CRUSH is a Scottsdale-based company that offers premium pickleball paddles, backpacks, men’s and women’s apparel, accessories and more, and plans to expand the brand through its coast-to-coast team-building strategies. “In addition, the brand strives to be more than a pickleball company; it’s aiming to create a movement to share joy intentionally through the game and works to express how the community of pickleball is healing on so many levels,” explain co-founders Richelle and Pete Nassos, who founded the company in August 2023.
Their inspiration came from working with their son on his game after he was introduced to the game in his gym class at school — and became a devotee. While spending long hours on the court with him, the Nassoses say they observed many voids and improvements that could be made within the sport. “Not to mention this was a fresh, new opportunity that re-ignited our flame in business and a game we all enjoyed playing. We saw that the ‘cool factor’ was missing in the sport, too, and we wanted to change the way people looked at this game.”
They brought to this second venture experience of their first startup, from which they “learned from many of our own business challenges and failures.” And they’re working hard at being trend setters for a game they’ve become “wildly passionate about.” The CRUSH brand recently released a new pickleball paddle the Nassoses feel will revolutionize the sport: RQT, USA Pickleball approved, is one of the first extended-handle paddles in the world and gives tennis players the advantage of a two-handed backhand.
Observing that competition is inevitable, the Nassoses say they take to heart advice they were given early on as entrepreneurs that “the best compliment is when someone knocks you off. Don’t be offended, just work harder and know you are doing something right if people are duplicating you.”
Did You Know: Pickleball, invented in 1965, grew in 2023 to 8.9 million players in the U.S., according to the 2023 Sports & Fitness Industry Association Single Sport Report on Pickleball.
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