Episode 57 - How Insoles & Proper Shoes Reduce Pickleball Injuries | ProAlign Chiropractic, Blumaka & Fleks Footwear

Thank you for joining me. I'm Mike. I'm Kris Anna. We're the Pickleballers Next Door. 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 dot com, and use code NEXTDOOR for 20% off your order. Okay, hi Mike. How you doing? Good, how are you? I'm doing alright. I guess we're, I was just saying, we got stuck on this, from the shoes to the feet and what's going on. And you, I think we have a special guest on today, right? Yeah, so we have LaMarcus Carradine, and he's with ProAlign Sports Chiropractic, and he's a really good guy. We love LaMarcus, and he's going to kind of go over a few things about, you know, with pickleball and your feet, and you know, we had the blue maca on for the insoles, which is going to be part of the podcast. Yeah, it's going to be part of this, and again, we, what we appreciate about you is that you help people, you're not just, you know, you got to make money, it's a living, but you also are going to get down to the nitty gritty to how to make them feel better, and as you are a pickleball player, you know that the feet are super important, pretty much if they're not working, then pretty much the rest of the body goes to heck. What did you say there, LaMarcus? Say hi? Yes. Yes, it's just one of those things, like when the body, when the body is ready to kind of let go, it lets go, but one thing that I, one thing that I do know about feet, just in general, is that it controls literally 99% of the rest of the body. Isn't that crazy? So when the feet, yeah, it's so wild, because like not many doctors talk about it as much, and it's usually just because they don't necessarily think about it, but me being a professional athlete and then transitioning to pickleball, transitioning to running, jumping, moving, you realize the type of stressors that run through your feet all the way up to your knees, all the way up to your hips, all the way up to your shoulders, it all works in unison. And so, say for instance, if you have any type of plantar fasciitis issues, or if you have any foot issues in general, it usually dictates the rest. So, say for instance, if you have a calf issue, it's probably stemming from the feet. If you have a knee issue, it's probably somewhere stemming from either the feet or a little bit below the knee. So usually, whenever you're thinking about an issue, it's usually in that exact area where the issue is, or lower. But you can't get any lower than the feet. So, you know what I'm saying? Well, you don't want to get any lower than the feet. Yeah, you're getting low. Yeah, they're burying you. That's pretty much what they're trying to do. Exactly. Exactly. So, what would you say, like, I know that a lot of people come to you with, you know, because for pain, actually all the way up to, you know, their head, right? And like you say, with the feet, would you say that you would want to have good, you know, good insoles? You would want to have good shoes when you're playing pickleball, too, correct? Yes. Yes, you definitely want to have good shoes. If you don't have good shoes or good insoles, it'll start to wear and tear on your foot. And so when it starts to wear and tear on your foot, you start cutting. If you have shoes that are too tight, or you have insoles that's pulling on the foot too much, it has to be the, and everybody's body is different. So everybody's foot is not going to be the same. Like, some people have flat feet, some people have really curved feet. Just in general, everybody's foot is different. So a certain insole needs to be directed towards what you wear, not somebody else's shoes. Like, when I was younger, I used to grab my friend's shoes if I didn't, like, if I didn't have the right shoes to go do certain stuff. And that wasn't, you know, as a kid, you get away with it. You get away with it a lot as a kid. You can bounce back a whole lot. Once you start getting past, if I'm being honest with you, once you start hitting past 25, 26, 27, even 20, and on up, you start to, start to have that wear and tear that starts to really, really dictate whether you can continue to play or whether you don't. Because it's a longevity. Is it, like, playing sports is a longevity thing. Being able to move is a longevity thing. If you already have wear and tear at the age of 18 or 19, you're not going to be playing very long. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so when you get to Christana's age, it's like, you're doomed, you're done. Yeah, you're done. So you play a lot of football. You know what I found out yesterday? I didn't know this called turf toe, turf feet, turf toes. I'd never heard that before. Yes. So you, this is a common thing, I guess. Especially for NFL, right? NFL. Yes, yes. It's a very common thing. It stems from all the cutting and jumping that most NFL athletes do. So, like, whenever you cut, that toe kind of presses out every time. And when it presses out, your body gets very used to that competitive motion. And so it starts to shift to whatever it thinks you're going to do beforehand. Oh, man. Your body tries to be as smart as it can, but sometimes it overdoes it. Yeah. Yeah, so that's what ends up happening. It overdoes it and it builds a big callus inside the top of your toe. Like, just to be honest with you. And what does that do? Like, what does that do for you with your body? So, say for instance, whenever you try to move, walk, or anything like that, it causes a lot of pain whenever you try to step. Because your foot is supposed to be mobile. Your toes are supposed to be mobile. It creates that callus to try to protect your foot. The problem is, with that callus, you can't move that big toe. And so if you can't move that big toe, it creates stressors on the other toe. And now your whole foot is jacked up. And your performance is going to go down by far. Performance goes down crazy. Like, it drops at least 50 to 60%. That's nuts. Yeah. So, and you can't run, you can't jump. And think about it as a pickleball player or a football player. And you need to be able to do all those things. Absolutely. To be able to run, move, cut, do all that stuff. And pickleball is one of the most quick reaction type sports. So you have to be able to move side to side very, very well. With turf toe, it's pretty, it's almost impossible to move with turf toe and have it at that 60% range of pain. Well, we were working this weekend with the Blue Maca. Blue Maca. And I was fascinated that they put this metal in there. It's like a metal into there so that it'll keep, when you go to do that flex, it kind of holds those toes up. Yes. They have this, these inserts are all in the NFL and everything. So it's pretty impressive. But I never heard that before. I never got to that level. But I know you've played at that level. So I was super curious to call, to ask you about that. Yes. And also with the, every time you cut and pickleball, your foot is, your toes are up. So that's actually a great, that's actually a great idea to kind of keep the toes up because you're going to be cutting the whole time. So you might as well keep the toes up. Yeah. That's awesome. It's just crazy. I mean, how complicated we are and the feet. I mean, I mean those little toes and it's all. It all starts with the feet and the head. And if it goes below. Yes. If it goes below the feet, you know what happens. Yes. But, well, that's why we were calling you. I mean, you're our expert and I know we're going to be talking about having you on the show a few times a month and talk about different other pains. We just happened to get on the shoe thing because it's so important. I mean, these people are wearing tennis shoes, shoes, even high heels. I hate high heels. Sorry. I don't know what pickleball place I'm playing at, but anyway, the guys are wearing like the high tops, right? I mean, that's made for basketball. I get it. But here you're not allowing the body to work right with the high top shoe playing pickleball, you know, because your ankles have a special, you know, that's that cutting and turning on the, on the pickleball court and high heels and high heels. What am I on? I guess I want to try high tops is, but you know, where you, it's not made for this. They make court shoes for a reason. I mean, there's a real reason for it. And we get the question all the time is, you know, why can't I just wear my tennis shoes? Well, it's made for running. Most of those shoes that you buy that are real soft and feel really good. Those are made for professional runners. They're not made for pickleball. Yeah, exactly. We've just done, you know, we did an episode last week that we put out at just about the eyewear and footwear and the injuries that people are getting. And, you know, I know you see a lot of that because, you know, it's because they didn't do the right thing. Maybe with their, you know, they got, maybe they did do the high heels. High heels, yeah. Don't wear high heels. I don't know why. Maybe they're following what Mark does. Maybe they saw you wearing them. Yeah, but actually, isn't that a big problem for ladies wearing high heels? I mean, that's another whole issue, right? Huge. Yeah, that is a huge issue. That ruins a lot of people's, like, I think it damaged my feet wearing high heels when I was young. Yeah, it really messes with the, like, the feet is so detrimental. Like, it's wearing high heels because you're keeping the foot too much in extension is the reason why. Like, too much of anything. You remember me saying, like, you need to have your toes up? Yep. And that's good, but too much of it starts to cause issues. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, you're always awesome. I mean, we're so happy to have you on. I know you're a busy man. We called you last minute to get you on. Yeah, thank you. But we know you're, you know, again, I actually am going to make an appointment here to come see you because I've done something dumb. And we'll talk to you about your experience. Maybe my high heel was, I was wearing my high heels on the court. It was really weird because, you know, we're at this tournament over the weekend and I'm like, Mike, is that Mike in his high heels again? Talking about my high heels. Well, because they say tall guys on the court have a better chance of winning, you know. Yeah. So I wear those six-inch high heels. He said, I got to get the six inches. Yeah. Let me tell you, he was not looking like a woman. Wasn't a good look. So Lizola Marcus, so you are in Highlands Ranch and you are in Castle Rock. So can you kind of give us where people can find you in the days that you're there? Yes, ma'am. So what I ended up doing was opening up in, like you said, Castle Rock and Highlands Ranch. My locations, the one that's in Highlands Ranch is on County Line Road. And the one that's in Castle Rock is on Capri Street. And so both, like Monday through Saturday is when I'm going to be working. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday I'm going to be in Highlands Ranch. Thursday and Saturday I'm going to be in Castle Rock. My Saturday location kind of varies because it's going to be one Saturday and then it's going to skip that next Saturday and get that other Saturday. So it's going to be every other week on Saturday. Nice. That's nice. People don't have to drive as far. I mean, that's crazy. Before, you wouldn't think nothing of driving from Castle Rock to Highlands Ranch. But anymore, that area around there is so bad with traffic. Exactly. So that's awesome that you did that for your clientele. And tell us your website again. And my website is proalignsportschiropractic.com. And your phone number if they want to make an appointment. Yes. And my phone number is 662-552-2899. Awesome. And we'll do a shout-out, of course, that you are actually you work with Jen from the Denver Iconics. And I know that she loves you. And I know you adjusted me. I just haven't had time to come in. And it's amazing what you do do. We appreciate that. I appreciate it. I love the music coming in and have her head readjusted again. Yeah. I probably do. I do. Because after I saw Mike in those high heels, I'm like, wow. So, well, anyway, we appreciate you so much. Thanks for coming on. We were on a roll here with the feet. And we have lots of other body parts to talk about. But we appreciate you so much. No, I appreciate you guys. And I also want to give out my office number as well. Oh, sure. Yeah, so my office number will be 720-722-2974 as well. So you can hit me up on both lines. It doesn't matter when and where. People, this is a great man. Call this man. Don't let it, when you feel that ache or pain, don't wait two weeks to go see him because it hurts. You'll regret it. You'll regret it. I'm already right there. You'll turn up wearing high heels. But thank you, LaMarcus, so much. Have a great day. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye. Morning, Christana. Good morning, Mike. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Early morning here. Already doing pickleball at the Denver Pickle Club. Having a tournament here. We've been here since Friday. Yeah, we're at the Colorado Championship III. And, yeah, we've been here since Friday. And we're here. We are meeting a lot of people that are doing a lot of good. And we are here with Matt Schlepfor. And he is with Blue Maca Insoles. And so we're going to kind of talk to him about everything that's going on with him. Well, and to go back on that, guys, remember, we were just talking about what shoes to wear. Now, once you get the right shoes to wear, you need to have some special inserts in your shoes if you're a player. Now, if you're just going to play once a month or, I mean, I still recommend these because you can use them on all your shoes. But, guys, listen to this. This gentleman that we're going to bring on has changed my life in a weekend. So we're going to talk a little bit more about that. But, anyway, I wanted to throw that in there because our last podcast was about shoes. Just the safety with injury and different things like that. Yeah. Awesome. So how are you, Matt? I'm awesome. Great to be with you guys. Glad to have met you guys. Really appreciate you having me. Me. At least me, though. Me. You don't have to call her. Yeah, I mean, I'm nothing. I healed you. I healed you over the weekend. I'm happy. So you guys have this, like, connection. Yeah. We have a bond now. Yes. You just got to watch out for Mike because you have blue eyes and Mike likes to look into blue eyes. Just so you know, I'm not going to. Everybody knows. We'll go over that later. There's an episode when we were in USA Pickleball with the Golden Bachelorette. Bachelor. Bachelor. It was late. I was hungry. I will keep saying this. But he was, you know, this guy was, I mean, he was a bachelor, right? He was a good-looking dude. And I just happened to be staring in his eyes and I said the wrong things came out of my mouth. So now we sit everybody, like, to the side so that Mike doesn't get that glaze that he had over his eyes. That's why you have me facing him backwards. Yeah. I turn this way. I'll turn away. So tell us about Blue Maca. So Blue Maca started, I think it's five years now. We started right before COVID. And the founder is actually a college buddy of mine, was in my wedding 40 years ago. And his brother is my brother-in-law. So there's some connections there. So I've known him for a long time. Really haven't worked with him until a couple years ago because we were in completely different businesses. We do own some ranch land together and run cattle in Nebraska. Great. So Stuart ran in the Olympic trials in 1982. And can't remember if he came in third or fourth, but I think it was fourth. So I don't think he made the Olympic team. He won the St. Louis Marathon when we were in college in 82. Amazing. Awesome. So the initial – and then he went – so he had a long and varied career. But his – kind of his last stop was at Decker's, which owns the Hoka brand, the UGG brand. Yeah. And so Stuart was sort of instrumental in getting the Hoka brand into the United States when he was at Decker's. Wow. He also worked with an entrepreneur who – if you remember the old Air Jordans with the air pocketing? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. So the guy – the innovator there was a guy named George Cole. And Stuart worked for him for probably 20 years innovating and doing innovation for Nike and different shoe companies and getting patents on that stuff. So I got sidetracked here. My wife said I would get sidetracked. It's all right. No, you know what? We all get sidetracked, especially Mike. She always sidetracks me. So anyways, a long story short is he was out trail running. He runs a lot. And his foot took a step side hill, twisted his ankle. And he's like – because the shoes have traction. Yeah. So what's going on inside your shoe is really what's important. So he developed this, what we call non-slip connect technology. So when your foot's in your shoe, your foot isn't moving. I noticed trying to put them on to Stuart. I was having a war with my shoe. You have a war with your shoes every day. So don't comment on that. Yeah. So the interesting thing is that's true. We actually have a company that's putting our insoles in their product. And they actually, when you get their product, they write a note. You're going to have a – A disclaimer. You're going to wrestle with your shoes for a little bit. Yeah. So that's right. So at first, it really started out as a sustainability story. So in China is where they make all the shoes. They know how to make shoes. Yeah. So your midsole and your hokas, your Nikes or whatever creates a lot of waste. So when they make a midsole, they're cutting it out like cookies. So you know when you're making cookies and you have all that excess dough. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's what they're throwing in the landfills or burning. So there's 12 million tons of waste every year created by the shoe industry. It was either getting buried or burned. Well, the crazy part is just the little piece that you have here to show that, it's a lot. Yeah. So I can't imagine how much is being thrown away because I have 300 pairs of shoes. Right. I feel bad. Sorry, world. I've wasted a lot of this. But it's now back in use. Yes. All those shoes are going to good use. Yes. Yeah. So we were able to. So what we figured out is a way to grind it up. So it's sort of like a Rice Krispie treat. The foam becomes like the Rice Krispies. And then we have kind of a secret sauce that is put into the mold. It's a cold mold. So we're using one teaspoon of water per insole versus a couple gallons of water, which most companies use. That makes a big difference. Yeah. Use 90% less electricity. So it's a very sustainable product. In fact, Stuart is in China now. And he went up with his phone on top of the factory to make sure that they truly had the solar panels that they were talking about to run the factory on the roof. And they do. That's awesome. So it became a sustainability story, and that's sort of how. And that blue maca means blue earth. So that's kind of how the story started. But then it became a performance story. And one of the first guys that found our product was a guy named Mike Kostromski. And he put it in his shoes and raved about them and got us into some major league baseball teams. We're now in every major league baseball team. Some players, it may not be the whole team, but a player. So half the all-star pitchers in last year's major league baseball team were wearing our insoles. How exciting. Yeah. That's crazy. That's nuts. That's really cool. And think about how this is their life. This is their job. So they are on their feet abusing them like crazy. So, I mean, oh, my gosh. And if they do what they've done for me since Friday, I'm sold. Huge testimony with all this. So part of it, too, so the whole thing is what's called ground reaction force, right? So golf, pickleball, your ability to move and not have your foot slide is what gives you that extra edge. So then this year we got into 14 NFL teams. Oh, my gosh. We're in major league lacrosse. Not all the teams, but a bunch of the players. And we're in the University of Denver men's lacrosse teams and the Colorado Mammoth are all using our insoles. So the performance side of it is really what's driven sort of. But we like to tell the sustainability story because that's just as important as the performance side of it. Well, look, you play pickleball. Look at this court. You know, even tennis, right? Tennis is a bigger court. You move a lot. But on this court that now you can fit four of these in a tennis court, your movement here is a lot faster. You have to move. Your reactions are a lot faster on pickleball. Right. And you're twisting and turning. And if you're moving, I'm telling you, I don't know how many heels and Achilles and things because they're probably shoe wasn't tight. And it moved in there and twisted. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So I can see this. I have a bum leg right now. I remember just doing some driving and stuff, and I could really feel that that wasn't moving. Like I said, I get that now. And at first, I'm like, what do you do, put glue on these? I can't get my foot in there. I'm going to have to powder them or something. But now it makes sense. Wow, this really makes sense. And I felt it when I was just doing some drills when I was setting because in pickleball, you've got to set, right? You're a pickleballer. You can't be moving. You've got to set and then hit the ball. Yeah. Unless you're really good in a pro. Well, I'm a 6'2". Oh, well, see, you can move. Wow. You can move and do all of it. But, guys, you have to get a pair of these. We're going to hear a lot about them. I mean, he's made me a believer, you know? He's not just a nice guy. Yeah, I'm excited to try them too. So I think the other interesting thing with us is all our, what's the word I'm looking for? Accreditation or what's the word I'm looking for? Validation. Validation. It hasn't come from us. Okay. So there's a lot of brands out there that make some claims. I won't name any of them. And they make claims. And there's no really science behind them. We had a Major League Baseball team put 400 athletes in our insoles and did a study on them for bat speed, starting and stopping, and shared that data with us. So that gave us some initial validation. And that's public knowledge? Like, is that somewhere that somebody can put on your site? Yeah, because we do get doctors who want to, they're like, oh, great, you have this professional player wearing them, this professional player wearing them, but where's the proof in the pudding? So Stuart's the keeper of all our secrets. Nice. So, yeah, so that's part of what's really been great for us is a lot of the validation. We have not done these studies. Other parties have, independent of us. And that's important that it's other parties. So we also have, we just recently got a golf study done, again, by two PhDs, two separate studies. But generally speaking, an average, a good golfer will get 7 yards further with their 7-iron and 14 yards further with their driver. Makes sense. I mean, it makes sense because you're setting yourself, you're going through the movement, and you're not slipping or moving, so that's not putting the top of your body off. So that makes sense. I'm a golfer, too. So part of what we're saying is because you're not moving your swing planes, so it's not necessarily, you know. But you think about how much people spend, you know, on golf clubs to get that extra yardage. You've got to have the insoles, right, for golf. So back to pickleball, I mean, what really got us started here in Denver was Molly Carter. And she's with the Denver Iconics, right? Yeah. Okay. So the whole Denver Iconics also wears our insoles. Yeah. Great team, great people. But she's been the town crier for us, so to speak. She literally sent probably 12 people over to our booth yesterday. She's on her feet all day. Yeah. And this has saved her. She's amazing. I mean, she plays tennis and she plays pickleball. Yeah, she's crazy. She's an amazing person. And I think the pro at the other third point up in Wheat Ridge is Ashley. I'm not sure. But anyways, so she said, we were at a trade show, and we were like five minutes from the Wheat Ridge facility. Yeah. And she goes, you've got to get these to Ashley. I was just with her. Her feet are killing her. So I said, I'm five minutes away. So I ran up. She was in the middle of a lesson I handed to her. She goes, are you the blue maca guy? And she's been actually here this weekend. And the same thing, she's loved them. It's incredible. You know, because what you do is the first thing you do is your foot, you start getting that heel pain a little bit. You're like, okay, run to King Soopers, run to your store, and grab those things. And they are the worst things. Actually, since they do, they actually move in your shoe. And they're actually, they don't have too much give. They actually make it worse. That's what I experienced right away. Well, so the uniqueness of our product is because of the way it's like a Rice Krispie treat. If one of those pieces of foam goes bad, it doesn't impact the whole thing. So the other great thing about our product is we guarantee it for 1,000 miles of cushioning. Your average insole loses cushioning after 40 to 100 miles. Well, and I think we were talking yesterday, how about us bigger guys? I'm 240. You know, when you're playing with 240, 260, your miles are a lot less. Yeah. Yeah, right. Maybe not move as fast, but we have a lot more weight on those shoes. So the perfect story there is we had a marathon runner who weighed 235 pounds, put 935 miles on his insoles and sent them back to us and said, I think the cushioning has been reduced. We sent it to an independent lab, and the reduction in cushioning was 7%. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. What's the normal? Like what would be a normal other insole probably? 40 to 100 miles. Yeah. Literally 100% of the cushioning is gone after 40 to 100 miles. Wow. If you see the insoles I pull out of people's shoes that are here, they might as well not wear them. You've seen mine yesterday. Oh, yeah. I puked. You did. They were bad. They weren't bad. They were just bad. My feet smell good. But they were, like I said, I mean it was instant. As soon as I put them on, I was like, oh, my gosh. Wow. It actually supported me and holded me instead of just this big cushion. Right. That's what everybody's thinking because you have that big pillow in there, but it's really not doing anything. Your back, your legs, you're moving, like you said, on the court. Yeah. And that could be where I got some of the injury. You know what I mean? So I'll tell you a pickleball story. We have a good friend, a college friend who's huge into pickleball down in Florida. He played 2,038 games in his insoles. Oh, my gosh. And went through five pair of pickleball shoes. That's a great story. That's crazy. That's really awesome. So, you know, they're $60 retail. Some of them are $55. But, again, you know, if you're spending $12, $20 on any of these other brands, you just know that after 100 miles, potentially 200 miles in some of them, you're going to run out of cushioning. So, you know, to think about, oh, they're so expensive. That's a great price. Yeah. Well, really not because I have a box full of them, and I paid an average of $18 to $25 a piece. Yeah. And I just think I didn't get no miles because it really actually made it worse. Yeah. So there was very few that I was like, okay. And that was a short term. I put them on and go, okay, this is great. Less than a month later, I'm already there like I need new ones. Yeah. That's not even a dinner. No. I mean, you know what I mean? You sit there and you go for your safety and for your well-being, actually. Well, the crazy thing is I had never put new insoles in my shoes ever before I started with Blue Maca. Wow. I never even thought about it. Right? Yeah. And we do a lot of hiking here in Colorado, and I literally couldn't really do more than a five-mile hike because my knees would start killing me. And, you know, as you're hiking, you're getting toe jam. Oh, yeah. Right? Yep. And so I put these things in, and don't tell my wife, but I can walk further now. Oh. I tell her I'm still going to only do five miles. Yeah. She likes it 20 miles. Oh, man. But it truly is amazing how having these in my shoes just from a simple thing of hiking. Because just think about it. You're going downhill. Your toes aren't jamming. You're moving. And that used to be the thing that killed me. And the other thing is as you're going uphill, you're getting longer strides because your foot's not moving as your shoes are climbing. Yeah, it's gripping. It's grabbing. So you're not doing that double move in there. Yeah. And, again, shoes, you know, you buy a pair of shoes, and just like any shoe, it's going to loosen up. Right. They don't get tighter. Right. So the bad part is is that now your foot's really moving. When you first bought it, it was like, oh, this is so comfortable. Right. So great. Or it was a little tight, and then it broke in, and you were like, oh, it's so great. Right. But once that breaks in, even the pickleball shoes, I find myself tidying and tightening my shoe because I'm twisting and turning on it. Right. And that's from my sock in my shoe, and it's moving in there. So now that's going to stop that. Right. So I love it. Another thing, I'll just read off our brochure. Yeah. They give it. It gives you a 14% higher return, energy return. So when you're pushing, just because of the foam, and it's also 17% more cushioning than your normal insole as well. So, again, the durability of it, and there's a lot of insoles out there that talk about energy return, et cetera, et cetera. So, again, this is independent studies. This is not us throwing these numbers out there. Which is really important. Yeah. So we stand by our numbers. It's all scientific. But, yeah, it's been a great ride. I had a lady stop by yesterday. I think her name was Maddie. And she literally had just ordered 10 pair of shoes. She had nine other pair of shoes that she had ordered. She's just trying to find something that made her foot feel comfortable. Yeah. And she came by and put what we call our Max Cushion low arch support in her shoe. And I gave them to her just to test them out overnight. I said, let's take these and come back and see me tomorrow. And she bought three pair. There you go. She bought them for her mother. That's the money right there. Yeah. I think I saw her there with her mom. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And she doesn't have to look anymore for her. She doesn't have to try to solve the problem by purchasing more and more shoes. She just found the right insole. I guarantee if we were to go out here and talk to the 100 people that are here, 75% of them have foot problem. Yeah. And we don't. And in pickleball, right, you play a pickleball. Yeah. We don't want to quit, right? Right. We'll go until the last. And when we leave here and you sit, that's when you know, ooh, I played a little too much. Yeah. Right. But now I can play longer. Yeah. And that's really awesome and without the pain. Oh, your wife will love that. Yeah. She'll love it. Yeah. I'm not going to know anything. And Pama. Right, Pama? No, don't. Yeah. She doesn't know anything. And you have different types, too, for different. Right. Like you have pro. You were telling me about the one on the left. Something about the turf, right? Yeah. So we have what's called Carbon Elite Pro. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, we got invited to the NFL trainers and equipment managers show in Orlando last year and brought our new product, which is basically our Blue Maca insole. So it's the same cushioning impact, but we have a carbon plate in it that helps prevent turf toe. That's crazy. And so after that show, we had 14 NFL teams purchase our product. We've probably had half of them reorder. That's great. So again, you know, it's an interesting because you think about like a Brock Purdy or some of these athletes that had turf toe issues and they're, you know, how much they're getting paid and how they're out of the game, et cetera, et cetera. And so it's a really important, the NFL is a business. Oh, yeah. And so it's very important to keep their athletes on the field. Yeah, they'll do anything as long as they get it better. So, yeah. And so we've, and we continue to work with them. We've actually come out with another product for them. So our carbon plate in our Carbon Elite Pro only goes to about midsole, but it prevents the bending of your toes. You were showing me yesterday. It was pretty neat. So, and then we came out with a newer version for the NFL, which is basically a full plate under the whole insole. And we're just sort of still getting feedback from them as to what injuries or problems they think that's going to help solve as well. That's awesome. Yeah, so. That's awesome. Now, for you out there that aren't pickleballers, you can use these for every day too. And they even have. Yeah, for anybody, right? Yeah, they even have a luxury line or a. Comfort. Comfort. So the comfort line is called, that's a sister company, correct? No, no. Oh, okay. So let's go through, let's go the insoles first. Okay. So we have six SKUs that are in the Connect, we call it non-slip. Non-slip category. So you have no arch, that's what a lot of lacrosse players are wearing, they're thin, low profile, no arch. Because soccer players, because it's easier to get into your shoe, it kind of replaces the insole that's already there. And then we have a medium arch, low profile, and a high arch, low profile. So I'm not a podiatrist, but a lot of podiatrists will use our high arch for people who have plantar fasciitis. Yes. Okay? And then we have max cushion, no arch. So most pickleball players are either doing the max cushion, no arch, or the low profile, medium arch is what we've seen most people. And some are also doing the max cushion, medium arch. So you have max cushion, low arch, max cushion, medium arch, max cushion, high arch. So low profile is about one millimeter thick, max cushion is about five millimeters thick. So a lot of time it depends on the athlete because just that little, especially professional athletes, just that little bit, they feel like they might have a chance to turn their ankle. So, again, elite athletes are a little bit more picky than your everyday pickleballer, right? Like me, I'm elite, you know. Did you just wake up? I mean, you got that little dream there in the mic or what? In my mind, I'm elite. And then along with that, we have those exact same six insoles, but with what we call comfort because it has the typical cloth covering versus the connect covering. Yeah, because you don't mind your foot moving in normal walking. Right, right, right. So a little more movement in the comfort, would you say? They're more cushioning, but they're a lot like the typical insole you get in a shoe. Okay, okay. But you get all the benefits. All the benefits of the cushioning. So especially running stores tend to sell a lot of the comfort max cushion. Trail runners like the connect technology. So that's sort of the lineup as it relates to the insoles. And then the Carbon Elite is sort of a specialty product, but anybody who has plastic or turf toe or whatever, they're more expensive. They're 120 retail, but they help solve a lot of the issues as it relates to that. Nice. And then you were starting to talk about we have a sister brand. Yeah. Are we done with insoles? Yeah, we're done. I mean, guys, the only thing is we're going to give you a link. We're going to be an affiliate of this product just because I love it. So we're going to be one of your top sales people because, I mean, everywhere we go, we've opened up 21 clubs here in Colorado. We just got back from nationals. I mean, so everywhere we go, we hear this problem. Everybody's limping through it. It's kind of a joke, but we get through it. You've got to connect them. We've got to connect them. So we finally found, and we've seen so much, and it's just I've tried it. This is the one I literally put on on a Friday. You said, Mike, get over here. Throw those in your shoe. Get out of here. Oh, what a friend. He tried to ignore me for the first five minutes. He kept turning away. He's like, oh, here comes another vendor. So quick question, though. You allow people to take out their old insoles. You hold them, and you have them try them too. Correct. A lot of people don't do that. Yeah. So that's, I mean, you want them to try it, right? Right. Because you know they'll buy it. So what's really interesting is yesterday is we, that's what I told them. I said, here, try these out in your match, and put them in, see what you think. So they put them in, and the minute they put them in, they go, I don't need to play match. I'll buy them now. It's that fast? Yeah. That's what's crazy. So I just took my other ones out. He looked at them and kind of laughed. I put them in, put my feet in, and I stood there for about five minutes, and I was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah. And now I've been here this whole weekend running, helping, drilling, really busy. My feet feel great. That's awesome. So this, you're going to hear a lot from us guys. So our pickleball people, pickleball next door people, you're going to be like, Mike, stop. We can't make enough of these. Yeah. Well, they can fill the NFL. Is it the same technology in your sister company, Flex? Yeah. So Flex. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I mean, I like interrupting you, Mike. Sorry. So we have another company. It's our sister company. We're based out of Santa Barbara. We're very small. Our factory is in China, but we own it. But the reason the factory is in China is because that's where the waste is. Yeah. Okay? So Flex Footwear is designed by Leigh, who was, she was one of the primary designers for the UGG brand. And so we were fortunate enough to get her. Stuart, when he was at Decker's, was head of innovation and got to know Leigh really well. So, yeah, so it's called Flex Footwear, F-L-E-K-S, footwear.com is the website. Flex, because that's basically what's ground up foam is, our Flex of foam. Flex foam, yeah. So we have a whole lineup of either recovery slides, walk around clogs, flip flops. We were, our San Ysidro slide was on Oprah's favorite things list this year, which is amazing. That's awesome, yeah. So, and the backstory on that is Megan Markle found them in a store in Santa Barbara and tried them out and is good friends with Oprah and told Oprah, you got to try these things out. We didn't know that. So we were told we were in it. Yeah. We didn't know the backstory. We had no idea how Oprah found us. But then we, one of Oprah's people who worked for her was doing a podcast and said, told the story. So I think I'm okay staying. Oh, no. So anyways, that's, yeah. That's awesome. So yeah, so it's all this, it's the, it's all made out of foam. We have leather, we have sheepskin, but all, everything that's part of our shoe is recycled. So a lot, the leather is, is leather that a manufacturer over there is throwing out because it might have a barbed wire mark in it, or it might be a little slightly flawed. The sheepskin, just because it might have something in it. So again, all recycled material. That's really awesome. And they're nice looking. They're good looking shoes. These are high class, good looking. I mean, you come from inserts and then you look at, talking from, you know, in your shoe. He has these out here right now. I mean, they're good looking. I mean, you could wear these anywhere. You'll be styling with those. So it's interesting because the manager here, they found out about us through Molly. Yeah. So anyways, they, they ordered before we even met them. Yeah. And so their order was coming in and they, and we got a hold and they said, oh yeah, we're having a tournament this weekend. You know? And I said, well, I'd love to swing by and set up a booth, whatever. So anyways, he's put on our clogs. Cause he, they walk around a lot. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, this is a big. Yeah. He hasn't taken his clogs off in three days. So his wife's like, you know, you got to take them off for bed. Maybe. Sorry. So, so that is that again, the, the comfort is there. The cushioning is there and it's a very high quality product. So this isn't something that they just went in, went to China and made and said, oh, look, it's great. They put in the time, they've done the research on it. And once you put them on your feet, you will just, you won't, you won't want nothing else. And if you're a pickleballer, you know what I'm talking about? Cause I'm saying 75% of you people out here are done. Yeah. I mean, cause we, this sport is just hard on your feet. I played every other sport. I've never had the problem that I have with playing pickleball. Yeah. Or I even played, I was a big racquetball player. I never had that kind of problem out here, but I mean, I'm playing four hours a day. That probably doesn't help. And then again, how old are you? I'm 30, 32. Sorry. I just hit you. I'm 31. Yeah, exactly. Oh, then I'm 20. 20 with Mike. I guess we got to listen. What'd you say? Huh? Our senior. Anyway, we are so glad we came in, ran into you. I am because I feel like a new person. My feet are just saying, thank you. You owe me money. I do owe you money. Damn it. Do you do Venmo? Yeah. Cash. You guys will hear a lot about this. We're going to get some of the brochures, information. We'll see if they'll send us some of the, some test ones so that when we're out at places, I'd love to get a piece of that foam just to show you, you know, cause I'm about the environment. I love that part with the water. I mean, really that's it. Yeah. Everything we use so much of our resources. So, I mean, it's just on top of it. I mean, not that it's just a great product, but you're trying to help the environment. Well, the cool thing is too, is all our colors. Yeah. We don't use dye. So again, so, so again, again, usually in a, in a shoe factory or when they're producing, if they change the color of the shoe, they're going to change the color of the shoe. So we're going to change the color of the shoe. We're going to change the color of the shoe. We're going to change the color of the shoe. So the beauty of our product is we just get waste foam that's colored. It's blue. It's actually pretty cool. Right. You know, so we, so we can put, you know, so we just use that foam, chop it up and make it part of the gorgeous stuff. I really like your flex. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much for being on our podcast. This is so crazy. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. This is so crazy. I'm never up this early on Sunday morning. I just want you to know that. Thank you. I'll get you a coffee. Yeah. But thank you so much. I mean, we, this is the, what are Pickleballers Next Door is, it's a community. We bring, we tell people they get to live vicariously through us, it's going to be people like you that they might never meet you. And you're getting so famous. I don't know, I'm pretty stoked to talk to you. And I am. I'm good looking. You are good looking. I was going to say and I was looking in his eyes, guys. I know. He has. I know. You were gazing. My hand's supposed to be on my leg. Sorry. I know. That's why we got Sasbo in between you guys. That's why we didn't film this one. So what we just appreciate you so much. I mean, I'll have to go through your gatekeeper soon. Like, hey, please let us, let me talk to him. He's my friend. All right. He's, I mean, guys, this is crazy. I mean, are these going to be in retail stores too? Yeah. So there, so actually this facility here is putting them in. Great. Relish Pickleball's got them in. Relish. Up in Louisville. Louisville. Yeah. And obviously, so this is sort of a, I wouldn't say it's a newer, but we have a great salesman, Dave Adler, who goes to all the PPL events. Oh, there you go. And he's the one who's kind of introduced us to all these people, because a lot of them are out in California. Yep. So we're getting, you know, part of it is, again, you get the traction in the professional field. By the way, the men's open winners yesterday, we're both wearing blue moccasins. That's freaking awesome. So where can people, if they want to order online or something, can they order them from online? Yeah. Bluemaca.com. Okay. And how do you spell that? Just so. B-L-U-M-A-K-A.com. And, again, it means Blue Earth. Yeah. And, again, what you do is you go in. So the way you do these is you pick, first, the cover you want. And I would say the majority of pickleballers are going to do the non-slip. Okay. And then they go into, you pick your size, obviously, and then what sort of arch support you feel. So if you don't have any arch support in your shoes today, I wouldn't do that. Okay. If you're having some pain or some things, again, I'm not a podiatrist, but typically a medium arch is going to help out in that regard. And then the thickness. So it's either low profile or max cushion. So, again, 90% of the pickleball players are either using max cushion, no arch, or low profile, medium arch. Okay. All connect. Now let's just say, I'd just like to ask this because I'm sure somebody's thinking right now going, well, what if I got the wrong one? Are they good about it if you can send them back and change them out? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Just up to 999 miles? Yeah. No. Yeah, they've got to run there. They've got to make proof that they know. They've got to prove this. But that's awesome to know. People like to know that because, you know, sometimes that's the bad part with all this shopping online stuff now. Yeah, no, we're pretty good about that. And we've got a great guy, Charlie Hoffman, who runs our direct-to-consumer side and is really good. And Taylor Gibbs is also the – those are kind of the two guys that run the Blue Moccasin side of things for us. Nice. And then Flex Footwear. It's F-L-E-K-S footwear.com. And, again, you'll be blown away. Just look at them. They're beautiful. Guys, yeah, and we're going to talk a lot more about them. We'll probably have a code here in the next weeks where you can come to us, get through us, and we'll give you a code. Maybe see if we can get you some kind of discount or something. Yep, yep. That would be great. At least you'll get to talk to me, so that's good. You? Yeah, me. They don't even want to talk to you. Oh, they always want to talk to me. Anyway, thank you so much for being on our show. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you for my feet. Thank you so much. If they could hug you, they would just wrap around you. He's getting a little closer. Yeah, we better cut this off. Cut it off now. Thank you, Matt. Thanks, guys. Have a great day. Bye. Hey, Krisanna. Hey, Mike. How are you? I'm good. Here we are again. Last day, right? Yep. Still watching people have fun while we talk. I know, right? We're sitting here getting hit with balls, but that's okay. It's all right. It's all right. We're here with a special guest. We're here with Matt Hernandez. Matt is the husband of Emily Sartain. We had Emily on a couple of weeks ago, episode three. We just got hit with a ball. Sorry. Hold on. We lost the ball here. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. We're right in the mix. We're almost on the court. I know, right? Anyways, Emily, in episode 54, we had her on. She played with Mike. We thought we'd get the other side of a pickleball player. Well, because we did feel bad for you. We wanted to get your side of the story. Yeah. House husband. Pickleball house husband. Yeah. That's what I kind of felt like. It's the untold story. Okay. She was here. She goes, yep, I'm playing pickleball right now. She goes, yep, I got to go up to Third Shot Westminster and play there. We go, when do you have time for your husband? She goes, well, I am doing dinner tonight with him. It is date night. Yeah. When we make plans in advance, then she'll make sure she only schedules three or four pickleballs that day. So she can make it to dinner. But, yeah, I mean, it's her passion. She is good, though. She's raising up in this sport. I play senior pro pretty much, and she is right there. And she's trying to tell me. We stayed on the court probably an hour together. Like, we didn't get off the court. Some young guys. And we would adjust. She's a very good player, adaptive player, because when you play and when you get into the upper level, you have to adapt to your player. You might not have ever played with your player. She would adapt to me, and I would adapt to her. And it took us a couple times. We'd lose a couple points, and then we were just on. Yeah, yeah. She's very tactical. I mean, she plays smart. I don't know how people think that fast. It's pretty cool. It's crazy. But now that you tell me, I think you said she's a pharmacist, so she's very, very smart. Yes. She's an organ transplant pharmacist. Oh, my gosh. Amazing. It's really awesome. She would rather be doing this, though, full-time. Yeah. I think most people would rather be doing pickleball full-time. Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. Well, I mean, you have a great job, too. I mean, I think pretty soon she might be able to. You're an aerospace engineer, correct? Yeah. Some smart people here. Just trying to climb the ladder and keep up with her. I can't physically, but on the mental stuff, I try. So, do you play? She's also very good at board games. Yeah, I play a little pickleball. I'm like a 2.6, maybe. Okay. So, pretty soon you're going to have to pay her to coach you. She will do that any day. I have to be like, please, no more advice. Please, please, please. I mean, it's hard to get advice from your spouse when you're playing pickleball or anything, to be honest. Yeah. You start to get a little flustered, and you're like, I know what I did wrong. You don't need to tell me. Like, yeah, you don't have to. Does she get grumpy with you, though? Oh, yeah. Oh, really? She seems so sweet. Emily, no, Emily doesn't get grumpy with you. She's very sweet to other people. So, are you the couple when you're going to go play some pickleball, you're walking in excited, can't wait to play together, and when you leave it's a quiet ride home? Yes. It's exactly like that. I know this. She'll forget, and she'll be, like, excited to play, and then we'll do a couple matches, and she's like, I think we should play with other partners. And maybe we'll link up together at the end. You know, this is almost counseling where my knee later. Do we need to get her over here to kind of get her side again since you're both together? Have you both together here? I don't know if anybody needs to hear her thoughts on my playing. She did say, he tries really hard. That's what she told us. So, I mean, it was a nice compliment. Yeah, yeah. She knows I try. She knows I try. That's all that matters if you try, right? I'm trying to get up to, like, a 3-0 this year. She's trying to get up to a 4-0. Yeah, she's your pro. But, you know, thank you for supporting her, though. You know, it is so good for people. Like, it gets them out of their head. So, at least if she goes and has some good matches, unless she has a lot of bad ones that day, probably comes home a little grumpy sometimes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She's done tournaments. I used to go home. Every morning, my wife would be like, my wife doesn't play. So, she's like, have a good day, and I'm all excited. I come home so mad because the 11-year-old just beat-whipped me. Does she know of any good support groups? Right. I think we're going to have to start some. I think that's a good one. That's a good idea. Yeah. So, what was I saying? How's she doing in this tournament? Because you're here spectating, which is really nice of a nice husband. Supporting her. Very nice. Yeah, I've come to all the tournaments. She's doing great. She lost one game so far, but won four. So, she's moving on to the quarterfinals right now. And, yeah, she's doing incredible. I play with a lot of people, and I'm telling you, she's moving up the ladder really fast. I mean, she's going to be doing some pretty big tournaments. We want to keep in touch with her because we sponsor some, so we'd love to maybe help her and get to know her. Oh, man, that would be awesome. We would love to. We don't care what level. I mean, ours is about community and letting people have fun. There's a lot of stuff happening that we know about that other people don't know. So, we'd love to keep in touch. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we forgot to get her number. I do have her number. No, I got her number. Or I got her email, so yeah. But when we found out you were here, and you told me the other day, I was like, I'm the husband. I'm like, oh, my God, this is awesome. No, this is great that you came and talked to us. And you've been pretty nice about it. We thought that this would get a little ugly, but you support her. You do, which is really awesome. Yeah, I like to kid around with her a little bit. I mean, she is obsessed. There's no doubt about that. But, you know, it's a good obsession. It's a fun sport. I'm happy for her. She's a wonderful person, though. Yeah. I mean, I see why you're with her. She is so cute. She is very – she's just smiling. She's just right there. She's just a legit, honest, great person. Sweet. Sweet, yeah. Even when I was kind of playing bad, I was playing bad with her, and I'd tell her sorry. She's like, oh, you're fine. That was me, though. If you would have been on the court, you're not getting dinner tonight. Didn't you do better? Well, you know, she's learning that she eventually – like, she just has to, like, let it go, and I'll find my own eventually. If I get flustered, then it's going to go downhill. Oh, yeah. It won't be good. It's good for our marriage to work through these things. Yes. Who knew it would be pickleball, right? You probably in your life as a man was like, I'm going to marry this girl, and we're probably going to have a day that maybe we just haven't talked enough or something, but not over pickleball. No. I didn't know what pickleball was. Then we played it with our friends one time, and the rest is history. Yeah. That's the bad part. If the bug gets you, you're in. It's over. You're not in now. Oh, it's got her strong. Got her strong. Yeah. She's not coming back from this one. No. No. You might have to call a counselor, like, look, you can only do this four days a week. I get us to you one day. That's basically what I say. I'm like, you know, four days is a lot, and she's like, yeah, four or five. Yeah. Right? Maybe five. Yeah. And if you keep picking at me, it's going to be six. Some weeks, six. You know, some weeks, five. But, yeah. It's so good, though. It's so good for her mental health and her body and everything. For sure. Not for yours. I know, but a happy wife is a happy life, so you've got to just always remember that. Yeah. Now she has a weapon, though. She has a paddle. Well, yeah. Hopefully she keeps that in the bag. Most of the time. Oh. We might have some abuse here. We also play volleyball together, as well. Okay. Who's better at that? I mean, her. Okay. It's kind of a similar dynamic, actually. We're on a team together there, though, and I hold my own a little bit more in volleyball. Good. But, yeah. She's a very, very competitive lady. That's awesome. It's the competitive that you can't see. Oh, she's so, like, so innocent looking and sweet, though. She doesn't show it, but, yeah, you can tell. Playing with her, you can tell. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You can see it on her face. Well, we thank you so much for coming on, and we're going to keep in touch with you because I would like to follow her and see where she wants to go. Yeah. We might be the problem. Like, you ain't talking to those picolars next door no more because they want you to go to San Diego, New York. Hey, sponsorships? That sounds cool. I'm sure she'd love to be. She's very interested. We want to support people that want to do it, and people don't know they can do this. They don't know they can go to a level from right where she's at, and that's where you want to really start because you want to get your name out there. Yeah. Yeah. And I know some people. You do? I start sometimes. Well, thank you, Matt. Yeah, thank you very much for having me on, guys. Thank you. Have a great day. Have a good day. Take care. Bye. 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. 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