Courting success Couple’s home-based shop serves up gear for the burgeoning pickleball set By: David Sanderson Posted: 4:04 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 21, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/07/2023 (1123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Talk about making a loud racquet.

A recent New York Times article sported the headline “Shattered nerves, sleepless nights: pickleball noise is driving everyone nuts.” The accompanying piece detailed how residents of Arlington, Va., living directly across the street from a half-dozen pickleball courts have had it up to there with the pop-pop-pop sound created by perforated plastic pickleballs being struck back and forth, morning, noon and night.

“It’s a torture technique,” one person said. “Living here is hell,” another put it. A third party compared the cacophony to having a pistol range on their doorstep.

Don and Gloria Kropla, who run The Prairie Pickleball Shop, Winnipeg’s first and only store devoted entirely to the ever-growing activity, were discussing that very topic with a customer a few days ago, after the fellow brought up a regulation-size pickleball court he’d spotted in a private backyard, while he was out riding his bike.

The married couple found the idea of a backyard court intriguing, only Don wondered what the homeowner’s neighbours thought, knowing full well the din associated with the game causes some to gnash their teeth.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” the customer remarked. “I don’t find the sound overly offensive.”

“Yeah, but that’s because you’re a pickleballer,” Don shot back with a laugh.

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Seated next to Gloria in their St. James abode, a section of which houses their well-stocked retail area, Don explains that he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in November 2011. Things were looking grim. He was in a coma at one point and had grown resigned to the fact he “might not make it.”

Thankfully, he was back on his feet 13 months later. Feeling stronger, he and Gloria rewarded themselves with a winter getaway to Mesa, Ariz., where Gloria’s sister and brother-in-law had a seasonal spot. One morning following breakfast their hosts announced they were off to play pickleball. They asked Don and Gloria if they cared to join them.

The Kroplas’ response: “Pickle-wha…?”

“Neither of us had heard of pickleball before, and had absolutely no idea how it was played, what the rules were… zip,” Gloria says.

Despite their ignorance of the game, the parents of three grown daughters caught on rather quickly. Within an hour of being shown the basics, Gloria’s sister declared the two of them ready to join the “general population,” by playing a few matches, for keeps.

(If you’re unfamiliar with the game, pickleball is often described as a badminton-meets-tennis-meets-ping-pong hybrid. Depending on whom you wish to believe, it was either named for a ball-retrieving cocker spaniel that answered to Pickles or a slow-moving vessel known as a pickle boat.)

Upon their return home from Arizona, Don, who was still on disability, started hunting around for places in the city to play. He joined a beginners’ group at Sturgeon Heights Community Centre, close to where they live, and quickly advanced through the ranks. Gloria was still working, but she managed to join him at the gym, as often as possible.

By 2015 they were both confident enough in their individual ability that they began offering pickleball lessons to those new to the game. It never failed; as soon as they’d finished explaining the kitchen area, a non-volley zone bordering the net, or the unique way to keep score, people would put up their hands and say, that’s great and all, but where could they go to buy gear?

At the time, shopping online was about the only option for Winnipeggers in the market for pickleball equipment. “But because there are lots of people like me who prefer to hold something in their hands before buying it, a lightbulb went on in our heads, and we thought, ‘why not open a store of our own?’” Don says.

The initial thing they did was secure licensing to operate a business out of their rec room, in a space formerly occupied by Don’s sizable Lego collection. Next they reached out to various pickleball manufacturers they were familiar with, to inquire about carrying their lines of goods. Not only were leading companies such as Selkirk, based in Idaho, and Prokennex, from California, interested, they offered to supply the couple with demonstration models for customers to try out while they were deciding between this paddle or that.

Prairie Pickleball made its official debut in June 2015, at the Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries 55-Plus Games held in Beausejour. Pickleball was among the sports being contested and Gloria and Don set up a registered sales booth, close to the action.

“Participants seemed thrilled to be able to try out demo paddles,” Don says, “and a few got us to re-grip their existing paddle — a service we provide to this day — between games, sometimes with only minutes to spare.”

Since then, their modus operandi has been to continue attending as many tournaments as possible combined with welcoming customers into their Strathmillan Road home, to have a look-see. There are pros and cons associated with the latter, Gloria says. While everybody finds it convenient to stop over on their way home from work or, if they’re retired, after breakfast or lunch, some seem to feel obligated to buy something/anything, assuming they are putting the couple out by pulling into their driveway.

“We’re a store like any other store. If there’s nothing that jumps out at you, you don’t have to spend a penny,” Don stresses, noting a large vinyl banner reading The Prairie Pickleball Shop draped over a front bay window comes down promptly at 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, when the store closes for the night.

“But to be honest, I love talking to the people that drop by so much, including a lot of former sportswriters and ex-Blue Bombers who’ve taken up pickleball since retiring, that I often forget we’re trying to make a living here, and not just sitting around, chatting like friends.”

“I love talking to the people that drop by so much… I often forget we’re trying to make a living here, and not just sitting around, chatting like friends.”–Don Kropla

Although Prairie Pickleball does stock premium paddles in the $350 range, types that appeal primarily to highly accomplished players such as Gloria (come August, she’ll compete in the Pickleball Canada National Championship in Regina), they have a range of beginner models for those who are just getting their feet wet, and aren’t entirely sure how much they care to invest yet.

In addition to apparel such as tops, caps and sunglasses, they also carry nets, “a ton” of which they sold during the pandemic to families who wanted to play together on the driveway. As well, they sell automated gadgets that function like a baseball batting machine, by firing sphere after sphere at players wanting to improve their return technique.

Starting Aug. 3, Prairie Pickleball will be front-and-centre at the World Police & Fire Games. Organizers of the Games contacted the couple earlier this year to place an order for balls and various accessories for the four-day pickleball competition, which will be staged at Dakota Community Centre.

“We’ll start them with 100 (balls) but if they need more, they know where to find us,” says Gloria, who will volunteer as a court monitor during the Games.

Now, if there is one drawback to pickleball’s seemingly limitless growth, it’s that the operators of a shop dedicated to the sport don’t get to whack a ball around as much as they did in the past. (North American sales of pickleball gear reached $500 million in 2020. That number is expected to rise to $930 million by 2028.)

“There are mornings when Don has his paddle and stuff packed and is halfway out the door when the phone rings,” says Gloria, who produces and sells her own line of fashionable, hand-sewn equipment bags. “I’ll be like, ‘don’t answer it, we don’t open for two more hours,’ but he’ll go, ‘that’s OK.’”

“Seriously, I’m good either way; whether it’s playing for a couple of hours or spending time here with customers,” Don chimes in. “We live fairly close to the airport and there have even been occasions when I’ve met people there, who forgot to pack their paddle before catching a flight south. I tell everybody the same thing: if I didn’t enjoy the business, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

For more information, go to prairiepickleball.ca

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca