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Local entrepreneur Ellie Jamison gives pickleball a new look

VaselineJuly 2, 2024

0 2 minutes read

Local entrepreneur Ellie Jamison gives pickleball a new look

Pickleball has become extremely popular with the next generation in recent years and thanks to a local entrepreneur, young picklers now have a bat that suits their style.

Ellie Jamison, a former girls lacrosse player at The Benjamin School, discovered an unexpected love for pickleball during the first week of her business studies at the University of Virginia two years ago.

Competitive, but fun. Athletic, but social.

But it wasn’t long before she and her future business partner Grace Collins saw a gap in the pickleball market. Despite the recreational sport’s growing popularity across the country, the sport lacked a paddle that matched the aesthetics of the next generation of players.

Places to play: Is the pickleball craze calling you? How do you find courts and play in Palm Beach County?

And so Play Henry was born.

“We fell in love with it and became obsessed with it. We’re both former athletes, so we felt it was low impact and easy to pick up,” Jamison said. “The problem we saw was we didn’t like any paddle on the market.”

The standard ones were too masculine. The ones with color were too preppy.

“We thought, ‘You know what, we’ve played so much. We’ve played with the UVA club team. Why don’t we talk to people and see if we can build our own paddle?’ So it just kind of came from this need that we wanted to have our own paddle because we didn’t like anything that was out there.”

The Collins duo took the plunge and started their own company.

According to their website, the name is “both an ode to their families (‘Henry’ is the surname of both Ellie and Grace) and to the community of ‘Henrys’ they have created, who prioritize relaxation and play as an escape from the daily demands of life.”

As evidence of the growing market for new pickleball equipment, Play Henry’s very first paddle design, the “Hank Pro,” sold out within its first month of operation. It was an instant success story that catapulted the new company into a series of artistic partnerships to reach young players.

That was a year ago.

Last Thursday, the duo’s company announced their latest collaboration, the Presley Goode Collection, which sees Play Henry team up with New York-based abstract artist Presley Goode to create the “Sunset Sip” and “Morning Dip,” blue-and-white patterned paddles to usher in summer play.

Now that Play Henry paddles are available not only online but also in-store, Jamison took a moment to reflect on her journey in business, where she discovered the intersection with sports.

“I always wanted to start my own business, and I knew if I did, it would be something within athletics,” she said. “Just because I feel so connected to sports and I’m so passionate about it. And so I knew it was always going to be something in this space, and I’m so excited because I love using our product every day.”

VaselineJuly 2, 2024

0 2 minutes read

Vaseline

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