Hey Folks,
Sunburn starting to fade a bit? Sick of “back to school” commercials? Labor Day getting too close? It’s not over the but the signs of the end of Summer are here. No need to fear weather wise, my gut is telling me we’ve got another month or two of good Spikeballin’ outdoors here in Chicago. Don’t question my gut- it’s corn fed, has plenty of room to graze, is antibiotic free and knows what its talkin’ ’bout.
Speaking of back to school I’ve been getting a lot of notes from college students telling me how much they’re playing on campus. Some Finance majors have told me they are rebalancing their Fall investment portfolios. What was 100% book money is now 49% book money, 51% Spikeball money. Yes, a bit controversial but it’s certain to give an amazing rate of return given these rough economic waters. Again, don’t question me, I took Econ 101.
Wake Forest, Ohio State, Marquette, Auburn, Cornell, Springfield College, etc they’re all getting games going. If you know of any students that would like to get a game going shoot me a note and I’ll see if we can hook ‘em up.
I just returned from about 2 weeks of Spikeballin’ in Michigan. Good stuff- we played in a small area called Epworth Heights and got to play with folks from Oregon, Virginia, Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, New York, and yes, even Michigan.
(L to R) Springfield College grads Marc, Tricia, Emma, John, Tim, Analia,
Brady
Speaking of Springfield College (Massachussetts) take a look at this
photo from a recent reunion. Springfield is hard core. They don't
need boring speeches from 115 year old professors and campus tours
showing off the new library...give 'em a few Spikeball sets and they're
good.
Finally, we’ve got a small crew of people heading to Miami the weekend of Sept 13-14th to play. If you’re in the area or know of anyone that may want to play shoot me a note and we’ll get together.
Anyone been to the “Lech Summer Active” in Poland? It just became a lot cooler event. You guessed it- they now have Spikeball. Here are a few pix of them playing on the grass.
Spikeball as a wedding or birthday gift?
I have been getting some notes that people are getting Spikeball sets as wedding gifts. Think about it, does your friend REALLY want a shiny new toaster? Who cares if it’s not on the registry- do it- he’ll thank you for it. “Brilliant!”
And some random shots from playing last weekend…
Those of you in Cape Hatteras, Virginia Beach, Louisiana, and Florida– thanks for the notes and keep ‘em coming.
First thing– apologies to ALL of you. I can’t believe how fast time goes. It’s been way too long since you’ve received an official Spikeball update. You must be soooo dehydrated, filthy, starving, and smelly. Don’t worry- I’m here to intensify those symptoms.
Lots going on in the world of Spikeball. Before we get started though we need to ‘pour some out’ for our friend Provo. While playing the greatest beach game in the history of mankind he separated his shoulder. Now this is no ordinary shoulder. This shoulder powers one of the best bands out there— Alaska Thunder F&*!. Word is it’s the 3rd time he’s separated it so it looks like the attorneys can’t place full blame on whoever these guys are that run Spikeball Inc.
OK, dry your tears, back to business. We’ve generated some nice press in the past few weeks.
FitSugar.com (ladies, this is the sister site to HUGE site popsugar.com) did a nice article on us touting the nice workout that comes along with beach domination. Take a look at it here. After we sold a set to a guy in Athens, Greece I asked him how he heard of Spikeball. Here’s his reply: “found out about it on fitsugar.com - I have 4 kids and there are lots and lots of beaches in Greece, so this one must be a winner :)” Time for a gyro.
We also got a nice write up in the Kipp Report. Here it is. Never heard of it? Me neither. They are an English language news site in Dubai. Yup, Dubai as in United Arab Emirates. Word around town is they have billions of gallons of sand…perfect for the greatest game of all time. They are like the Saudi Arabia of sand…and they have an indoor Alpine skiing hill.
And finally, being the cool-kid-trendsetters that we are, we got a write up on TrendCentral. Spikeball is officially a, “New Sport to Know”. Read more here. And you said we wouldn’t grow up to be anything.
Volleyball Champ wins Spikeball set
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I got to spend my 4th of July in a part of Ludington, MI called Epworth. There’s a volleyball tournament every year and the winners get a nice ribbon. Playing next to these guys all day we figured we’d man up and offer a far superior sport as their reward for winning. Mark Saksa was on that winning team and has promised to spread the Spikeball love in his town of Kansas City. Don’t go hunting for beaches in Kansas, Spikeball works just as well in the lawn.
The best part of the day was when after the Spikeball sets were given to the winners someone yelled out, “Had I known I’d get a free Spikeball set I would have tried harder!”
It’s spreading…
More Spikeball Sales in the Bathroom at a Bar
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Remember in my last note when I mentioned the Spikeball business cards in the urinal? That was in Chicago. Here’s a story from Florida…
As the orders for sets come in I like to reply to ask the customer how they heard about us. We got an order in Florida where our Spikeball Inc member Biggggy lives. Here is the reply from the customer…classic:
“…I actually was in the men’s room at a bar called Yardhouse, and I saw a card sitting next to the sink. I think the phrase “Fill the cooler” at the top of the card is what caught my attention (I am a big fan of drinking and playing competitive games…I grabbed the card, checked out the website, watched the videos, and bought the thing…Anyhow, great luck with your new product here, I think it will go over great; everyone I have linked to your website seems to think it’s a cool idea!”
It’s spreading…
Ummmm…how do I assemble it?
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Some of our “challenged” customers (I love you all, I swear!) have had some issues with assembly (I’m talkin’ to you Wellner!). Given that I think these folks may also have trouble with the written word I put together a video showing how to properly assemble your Spikeball set. I was really going for the low budget look here and I think I nailed it. I didn’t have any Spikeball Supermodels hanging around at the time to shoot this. Don’t get me wrong, I usually have TONS of Spikeball Supermodels hanging out, but the timing didn’t work out for the video. Anyway, enough words- check out the video below or on YouTube here. I also put some other videos up: Spikeball Rules Video (not the greatest quality), 3 Games Going at once, and Double Bouncer…don’t do it.. Forgive the low budget nature of these. It is due, oddly enough, to our low budget.
Finally, some of you Facebookers read this but I wanted to share it with everyone. About 7 weeks ago, before our official launch, we were on the JV team. Spikeball was only in 2 cities- Chicago and Stuart, FL. How things have changed. We now have people playing all over Southern California, Florida, Rhode Island, Ohio, Montauk, Nantucket, Hamptons, Wisconsin (Milly-Wah-Kay “home of the good land”), Tennessee, Connecticut, Texas, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Poland (yes, Poland), and plenty of other places. This isn’t quite Varsity squad but we’re getting there.
It’s spreading. Can you help? Send this blog link to your crew and check out our group on Facebook. If nothing else, it will give them something to check out on this fine Friday afternoon.
