. Thank you guys. Thanks for being so kind and bringing us all out. Thank you. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Have a great day. Tired of the same old, same old, discover a sweet sip, nano CBD sparkling sodas. Here are the delicious, low anxiety, non-alcoholic alternative you've been searching for. When you're on the pickleball court and you need a calm, this is your drink. Experience delightful flavor and a gentle calm. Try one today at drinkasweetsip.com. Can I get a sweet sip, sweet sip, sweet sip? Can I get a sweet sip, sweet sip, sweet sip? Let me get a sweet sip, sweet sip, sweet sip for the CBD, CBD, CBD, get a sweet sip. Thank you. Enjoy.