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Hearing from the founder of the hottest paddle on the market right now
236 Plays2 years ago
Interview with Chris Dickert, co-founder of the most popular paddle on the market right now, Legacy Pickleball. We talk about his background, influence on junior paddles, the origin of the Legacy Pickleball brand, Reddit, delamination, thermoforming paddles, USA Pickleball regulation, Ben Johns, and what Legacy means to him.
Chapters
00:00 Highlights
01:00 Intro and context
02:10 Start of conversation
03:40 Ellie and Super Junior paddles
07:14 The birth of Legacy adult paddles
9:40 Sponsored by Babolat and Paddletek
10:35 Moving the needle with unibody and carbon paddle
12:20 Grit and spin
14:40 Reddit and Legacy
15:40 Explaining the delays
19:10 Delamination, thermoforming
24:33 Fathers dementia and injury
25:45 USA Pickleball regulation
30:06 Being called out by Ben Johns
35:10 Legacy POWER
37:03 Sponsored pros using Legacy
39:00 Transparency
52:30 Building a following
53:50 What’s next for legacy
56:45 Super Juniors
58:10 Bet On Yourself
1:04:50 Advice for founders
Leave a comment with your thoughts on delamination, Legacy, and the paddle technology.
#pickleball #podcast #entrepreneur .
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Transcript
Introduction and Concerns in Pickleball
00:00:00
Speaker
got pro players calling us out and that's just like baffling. I'm looking at my phone and the number one player in the world's calling you out saying you don't respect the rules. That's absolutely asinine. If everything goes south from here, it'll all have been worth it. And the pro players know it's there, right? Because here's the thing. They're not only some of them playing with it, they're asking me for it. Hey, send me the highest grit legacy pro. What?
00:00:28
Speaker
It's very uncontrollable. You can hear it. It's not a huge issue for any of the companies when it comes to the number of paddles in the market. But it's definitely something that needs to be stomped out of the game. We didn't want another marshmallow. Quite frankly, there's a ton of marshmallows on the market. Some companies own all the marshmallows. We didn't want a marshmallow. We didn't want that. We'll leave them to have the marshmallow
00:00:57
Speaker
If that's what control looks like, we'll leave it to them. Ours hits like a machine. All right, so it's early 2023 and legacy panels are flying off the shelf. Pros are using it. Various YouTube channels are reviewing it and sales are going through the roof.
00:01:12
Speaker
But then, Paddlegate 2.0. Sounds familiar? It all started when USA Pickleball banned a release of carbon's paddles back in May of 2022. After that was over, everything seemed fine. Until recently, many of these smaller brands have been drawn into the spotlight and some even over penning legal discourse. Chris Dickert, the co-founder of Legacy Pickleball, is actually one of them. While they have not been called upon by USA Pickleball for any violations,
00:01:41
Speaker
There have been accusations made by other parties outside of this regulatory committee. These accusations,
Chris Dickert's Journey and Inspiration
00:01:48
Speaker
whatever the speculations and allegations may be, put this man's company and ability to provide for his family financially in jeopardy. Stick around until the end to hear more on why Chris does this, who he does it for, and the origination of his saying, bet on yourself. It gets a little emotional.
00:02:11
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, Chris? Thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me, bud. Yeah, for sure. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself as well as Legacy Pickleball, your brand? Absolutely. Of course, my name is Chris Dickert. I'm from Alabama. I grew up in Alabama, went to school at the University of Alabama, you know, been playing pickleball probably about three and a half, four years myself as a tournament player. Legacy is
00:02:40
Speaker
our little love child. Um, you know, it kind of started, uh, randomly. Um, I was playing in Atlanta and my little girl was with me and, uh, I was testing the waters at pro and, uh, I was getting whipped out there on the court and I look over and my little girl is just hanging out with, uh, some of the, uh, pros and, uh, she's a big fan of Annalie Waters and, uh, she's, she's five now, but at the time she was four.
00:03:09
Speaker
And, you know, we kind of just enjoyed the moment later, a company or a couple of companies kind of approached us about maybe sponsoring my little girl and kind of building a brand around her, maybe doing some perp paddles, you know, and making her kind of the face of the junior paddles look kind of like the next kind of like Annalee Waters, if you will. And, you know, I think I made the mistake of telling her
00:03:39
Speaker
Hey, sweetheart, we're going to look at making a paddle for you and put your name on it. And, you know, when we got down towards the end of it, it just seemed like, you know, for me, I'm all about family. And the way it worked out was it was probably better for her if we did it ourselves. And so I had to make a decision as a dad to either honor my word or just disappoint my little girl. And
Innovation in Junior Paddles
00:04:04
Speaker
that wasn't going to happen. So we went to bat working on the first
00:04:09
Speaker
a junior carbon fiber paddle and we named it Prodigy. And we really have tried to make a paddle for the juniors and the super juniors. We're trying to coin the term super juniors for the kids that are four to eight years old and bring them into the game. Ellie's been playing probably since she was, I don't know, maybe one. She started out with a little Selkirk novelty paddle
00:04:36
Speaker
Kind of went from there, got her a little one shot paddle and it was pretty cool. And then, you know, now she's five, but she's very athletic, you know, and she can handle herself stinking real well and hitting back hands and forehands. And, you know, so I wanted to build a tool for the super juniors and juniors that was, you know, a training tool, not just another paddle with a name on it to flip paddles and sell paddles.
00:05:04
Speaker
Um, that was important for me, you know, cause I've coached a lot of sports over the years. My kids, um, you know, I have three children. They're all super athletic. And, uh, for me, you know, I wanted to do something for the junior program and the super juniors and, you know, as an untapped market, you know, I wanted to make sure that we, we got in and we made a difference in that environment. And so, uh,
Challenges and Innovation in Adult Paddles
00:05:26
Speaker
her and I started looking at tons of different, you know, looks and, uh, she probably went through 1500.
00:05:34
Speaker
different designs and she settled in on a rainbow glittery paddle. And, uh, I think I got one right here. Matter of fact, this is a copy of it. And, uh, you know, we, we named it the prodigy and we put a little name on it. Ellie Dicker series, but it's a, uh, a carbon fiber paddle. It's smooth carbon fiber. So it's not, it's not raw carbon fiber, but you know, for us, we wanted to make something that we knew would be forgiving.
00:05:59
Speaker
And it was a little bigger. It had a longer handle, so kids could start developing a two-handed backhand at an early age. And the thing I know about children and kids after coaching, if they have some success, they're having fun. And if they're not having success, then they're probably not going to come back to the game. So I was a baseball player growing up, and you take a kid into the
00:06:26
Speaker
hitting cages and man, they miss 10 balls in a row. They're probably not having fun. You know, they go home and they're like, mom, and I stink at baseball, you know, and they probably don't want to come back. Right. So for some of the paddles that we found out on the market, um, you know, it just seemed like they weren't real training tools. You know, I play five. Oh, I'm not the best player out there, but I couldn't control some of those panels, you know, and so if I couldn't control it, how's my four and five year old going to control it? Right.
00:06:55
Speaker
And so it was really more about novelty at that point versus, you know, application and predicting and practicality and stuff. So we, we tried to change that and we're just getting started on that. We've got some pretty cool things coming on that. But, you know, in the process, we knew that we probably needed to build an adult paddle. And so I went to work on that. I took six of the best paddles on the market that I was fans of and I tore them apart.
00:07:23
Speaker
And, uh, what I liked about him, my cap and what I didn't like I fixed and there were some glaring things that needed to be fixed. And so I fixed them and, um, you know, indirectly we came up with a paddle that was pretty dope, you know, and felt like, you know, it was going to make a difference in the marketplace. And for us, you know, we named our company legacy because it was something that we wanted to leave behind for our children, you know, and that's it. You know, I mean, we didn't get into this to make
Manufacturing Delays and Transparency
00:07:51
Speaker
a ton of money.
00:07:52
Speaker
you know, really selling paddles was kind of the last thing on our minds, right? It was really about holding my word to my daughter. But, you know, in the meantime, we've got a mission and vision and value statement that we believe in, and we want to change the game for the, you know, we want people to gravitate to us because of who we are and what we stand for, not for a shiny paddle that we made, or, you know, we can make any paddle out there. But, you know, that's kind of how we got started.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, you're definitely right about children. If they don't find success early, then they're just want to move on to the next thing, which is actually funny because
00:08:30
Speaker
adults are the exact same way. And I think that's like why pickleball is what it is now, because a lot of people will play and be like, it's hard, but it's not like impossible. And you kind of remove certain aspects that other sports require. Like I think athleticism to a degree. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's probably some of the beauty of our sport is you can take it a five year old and the 70 year old, and you don't know who's going to win the match, right? It really takes out.
00:08:58
Speaker
athleticism to a point, you know, I mean, you can make it as competitive as you want. Obviously you can run it all the way up to pro, but, uh, the majority of the game is at the rec level. You know, if there's 5 million players, probably 4.8 million of them don't play tournaments. So, um, it's, it's truly about the social aspect and, um, you know, it's, it's by far the coolest sport out there to me because it takes out race, uh, ethnicity, socioeconomic background. None of that matters.
00:09:26
Speaker
you know, and if you peel away everything, and it's just a bunch of great people enjoying hitting a waffle ball back and forth, you know what I mean? It's pretty awesome. Yeah, totally. What paddle were you using before Legacy? So right before Legacy, I was sponsored by Babylot. And before that, I was with Paddle Tech. And I was playing with a monster power. And, you know, and that was
00:09:56
Speaker
part of the you know the need for a better paddle you know about lots of great company but the technology is just not there in their paddles yet and it's extremely difficult to play at a high level against these paddles out there that just have stupid grit and with a paddle that can't keep up with it and I mean you know a lot of people say that the tool doesn't matter or the paddle doesn't matter or the
00:10:25
Speaker
The arrow doesn't matter as the Indian, but I tend to believe it's both, you know, and so you can, you know, if it wasn't that way, you'd never see investments in any sports like golf, going from woods to irons to baseball, going from wood bats to aluminum. I mean, it's just the nature of the beast. What's different about the junior paddles? Yeah, so the first thing we did was we made it all one piece, you know, in the adult paddle.
00:10:53
Speaker
That was the biggest thing that I found right off the bat was the majority of paddles on the market had an inferior build when it came to design. The handles would break on an overhead. I probably broke, I don't know, 15-20 paddles over the span of playing just from hitting overheads and putting so much force into an overhead.
00:11:17
Speaker
So I wanted to make sure that our junior paddles kind of mimicked our adult paddles in that it was one piece. And so that was the very first thing, you know, then the carbon fiber. It was definitely the first on the market. Another company kind of followed behind us and made theirs not far behind us. But, you know, I feel like in order to move the needle, you have to bring in different aspects of technology.
00:11:46
Speaker
And it might not be reinventing the wheel, but it definitely has to push the envelope further down the road. And we were very much about being legal and adhering to the USAPA rules. That was the biggest thing for me was like, I knew, you know, on the adult paddle, the junior paddle, not so much, obviously, because you don't see a lot of grit on the junior paddles out there, but in the adult,
00:12:15
Speaker
tournament area you're seeing a tremendous amount of friction on the paddles now and You know for us we wanted to make sure that our paddle was legal on the grit side and we wanted to make sure that we used physics behind it to you know help the spin rate because I didn't want to come out and be a little fish in a big pond and Have a paddle that was pushing the illegal limit on grit
00:12:42
Speaker
And they go, well, we're not going to bust so and so and so and so because they donate so much money to the tours and USAPA. We're going to pop legacy, right? You know, they're the little fish we can use them in as an example. And I've heard a couple of pros talk about it, right? The opposite, right? You know, I heard Zane say something about yesterday about little companies can come out and push the envelope because, man, it's only $50,000 to them. And if they lose it, it's no big deal, right?
00:13:12
Speaker
Well, you know, I don't think Zane was really thinking through that because I'm a single dad, right? You know, $50,000, that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money I could have put towards my kids' education. So it's even more stringent on us as small companies to do the right thing and for the right reason so that we can succeed in this industry because, you know, we're very expendable being little. You know, big fishes can come in, clean us up, come after us, try to lock, you know, lock us down
00:13:42
Speaker
uh, court and everything else. So, you know, for us, uh, we
Accusations and Fair Play in the Industry
00:13:46
Speaker
wanted to make sure we did it right. And so, you know, kind of took gearboxes idea. I mean, you know, you don't have to have friction to spin a ball. I mean, look at gearboxes slick as all get out, right? And it spins the ball fine. So there's different physics behind it. If you combine it and you know, you don't necessarily have to depend on illegal grit to, to spin the ball at a high RPM. And so that was kind of what the,
00:14:12
Speaker
idea was is how can we design a paddle that the ball dwelled on the face long enough for you to shape it, you know, to increase the speed. And, um, I feel like we did that, you know, for our first paddle out on the market. I think the legacy pro hit a hit a high mark and, um, you know, we've got our challenges obviously, but, um, you know, we're, we're real excited about it and where we're headed. So.
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely making waves. Uh, I've talked about, I think the last episode is with, uh, Joey B for the pickleball exchange. And I've like talked about Reddit. I've talked about Reddit and I've talked about you and legacy and I've just talked about how.
00:14:51
Speaker
Legacy is probably the most popular post within the subreddit of pickleball right now. And I've said it's, it's like mixed, right? It's kind of like a double-edged sword, like, or like a, kind of like a love hate. There are people who are like, man, I just ordered it. And you see it like posts are just flooding. Just like, I can't wait. And on the flip side, there is like also. Where's my paddle? Three months. Yeah. And you know, I've talked about it on the last episode too, which is like,
00:15:20
Speaker
It's not a, it's not like a knock at all. It's just like there's high demand and Joey cleared things up and was like, you know, there's manufacturing, uh, like holdups. There's things that are kind of like outside of your control. So yeah, I want to give you a chance to shed some light on that. Um, even though you are transparent, you sent emails, you have, uh, like posts, but, uh, yeah, just give you the opportunity to shed some light on it. You know, we grew fast, right? We, we came out October.
00:15:49
Speaker
And, uh, December, we had sold out already, even before reviews came out, because everyone that was in our area was buying the paddle and knew that we had something different, right? It was just built different and you could feel it when you hit it, you could feel it. And so we, uh, were approved in September and, um, you know, a couple months down the road, the carbon power series comes out right behind ours. This is very similar to ours.
00:16:17
Speaker
Uh, it was very apparent that our factory was not the most, um, loyal when it came to intellectual property. And so, um, lesson learned, you know, uh, carbon's a great company. Um, but you know, we felt like we, we, we brought something out that was, you know, different.
00:16:40
Speaker
And so right after that, you saw Vatic six zero coming out and you know, everybody has their different opinion on who brought it to the table as far as the thermal forming and all of that. But needless to say, you know, in December, we sold out some reviews came out. They were really good. On the 26th of December, we sold out. I had a rush order coming in.
00:17:04
Speaker
came in on the third, before the third even got in. We had already sold out of that shipment that came in, which was triple the amount that we had ordered prior. So I rushed another shipment before the factories went into their holiday for 20 days, their Chinese New Year. And that was really the huge issue was planning accordingly for that, right? And so, you know, being in the industry probably
00:17:33
Speaker
last April, you might know about that. And I was not prepared for the demand. And so we rushed another order in, we went into back order status, shut down pre-orders and then dropped the price just as a convenience to our customers. Because look, we're not trying to make a bunch of money on people. We wanted to make affordable paddle. We struggle with that in itself because people say, oh, it's $150. It's a good value at $150.
00:18:03
Speaker
But they look at paddles that are $250 and go, man, those must be really good paddles. Well, actually, our paddle could sell for $250. Our paddle could sell for $300. It's not because we're a small company or we're new to the market. We could have came out and put the price at $299, and people would have still bought it because they like expensive things. And so that's not who we are. We're family-oriented.
00:18:25
Speaker
And so, you know, the demand got so high so quickly that, you know, we were prepared in February for the shipments to come.
Legacy's Commitment to Integrity and Family Values
00:18:34
Speaker
There was a delay at the factory because not only was our demand getting higher, carbon's demand got higher, six-zero's demand got higher, vatic's demand got higher. So now all of a sudden, the factory that is pushing the thermal forming paddles is at max capacity, right? And so they got to make a decision on,
00:18:51
Speaker
Who do we cater to? Do we cater to the bigger company and carbon? Do we cater to smaller companies? Do we try to balance it out? So they started, I feel like trying to balance this all out and try to keep us all happy. And so they started cutting our supplies. And so we, at the same time, started looking at some issues in the marketplace with the delaminations. And so in some of the colder areas, we were noticing that
00:19:18
Speaker
not only us, but some other companies, the thermoforming companies, we're dealing with some issues around delamination where the glue's coming undone from the core and it's making this paddle a little bit more powerful in some instances, some instances it's making it dead. And we immediately went into, okay, we got to fix this issue because we don't want it to become an issue, right? And you know, listen, paddles are not made
00:19:47
Speaker
to be played in 35 degree weather. If you put glue in a freezer, it's going to crack. If you put glue in a heater or you go put it in a truck in Alabama at 100 degrees outside, it's going to turn into 150 degrees and the glue is going to start to melt. Don't leave them in your car in extreme weather. Don't leave it outside. Try not to play in 35 degree weather for long because not only are you playing with a paddle that's cold with a cold face,
00:20:15
Speaker
You're playing with a cold core and you're playing with a ball that gets harder in the cold. Right. So, you know, we're definitely seeing more delamination issues, I think, across the four companies in the colder areas. And so we immediately went back, started trying to adjust the application at the factory. That took some time, two or three weeks for them to adjust. That kicked our supplies back.
00:20:37
Speaker
We've got some tests back from that and we noticed that some of the other companies had a couple of new ones that didn't pass.
00:20:47
Speaker
You know, they, they were starting to necessarily or not necessarily not pass, but they delaminated.
Expanding into Recreational and Community Engagement
00:20:53
Speaker
And so we were like, okay, well we need to make an adjustment here because we're not going to just stick this out at the same factory. If we can't get this process done, right. We're going to check out some other factories and that's what we did. And so legacy shifted, right? We made a big shift really quickly. No one knew about it. You know, we took the same application, same, um,
00:21:15
Speaker
materials the same design set up for legacy pro and we took it somewhere else at the same time and we kind of recreated a different thermal forming process you know thermal form has been around for a long time in different industries
00:21:29
Speaker
word on the street is it's been in our industry before in different applications. But the way we were doing it with the foam and the carbon seal and everything, it just seemed like that was the best technological advancement that we can make coming from what was out on the market and with carbon fiber being real
00:21:52
Speaker
popular that was where we wanted to be and so if the process is a really good process and it's a really good paddle if glue is the issue we ought to be able to fix it so we had to re-change or re-address rather the the way things were I guess set up you know because say for instance if you
00:22:15
Speaker
You put all the pieces together and you glue it and then you heat it up. Maybe the heat itself is breaking down some of the glue internally, right? And then as it shipped out later, different elements are hitting the paddle. It's starting to now show because it's becoming delaminated. Well, we felt like
00:22:34
Speaker
You could do the same process without doing it exactly that way, right? Before maybe the glue was all applied. And so we shifted it. And that caused us some delays. And, you know, of course, we went into emergency mode. People were still wanting the paddle.
00:22:51
Speaker
thought about backing off and not continue to do pre-orders or back orders. And people were still blowing us up. We were getting emails after emails. Please let us just put the order in. And I'm like, okay, so we'll just continue to do that. And we'll be very transparent. I try to live by that myself. And so obviously a double-edged sword, you know, Reddit.
00:23:14
Speaker
You know, if you, if you breathe wrong, they'll tell you. And so, uh, so, you know, there's a Reddit, subreddits out there that, Hey, I ordered mine at one 12, 2023 at 10 52 PM with 23 seconds to go. You know what I mean? And so I just got my pack and somebody else is out there. Oh man. You know, I ordered mine on, on, on three, one at 12, you know, whatever I'm, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. You know, it's like, I love it, man. It's such a great problem.
00:23:44
Speaker
but it really breaks your heart because you want to be able to give people the paddle. But at the same time, I want to make sure they're happy with what they're getting right. And I'd much rather people be upset with me for the delay and us give them discounts or, um, you know, uh, maybe, you know, like for instance, I just sent out a mass email. I don't know if you heard about it or not, but I gave everybody like four options.
00:24:08
Speaker
that were coming from January and February orders. And it was like, you know, get a percentage off your current paddle, right, order. Or get percentage off your next legacy pro order or legacy paddle order. Or off our tour bags that are about to come out, right. Or you can donate 10% and we'll donate 10% to the dementia society of America. Because
Industry Challenges and Maintaining Quality
00:24:32
Speaker
not only with all that going on,
00:24:34
Speaker
My father started to develop some dementia himself and was walking down the street, headed to the gas station to see his little buddy at the gas station, fell in the middle of the road and knocked himself out and broke his wrist, shattered it, had to have emergency surgery. He's 69 years old. We weren't sure if he was going to make it through it, just the anesthesia alone.
00:24:56
Speaker
And, uh, he stayed in the hospital for three weeks. He literally got out last night. And so, you know, that's just life. No excuses on, on delays or anything like that, but tried to be very transparent and tell people that. And, um, you know, that's, that's what we're about legacy. You know, we're all about family, you know, here we are with a family issue that is not causing any delays.
00:25:20
Speaker
You know, it's absolutely the quality control that we're trying to in place. And we have paddles in hand. We're scanning them. You know, we hear that USAPA is looking at changing the way they do some of the testing. So we're very much waiting to hear, you know, what they're planning on doing so that we can be abreast of it. We'd love to see more transparency in that part of the industry so that we could, you know, continue to make good paddles for people.
00:25:50
Speaker
But we'll see how that plays out. I've gotten in contact with someone who's on the equipment side for USAPA and trying to get them on here. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, just create some transparency, like you said. I'm a player too, right? And so I don't like hearing about new testing and things like that through players, especially pro players. Hey, by the way, so-and-so at USAPA reached out and wanted to buy my paddle because they heard that it might be delaminated.
00:26:20
Speaker
That just seems, it seems not the right process, right? You know, I mean, if the paddle manufacturers are out there and we're paying to have these paddles tested, we're the ones driving the industry when it comes to the paddles, we want to put products out there that are fun to play with, safe for the game, good for the game, and continuing to bring the game into the 21st century, right? I mean, you know, we,
00:26:49
Speaker
We want more transparency. Talk to us. Tell us what's going on. Invite us in. Don't keep us on the outside looking in and then let us know, hey, by the way, you got a paddle that didn't pass. That's not transparency. That's the good old boy network. And listen, I'm from the South, so I know how the good old boy network works. Let us in. I'm sure every paddle company owner out there
00:27:19
Speaker
wants more transparency when it comes to that. Yeah. That's so true that you don't want like wire rules and regulations and testing being heard. Like why are we finding out about it through like professional players and wire the companies, the people who are manufacturing or like creating the products being the last ones to hear about. And there's certainly some like hierarchy in terms of like the priority and
00:27:46
Speaker
That's where things get like definitely muddy. And someone had called this out before about like, no shade on duper and what that rating system has done. But they just thought it was weird that duper is a rating system for the same tournaments that they also have sponsored players. So they thought it was odd that like, why, why are some of the professional players sponsored by the very same rating system that is being used in these tournaments? I've never played a sport.
00:28:15
Speaker
where an active player, an active pro player is also an owner in the tour that they're playing on or they have some stake in the governing body, if you will. And so that's interesting. That's definitely interesting, right? And so, you know,
00:28:42
Speaker
I think everyone's trying to do the best they can when it comes to navigating those waters as we continue to grow as an industry. What MLP's done for the game brought a ton of excitement. There's just so many things that are working in the right direction, but transparency could definitely take a better turn for all of us. I mean, who doesn't want to know
00:29:09
Speaker
what paddles pass, how they pass, what the numbers are. I'd be all for seeing everyone's numbers and our numbers being published. I mean, why is it not? Right? And so, you know, that seems to be the most fair thing. Why is there not a website that we can all see everybody's product and what, you know, they hit on? I mean, I don't think that gives any intellectual property away, right?
00:29:33
Speaker
seeing what the deflection numbers are for legacy as a stock paddle, right? I mean, cause what I do know is our paddle is a hundred percent legal, was made to be a hundred percent legal. It was actually made to be better than the paddles that were illegal on the market currently that weren't being held accountable for illegal grit. You know, because you can literally feel some of the paddles on the market. It feels like sandpaper and you're like, come on, man.
00:30:00
Speaker
You know, who's holding these companies accountable, right? And then, you know, you've got pro players calling us out and that's just like baffling. I'm looking at my phone and the number one player in the world's calling you out saying you don't respect the rules. That's absolutely asinine. I mean, I mean, man, you're the best player in the world, hands down.
00:30:22
Speaker
but he has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to legacy, not respecting the rules. That's exactly what we did and how we created our paddle was to respect the rules, right? And if you hear anybody touch a legacy, they go, man, that thing feels like it's smooth. There's a reason, right? We didn't push the grit over just to compete with pro players. We didn't do that, right? We didn't rush out there to sponsor a bunch of pro players. You know, we're more about family. We're more about every player out there. The amateur players are just as important as the pro players.
00:30:52
Speaker
the rec players that don't know any pro players they're more of them than anybody else right and so for us as a company we want to make sure we're also meeting the needs of everybody out there and the paddles that we are working on right now they don't cater to the pros right they cater to the average joke and so and we love the pros I love watching Ben play I love watching him play he's phenomenal
00:31:18
Speaker
But he was way off based on that comment as far as respecting the rules. Yeah, it's definitely odd considering you guys haven't been approached by USAPA carbon. I don't know why they keep getting mentioned. I don't know why they're the scapegoat. I like carbon. I like Garrett based on what he's done by making the mistake in the past and how he handled it. I was like, honestly, the best
00:31:46
Speaker
the best way he could have handled it just given you are a business. I agree with you like changes should definitely be transparent because the danger with keeping that from the companies and just really just everyone is at the end of the day you're affecting the consumer without the consumer
00:32:04
Speaker
There's no, there's none of this. So it's like, you're hearing about, oh, like the carbon paddle might be banned. Well, what about all the people that purchased the pet, the paddle? Like it's not really the company's fault. If the company thinks that they're doing it within the right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can tell you this and I, I mean, I'm not going to speak for Garrett and the other companies, but I'll say this. Uh, I believe that the intent.
00:32:32
Speaker
when it comes to the thermal forming paddles was to make a better build, better quality paddle so that we didn't have warranty issues when it came to broken handles, broken edge guards, stuff like that, okay? So at no point. Now, this has nothing to do with, you know, paddle gate 1.0 and the grit gate, right? Right, this has everything to do with the build of these paddles now. And not one of these four companies
00:33:02
Speaker
went into it at all thinking we're going to put a paddle out there that will eventually delaminate and it will give someone a competitive edge. That is absolutely false. And I don't care who the pro is that keeps saying it. I don't care how good they are. It doesn't matter who they are. They are absolutely wrong. That's not what we built it for. No one wants to deal with warranty issues, right? We actually were trying to avoid warranties by making the paddle the way we made it.
00:33:31
Speaker
Right? So that's absolutely the opposite. Um, you know, and unfortunately, you know, it looks like there's some glue issues going on. And listen, delamination is not a new thing. It's been around for a long time. Almost every paddle I've ever had has delaminated at some point, right? It becomes dead. The people used to be like, Oh man, my graphite paddle. I don't understand. It's dead in the center.
00:33:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's starting to come loose from the glue, you know, it, it delaminate. You know, the problem is in the past, because the bills of the paddles weren't as good. When they delaminated, they got weaker right now. There's so much tension on the edges that when it delaminate, it becomes more springy. It's very uncontrollable.
00:34:17
Speaker
It's very you can hear it. You know, it's not a huge issue for any of the companies when it comes to the number of paddles in the market. But, you know, it's definitely something that needs to be stomped out of the game. I mean, tournament directors, there's been a rule for delamination for a long time.
00:34:36
Speaker
All they've got to do is test the paddle. You can squeeze a paddle and hear it crunch. That thing is delaminated. It doesn't need to be able to play with in a tournament. And if they want to test every paddle beforehand, test away. Right. We want we want pros that play with our paddle to play with a good paddle, not a paddle that's inconsistent. Right. Because here's the thing. They might hit it harder, but they're going to spray it over there, you know, and over there because they can't control it. Right. So unless they're in a hand battle,
00:35:05
Speaker
You know, they're gonna have a hard time controlling it now. People are gonna take this and run with it.
00:35:10
Speaker
And they're going to go, oh man, legacy hits hard. It's the laminated. Come on. Right. Let's, let's, let's stop that narrative right now. Legacy at stock was one of the most powerful paddles on the market. Period. Okay. Period. Yeah. Chris Olson, Olson made a video about that and he was like, this hits like a truck. This was a month ago and will made one two months ago. Yeah. So I mean, you know, and that's, we didn't want another marshmallow, you know, quite frankly, there's a ton of marshmallows on the, on the market.
00:35:39
Speaker
Some companies own all the marshmallows, right? We didn't want a marshmallow, right? We didn't want that. We'll leave them to have the marshmallow. If that's what control looks like, we'll leave it to them. Ours hits like a machine, you know, and I tend to call it a Ferrari, right? And so you can put a 16-year-old in a Ferrari and the 16-year-old can handle it if they drive it appropriately, right?
00:36:02
Speaker
But if they jump in that Ferrari and stomp the gas like they did in that Honda, they're going to have some trouble. And so that's kind of the way our paddle's built. It's built for a person that understands grip pressure, can squeeze to make it more powerful, loosen up to have more control. And you have to practice with it. I mean, it's just built that way. And so I hope they get it all straight. I hope it's not any back-handedness.
00:36:30
Speaker
You know, between the tours and USA PA and, um, you know, I try not to get into the rumor mill stuff, but it's, it's, it's lining up. Like it's very odd how it's lining up that certain players are coming out. They have their names on paddles against the paddles.
00:36:51
Speaker
that are out there that are making noise and are hot right now, and maybe it's affecting their sales, right, and their pocket change, and it's directly affecting their companies. And so, I'll say this and then I'm gonna get off of it, because I know I've beat this force. I listen to these pros go, right, on social media, and I try to be very transparent, and I'll tell you, almost every pro that has
00:37:19
Speaker
come out and said something about these thermiforming paddles has ordered a legacy pro. Not only that, not only that, they've either texted me or called me and said, Hey man, this is probably one of the best paddles on the market period. Don't tell my company. Right. And so I just, I'm just waiting for the day. One of them just puts me on big time blast and I'm going to post that text. It's coming. You know who you are out there.
00:37:46
Speaker
So I'm just saying, you know, leaving me alone, we're trying to do the right thing. Just kidding. Hey, always keep that proof. Always. I got it. I got it. I'm just kidding. The transparency is huge, man.
00:38:01
Speaker
It's, I guess I can only really equate it to pickle wall because, or like talk about it and pickle because I really don't follow much other things, but transparency is huge from a company. Like you don't see it in large companies. You don't see it from banks. You don't see it from corporations and.
00:38:17
Speaker
There's it like coincides with pickleball very well because pickleball has that community vibe. It has that kind of like organic homegrown. It has a family vibe, the same vibe that you're trying to convey. And there is something about seeing the CEO, the founder responding, whether it's Reddit, Twitter, sending emails out, like that takes time. And it also
00:38:47
Speaker
it also like subjects you to risk in terms of like what you're saying. You haven't said anything bad, but there are people like Elon, you know, he's like very transparent and he said things that are very like off the rails, but same time, what you're getting is someone very transparent. He's going to tell you what's on your mind instead of like all these other people who hide behind
00:39:08
Speaker
you know the screen and they never say anything they use someone else to make the announcements or you know talk on their behalf and I just want to say like as a consumer but also as a human being
00:39:21
Speaker
Transparency is so important in this culture in this day and age that it's awesome that you do that. Um, and I see it all over Reddit, you know, like people are just like, Oh dude, he's like responding in these posts and he's like commenting and he's like sending emails and they like copy and paste the links to the, or like the screenshots of the emails. Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. You know, I appreciate that. You know, it's, it's, it's, um, Here's the thing, man. I think that.
00:39:51
Speaker
We've got so many things that we want to accomplish as a company, and one of them is really good customer service. And, you know, if you ask me or John what's most important for us in this game, it's family, right? And so I want to leave behind something that my kids can be proud of. And I've had plenty of missteps in my life, right? We all have.
00:40:20
Speaker
You know, it's a learning process. Everything is. And I know that if you are doing the, one of my, one of the legacy athletes said this to me, and it's so true. Her name is Jamie. And if she sees this, she's going probably howl that I mentioned her, but she said doing the right thing is never wrong. And I agree. You know, I mean, I just feel like.
00:40:47
Speaker
If you peel
Personal Stories and Legacy's Mission
00:40:48
Speaker
back all the layers of legacy, what you'll see is a company that believes in bringing attention to mental health awareness, you know, when it comes to pickleball, uh, bring in attention to the benefits of playing pickleball and how good it is for you both mentally and physically. And that's important to me because I'm a single dad. So I've gone through things myself and, uh, pickleball was both a detriment and a savior, if you will. And, um,
00:41:17
Speaker
man, it took a while to really dive into that and own it because there was a time where I was going through some things and I just, I felt like pickleball was probably the reason I was going through it. And, um, but at the same time, you know, pickleball turned it around for me. You know what I mean? Because when I didn't have that there, I had that family community in pickleball.
00:41:43
Speaker
And they lifted me up. And so for me, you know, it's hard to talk about as a man about mental health, but that's important to me. And so for us as a company, that's, that's what we want to do. And in order to do that, you have to be honest with yourself and honest with other people. And so that's probably where the transparency comes from is, um, you know, just owning my mistakes, owning, owning the things that I'm accountable for.
00:42:09
Speaker
and putting yourself out there because listen, man, every time I open my phone, I'm like, oh man, you know, I have, we have to get back in stock. We have so many things that we want to do. You know, people text me at late at night or I'll put my cell phone out there and people are like, man, don't put your cell phone on Facebook. Are you crazy? And I'm like, you know, it's okay. You know, because I had had conversations on Christmas Eve
00:42:38
Speaker
after the kids went to bed and I had, you know, Santa Claus came and people called talking about the paddle. And man, to me, that's amazing. And I want to make sure I'm always available and answering the phones and John's the same way. And, you know, whether we're a $7 company or a $10 million company, we're still going to be the same two people. And for us, it's amazing because we've attracted
00:43:02
Speaker
a group of players that is just grassroots campaign to a tee, you know, and they just gravitate to us and they're all good people. You know, our athletes are just all good people. And we're so blessed to be around so many amazing people that it's, you almost had to pinch yourself every day, the good and the bad, right? And being on the forums and Reddit and you can't please everybody. That's probably the hardest thing I think of,
00:43:31
Speaker
being transparent is disappointing song, you know, and I feel like I'm such a people pleaser in some ways, but at the same time it's, you know, um, you have to stay true to your mission. And if that mission is one thing and people are dragging you in different ways, you have to stay focused on that path. And, um, and that's, that's, that's where we're at, you know, right now. So.
00:43:58
Speaker
Yeah. Even being a people pleaser is very exhausting and it's just very, uh, it's dead. It's definitely a weird battle. Yeah. Yeah. You defend yourself, right? It makes you look defensive. You know, it's, it's difficult because you're passionate about it, right?
00:44:15
Speaker
And so it's like somebody picking on your kids. You jump out there and defend them, but some people take that different ways and really it's just passion. And my company is all about those three kids and John's kids and everybody's kids. I mean, you know, like the coolest thing for me
00:44:33
Speaker
Wasn't that the legacy probe became like super popular super quick. It was man those hundred Ellie Dicker prodigy series paddles that we shipped out and I got pictures every Hour just boom boom boom on Christmas Eve of little girls smiling loving life loving the game and it's like man if everything goes south from here, it'll all have been worth it, right and
00:45:00
Speaker
I mean, just because, one, I was a man of my word and my daughter will always know that, right?
00:45:06
Speaker
And then too, you know, we've pushed the quality of paddles, right? So now we're talking about new tests, right? We're talking about, I mean, it's amazing, you know, the things that are now starting to happen because we're trying to push it in the right direction. And by no means are we trying to push it over the envelope, but again, just pushing it in the right direction, right? And so, for us, that's pretty cool just to be a part of that, you know?
00:45:37
Speaker
Yeah. The fact that they're like reconfiguring the testing. Yeah. You could think of it as like some people could think of it as a bad thing. But honestly, if we're talking about the advancement of the sport and all that, then it is good. Obviously regulation is very tricky. It's kind of like if you equate it to like crypto, right? Like crypto, all these people are getting screwed over and there's like all these rug bulls. It's because regulation just can't keep up. Same with
00:46:04
Speaker
tech companies, like big companies like Google, Apple, Amazon have like antitrust laws. So regulation is always going to be something very tricky to balance out and figure out. But we just hopefully I don't know what it's going to take. Maybe it takes like getting paddle founders all at this like round table. That's how that's how it should be. Right.
00:46:27
Speaker
That's how it should be. You should bring the heads of the companies in together and listen. It doesn't matter what the rules are, right? If the rule is RX is 40, then we're going to be under 40, right? If the rule is 80, we're going to be under that. But let's set some clear rules.
00:46:46
Speaker
and let's hold everybody accountable for it right and let's have an even playing field when it comes to the rules right just because my paddle hits harder doesn't mean it's bad for the game right doesn't mean that it's illegal it's not right and so if a paddle breaks
00:47:03
Speaker
That's not the responsibility of necessarily the player or the company. It could be that it just broke. It could be that there's a flaw in manufacturing. It could be that maybe there is a company out there that's trying to do things the wrong way. There's always that.
00:47:25
Speaker
option of taking that path. Right. But but if every company is held to the same standard and when you hear about and I'm going to just be as as real as it gets right now, I have heard about illegal grit until I'm blue in the face. I've played against the paddles. I felt the paddles. I've seen the cut returns hit back at me. You know, I know it's there in the pro players know it's there. Right. Because here's the thing. They're not only some of them playing with it.
00:47:55
Speaker
They're asking me for it. Hey, send me the highest grit legacy pro. What? You know what I mean? So like people are talking out of both sides of their mouths. You know what I mean? They want transparency. They want it to be fair, but they also want what they want to give them a competitive advantage. You know, and it's so crazy seeing the backside of it as well. You know what I mean? And so when you hear people talk and take the higher moral ground, it's almost like, come on, man.
00:48:25
Speaker
You know, aren't you that same guy that asked for that high grit? You know, you know what I mean? Come on, man. You know, you're like, Oh my goodness, man. Okay. All right. But you know, at the end of the day, we all just want the same, even playing field, set the rules, set the expectations, and then let us let us go out there and make panels that fit in that. And we did that, right? So if they come out and they ban the legacy pro, or they ban carbon, or they ban, you know, any of the thermal forming paddles,
00:48:56
Speaker
Man, what a mess. What a mess, right? Because we passed all the tests. Not only did we pass the test, we passed with flying colors, okay? So we have room to grow when it comes to grit or deflection. So if a paddle becomes broken, it should go in the trash.
00:49:17
Speaker
period. You should send it back to the company. Let them send it back to the manufacturer, replace that paddle. And hopefully that company does right by everybody and fixes the process so that it doesn't continue to cycle. Right? Because as we all know, some companies continue to put paddles out there that break at the handle over and over and over and over and over. I got buddies that are that play with these paddles. They've had 14 warranties.
00:49:42
Speaker
the same paddle come on man fix it just fix the build it's a it's a build issue right and so you know there's always going to be warranty issues with every company and that's not new there's always going to be delamination because we're dealing with glue you know and resins and hopefully if anything this will drive the paddle engineers to make a better paddle
00:50:07
Speaker
That doesn't depend necessarily on the glue, you know what I mean? And that's where we're headed. So we're hoping to put, we're hoping. The broken paddle, broken handle. I think we're on the same page as far as like which paddle that is. I have a buddy who's gone through five already and keeps sending it back to this retailer. And that supplies a paddle and they just keep replacing it. And I'm just like, dude.
00:50:29
Speaker
Why don't you just going to move to another paddle? You're only getting it because it's just what everyone else has to a degree as opposed to like what is best for you, which is something that, you know, Joey B was talking about, but, um, that's frustrating, right? That's so frustrating as a player. And I, and I think I can say this because we're probably one of a handful of companies that's actually has players at a competitive level that own the company, you know,
00:50:57
Speaker
That's ridiculous, man. I don't want to have to constantly go back to the company and ask for a new paddle because it broke, you know? And so that's the absolute last thing I want to deal with as a player and a company owner, right? You want to build a product that doesn't do that, right? And so, I mean, we will always
00:51:17
Speaker
Do right by the customer. If there's an issue, you know, people can pick up the phone. They've got my cell phone. Listen, how many, how many companies and people can say, look, and they're a small company. They're going to answer the phone. They got no employees. I'm still going to answer the phone when we're a $10 million company in two years. Call me. I'm going to answer the phone. Right. So, you know, um, it's just who we are and we care about people and we're going to do right by people.
00:51:44
Speaker
You know, we want people to come to legacy because of who we are and what we believe and what we stand for, not what we build, not the paddle. Look, if you come to Legacy Pro because it's the best in spin right now, the next power that beats it in spin, you're going to run to it, right? That's not what we want. You know, we want loyalty. You know, we want generational loyalty. We want the children.
00:52:11
Speaker
know, we want the whole family, man, you know, and that's, that's, that's what we're striving for. Yeah. And it's interesting that you're saying this because these are all things that someone else or another company cannot imitate. You can imitate a paddle, you can imitate a product, but you can't imitate who someone is down at the core. You can try and imitate like how they talk, how they dress, how they look,
00:52:36
Speaker
you can imitate the authenticity, the transparency, the genuine care for wanting to foster more community, family. And that's also, I think, something that's so powerful about
00:52:50
Speaker
not just what you're doing, but a lot of other companies that, and people who strive to do that is that at the end of the day builds a following. Like you look at someone like Mr. Beast, that kid is just genuinely a good person. And at one point he asked, he made a post to all his followers and he was just like, after he put out his chocolate bars, he told people like, Hey, if you happen to be in Walmart and the shelves of the chocolate bars are all messed up, do you mind, you know, just,
00:53:18
Speaker
tidying it up for me. The next couple hours, just post after post after post, people are just showing before and after photos. He didn't ask for anything. Because he cultivated this following of just being a genuinely good guy. He's always trying to put others first. And these people, they just cultivated this amazing following where
00:53:41
Speaker
people are just willing to do something for this person. Like how many corporations can speak to that? So I think that's, you know, like very interesting. Um, what, what's next for legacy? You have mentioned the tour bags and, you know, elaborate on that. If you ask, well, we, we've got a legacy pro S model that we're shipping off to USA PA to get approved. It's a square version of the legacy pro with a shorter handle, five inch handle.
00:54:11
Speaker
We've got a recreational paddle that we feel like we're going to break the industry on that's coming out before too long. You know, we're really striving to be in the recreational industry, right? We are definitely going to be in every facet of Pickleball. So we're going to have pros, you know, that's coming.
00:54:34
Speaker
We're not in a rush there, right? We don't have to go that route, but it's something we want to do. We want to support the tours. We want to support USAPA and nationals. And we want to be a part of building MLP and making a big difference in the game. But we also don't want to forget where we came from. So, you know, I play at the YMCA in Montgomery, Alabama, indoor.
00:55:01
Speaker
All the time now, not so much, you know, but, but it was maybe three, three days a week. And, you know, I play pickleball because a 72 year old hit me in the chest with the ball right off the bat. And I was like, man, can you do that? And he was like, heck yeah, you can do that. And I was like, all right, I'm in it now. And so, uh, you know, I was questioning myself as an athlete, so, um,
00:55:25
Speaker
You know, I want to make sure that Legacy is the social media company in pickleball, right? And we're way off, but man, it's so fun for me to post pictures of people winning medals, post pictures of people that are out there just doing clinics, that are just hanging out with their dog in the paddles there, you know what I mean?
00:55:49
Speaker
We're going to do so much when it comes to our blog. We call it the reset. It's about mental health and it's about players and they don't have to be legacy players. They can play with whatever paddle. We don't care. We're going to tell your story and if you're brave enough to tell your story, we want to tell it for you and we want to help that.
00:56:12
Speaker
We're headed in the direction of making that a big staple of legacy and who we are. And we're going to do some exciting things coming up with some super juniors that are going to be pretty dope. And I'll tell you a little snippet. There's plenty of companies out there that, man, they do an amazing job of picking off all the pros and sponsoring every one of them.
00:56:39
Speaker
And they can they got the funds right? They've been around that they've got the money. Well We believe in juniors and we know that the future of pickleball is the little little studs and study that's coming and We're very much gonna go and sponsor a lot of them, right? And we're gonna have fun with it. We're gonna have big to-dos on social media So-and-so five-year-old sponsored we were in listen if anybody's watching this instills my idea shame on you
00:57:08
Speaker
But we're definitely going to be making some cool commercials with super juniors and making a big to do out of it, kind of like high school recruiting, if you will. And so we're going to have some fun with it. And that's the beauty of our game. And I promise you, when that wreck paddle comes out, you know, people are going to talk about legacy as much as they're talking about us now.
00:57:37
Speaker
And we're gonna make some noise. We're not trying to get rich off of anybody, but we're definitely want to make paddles that are affordable and that are good for the family. And excited about the athletes that we have and the things that they're gonna be out there doing. We have
Future Plans and Personal Motivations
00:57:55
Speaker
a tremendous ambassador program. I mean, I don't think there's another ambassador program out there that is quite like ours.
00:58:03
Speaker
And, um, we're just doing things different, you know, and so, um, you know, you asked me about the built different thing and, and, and the, um, where did bed on yourself come from? And, you know, growing up, um, you know, there were, there were trials in my life. I lost my little brother when I was 15. And, uh, you know, he was.
00:58:30
Speaker
And he was something, you know, he played every sport. Kid was just a genius. He was artistic. He was just salt of the earth. Right. And, um, I knew that growing up, that in order to succeed, you had to look in the mirror and not, not let the things that beat you down in the world, um, and the valleys that you've gone through keep you in that valley.
00:58:58
Speaker
You had to put your money on yourself. You had to look in the mirror and you had to bet on what you saw. And you had to believe in yourself because what I know is if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will. And legacy is very much that. And so that's one of our mottos is bet on yourself because listen, you know what you're capable of. You just got to reach inside and grab it, right? And don't let anybody in the world tell you different because there will always be haters.
00:59:27
Speaker
The big dogs are coming after us right now. They're slapping us with this and slapping us with that. But listen, at the end of the day, it's not going to matter because legacy will still be here 10 years from now. And I'll tell you the exact reason why is because I look in the mirror every day and I bet on myself because I know that nobody's going to take it from me. You better be something else if you're going to take it from me. And so, you know, that's that's where we're at. And every one of our athletes,
00:59:57
Speaker
And they are the same, you know? And our following, you know, the people that believe in us and see our paddles and our passion, they're the same. And I mean, look man, that 72 year old that has never played in a tournament, that plays with a legacy paddle when I walk in, man, it almost takes me in tears every time I see it. Because one day I'm gonna walk in and he's not gonna be there, right? And man,
01:00:25
Speaker
For this amount of time, you know, legacy made something, you know, and made a difference. And that dude made a difference to me. And that's, that's just how it's going to be. And we're going to keep pushing and we're not giving up. And look, even if, even if things change with the legacy pro and the industry changes, we're going to adapt, right? Because we're here for the players not to
01:00:54
Speaker
to make money or to build the best paddle on the planet or the most expensive. We're here for the players. And that's what we're all about is listening to the players and what the players want and getting that feedback. And we're working on some bags and stuff that players have really asked for. And that's kind of where we're headed. And man, forgive me for being a little emotional. But man, it's tough when you believe in something so much.
01:01:25
Speaker
You know, I'm betting the rest of my life on this, right? I'm betting the happiness of my kids and my kids' kids on how hard I work right now. And so, um, and if you are the type of player that believes in companies like that, then, then take a chance on us because I promise you one thing, you'll never not be able to pick up the phone and call me and I won't call you back. Right. So.
01:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Man, really sorry to hear about your brother. I know where he's at. Yeah. And, you know, I'm sure he's very proud of you. And I lost my dad when I was 25, died in like a climbing accident. And it's, I feel you, man, it's a shame that something so motivating and powerful has to come at such a high cost and such a high price. And I can also tell that you have a coaching background, which,
01:02:24
Speaker
I just want to say, man, coaches, I think that's a prop. I think that's something missing from society today is a lot of kids that are more going to like, there are screens as opposed to being under the tutelage of a coach is that these coaches bring something very special and different out of many individuals and make them feel like they're capable of something. And you don't have a lot of people like that in today's society now. Um, but, and you honestly ended this on a perfect note.
01:02:53
Speaker
I don't have any more, any more things to say. You covered everything and just want to say thank you, man. Uh, thank you for being transparent. Thank you for just being aside from a business owner, just the person that you are, like your father, your son, you're just a overall honest human being, which is something that isn't easy to come by and not as common as one might hope.
01:03:21
Speaker
Well, I appreciate that. And I'm sorry to hear about your dad. And what I know is where we're all headed is the right direction. And if there's anything I can ever do for you or anybody else out there watching this, man, please pick up the phone and call me. Because for us, it's as important as helping everyone build their brand and their identity and who they are and helping them succeed. Because indirectly, that'll help us succeed. And we're all about servant leadership.
01:03:51
Speaker
And putting others first and and that's just who we are. So so For sure. What's the best place for people to find more information about? Yes, you can check our website out at legacy pickleball.com or you can check us out on instagram at legacy pickle or Twitter legacy pickleball or Facebook legacy pickle We're even on tick tock. So if you're on tick tock, we're on tick tock at legacy pickle suck
01:04:19
Speaker
We're learning. I'm learning on Reddit, Discord. I'm old, but I'm learning. So forgive me if I'm out there and we cross paths. And I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I'm out there. So I will always be out there. And I'm a player first, right? Yeah.
01:04:41
Speaker
Last question actually because I feel like you're gonna have something good to say here is any Advice you would have for someone who was successfully created business and pickleball. Yeah, you know I will I would say this It doesn't take much To do a lot Right and and if you wake up every day with good intentions and you believe in yourself And you don't let the outside influences bring you down. You're gonna be successful
01:05:11
Speaker
And there's so many good people in this industry that even if you don't know which path you want to run or where you want to run, there's people out there that'll help you. And they'll help you for free. And I'm one of them. And so if you're interested in getting in the paddle game, call me. I'll help you. We don't shy away from competition. And we'd love to see other people be successful and do things for our community and our industry.
01:05:42
Speaker
What an exciting time to be in Pickleball at the front end of this thing. Listen, when this is in the Olympics, we're all going to look back and go, wow. We were at the front of it. And so what a blessing. And keep doing what you're doing. So awesome seeing. I'm such a fan. I love watching your stuff. And I love watching Chris Olsen and those guys do their thing.
01:06:07
Speaker
so many good podcasts out there. So it's, it's awesome. And listen from, from, from us to you and me as a player to you all, uh, thanks for what you all do because, um, you know, you are definitely a driving force behind the industry and, um, motivation because, you know, without you all, you know, it would be hard to get the word out there and, and, and really show and share what we're all enjoy, you know, getting up every day for. So, so thank you.
01:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, thanks again, Chris. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, bud. Good to talk to you. Likewise.