All the hotshot business and finance minds must be constantly looking for the next booming market. What's the next product space that's currently underdeveloped or nonexistent? What will be omnipresent a decade from now that people aren't even thinking about? Where do I need to go to find the next great idea?
The Barnes family had zero of those questions on their mind when they wandered into the Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene to play some basketball back in 2009. The family — Jim Barnes and his then-teenage sons Mike, Tom, and Rob — had moved to Coeur d'Alene a year prior, and the quartet of guys were just looking to shoot some hoops one day, not realizing the trip would change the trajectory of all their lives.
"We were playing [basketball], and they just put up pickleball for the first time that day," Rob says. "And we had someone come over and say, 'Hey, you want to play with me?' And us boys, we're kind of looking at it like, 'Oh, that looks kind of like a weird game.' And our dad had previously played it. He's a retired fireman, and he had played at a station once. And he was like, 'Hey, we need to go try this.' So we tried it, and we were kind of hooked ever since."
Well before the current pickleball boom — it's been the fastest-growing sport in the United States for three years running, seeing 223.5% increase in players over that time, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association's Topline Participation Report — the Barneses became pickleball fanatics, "playing as much as we possibly could every week for years," Rob says.
But there was one problem. Since pickleball was such a niche sport at the time, there was little in the way of quality equipment for sale.
"There weren't any true performance brands that actually spoke to us," Rob says. "And we just all felt that it was a massive gap at the time. We loved the sport, and it was starting to grow, but still you could ask 10 people and one person maybe knew what pickleball was. And now it's literally the opposite — nine out of 10 will know. And so we just felt like it was a fun game that really turned into a sport. And we wanted to build a real authentic brand in the space."
In 2014, Jim and his sons, then in their early 20s, founded Selkirk as a mom-and-pop pickleball equipment manufacturing company. Then the sport exploded as an ultra-accessible, all-ages outdoor activity during the peak COVID pandemic years. Now marking its 10th anniversary, Selkirk is the worldwide leader in the performance pickleball equipment space.
So, aspiring business minds — hit up your local rec centers.
To be fair, the Barnes crew didn't exactly see a pickleball explosion on the horizon, either. That said, the most appealing aspect of the sport — that everyone from kids to seniors can pick it up with relative ease — made growth a possibility. According to a Selkirk survey, 20% of pickleball players have no background playing other sports and are drawn to pick up a paddle to stay both physically active and social.
"I mean, number one it's fun. And you could say that about any sport, but pickleball in particular, it's fun not just after you get lessons for a few weeks — it's fun the first time you play it," Mike Barnes says.
"And the word we see all the time is 'addicted.' And even our mission statement is 'to fuel the pickleball obsession.' Because when people get going, they just have fun the first time they play, and they quickly become obsessed with it. Because it has such a low barrier to entry, anybody can play. So it's not something where just 20-something athletes can play it. You can get grandparents playing with their grandkids. It's fun for all ages, and a great way to get a workout."
The family also had the advantage of Selkirk not being their main gigs in the early days. Jim was already retired from his work as a firefighter when the company was founded and didn't take a salary for the first two years, while his boys each took just a $500 monthly paycheck. Before the COVID pandemic, Selkirk's staff hovered around 10 employees and catered only to the niche pickleball-playing clientele. Now Selkirk has around 150 employees, a design and manufacturing facility in Hayden, Idaho, and its products can be found at Target and Costco stores across the country.
"It's not something where just 20-something athletes can play it. You can get grandparents playing with their grandkids. It's fun for all ages."
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"Because we were born in the sport, we had a lot of time to kind of figure it out. So we've really pushed the limits of performance in the space," Rob says. "I mean, when we first entered the space, the most expensive paddle you could get was $100, and that was pretty rare. Now we have Selkirk Labs models that are up to $333. We really knew if we could bring performance, if we could bring better technology, we could pay for that technology with a higher price point."
Selkirk now offers 18 models of performance pickleball paddles, while also selling nets, balls, performance attire, paddle bags and more. On Selkirk.com, paddles run from $50 to $250. The Barneses are now looking into opening their first retail stores in Idaho, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Selkirk is also making sure the sport continues to blossom in the Inland Northwest, offering up free hourlong Pickleball 101 lessons at the company's facility in Hayden. Fittingly, the Barneses just want Selkirk and the local pickleball community to be one big happy family.
"This is our 10-year anniversary. So we're just pretty excited to continue the journey," Rob says. "We're the largest brand in the space right now, and we're just hoping to continue that growth and build the sport across the world, not just in the Inland Northwest." ♦
