🔥 Would your brand pass the “pickleball test”?

How Pickleball Went From One Family’s Game To The Whole World’s Game

What makes a trend?

Is it a perfect storm or just a well-placed serve?

In the case of pickleball, it’s both.

At first glance, it looks like a backyard pastime for retirees. But today, it’s a billion-dollar business backed by LeBron James, embraced by Gen Z, and filling up rec centers coast to coast. 

So how did a paddle sport invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island become America’s fastest-growing obsession?

For that we’ll have to go back.

This is the story of… pickleball.

The year is 1965 and congressman Joel Pritchard had just wrapped up a game of golf. 

He returned home to find a group of restless kids and no real plan for how to keep them entertained.

So, like any inventive dad with a garage full of sports gear and a driveway full of boredom, he improvised.

A badminton net. A Wiffle ball. A couple of ping-pong paddles. 

And just like that, a new game was born.

They lowered the net, played on the asphalt, and made up rules as they went.

It was simple, weirdly addictive, and best of all: everyone in the family could play.

They called it pickleball but not after pickles, but after the family dog NAMED Pickles.

The game got so fun that the Pritchards went all in and constructed a pickleball court in their backyard, measuring 20 feet wide and 44 feet long as opposed to a tennis court’s 60 by 120. 

Neighbors came over. Friends of friends. Kids, adults, retirees.

Everyone could and wanted to play.

The Pritchards knew they had something good on their hands, so in 1972, they made it official.

Along with their buddies Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, they formed Pickleball Inc. to start manufacturing paddles, balls, and nets, turning their backyard invention into a real-deal sport.

From there, it just kept growing.

In 1975, the National Observer ran a piece profiling the sport and a year later, Tennis Magazine called it “America’s newest racquet sport.” 

That might not sound like much now, but back then, that was a BIG DEAL.

It was the early version of going viral.

Soon, people were hosting tournaments and tweaking their paddles by experimenting with wood types, weights, and grips. 

What started as a backyard hack was evolving into a real sport with gearheads, strategy, and loyal diehards.

In 1984, the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) was founded to give the sport structure.

They had rankings, tournaments, official court dimensions and all the grown-up stuff a game needs to level up.

Still, it stayed mostly under the radar. A well-kept secret passed around retirement communities, school gyms, and suburbia.

It seemed that Pickleball would just just stay a game.

PUT IT IN PRACTICE A lot of marketers try to stand out by being clever. But pickleball stood out by being simple. Easy to play. Easy to talk about. Easy to share. Here’s your homework: Pick one spot in your funnel. A landing page, an ad, a subject line. Rewrite it so a 10-year-old could explain it to their friend. Then test it, tweak it, and keep it simple.

Then came 2020 and the world shut down.

Gyms were closed, group sports were canceled, people were stuck at home, desperate for movement and connection.

They needed something socially distant, that they could easily pick up and play in the driveway. 

Enter stage right: pickleball. Overnight, sales of paddles and nets exploded.

In 2020 alone, U.S. participation jumped 21.4%, a MASSIVE leap from the year before.

And that was just the start. 

In 2021, entrepreneur Steve Kuhn founded Major League Pickleball (MLP), introducing a team-based format with co-ed squads, innovative scoring, and a draft system.

To get Pickleball into more hands and in front of more eyes, he had to get crafty. 

So he did what any savvy modern sports founder would do:

He called the celebs.

Kuhn and his team lined up investors who weren’t just rich—they were recognizable.

LeBron James bought in.

Tom Brady followed.

Then Drake. 

Then Kevin Durant. 

Then Patrick Mahomes.

One by one, stars from every corner of culture put their names (and wallets) behind the sport.

It worked.

The headlines rolled in, TikTok blew up, and pickleball was more popular than ever before.

In 2024, nearly 20 million Americans played Pickleball.What started as a low-stakes game cobbled together with a Wiffle ball and some plywood paddles had become the fastest-growing sport in the country.

And yet, the magic of pickleball isn’t just in the hype.

It’s in the accessibility.

The way a retiree, a teenager, and a world-class athlete could all share the same court and all have fun.

That’s what makes a trend stick.

Not just a moment.

But a movement.

MARKETING CHEAT SHEET (WHAT TO LEARN FROM THIS STORY):

1️⃣. Give People a Sticky Story: Pickleball didn’t grow because of flashy ads. It grew because people could explain it in seconds.

“It’s like ping pong in your driveway” is simple, memorable, and fun to repeat. If people can’t describe what you do without sounding awkward, they won’t. Write the version they’ll actually use.

2️⃣. Make the First Win Instant: Part of what made pickleball unstoppable is that it gave people a win FAST. No learning curve. No fancy gear. You could play with your grandma and both have fun. That’s the energy your product or campaign needs.

Don’t ask users to watch a 10-minute tutorial or click through 5 emails before the payoff. Give them a moment of success in the first 5 minutes and they’ll come back for more.

3️⃣. Set the Stage Before the Spotlight: Pickleball didn’t just randomly explode in 2020. It had been building quietly for decades…gear was being made, rules were standardized, and courts were already popping up. So, when the world needed a socially distant sport, pickleball didn’t have to catch up. It was already in position.

That’s the playbook. Don’t wait for a viral moment to get organized.

Build the assets, systems, and story now. So when attention shows up, you’re not starting from zero. You’re ready to scale.

IN A MEME