For years outdoor games have brought together families, employee teams, neighbors, friends, and even strangers. Despite the prevalence of technology, nothing can replace the value of human interaction. PaddleSmash is the newest game to come onto the outdoor game stage, and is ideally suited to play in the backyard or at the beach.
Invented by Joe Bingham, an engineer from Pleasantview, Utah, PaddleSmash combines the best aspects of Pickleball and Roundnet into a fun and easy-to-learn game. Bingham has seven children, including six boys who enjoy playing spikeball, but Bingham couldn’t keep up with them. When the family developed an interest in Pickleball, Bingham sought to develop a game they could play at home. That game was PaddleSmash.
Tim Swindle and Scott Brown are good friends who are also successful businessmen and serial entrepreneurs in the toy and game space. The two also share a passion for playing outdoor sports. After trying out Joe Bingham’s game concept with family members and close friends, Swindle and Brown instinctively sensed the game would be a success. Describing PaddleSmash as “Pickleball and Spikeball got married,” they knew that Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in North America, and Spikeball has been an enormous success in outdoor games over the last ten years. The founders believed “marrying” these two sports would appeal to fans of both games.
They licensed the concept from Bingham and worked to develop a version of PaddleSmash that was robust, portable, and easy to use for a wide range of ages and abilities. The two spent several months refining the gameplay and the design. Working off Bingham’s prototype, Swindle and Brown had to overcome several engineering setbacks to develop the most advanced version of PaddleSmash. The co-founders eventually were able to build an iteration of the product that was both mass-producible and scalable, making it suitable for sale in a broad range of retail establishments.
Once they accomplished that, the next most challenging obstacle to overcome to launch PaddleSmash was raising awareness about the product in the marketplace. According to Swindle, the market is filled with a fair amount of noise due to many currently available games. Even today, Swindle has acknowledged that they are constantly working on marketing.
Swindle acknowledges the significant role social media has played and still plays in the marketing and promotion of PaddleSmash to its prospective customers. They have an active presence across a variety of social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube are great ways to be more present in the game space, especially for a highly visual, outdoor product like PaddleSmash. It is also simple enough for people to comprehend just by watching, in contrast to many other games.
Currently, the co-founders are looking to persuade influential people in the Pickleball field to produce videos and other material for PaddleSmash, as those individuals and their followers are most likely to find the game appealing and endorse it. Then, that influencer content would be shared on the company’s social media accounts to get greater public exposure in the digital space.
A PaddleSmash set includes one net system, one foldable court, four paddles, and two balls. It can be played by two to four players in a 15-minute match duration. It is easy to carry and set up and can be played anywhere and any time of the year.
Tim Swindle lives outside of Nashville with his wife, two daughters, and dog, Tucker. Scott Brown calls Alpine, Utah his home with his wife, four daughters, and their dog, Cub. PaddleSmash just launched in September 2022, but has already demonstrated tremendous growth nearly four months since its debut. The two game creators are well on the road to having the next outdoor sports sensation.
To learn more about PaddleSmash or to purchase the game online, visit their website https://paddlesmash.com/.
