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market. "We've built a nice network of dealers and we're seeing tremendous growth there. Most of our pickleball sales and volume come from the team side of the business," he says. "We want to tap into the value proposition of the products as well as the grassroots game. We're creating additional touch points and establishing Rhino Pickleball awareness on both the dealer and the front-facing con- sumer levels." Because pickleball is a great way to stay in shape, the company decided to highlight the game's health and fitness aspects by integrat- ing its Rhino branded fitness line into Rhino Pickleball, with the intent of promoting fitness within the pickleball community. "We have lot of fitness products to help improve core and overall strength and improve flexibility and stability. It's a value-add to the pickleball line," explains Meller. "It will also help diversify the Rhino line and leverage what we already do. It's about focusing on the fitness and wellness aspects of playing the sport, and we have the product to support that." Meller believes there are huge growth prospects available for pickleball. "It's a sport as well as an activity, so it attracts a broader range of participants and allows us and our dealer partners to tap into a larger market," he says. "Our goal is to make dealers aware that there are opportunities in pickleball. We want to educate them about which products to carry and how to serve the market." Rob Barnes, co-founder and co-CEO of Hayden, ID-based Selkirk Sport, a pickleball-only, family-owned and operated company founded in 2014, is also bullish on all aspects of the sport, including the team market. Getting Bigger in a Pickle "e team category is a good-size part of our business, but it needs to be a lot bigger," says Barnes. "We're starting to deal with schools more and that's partly what our Selkirk Growth Program is for — to target schools and help grow the sport. We'll donate a certain number of paddles to a school and then they can buy additional ones at an extremely reduced rate." Although Selkirk does not currently work with many team dealers, instead servicing schools, teams and leagues directly, this could soon change. "We tend to work directly with the schools and leagues. We do deal with some team sellers and dealers, and it's a category we definitely want to expand," says Barnes. "I think that portion of the market will get much bigger. It's a huge growth opportunity within the sport." He continues, "Schools are starting to see the health benefits of pickleball as well as the social benefits where kids are close and interacting with each other on the court. We see that side of things expanding very quickly, especially with easy-barrier product lines, which will hopefully make the sport a lot easier to learn and play. "I think you'll begin to see junior programs and team programs at schools really start increasing because of all the positive factors of the sport," Barnes adds. "e team aspect has a lot of potential. It's a category that hasn't yet had a lot of time devoted to it, but we're hoping to put more effort into it over the years and really grow that segment." Barnes points out that most team customers are looking for entry-level products that are reliable, of good quality and have affordable price points. A Range of Product Price Points In pickleball, unlike in tennis or even other sports, there are pretty wide deltas, he explains. "You have wood paddles, which are kind of crappy and heavy and are hard for kids. And then you go up to composite, but that's almost three times the cost jump, from $10 for wood to $30 for composite." Selkirk tries to subsidize some of those [team and school] programs by offering composite paddles at around $20. "One thing we're also doing for team programs long-term is that we're looking to develop a broad line of junior paddles. It's one thing that's really been lacking in the sport." Meanwhile, over at Carron Net, which pro- duces high-quality nylon netting for volleyball, tennis, pickleball and a host of other sports, Russ Schirmer, director of sales, reports that demand for pickleball nets is exploding. "We're selling more pickleball nets to team dealers now than ever before, including custom sizes. As the sport has become more established, it has come out with regulation size nets," he says. "There's a shift taking place now and as pickleball continues to grow across the U.S., there'll be more demand for product." Zach Meller, EVP/Chief Strategy Officer, Champion Sports Photo: Courtesy of Champion Sports TEAM / TRENDS

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