Did you know it's April? National Pickleball Month? If you play, chances are you knew this because pickles tend to become obsessed with the sport. Invented in 1965 by three fathers, Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, who were looking to entertain their bored children, the sport has absolutely exploded in recent years. According to Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) 2024 Topline Attendance Report.Pickleball has been the fastest growing sport in America for three years in a row, with 13.6 million players and no signs of slowing down.

And as entrepreneurs know, where there's a lot of passion, there's a lot of opportunity. From apparel to training camps to equipment, the industry is exploding with products and services that strengthen the sport.

A leader in paddle innovation is FAST. The California-based business has gained a loyal and growing customer base of both amateur and professional collectors thanks to its signature borderless, sweet-centered design. We spoke to the founder, president and CEO Mitch Junkins about his company, his creative process and his advice to other inventors/tinners when inspiration strikes.

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Served a career in pickleball

“My career has been interesting and varied. I started when I was young Mattel as a toy tester and worked in the mail room. I was a pro skateboarder on the upside of it all. Using my experience in skateboarding, we created the Mattel Athletic Group and I became the competition manager. I'd go all over the country and show kids how to wear safety gear and we'd do little demos on it Toys 'R' Us parking lots and do all these fun things. I was very fortunate because I was exposed to a lot of really, really great minds at Mattel. I worked closely with Steve Kimmel, who was the lead industrial designer. That guy taught me how to do perspective drawing and taught me a lot about materials. So that kind of lit this weird little fire inside of me to do things that grew over time.”

Perfect match

“In 1990 I founded CDM Company, which is a promotional marketing company that is heavily involved in the production and design of physical products such as Happy Meal toys or a Congo Watch promotion at Taco Bell. Now, am I designing those toys? Not exactly, but I like to say I'm a creative industrial designer trapped in a marketing guy's body. So I spend a lot of time making noodles and playing. And the love of working with products and materials was a perfect match when I met pickles.”

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The game starts

“Tall Covid, my wife entered me into a pickle contest and I was absolutely slaughtered. But I was immediately smitten with the sport. We started playing and started attending these LevelUp Pickleball camps. We became good friends with the owners, Wayne and Lisa Dollard, who are also the founders of Pickleball Magazine. So one day when we were sitting around, freezing our feet because we'd been playing for eight hours, and Wayne told me he couldn't understand why there were all these paddle companies, but no one came up with the design. He explained that every shovel made is like what they call a “sandwich shovel” which has a layer on the top and a layer on the bottom with polypropylene in the middle, with a kind of edge that holds it all together. My mind immediately started racing with ideas.”

Credit: Veloz

Instant inspiration

“I decided to try to make a paddle on the same principles as an airplane propeller blade. I would wrap carbon fiber around it so you don't have a lip around the edge like a sandwich. It's more like a drum head with a very stable sweet spot. Within about 24 hours, I got the raw materials together, put on the HAZMAT suit, and made it. I sent it to Wayne and he had his professionals test it and he reported back, “I think you're really into something.' Then we put our resources on the CDM side of it, perfected our proprietary way of layering the driving materials, and in about a year, I went from running a marketing company to running a marketing company. AND a pickleball company.”

Output of the word

“We have a direct-to-consumer business, which is probably about 30 percent of our business. And a fast-growing retail business — we're already about 50 stores. Also, a lot of growth comes from having ambassadors amazing that you absolutely connect with our brand and spread the gospel at local courts and clubs. It's a high-touch demonstrable business. You need people to hold it and use it and once they do, they realize how much wonderful it is indeed.”

Why is pickleball so popular?

“To borrow a term from the entertainment world, pickleball is 'four quadrants.' 12-year-olds in a field and four 80-year-old men crying over each other. It's easy to learn, it's great exercise, and it's very sociable. There's a lot of trash talking going on there. It's just fun.”

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The next stage of design

“There is a governing body called SAY which is responsible for all compliance and safety rules of the sport. One of the things they are interested in is 'quiet shovels'. There are some municipalities that are trying to ban pickleball because of the noise. The cadence of paddles and balls is somewhat sharp compared to what you hear when people play tennis. So all manufacturers are trying to solve this problem and we have done it. We've come up with a paddle that will significantly reduce decibel levels, so there's more to come for that.”

His advice to inventors

“I've spoken at the entrepreneurship and marketing programs at San Diego State, Loyola Marymount, and California State University Long Beach. And I always tell people that having the 'big idea' is only about 2 percent of what makes you successful. A part its really important to be able to gain distribution quickly. You need to have several channels to get the product out and bring awareness to it. And get back to that 'big idea' before sinking the savings of your life. that, do your research. Do focus groups, put prototypes in the hands of potential customers and see if you have something they are interested in. And one last tip, before you go out on your own, go work for a company big in the same industry. See how it works, see what problems they encounter and how they solve them. Pay to learn the industry inside and out, then when the time is right, hit with the product you know is different and better than the rest.”