Episode 56 Colorado Championship Cup III - Denver Pickleball Club - Okto Gear

Thank you for joining in. I'm Mike. I'm Kris Anna. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. Tired of the same old, same old? Discover Asweet Sip Nano CBD Sparkling Sodas. We're 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. Hello, Kris Anna. Hi, Mike. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. We're out here at the Denver Pickleball Club Tournament today. Yeah, which is the Colorado Champions Cup 3. Yeah, Devin, did I say it right? No, you said it right. I don't know why I looked at it. It looked at me weird. So, you know, I've watched him grow this. This is a 600-people tournament right now. Wow, so he was telling us 550, now it's to six. Wow. Yeah, I mean, it's full courts. He's rented out a full facility. Three days. Three days here, and they're doing singles, and I think they said they're doing some co-ed right now. But, yeah, a lot of fun here, right? I mean, this is... A lot of action. A lot of action. Brand new facility, right? This is nice, really nice. Nice lighting, nice courts. They're not even broken yet. No, no, because they just opened a couple weeks ago. Third shot at River Point. And then, so what levels? Are they all levels, do you know? I think it's from, you know, beginners to... I think that's one of the things that he strives on, is that it's not just for the pros, it's for everybody. So, like me? I could have played? Well, you probably could have, but anyway, I'm just kidding. I have to be the 1-0. They don't have the 1-0 division yet, but someday you will. No, you play really well. I mean, I keep trying to tell you, I keep trying to be nice, because you have upped your game a lot. Just a little, maybe. Yeah, just a little bit. I mean, it's only been a year, if that. Not even? Not even a year, yeah. No, May? April, May? Yeah, so I'm giving you even more credit. I mean, that's awesome. So, anyway, we're out here. I just want to do, you know, we're starting here today. It's on a Friday. We'll be here through Sunday. We appreciate them inviting us here to be part of this. Again, we're about the community. We're here to help, you know, help people in the pickleball community enjoy it more. And, again, you're living vicariously through us. Yeah, because you don't always get to be everywhere we can be, and it's a lot of fun. And we're filming this stuff now, so you're going to actually see. I forgot. I'm over here. Oh, shoot. And some guy just almost hit us. Yeah. The ball. Did it fly through the air? It almost got Mike. You might have seen it on the camera. Right? I bet you. That sounds like my sneeze. Yeah. But, yeah, we're going to have some players on. We're going to do some fun events here. We've got a speed gun, and we're going to let some people see how fast their serves are. And we're actually handing out some bags. So we have a lot of sponsors that put some stuff like coupons, some gift cards, and different things like that in the bag. You know, one of them is Torchy Tacos. They gave us enough to put in bags. We got Roundabout. Roundabout, which they were excited, and definitely a great place to go. Yeah, all of these places. Good food, good place, especially if you want to watch sports, definitely a great place to go. So they gave a coupon in these bags for 25% off of any of the food items. And then we have some other stuff like Hash, which is a—I think it's called Hash. Don't you smoke Hash? Yeah, I thought it was—at the beginning, I thought it might be a smoke shop. But, no, it's Hash, like hashtag. Oh, hashtag. When I was young, it was Hash, and you smoked it. Well, they're a breakfast place in—well, I didn't, so that's maybe why you don't understand. But they're a place in Highlands Ranch. They do brunch and stuff. They do waffles. I haven't tried them, but they look really good. That's where Torchy Tacos—so Allison was at Hash, and then we got Nicole, who was at Roundabout, and then we had Zach at Torchy Tacos. Let me see if you know this one. Get four—get your fourth one. Get the next one free. Oh, that's going to be a sweet sip. So if you buy four, you get to get a free extra 12-ounce, which is a good deal. We don't usually do that good of a deal. That's going to be in there. That's a good one. And then Subway. Subway here in the River Point, they—and they actually own the one up by the other third shop—third shop. In Wheat Ridge. And they actually are giving coupons for cookies. Cookies. Free cookies. They are good cookies. Yeah. You know what? I haven't been to Subway in a long time, and it sparked me to go there. They still have some delicious sandwiches. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I love that roast. It's like a—it's kind of like a Philly that they have, and it's really good. Yeah, that's what you had that one time. They did. It was so good. Other like—I think we got a flooring or a general contracting. Yeah, we have—it's Colorado Homes and Design. We have a couple. We have—they're going to—we're doing some—I've been doing flooring for 40 years, and we're trying to—I help them in the flooring division, so I wish I could just do podcasts full-time, but I have to do some of the work. Someday. Someday. It's coming closer. It's coming closer. I know we got some gift cards like Massage Envy. They also gave us some—I think some coupons, too, that will be in some of them. We got some T-Mobile flags. Yep, T-Mobile stickers, all kinds of different things that are going to either be in the bags or with us, which is good, you know? Yeah, we—you know what? We just want to support the small businesses that are around us. You know, people don't realize how pickable it is, but you still got to eat, you got to get drinks, you got to get massages. I mean, you got to do all these fun things, so why not if we can help them out, and they help us out, and we all work together. Yep. So. Well, we hope you guys enjoy, you know, our podcast, and we'll probably put this out on Instagram and TikTok, so you'll see a little bit of us, and then they'll be out in our episodes coming up. Yep, so stay tuned. We'll have some more of this for this whole weekend. Yeah. So some of it will be on our podcast, and some might just go out to some on our Instagrams and TikToks. Yeah. So anyway. Thank you, guys. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Hey, Christana. Hey, Mike. How are you? We're here still. We're here at this wonderful freaking tournament. Yep, we're at the Colorado Championship Cup 3, correct? Top three. Yeah, and so we are here with Devin Gould, and he is with Denver Pickleball Club, who runs events. So he's got a big old smile on his face, because I got to tell you, this has been a really nice RAN operation. So how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, I mean, we need to get in your tournament, I mean, in these, you know, because I'm so good, really. At the 3-0 or something, maybe, but, you know, I've heard and heard and heard, and I love it that you invited us to be out here. This is the best little tournament I've ever seen RAN. I see people, these courts, since 7 o'clock yesterday morning, or since Friday until now, there's not a court that doesn't have people on it playing. People are happy. They're moving right along. I mean, you have done a great job. Well, and I saw you yesterday, like, if people were kind of messing around, you guys, okay, guys, we got to get this going. Let's get the game on, which you have to do, right? Absolutely, yeah. So, awesome. Really good. I mean, really good. I mean, but this is what you love, right? I mean, this is why you're doing it. Yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little more about you, the Denver Pickleball Club, and all of that. Yeah, so I started Denver Pickleball Club about two years ago. Honestly, I had been working in finance for nine years, and I just had enough. I just couldn't do it anymore. So took all my savings, got myself a little bit of a runway, and just kind of took a stab at this. And kind of looked back on some of my other projects past in my life where I was just really into community building. And I was addicted to pickleball already by that time. So I was like, well, let's see if we can, you know, mix the two. Started with some small socials, just beginners teaching people. And now we're here doing, you know, the biggest indoor tournament in Colorado. Oh, my God. It's awesome. But you want to know, me and you probably have something in common right now, is we love playing pickleball, right? We never get to play pickleball. We get to watch everybody play pickleball. I mean, it's really good. Because we tell people, you get to live vicariously through us. That's why our podcast, we bring the community together. People never heard of you. Now they're going to hear about you. You know what I mean? And if we love you, then everybody loves you. No, just kidding. And so how many participants did you have this round? So this is our biggest one yet. Last one we had 380. And now we had 566 over the course of the weekend. Amazing. You're running out of quartz? We literally are. We completely sold out all three days. And we had 72 people on the wait list that I just couldn't get in. Oh, my God. That's exciting for you guys. Yeah, thank you. It's going to be like we were just at nationals and there's 60 quartz going on. This is where you're heading. 60 quartz. That's amazing when you see 60 quartz that are going full blast. You know what I mean? But you're right here. But, again, you run it very, very well. You've taken the time. I'm sure you know the hiccups because you own it. We all as owners know it. But how you have set this up, you're here, you're involved in it, you've got great people helping you. Organized. Organized. Yeah. Great prizes. I love your trophy. Oh, my God, you guys should have seen this trophy. I want one of those, you know? The coveted Colorado championship. You have to play. I do. Mike, you have to play to win that. You know that, right? What if you're just a podcast? Can I just get one because I'm good? Well, then it would come to me. So we had some of the finals yesterday, right? Kyle's Yates. Yeah. And I'm so terrible with names. I don't know. I cannot remember. What's Miles' last name? Hoover. Hoover. Nice. Amazing. He's coming up. All the PPA challengers. He's rocking the Denver Pickleball Club shirt when he does it. It's great. I love it. I love it. Yeah, he did great. I mean, both of them, amazing to watch. Everybody was surrounded. The court just watching them. You can even hardly see them. Well, once you put them both together, that was a force to be reckoned. Really, after that, there wasn't much people weren't going to tell. We watched one of the first games. And she went to go get something. And she came back. She was going to get the camera so we could take some pictures. She came back. They were done. Oh, no. It was so fast. Yeah, it was quick. I said, they're done? And he's like, yeah. They did make quick work on those. So how many tournaments a year do you do between both of these? So the plan right now is I'm hoping to do one about a quarter. We have some plans for the future. We'll see if they come to fruition. But we're working with some other facilities a little more north and south. And we're hoping to start expanding. The, I guess, grand scheme that we're trying to put together is having more continuity, I guess, continuity between the tournaments where you get points, just like you would in an APP or EPA tournament. And then at the end, based on the amount of points you've accumulated at the tournaments throughout the year, you get invited to the Invitational. So we'll have a final event where you have to be invited. And we take preference to whoever has the most points. They get higher seeded into it. And then we have bigger prizes and more of a spectator event, too, for that one. That would be great. Yeah. Now you do a lot of outside one, too, right? You do a lot of outside, not just indoor, right? I have not. You've only done indoor? I've never done an outdoor tournament. I've done outdoor events. That's what it is. You've done some events. And I forget you do that, too. So, man, this is awesome, though. I mean, thank you for inviting us. Yeah. I mean, we appreciate it. And we want to be doing more, especially when you have a place where Pickleball is happy. We do a lot of things, and we won't mention names, but we got a lot of stuff. I mean, it happens. I mean, and sometimes it's not everybody's fault. Well, we're internationals. We're nothing bad. It rained. What do you do with rain? Right. And you have 60 courts going on. You just got to deal with it, and you just smile all the way, right? That is my nightmare right there, is having a situation like that. It keeps me up at night. Yeah. Okay. So what are the levels? So are they like 201, 301 here today? Yeah. So we had a bunch of 202. Not every men's mixed and everything. Not everyone had a 20 that people signed up for. But in the beginning, I make sure that every skill level of anybody who wants to play can sign up. So I can play. So 1.9 can't sign up, huh? I think it's 2.5 and below, so you can. See? You can. I can. She can do it. She's actually doing really well. Yeah. But when she started with us, she never played pickleball. Okay. So we used to call her 2.0. So that was April, May. Yeah. 2.0 or best. Got that, like, fresh beginner's look. Yeah. Yeah. But it's fun. And I'm addicted, but I never get to play very much because we're always so busy, right? We're interviewing, meeting people. We're at all these great events. Like somebody asked me this morning to go do some drilling, and I was so thrilled. I was like, oh, yeah, please. You know? It's awesome. But it's awesome. And what we're all doing for this community and what you're doing, too. I mean, I think what you have a little bit different focus than the other big brands out there is you want to bring the community, which everybody says the community, but really truly bring the community together in pickleball. Yeah, absolutely. That's been my main focus since the beginning. I mean, if I wanted to make money, I would have stayed in my job in finance. That just wasn't doing it for me. Yeah. The podcast world, too. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Please bring us a coffee. Yeah. I can't afford it. I had to get a knee brace today. Thank God somebody I know had a knee brace for me. You're very welcome. Thank you. Shout out to Incrediwear. Yeah, Incrediwear. Man, this thing feels good. Yeah. It actually got, like, support on the side. I have to say something about it right now. It actually is pretty styling, too. It actually kind of looks really kind of sharp. I'd wear it, like, not even having to hurt my head. I think you need one for your other side so you match. Yeah, right. I need one for my head. Yeah, I was thinking that, too. She's going there because I know where she's going. Yeah. And then your beautiful wife's here, right? Yes, she is. Yeah. Do you guys do this full-time together? So she has a full-time job. Okay. She does separately. And then while she's working, I'm in the other room. We're working on this project. But, yeah, we always come together. She's just been an absolute, like, trooper. She's doing all of the dirty work. She's really sweet. So I'm out there. I have to be the face. Yeah. I'm the face. I'm doing the orientations. I'm working with the sponsors. I'm, like, coordinating the volunteers. I'm the one who's watching the desk and really just entering the scores and, you know, making sure that everything's entered correctly. And that's really important. Oh, it's the most important job. Well, you want to get grumpy people? Yeah. You're going to get grumpy people. Yeah. You'll hear from them. Oh, yeah. So let people know, like, this, to put on a 600-person tournament, that's not easy. Oh, no. It was, like, four months straight of work of preparing, getting it up there, and then, you know, coordinating everything, doing all the marketing. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, like, making sure people know about it and, you know, encouraging them to play. And then once you get that number a little higher, then it starts to take care of itself a little bit. But then you have to manage, like, oh, how many people can I fit, right? Yeah. Can I fit these more people? And then customer service and everything else. So, yeah, it's a lot. But I love it, so. Well, I want to give a shout-out to Third Shot here. This is their new facility, which is pretty awesome, huh? Brand new. Oh, yeah. 16 courts. It's fantastic. Beautiful. Everybody's loving it. I mean, I think it's one of the best facilities in the area, if not the best, right? So I'm so blessed to be here and thankful they had me. It really is. It's awesome. I mean, I think all these clubs are just watching each other and being like, how can we make it better, right? Yep. How do we do lighting? They have the soundproofing in here. Like, we're on a podcast right now. There's 16 courts going on, guys. You don't hear anything. It would be so much louder. There's one three feet from us. Yes. Exactly. I mean, we've been literally getting hit in the head with this. We have gotten hit in the head. While you're broadcasting? Yeah. Yeah. Here comes the ball, right? Yeah, we've gotten blasted. Yeah, we've gotten blasted, but I think that's why you put us over here. Like, just a punishment? No. It's because you need it that much. That's why. Wow, Mike. I'm just teasing. Well, I know. He knows you, so that's probably why. I actually told the players they'd get a free raffle ticket if they hit Mike in the head. Oh, see, I knew it. I knew it. Good. Could you announce that, too, over the intercom, please? I was wondering why they were coming my direction, not hers. Yeah. She has a bigger head than me. It should have been easier to hit her. Yeah. No, I mean, come on. We'd have to talk about that one. I'd probably have a bigger head. So, what's next? Do you have another tournament coming up? Yeah, so we don't have one on the schedule quite yet, but we are in talks with multiple facilities to try to get the schedule together as quickly as possible. But we're hoping to do about one per quarter right now. It takes that long to put it together. Exactly. And the way you're growing, you're going to need even more time. Yeah. I mean, 600 people, that's a big tournament. It's huge. It's huge. It's crazy. I was wondering if I was taking too big of a bite, but I really spent the time. Before I let those people off the wait list to get in, I was really thinking it through because my whole goal for this one was to have quality over quantity. You have to have the right experience or they won't come back. Every decision I made, I asked myself, is this going to make the player experience better or worse? Yeah. And I always deferred if it was better. And I got as many people as I could in here, but made sure that it was comfortably where we wouldn't run into issues because, I don't know, the reason I'm doing this is because I played in a few tournaments. Again, I'm not going to name names. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. Where you play like, you pay $100, you go, you sit there, you're waiting 40 minutes before you play, and you're all nervous, and you're just like, I want to play, I want to play. And then you play six games over five or six hours. You're cold between each game. Oh, it's horrible. And then you go home and you're like, that wasn't great. And I saw that room for improvement. So that has been my absolute focus, especially on this third one. I think third time's a charm for sure, where I don't think I've gotten a single complaint on how the tournament was run. We had a couple complaints on like, oh, our opponents hooked us. Oh, yeah. You're not always good at that. But I can't do it. Or it was out, and it wasn't. Exactly. You'll get that all the time. We need refs here. All right, that's another couple thousand dollars. In the future, we hope to, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But to keep it affordable, that's the big thing, is we also don't want it to be too expensive, right? No. That's what people want. I mean, the sad part of this sport is starting to get pretty costly. Yeah. I mean, paddles are $400. It's crazy. I mean, court times are going. It costs money. I get it. But it's starting to be – I mean, that was the nice part when it started. It was outside. We just had – we got a paddle, and we played pickleball. Yeah. But no, I was going to go back to your thing about tournaments. The one I hated was you're in the queue. You're in the queue. Did you ever get in the queue where you waited, and it's four hours? Yeah. And then it would tell you you're going to be up soon. Yeah. So you wouldn't eat or drink. And two hours later, you're like, I'm dehydrated, and I'm hungry. Yeah. You know, oh, my God. This has run so well. And I love how you have this where everybody meets. They bring their phone. You get everybody set up, and then they go out and have a good time. Yeah. So good job. Good, good job. Thank you. Thank you. So then what you're saying, too, is with the waiting list, because you have the waiting list, they need to sign up sooner. Yes. Is that correct? Absolutely. Yes. Anybody listening out there, if you are considering playing – so we usually have every two weeks or so, the price will increase. But that first week, I mean, it was, I think, $50. It was just a steal. That's such a great deal. Oh, my gosh. And then we usually, too, will have a one- or two-month, like, 100% guarantee. If you back out, that's fine. We'll give you full money. I'll even eat the $5 Pickleball.com fee because – Who does that? You know? We want to get people in there, and it actually helps me basically plan ahead of time so that I can have a better tournament, too. So it's kind of a win-win. I give you guys a little bit off the price, and then we can have a better tournament at the end, and I can plan better. So, yeah, if you're listening out there and you're interested in playing, definitely sign up sooner than later. So what is it at the end? So they know to sign up. What's the price? Oh, yeah. So last week, for the very last stragglers, I'm, like, the – I think halfway through last week, we already sold out. So we didn't even go to the end of the registration, but it was $90. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, it makes a difference. It's still pretty affordable. Yeah. Yeah. The thing about that, I mean, when you get those people that come very last, now you've got to change everything again. Like, they don't know how you – the way you have to put this together. I would love to do a video on it because people would be like, what is he doing? Is he crazy? It's not. There's a lot. Yeah. So when people drop out last second, I mean, it's just a mad dash. I have to hit up all of my audience channels and be like, hey, there's an open spot. We need to fill this. I usually give it away for free. Right. Nice. Because I need to have the even numbers to make things run smoother because nobody wants to play in a, you know, 17 bracket where you have a buy every other game and, you know, you're waiting half the time. That's the only way you can run a tournament. Or you're the old guy. You've got to play the 10-year-old. Yeah. That's good. Come on. That's – I mean, you know how many times – He hates to be whipped by that 10-year-old. There's it. We had amazing juniors this year. Oh, my gosh. We had a couple on the podium already this weekend. Oh, yes. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Because they were playing with adults. Yeah. Correct? Yeah. Yeah. They were beating adults. Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah. Handedly. The sad part is you just look at those guys over there. Like, first, they got that cocky kind of like, yeah, these kids. A little crazy on them. And next, they're like, I got it. Hey, get your ball. You know, these young guys, they are good. That's as scary as everybody's leveling up in this game faster and faster. Oh, yeah. Like, I don't even know if there will be a 2-0. I mean, it's like you walk in and you're a 3-0 now. You know what I mean? It's like crazy. Better we're all going to be 1-0s because these kids are so good and they're the 3-0s. Right. It's going to be one or the other. Yeah, I'll be right there. Yeah. She won't be able to play with anybody. No. Wow. Hurt my feelings. All right. She always does it to me. You don't even know how mean she is to me. No. No. No? Yeah. My big head. Go watch some of our videos. All she does is look at my big head. Yeah. Well, Mike, I mean, it's a little... I know. Mike, you know what? Let's just put it all out there. It's not like you've got a small head. It's part of all the brains I have. Yes. There you go. Good rebuttal. I am complimenting you. Oh, yes. Yeah, you are. Anyway, we thank you so much. Yeah. You are an incredible man. Your smile, your life, how you've done this and put it together. I mean, we will be at all of them. We are going to sit here and help and let us know because we're going to announce them for you. We're going to do whatever we can. Yeah. Thanks, guys. And I want to... I think you're going to do a great job. Oh, yeah. Hey, we'll give you a free pass for your first one, guys. Oh, wow. Yeah. Get you in there. Yeah. Okay. Sounds like a deal. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. Oh, give a shout out to where they can go to get out to join up. Yeah. So, best way to follow us is on Instagram. We are at DenPickleball.Club. We also have a newsletter that you can sign up for on our website. That's going to be www.DenPickleball.Club as well. Yeah, we have a newsletter that goes out every week. That's your best bet. You can sign up for it on our website. That's going to be www.DenPickleball.Club as well. Yeah. We have a bunch of events from everything from beginner socials, intermediate little tournaments. We have the Abs Night coming up where we're going to have a big group of us going to the abs. I saw that on Instagram. Yeah. And then the Nuggets quickly followed after because I guess the word got out that we did a good job for the abs. So, we have a Nuggets Night February 8th coming up. Love it. And I believe abs... Double check this, but I think it's for abs. I think it's for abs. I think it's for abs. It's for abs. I think it's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. it's for abs. It's for abs. It's for abs. Who do they play? The Edmonton Oilers. Oh. So, if you're a hockey fan... Yeah, it's going to be McDavid versus McKinnon. Is that Canada, Edmonton? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. My husband's from Canada, so he loves to watch that. So, he would know. He would know. I love it for you. Is he a hockey guy? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He tries to play. Yeah. Yeah, he does. He does good. I love it for you. You're awesome. Yeah. Just your person is just awesome. Oh, thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Devon. You're welcome. It's been fun. Have a great day. We'll see you at the end. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Take care. Bye, guys. Bye. We're here at the last day of this awesome tournament. Yeah, at the Colorado Championship Cup 3 at Third Shot, and we are here with Mae Romero, and she is with OctoGear. How are you? I'm great. Thank you all for having me on your wonderful podcast. I've heard about you guys now from four different sources, and I'm thrilled to meet you. At least me. I know you've heard about me, but, I mean, her, I don't know. He's always so nice to me. Yeah, I see that. No, you'll see that down in the show here, she's mean to me, so I have to get them in now before I get in trouble. Except for if you can look at Saspo over there, do you see that? His hand's ready to go up and slap Mike over there. He's ready. Ready. Saspo's wearing an Octo hat. Yeah. And he has kitchen blockers. And he looks good, right? Little Pecky over here is the same, got her Octo hat. She got her Octo hat. I've got gear on. Well, give, now, everybody's probably like, what's Octo? You know, what's OctoGear? Yeah. Well, give us a little spiel of what this is. So, Octo is the ultimate pickleball backpack, and it was born from the Denver courts. I invented it because I needed it. I didn't set out to be a backpack company. I was just spending long hours on the courts and going to my bag in between games, and I didn't want to do that bottom of the bag searching for a chapstick or a ball or a phone, so I put a place for everything, and I just was really thoughtful about what we needed as players. It really is. You want to know the worst one? This one I know we've all done. You put your keys in, you're in a hurry, you throw them in there, and they mix up somewhere in there. Exactly. And you get ready to go, and you're like, where's my keys? Because you know you put them in there, and you're like, okay, what happened? And you have that panic. You have that panic. And you have that moment of panic. We give you a key fob in a secret pocket for your keys and your wallet, so you always know where to grab it. I love it. Well, I have to say, when I seen you here today, I've been looking for a bag. I play Badell, and I play pick a ball, and of course, I think I'm a professional, so I have to have 600 paddles and 10 balls and my makeup and everything else. Thousand shoes. Yeah, I got to have everything ready because it could be the situation that that didn't work, and that's why I'm playing bad, right? Not me, but my gear. Oh, absolutely. Now you've got your paddle. Always look at your paddle when you miss a ball. What is going on with you? Right. You know? So when I came up, and you showed me, you opened this up, it was like a light came on. I mean, the side panels, which is great. I'm a little older, so ibuprofen, got to have my chapstick, I got to have 10 pairs of different glasses. Sunblock. Sunblock, because I play outside. This thing is incredible. And the neat thing of it is, I just got to talk about the side panels. I open it up, and you know how, when we're getting ready to play pickleball, I'm ready to play pickleball. I don't want to play with a bag, and you want to be on there first, right? Exactly. Seems like there's always five. You don't want to wait. I don't want to wait. You grab your stuff and you jump on the court. No. Well, you put magnets in this, which is really cool, so my stuff's not flopping all over and see my unorganization. I mean, so there's a zipper. There's a zipper. With, but then the magnets, so when you're on the go- You just hit it and it holds it together. Exactly. So we utilize the sides of the bag, which most manufacturers don't use, but there's a lot of real estate there, so you unzip those two side panels, and then once they're unzipped, you just slam them shut and they close with magnets. So they're called the quick access side panels. So that's where you put your sunscreen, your chapstick, your ball chamber, stuff you need to grab quickly. I'm telling you, it is awesome. I'm not even playing in the tournament, and this is, I already have it here sitting in front of us because I carry everything in it. Let me tell you what's in my backpack. Okay. I mean, really quick. I have four paddles. I have a Padel paddle, three regular paddles. I have a whole sleeve and a half of balls. I have a pair of shoes in there. I have a change of clothes because it depends how cool I want to look. I need to be in black or pink. I got to have my change of clothes. We have a hot pink one coming in a month. You know that. I already told you. I'm putting my name on that one right now. This bag is beautiful too, though. I know you can't see it. The colors are beautiful. Oh my God. It's a gray with a blue outline around it. It's gorgeous, but I have all, and I'm older, so I got to have all my special, my knee goes, my elbow goes, my wraps, and I still have room. Oh, the best part. Sorry. This got me really excited. I've had other bags that have like this pocket that you can put cold drinks in and stuff, and you can put some food, but by the time you put your whole bag and fill it up, nothing fits in there. Yeah, and then the ice pack melts and it makes a mess in your bag that comes with it, which is inside my bag, which you can use for more storage if you need to, but you now have a lunchbox in there that you can take home and clean, put in the fridge at night, have your stuff ready to go. You're not cleaning the whole backpack because it made a mess in there. You're actually taking it out and cleaning, which is nice. And I only included that because I've done that. I've put the ice pack in the little side pocket they give you, and then you're stuffing paper towels in there to try to dry it out later. So I just wanted to give you a proper lunchbox that you can pack your lunch in and then clean it later. Well, and then when you go to the inside, there's pockets on the top of the roof of it. There's pockets. I mean, this is, she used every corner, every space, every part of this bag to make sure that you had places to put things without losing them. Yeah. Like the pockets on the lid you were referencing, that's for your protective eyewear, and we located it on the lid so that they won't crush, so you don't have to worry about throwing your glasses at the bottom of the bag and something else crushing them. That's nice. I know. This gear is expensive. It is expensive. You know, I mean, there's a couple thousand dollars sitting in front of you. For sure. I mean, that's nuts. But when you're such a good player as I am, I mean, no. You need it. I need it. If anything, when I walk in with your bag, I look good, right? You look great. I look really good. You look like a pro. Yeah, you were styling. I was styling. You were styling. You're still styling. It's right in front of you. It's a gorgeous bag. I love the hook situation, too. I've used a lot of bags that have kind of some flimsy hooks on them, and they actually end up breaking. They're plastic. Yeah, and what my pet peeve was, they give you a carry strap, and then most people just find a carabiner, put it on that carry strap, and then they strap it to the fence, and then it hangs crooked. And I just wanted my bag to hang level, so I included two strong metal hooks. It hangs level. It's really your courtside command center. It really is. And the hooks actually go so they don't catch everything when you're trying it. They hook back into the actual thing. They tuck in. Yes. They tuck in. So they're not there. I had to look for them, because I know. I said, her bag's hanging. How come my bag don't look cool hanging? And so this is the bag, guys. She did not give me this bag. I actually purchased it. So this was something that I fell in love with, and it's awesome. There's one more area I'm going to talk about. I know I'm excited. When you open the front pouch up, that has my business, because I'm a podcaster, so I got to have my phone, my cards, all my chargers. It has a place. People always ask me for a different number or an email. You open it up. It has a little workspace on it, like a little desk. This is awesome. Well, we, you know, we all play long hours on the court, and we all do business. Like half the time I'm playing, I should be working. And so, and even young people, they need to check in with their parents and stuff. So I put a place for our phone, business cards, and a place to jot down some notes. And so, I think it just made sense, and like I said, I just try to think of everything we need as players and incorporate it into the bag. I'm not a paddle manufacturer. I just made a thoughtfully laid out bag, and I focused on that. You did a great job. Well, thank you. It's amazing. The octopus on the side and everything. So the octopus on the side, so it's called Octo in homage to the octopus. I watched Octopus, my teacher, and just fell in love with the octopus. It's an adaptive creature, and that's how we have to be on the courts, is adaptive. So I give a portion of my profits to the Diver Mojo Foundation, which protects the coral reefs, and that's where the octopus and many precious animals live, and I'm very passionate about that cause. So I feel good every time I sell one, the coral reefs and the octopus benefit. I love it. I love it. You have done a great job. I mean, the time, and again, you're just, because you were looking for a bag that worked, you came up with this. Yes, and you're helping so many other people. Yeah. Yeah. This is my part-time job. This is my side hustle, but I've always invented things on the side. I've been with my current job 27 years, a mechanical engineer, and on the side, this is the third product I've brought to market, and all of my products are things that I really, really needed, and I just saw a real gap in the market, and that's true with this bag too. Well, you engineered it, cause I can tell you that this has been engineered. There's nothing I can't keep looking at and doing it, but even the zippers have a finger pull in them so that your finger, you can grab them really quick. You put that little rubber on them so you can grab them. Every single zipper has that pull, and then the zippers are YKK zippers, so they'll last forever. The bag is waterproof and rip-proof, and I just try to incorporate functionality, quality, and styling. And the price is wonderful. I mean, is it for a great price? I love it. Thank you. Thank you so much. You've got some new stuff coming up, don't you? We do. We do. There's going to be a baby on the way. Oh! A baby octopus. The bags have been hanging out. A baby octo. That's right. That's right. It's called, technically, this is the Octo Pro Elite. It's a tournament bag, and then the one on the way is called Octo Rec Light for recreational players, but we affectionately call it Baby Octo. And we're going to have four color ways in each size, so you're going to have color choices and size choices now. And that's coming soon. 30 days. Nice. I think, guys, too, another thing, if you're a travel, we travel, we're a travel podcast, is when we're getting on the planes, that little one's really nice to throw your gear in really quick. Do, you know, you can, and I think this... Will this fit on the plane? This is... As a carry-on? Yes. As a carry-on? Okay. It's got a trolley strap on the back that you can slide over your roller board, and it's 12 by 12 by 22, so it's fully TSA approved. And so, this one fits great in the overhead. You can fit it underneath, but it's a little bit of a tight fit. Baby Octo will fit great underneath, so there's going to be something for everybody, every level of travel. Well, I think I'm just one of those people that once I love something, I want all of them, you know? Yeah. I know. You're going to have every color. I'll have every color. Every baby. What do I feel like today? White and pink or black and pink? I love it. Yeah. I love it. I love it. You're my best customer, Mike. Thank you. Well, I, you know, when I... I don't just want to have somebody as a sponsor or be an affiliate or do something unless I believe in it. Absolutely. I mean, what do I be doing just as if people go buy this and they don't, you know, and I didn't even try it. You know what I mean? Exactly. Good. So, I think that's what we were talking about yesterday. Like, Mike, this is awesome. You know, you're getting one. I said, yeah, I'm getting one of these. I like it. I see what you've done. I'd like to try it. And I couldn't... It was like Christmas for a pickleballer going home. I had to open it and take all the stuff and then put all my... Now it's beautiful, but in about probably a month from now, everything's gonna be everywhere. Well, we're gonna have to like do it, do some pictures of it, open it up and see what you got in there, Mike, you know? And tag us at MyOcto. Yes. We love people to take pictures of what they put in their bag because everyone outfits it different. You have 16 customizable pockets in those two side panels and 26 pockets total. And everyone equips it differently and we love to see what you put in your bag. Open my side, there'll be a big subway. Well, and actually, so you don't actually have to do it for pickleball. I mean, this could be for camera equipment. I mean, this is a great bag for all kinds of things. We've had softball players say that it's the best hanging bag on the fence. They put their bats and their gloves in it. You could put a soccer ball in it. Moms use it as a diaper bag. I mean, anybody can use it. I developed it for pickleball because I needed it, but it's an all-gear bag and especially for paddle sports. How do you fit a padel paddle, a tennis racket, squash, and racquetball? Yeah, I have a padel in there right now. I've got a padel and three pickleball paddles. Awesome. So, and I still have room and I'll fill it. Now, you can tell it still has room. It's not blowing up. No, it's not like... My poor little bag. I had this bag. I got given to me by some people and I just, I've just, it was ready to start ripping from the seams. I need a bit. We travel a lot. So for us, I need a bag and I play a lot. I play three to four hours a day. Nice. That's what I do too. Yeah. So it's killing me that I'm not out there playing right now. All right. None of us got to play. We were just talking about it. We were like, isn't this great? It's so fun watching people have fun when we can't have any of the fun. I know. I know. So, well, we just love what you're doing and we're definitely going to get together with you and we're going to get our fans some information about you and I think we're going to become an affiliate of this product. I think we love it. Definitely. Thank you. Yeah. Well, we're a Colorado company. We're a woman owned company and we've gotten such a warm reception from our home state of Colorado and we're so appreciative and we give the best discounts here in Colorado. And so we're happy. We're happy to be here. We're proud. Yeah. Well, I mean, you're going to be in my Padel family and my pickleball family. So thank you for that. And it's nice to find somebody that, you know, what I love is the ingenuity that you put into this because you're the pickleball player. You weren't looking. You know, of course you'd like to make this would be something that makes profit. But at the end of the day, you were just looking, trying to find the bag that fit for what you were doing. You're fixing a problem. And I bought every bag. I've had all the big name bags and I always ended up at the bottom of the bag searching for a chapstick. So, you know, I just wanted a place for my chapstick. Oh, that's so cute. When we do some videos on it, wait till you see. There is that you can tell there's a couple of places that are just made for chapstick. For chapstick. Everything. What am I going to put in that? I got to get some chapstick. That's right. We're in Colorado. It's dry here. Yes. I'm a mint guy. So there's my favorite place. Is there some mints in there? Oh, so I know where to find them. Hey, don't you? You already steal my mints. So where do we find you? You can go to octogear.com and you can find us there. We're all over Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. We go to a lot of tournaments, a few national tournaments and a lot of local tournaments. Local Colorado tournaments. So you'll see us around and we've gotten some sponsors. Lee Whitwell, the number one senior pro in the world, is our ambassador. And then also Erica Mania, who's a local Denver racquetball championship player. She's a gold medalist in racquetball. She saw this bag. She can put three racquetball rackets in it and she's our ambassador for racquetball. We're very proud to have both of those ladies as ambassadors. That's amazing. Awesome. Well, we thank you so much. I mean, what a great person. I mean, that's it. It's hard not to buy from you because you're just so sweet. Yes. Thank you. I don't care what she says about you. I like you. Oh, well, I love you guys. You need to help me set up my booth this morning and I couldn't be more grateful. You're just generous people. And I think I think we were attracted to each other because of that. We are. I mean, we're a community, right? I mean, it doesn't matter if we're playing pickleball, if you need help go outside. I mean, that's just that's what I love about the pickleball community. We help wherever we need to be helped. It's not just on the court. We even had somebody escort us out, moving everybody out while we were going last night. It was so cute. Ryan. He was like, clear the way. No pictures. No pictures. It was so cute. Don't make eye contact. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Thank you. Appreciate you both very much. We'll have you on some more. We'll be talking more. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Take care. Holey Performance 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 Holey is packed with the electrolytes you need to stay sharp, fueled, and ready to play longer. Visit HoleyPerformance.com. That's H-O-L-E-Y Performance.com and use code NEXTDOOR for 20% off your order. Holey Performance is a proud sponsor of H-O-L-E-Y Performance.