This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Let's talk today about pickleball. Are you familiar with pickleball? Are you a fan? Are you a hater? Are you indifferent?
Years ago, we had an episode number 438. By the way, today we are at what episode 2,222. So it's been quite a while. Episode 438, early in the second year of the podcast. This episode was called Pickleball Pro, Pickle's Prophets from Persistent Practice.
Yes, I really enjoyed titling that episode. I don't think I'd even heard of the sport until then, until I worked on that story. Again, I guess this is like five years ago. But since then, it's really taken off. Pickleball is everywhere.
My friend and literary agent, David Fugate, is super into it. I had lunch with him the other day and he was telling me all about pickleball. He's promised to give me a lesson at some point. And more to the point of today's episode, a listener in Arizona wonders about making and selling his own pickleball paddle. Not a racket.
I almost called it a racket like a tennis racket, but apparently it's called a paddle. Or I mean, that's what I know so far. I don't know very much. But we're gonna talk about it. What does Sean need to know?
How can he in fact successfully make and sell his own pickleball paddle? That is today's topic coming up after this quick sponsor message. [Music]
Hello, this is Sean with a quick question about overseas manufacturing. Did you know that pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the world? It's true.
My community here in Phoenix is big on it, despite the fact that some homeowners don't love the noise. For this sport, the only real equipment you need is a paddle, which costs around 100 to $200 for most models. Right now there are at least 100 manufacturers making them, and it seems like a gold rush. Since most are made overseas, a buddy and I are thinking of trying to make our own. We branded and sell it through Amazon and maybe our own website, depending on how it goes.
Do you think this is a good market? It's hot right now, but there are also a lot of sellers. Thanks for any advice you have. [Music]
All right, Sean, thanks for the question. - Yes, indeed, it is the fastest growing sport in the world.
I think I heard that statistic five years ago when I first worked on the episode or maybe something comparable and was like, wow, is that true? And I did some research and in fact, apparently it is. So it is kind of a gold rush in terms of the equipment. If you wanna play pickleball, you pretty much just need a paddle. That's it, I guess you need a pickleball as well.
But there's a pickleball paddle gold rush. In fact, David, my agent was telling me the other day, he's got like six different paddles and you only need one, right? You can only play with one paddle at a time. But you get into something, you go out and you buy stuff. It's just the normal practice.
So right now there are in fact, I think Sean mentioned a hundred manufacturers. I think there are actually more than that. I think there are hundreds of different manufacturers of these paddles. And so what tends to happen in a market like this is that there is great expansion. It is a pickleball paddle gold rush.
And eventually there's gonna be consolidation. Like eventually there won't be hundreds of manufacturers. It will be like tennis rackets where there's not that many. I'm not sure how many there are, but I'm pretty sure there are not an unlimited number. But for now in pickleball, there are a lot of them.
And there's definitely room for new entrants because more and more people are coming in to play the sport. So what you need to think about here, if you wanna do this is differentiation. I mean, if you have some idea for a major technical improvement or an engineering feature, then go for it. But from what I can tell from Sean's message here, he's just like, I wanna make a paddle. Okay, I wanna put my name on it or some company name on it.
So if you don't have that major technical improvement or engineering feature, then it's all about branding. It's all about branding and messaging. So how can your paddle be cool? How can you get a bunch of reviews? How can you get some pickleball influencers or YouTubers to talk about it?
That's where you wanna focus your efforts and attention. So on the one hand, you're gonna be researching, like how do I import these? How do I get them made from a factory perhaps overseas using Alibaba or similar? But I think just as important is to think about what is the message here? Like, if there are a hundred plus other manufacturers, why is mine different?
And again, it doesn't need to be technically superior necessarily, it's just some other different angle messaging wise perhaps. So, I think it's totally a feasible project. Probably cost a couple of thousand dollars to get up and going. So Sean, good luck, let us know what happens. I would love to check out your paddle.
At some point, maybe if I try pickleball, we'll see. Anyway, that's all for today. Listeners, let me know what you're working on, what you're exploring, what you're wondering about, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We have question and answer episodes every week, several of them throughout the week. And I really enjoy working on them.
So thank you for being out there. New episode coming out tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
