Q1) There is no shortage of sportswear in the world. What did you see on our Pickleball courts (especially on the women) that made you think, “There’s an opportunity here”?
PickleJoy: We actually didn’t start with the idea of creating another sportswear brand. We play Pickleball ourselves and noticed how much personality there was on the courts, especially among the women. People coordinated their outfits, socks, bags, paddles. What you wore and carried was part of the fun.
But when we looked at what was available specifically for Pickleball, a lot of it was either very functional and serious, or quite generic. We felt there was room for products that could be functional on court, but still sparked joy the moment you looked at them.
That became a big part of how we think about Picklé Joy Club. We love colour, playful designs and little details that make people happy, but there still has to be a reason for the product to exist.
Meet Ollie Pop, the newest character from PickleJoy.
Pickleball in SG is so social. You don’t just turn up, play and leave. You hang around, chat, have coffee, and make new friends. We wanted Picklé to reflect that whole lifestyle around the game, not just what happens during the time on court.
Q2) How do you know you’re building a genuine brand rather than simply putting Pickleball motifs on merchandise coz the sport is trending?
PJ: This is actually something we think about a lot. It’s very easy to put a Pickle ball or paddle on something and call it a Pickleball product. For us, whenever we design something, there are really two questions: Is it functional? And does it bring joy?
Because we’re players ourselves, functionality is important. We think about what players actually need on and off court whether it’s a bag with proper compartments for your shoes, paddles and bottle, socks that are comfortable to play in, or accessories that you’ll actually use.
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Q1) There is no shortage of sportswear in the world. What did you see on our Pickleball courts (especially on the women) that made you think, “There’s an opportunity here”?
PickleJoy: We actually didn’t start with the idea of creating another sportswear brand. We play Pickleball ourselves and noticed how much personality there was on the courts, especially among the women. People coordinated their outfits, socks, bags, paddles. What you wore and carried was part of the fun.
But when we looked at what was available specifically for Pickleball, a lot of it was either very functional and serious, or quite generic. We felt there was room for products that could be functional on court, but still sparked joy the moment you looked at them.
That became a big part of how we think about Picklé Joy Club. We love colour, playful designs and little details that make people happy, but there still has to be a reason for the product to exist.
Meet Ollie Pop, the newest character from PickleJoy.
Pickleball in SG is so social. You don’t just turn up, play and leave. You hang around, chat, have coffee, and make new friends. We wanted Picklé to reflect that whole lifestyle around the game, not just what happens during the time on court.
Q2) How do you know you’re building a genuine brand rather than simply putting Pickleball motifs on merchandise coz the sport is trending?
PJ: This is actually something we think about a lot. It’s very easy to put a Pickle ball or paddle on something and call it a Pickleball product. For us, whenever we design something, there are really two questions: Is it functional? And does it bring joy?
Because we’re players ourselves, functionality is important. We think about what players actually need on and off court whether it’s a bag with proper compartments for your shoes, paddles and bottle, socks that are comfortable to play in, or accessories that you’ll actually use.
But function alone isn’t enough for us. We want someone to look at a Picklé product and immediately feel happy. It could be the colours, a cheeky detail, one of our characters, or just something unexpected that makes you smile.
So when we design, we’re not asking, “What else can we put a Pickle ball on?” We’re asking, “Would a player actually use this, and would it spark a little joy when they see it?”
That’s probably the simplest way to describe what we want Picklé to be — functional products with personality that bring a little more joy to the game.
Q3) You are both Pickleball players yourselves. What’s something you thought players would LOVE that did not sell and what was something you were 50/50 about but it sold like hotcakes?
PJ: This business has definitely taught us that what we think people will love and what customers actually buy can be two completely different things. 😂
We’ve had designs that we personally loved and were convinced would do really well, especially some of our more feminine and colourful designs, but the response ended up being more muted than we expected.
On the other hand, we were initially quite 50/50 about how much people would pay for a proper Pickleball bag. Our Signature Pro Bag was a much bigger commitment for us to produce and, at $89.90, it’s very different from someone picking up a pair of socks or a small accessory.
But it ended up doing really well. We realised players appreciated that it wasn’t just cute and that it was designed around how they actually play. There’s space for your paddles, a separate shoe compartment, bottle storage and all the random things we somehow bring to the court. The customisation also became something people really liked.
That taught us quite an important lesson: cute gets attention, but functional + cute is much more powerful.
Now we try not to fall too deeply in love with our own ideas. Put it out there, listen to the community and let the customers tell us what they actually want.
Fun fact: Nike's best selling item is their socks. So it won't surprise us if it's the same with PJ's socks.
Q4) Pickleball has a wonderfully social, slightly irreverent culture. How can PickleJoy stay relevant and authentic without losing the fun personality i.e. become too polished and ‘too corporate’?
PJ: Hopefully we never become too polished. 😂
The slightly chaotic, social side of Pickleball is exactly what we love about it. You meet strangers, somehow end up in a WhatsApp group together, say “one last game” five times, complain about your unforced errors and then come back and do it all over again.
That personality is what we want Picklé to reflect.
Of course, as the business grows, certain things have to become more professional — our products, service, operations — but that doesn’t mean the personality of the brand has to become corporate.
We still want to create things that make players smile and poke fun at the things we all do on court. We want to stay close to the community because a lot of our ideas come from actually playing, talking to other players and observing all these little behaviours around the game.
The moment we sit in an office trying to guess what Pickleball players find funny/cute, we’ve probably lost the plot. So the best way for us to stay authentic is actually very simple: keep playing.
Q5) If Pickleball’s extraordinary growth slowed down tomorrow, would PickleJoy still have a business? Are you looking at other verticals, collabs, even other sports etc?
PJ: We definitely think about this coz no sport grows at this pace forever. We don’t want Picklé Joy Club to be a brand that only works while Pickleball is trending.
For us, Picklé is really about the joy of playing. We want to design products that are functional, but at the same time have so much personality that when you see them, they immediately spark joy. That gives us room to grow beyond just putting Pickleball motifs on products.
One example is something new that we’re really excited about: Ollie Pop, our newest character.
Ollie is inspired by something almost every pickleball player, especially beginners, can relate to: popping the ball up. She’s cheerful, a little imperfect, always trying to improve and, no matter how many times she pops up that ball, she keeps going.
There’s something very relatable about that because we’ve all been that player at some point.
With Ollie Pop, we’re not just creating another product. We’re starting to build characters with their own personalities and stories that players can see a little bit of themselves in.
That opens up a lot of possibilities for us i.e. new product categories, character-led collections, collaborations and partnerships with other communities. We’re definitely open to exploring other verticals and even other sports in the future, but we wouldn’t jump into something simply because it’s the next trend. It still has to feel like Picklé.
So even if Pickleball growth slows, we hope people stay with us coz they love the products, the characters and what the brand makes them feel.
Pickleball may be where Picklé started, but joy is what we want the brand to be remembered for.
Their Signature Pro Bag retails for $89.90 (bag it at a steal with the promo code).
Q6) What’s the silliest disagreement the two of you have had to date? How was the disagreement resolved?
PJ: Definitely colours and designs. 😂
We can spend an embarrassing amount of time debating over two shades of pink or green that probably look exactly the same to everyone else.
And because we both have quite strong opinions about design, sometimes it’s not even about which one looks better. One of us will look at something and go, “No… this is just not Picklé.”
Then begins the back and forth eg. the colour is too dark, the pink is too purple, the graphic is too big, move it slightly to the left, do we really need that detail…things that probably nobody else will ever notice. 😂
Usually we resolve it by going back to the same question: Does this feel like Picklé Joy Club, and will it bring joy to someone when they see it? If we still can’t agree, we’ll show it to a few people, look at the actual samples or sometimes one of us just has to say, “Okay lah, you win this one".
We’ve realised the disagreements usually happen because we both care a lot about what we put out. And somehow, after all the debating, we normally end up with something better than where we started.
Until the next colour sample arrives. 😂
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