From Marine to Pickleball Pioneer: The Unlikely Journey of Doug Sapusek
How a former Marine turned entrepreneur found his passion in the fastest growing sport in America
As the hosts of the popular Building Pickleball podcast, Brian Lim has interviewed some of the biggest names and most influential people in the booming sport of pickleball. But his conversation with Doug Sapusek, which took place on October 5th, 2023 over a nearly 90 minute podcast, offered perhaps the most fascinating perspective yet on the past, present and future of this unlikely cultural phenomenon.
Sapusek, 46, is the founder and head of Bread & Butter Pickleball, one of the most recognizable brands in the industry known for its eye-catching paddle graphics and unconventional marketing tactics. But he took an unexpected path to becoming a leader in the space. The former Marine and self-taught entrepreneur chronicled his journey from running a multi-million dollar apparel company to launching a pickleball brand from scratch, while offering insights on topics ranging from the importance of brand storytelling to the need to make the sport more welcoming for beginners.
From Small Town Kid to Young Entrepreneur
Sapusek described himself as an entrepreneur from an early age, recalling how as a child he would admire the latest shoe styles and be willing to work to afford them himself. “I was always into things,” he said. “I’ve always been a consumer.”
After a stint in the Marines and learning web design through self-study, Sapusek started his own web development company in his small Florida hometown in the late 1990s, despite having never actually built a website himself. “I just studied it like religiously all the time,” he explained. “Literally when I started, I started a web design company...I had never built a website but WordPress was out and I knew that I could hire it out and have sites cut up.”
Launching the Hur Rag Phenomenon
In 2012, Sapusek was introduced to an entrepreneur named Dave who pitched him on starting a company together selling multifunctional neck gaiters under the brand Hur Rag. Sapusek agreed, and they exponentially grew the direct-to-consumer business over the next few years, expanding from Dave's small office to eventually occupying over 10,000 square feet of warehouse space and selling to major clients like Google, Land Rover and the Miami Dolphins.
“It was going really really fast,” recalled Sapusek. “It started off in [Dave’s] office in Jupiter Florida and then it ended up moving into my house...and then ultimately I think we were occupying like 10 or 12,000 square ft.”
But the good times would not last forever.
A Fateful New Year’s Eve
Sapusek shared the pivotal moment when he realized circumstances were about to change dramatically for Hur Rag’s booming business. On New Year’s Eve 2019, he received an ominous message from his manufacturing contact in China about a strange new sickness spreading through the region.
“It was New Year’s Eve December 31st...I get this message from from our girl [in China] and she basically says like ‘hey there's like this weird sickness going around China right now and our Factory is being told we may have to close.’”
Sensing a major disruption was imminent, Sapusek immediately ordered almost a million neck gaiters, betting that demand would spike. “We went hard and ordered a ton of bandanas,” he said. “It was basically I want to say we had over the course of three months we had had almost a million bandanas in stock.”
His premonition proved correct, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused sales to explode over the next year.
“When [the President] had basically said something along the on the lines if you can't get an N95 mask...go buy yourself a bandana or a neck gator and when that happened our sales blew up and we had a solid 9 months of crazy amount of sales we went at one point I think we were at 35 employees and like most of those people were shipping people and it was just absolute chaos.”
Moving On to Pickleball
But the nonstop grind of running a high-growth company took its toll. With the business stabilized, Sapusek sold Hur Rag in 2021 and began looking for his next venture.
That’s when a former employee named Richard Blanco approached him about starting a pickleball paddle company called Bread & Butter. Intrigued by the potential in the booming sport, and attracted to the creative marketing opportunities, Sapusek dove in headfirst.
“I'm an ecommerce business person,” he explained. “I like to sell products to individuals and I like to deliver amazing customer service with a really good product and build a brand that people are loyal to...I had played some pickleball [but] I didn't quite understand...the community and for me that's what's been kind of the surprise.”
Rethinking the Pickleball Brand Playbook
Sapusek’s outsider perspective allowed him to view industry norms with a critical eye. He saw most paddle brands following a similar playbook - selling indistinguishable black paddles with monochromatic logos targeted at experienced players.
Bread & Butter would take a radically different approach, applying Sapusek’s marketing acumen to differentiate itself through flashy graphics and branding campaigns tailored to each new paddle release. He had no interest in following conventions if it meant compromising creativity and fun.
“There is no way that I'm going to wake up every single day and want to put my shoes on and be excited about what I'm doing that week if I've got to market something freaking boring,” Sapusek declared. “No way.”
Lim gently pushed back on whether his flashy style limited Bread & Butter’s potential as a serious performance brand. But Sapusek held firm, believing creativity and quality engineering were not mutually exclusive.
“You can have fun and do it,” he responded. “But the reason why most people don't do it is because they can't, not because they don't want to.”
Family, Community and Growing the Sport
Another priority for Sapusek is building an appreciative community among both customers and team members. His passion project has provided an opportunity to bring on his son and daughter to help grow the business.
“This is the first time in my life where I still need to make a living and pay bills but financially the pressure is not on me like it was and so this is a new chapter where I’m getting to work with them and teach them,” he said.
He also wants to help expand pickleball participation by making sure new players feel welcomed.
“We need to bring some people that care about pro pickleball and inject some of that into our marketing stuff so it helps resonate with players that may not know about us,” Sapusek noted.
“But we also want to have like fun paddles that a lot of new players to the sport want to hit...If I can get people hitting pickleball because of the way a paddle looks and they impulse buy something because it looks cool that's a new player potentially.”
Lessons from the Marine Corps
Sapusek credited his military experience for instilling invaluable skills that he’s carried into business, like attention to detail, personal accountability and camaraderie.
“I think working together and making sure you still do family things together is important because if you can navigate those things and not let personal stuff get involved with work, those are skills I’m still learning,” he noted.
Challenges Ahead
When asked about his biggest challenge at the moment, Sapusek pointed to managing Bread & Butter’s burgeoning ambassador program. He shared that they’ve been “slow rolling” the program while establishing the right administrative processes and agreements.
Sapusek also hinted at major product development news, describing an “unbelievable” new paddle design they’ve patented and plan to potentially license to other brands.
Final Takeaways
Over 90 minutes, Sapusek covered an incredible amount of ground, chronicling his unorthodox path from the military to the Marines to startup founder to pickleball pioneer. For an entrepreneur guided so much by instinct and passion, perhaps his parting advice was most profound.
“Enjoy the process," Sapusek emphasized. "Have fun with the grind and make sure that you appreciate every win along the way.”
It’s a philosophy that has clearly led him to success across many fields. And as the still new and rapidly evolving sport of pickleball searches for its identity, Sapusek may have emerged as an unlikely leader to help shape its future.
Summary
In this Building Pickleball podcast episode, former Marine and entrepreneur Doug Sapusek chronicled his journey from starting a multimillion dollar apparel business to launching the unconventional pickleball paddle company Bread & Butter.
Sapusek discussed pivotal moments like receiving an ominous message about a strange sickness in China on New Year's Eve 2019, prompting him to order nearly 1 million neck gaiters right before the COVID-19 pandemic caused demand to spike.
After selling his previous business, Sapusek dove into the pickleball industry but consciously rejected conventional branding approaches he found boring. Instead, he focused on creativity, community building and expanding access to the sport.
He also discussed lessons from his military service, the challenges of managing a growing ambassador program, and his belief that entrepreneurs should enjoy the process and appreciate every win.
Sapusek offered an insightful insider perspective on pickleball's meteoric rise and a case study on how to think differently as a founder while building a brand with purpose.
Interview Time Code List
00:00 Trailer 01:24 Intro 01:50 Beginning 03:40 Courts in Austin 07:33 Doug's previous business, Hoorag 10:32 Reacting to covid, why he sold Hoorag 14:28 Inception of BNB 17:10 Pivoting the business 20:06 Employing family 24:06 How capital affects decisions 29:24 Doug’s idea process 31:42 The pro journey 36:40 BNB marketing 40:28 The rec play problem 43:44 How BNB is diff from other brands 54:36 Most difficult experience right now 01:02:42 BNB back story 01:05:36 Closing
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