Check Out Heidi Block’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heidi Block.

Hi Heidi, I’m so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, can you bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Before COVID, I’d been a lifelong tennis player and didn’t pay much attention to the pickleball being played on the courts next door. But, like everyone else during the early days of the 2020 COVID lockdown, my family and I were looking for safe activities to get outdoors and be active. My friend Isabel had extra paddles, had just learned pickleball, and offered to teach us.

I loved pickleball right away–and so did my whole family. It was so easy to learn, and something about the popping sound the ball made with every hit gave me a little adrenaline rush. I went online to learn more about the rules and determine what I needed to start. But the experience was terrible! There was very little content and no relatable brands in the space. Not sure what I needed. I ended up buying my first paddle on Amazon, but it was too heavy and came with indoor balls. Who knew there were different paddle weights and indoor vs. outdoor balls?

The only pickleball apparel I could find were goofy graphic Ts that said things like “I’m the Big Dill”, which was not my vibe. Many players I met were wearing their tennis clothes to play pickleball, but I wondered why there was no apparel made for the sport. I had plenty of tennis skorts that could work, but tennis skorts are designed to store balls in the spandex shorts underneath the skirt, and that didn’t work for pickleball because the balls were too hard and scratchy against my leg–if they fit under the shorts at all. Even tennis shorts with outer pockets all had front pockets, and the bulge of the pickleball got in the way of my swing.

As for a Pickleball bag, I couldn’t find a good bag for my pickleball equipment either–my tennis tote was too big, and the only bags sold were one-shoulder sling bags, which I found a little masculine and boring. I wanted a tote style with lots of pockets for storage and a place to hold my oversized water bottle.

As a career marketer focused on innovation, I saw an opportunity to create a brand that offered engaging, educational content about the sport and stylish, US-designed and made apparel and accessories. I wanted to save others from the same frustrating experience of searching for sports information and making the mistake I’d made with the wrong paddle and ball purchase, so the brand needed to provide simple, digestible information about what equipment to buy and how to play.

As the brand began to take shape, I knew I wanted it to stand for more than just products–to enable me to spread my love of pickleball. I’ve had so many people tell me they want to learn pickleball but don’t know how to get started. I wanted Play-PKL to be that friend that everyone needs to help them get started playing. Because pickleball is such an easy sport, it’s accessible to almost anyone wanting to learn. I know so many active people–maybe they go to the gym several times a week or take daily long walks or hikes–but they don’t consider themselves athletes because they don’t play a sport. With pickleball, almost anyone can be an athlete, and that’s pretty awesome if you’ve never considered yourself one before. I believe Play-PKL can enable the inner athlete in everyone.

I took my time developing the first Play-PKL collection because I wanted it to be really special–the kind of clothes you’d want to wear on and off the court, with features designed specifically for pickleball. Plus, I had to climb a steep learning curve in the apparel industry since my background was in consumer packaged goods. I knew how to build a brand but knew nothing about apparel development! I thought I could reach out to a manufacturer, describe what I wanted, and they would make it for me. I had never even heard of a Tech Pack, the detailed technical document manufacturers require to sew apparel. Nor did I have any connections in the industry.

It’s been a great journey over the past 18 months, finding a talented young fashion designer to bring my vision to life, fabrics that would be as comfortable as they were high-performing, and a small US-based cut and sew manufacturer who was willing to take a chance on a start-up.

The Play-PKL website went live in the fall of 2022 with paddles, balls, and some simple content, and our tote bags arrived in early 2023, followed by hat. The launch collection of men’s and women’s apparel dropped in June. We have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback and support and can’t wait to see where this journey takes us next!

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Of course not! Lots of bumps along the way. The hardest part was figuring out the apparel manufacturing in terms of process, resources, materials, and designs. Sometimes, it felt like two steps forward, one step back. Here are some of the setbacks I experienced over the past year:

• • My original manufacturer, in New York City, had no experience making printed knit activewear, and some of the pricing was so high I wouldn’t be able to make any profit.
  • My original shirt fabric was discontinued between when we made the prototype and when I was ready to place my first bulk order, so I had to find a new material and redo the prototypes.
  • The raised P icons didn’t adhere well to the material I picked for the shorts and skorts, and we had a bunch falling off before they were even worn.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Play-PKL is my second start-up. The first was in the late 1990s when I conceived and managed a gourmet pasta chain called Portobello Pasta Company. We made homemade pasta, sauces, and salads and sold them out of our retail storefronts in New Jersey. After I sold Portobello Pasta, I embarked on a professional career in brand management, building great consumer brands as a marketer with leading consumer healthcare companies like J&J, Pfizer, and Bayer. I launched dozens of new products and created the stories that brought them to life. Over the years, I developed a reputation as an out-of-the-box thinker, coming up with ideas others had never considered. I’m proud of the products and brands I built, but I never loved the industry, and none of that compares to the joy of creating Play-PKL over the past couple of years. I finally found a way to combine my passion for racquet sports with my professional expertise in brand building.

What matters most to you?
We all want to do something that makes a difference in the world. I’m not saving the planet and not curing cancer, but I am enabling a lot of joy and health in peoples’ lives. So many lonely people came out of the COVID lockdown not knowing how to restart their social lives, and pickleball has been a lifesaver for them. It creates community and gives them a reason to get up and be active and social with other people. It’s the only sport you can participate in without a partner or a team. You can just show up to a court during Open Play and hop in. Over 48 million people are now playing pickleball in the U.S. (as much as tennis and golf combined), with no signs of slowing down. That’s an amazing impact on the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://play-pkl.com/
• Instagram: @Play_PKL
• Facebook: @Play-PKL
• Linkedin: @Play-PKL
• Twitter: @Play_PKL
• Youtube: @Play-PKL

Contact Info:

• Website: https://play-pkl.com/
• Instagram: @Play_PKL
• Facebook: @Play-PKL
• Linkedin: @Play-PKL
• Twitter: @Play_PKL
• Youtube: @Play-PKL

Image Credits
Janine Seeley, Bryan Bacich, Ben Goldstein