PickleCon 2026: The People, Brands & Moments You Missed

PickleCon 2026: We Were There for All of It

We're coming in hot with:

🔹 We lost our voices and it wasn't from cheering pickleball.
 🔹 One of us dinks glow pickleball, the other says destroy it.
 🔹 700 positive pins are floating around — Dink & Dash's fingerprint is everywhere.

Plus, hear how Stephanie, Paddle Princess, and Carrie rate the entire weekend — vendor booths, a celebrity pro showdown, glow pickleball, and more — live from their PickleCon hotel room.

🎧 Listen now before you book your ticket for 2027.

#BigDinkEnergy

Transcript

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Stephanie 0:00

Smash Ball. Yes. Smash Ball is so fun. Paddle Smash. Paddle Smash. I think it's a good warm-up for you because you get all of that aggression outfits you out. It was like your favorite thing. I loved it. You were a pilot.

Speaker 0:14

This is Big Dink Energy, the pickleball podcast that's half insight, half nonsense, and all entertainment. If you love pickleball, don't take yourself too seriously and think a little trash talk makes the game better. Welcome home. This is the place where life and pickleball intersect. We celebrate the chaos, call out the nonsense, and put the fuck back into function. You're either in or you're out. And if you're still listening, you're in. So let's go. Big Dink Energy starts now.

Stephanie 0:44

All right, everybody. This is an episode from PickleCon 2026. We are so excited. We're in our hotel room doing this podcast because we're still here at PickleCon and we're gonna tell you everything we've been doing, all the great people we've met, and just kind of a rundown of our experience of PickleCon. So I'm gonna start with the vendors. We have had so many great relationships had by these vendors. Paddle Princess, who are some of the vendors that you can talk about?

Paddle Princess 1:17

So, first and foremost, we're gonna start with King Court Caps with David and Chris. Shout out to them for making these amazing caps for us. Um, love it. I've never been a trucker hat girl, but now I am because they made the best hats. Great guys, great company. Um, they make great quality caps. So definitely check them out. Loved them.

Stephanie 1:41

And we have Carrie from Dink and Dash. And who was one of your or one or two of your favorite vendors?

Carrie 1:47

Well, other than our vendor booth, which was awesome. I really enjoyed Kane with Deal and Dink. He was absolutely a joy, a young, young man starting his own company and just doing absolutely amazing things. And we did his um light up paddles and light up glow balls, and we played a night like in the dark game with him, and it was a ton of fun. And we're excited to take that deck home and start playing some dealer dink cards, deal and dink cards with our family at the next time we play. He was amazing.

Stephanie 2:20

So if you notice that our voices are gone, it's because PickleCon hosted a vendor event on Thursday, and it was amazing. It was also a concert going on, which was Dylan Scott. Dylan Scott was the headliner. So we were talking over everybody, and so we've all lost our voice. So I would say definitely our Dink and Dash booth was amazing. We did our positive pickle pins, and these pins are everywhere now. Yes. And we were so excited to see how many people were out there sharing positivity in the pickleball space. So people would come to our booth, make a pin, and then they'd secretly have to go give it to somebody else. So I think we've gone through almost 700 pins so far. Um, people just making them left and right and sharing them. So I love that. I would also have to say the true spin. Um, the guys over there at True Spin, they are just that's Ryan and Tony. They uh they were absolutely amazing people. They created this spinning thing that goes onto your net uh for drilling, and it is a fantastic drill accessory. We did it. We have a video out um on our Instagram about us doing it. So if you need another drill accessory, highly recommend True Spin. It's an easy drill that you can pack in your bag, keep it at the court if you're a court place. It just fantastic. Paddle Princess, who else?

Paddle Princess 3:49

Uh and also they are just great guys. They are great guys. We had so much fun with them. So, some other great vendors that we had an amazing opportunity to meet would be Drop Shot. Shout out to them because they had a rough start with their palette getting completely lost, and they were just so calm and collected. And then their palette showed up, they got everything set up, and Drop Shot is an amazing product. At first, we were kind of like, Well, what is this? How does it work? But once we got to see how you can adjust the score and all of the different features it has, it's a really great product. Really love Drop Shot.

Stephanie 4:25

Yeah, and Josh out there, he killed it. He was on the championship court like all the time, keeping score for all of the celebrity events and all the there was the wheelchair event, just so many things he was out there, and his company was keeping score for everybody. It's a really awesome product, so go check it out. And I want to send a big shout out to Luke with Facility Ally and KC Crew. He was absolutely amazing. He was in our vendor coffee in my group in the beginning on Friday morning, and just a wealth of knowledge as a facility. And we're looking at eventually opening a facility of our own with pickleball courts, and he just shared so much knowledge and he has a whole program where he can help you with programming and everything. So if you're a facility owner and you need help with programming leagues and all that fun stuff, he's got programs for it and just super knowledgeable, does so much fun stuff in the pickleball space, and he was our neighbor as well. So it was fun to hang out with him. Yeah, and he's also the community creator on Instagram. Yes as well. Yes, he does a lot of cool stuff. I would also like to give a shout out to Michelle from um Court Reserve. What an amazing, what an amazing person, just a genuine heart. She was videotaping the whole weekend, she was pickleballing all weekend. Yes, uh, she was supporting everybody all weekend. So I I want to definitely shout her out. She's in the Florida area, St. Augustine area, which apparently is the oldest city in the United States. A lot of history there. A lot of history there. So she was super awesome to meet as well.

Paddle Princess 6:03

Definitely loved her. And then we also met the amazing family that runs Dash Donuts. And we uh interviewed them. So please check out their interview on our Instagram. Uh, their whole story of how they came up with the name of Dash Donuts is just very heartwarming. It's a family-run business and they're killing it out there, and they're just a great, great family.

Stephanie 6:27

So And they're local to the Kansas City area, and they do a lot of vending and festivals and fairs and stuff. Yeah, and if you don't want donuts, if that's not your thing, Casey Charbar is that was our other neighbor too, and they were so much fun. He had stickers out on his table, and the kids and all of the people that came by were really enjoying that. And so we're hoping to get to visit Casey Char bar, get some good food and get some pickleball games in because they've got courts there too. So um, if you're in the Kansas City area, definitely check them out. They were a lot of fun. I really enjoyed being booth neighbors with them. Yeah, so a lot of great vendors out there, but also we got to meet a lot of just friends that we've been social media friends with and have never got to connect. So it was really special because we finally got to meet people face to face. So shout out to Tiffany, who actually won a free ticket because she entered our Dink and Dash giveaway. And so she ended up coming here and she brought tons of friends with her. We met one of her friends, we call her Candace with a K because she is so full of life and so full of energy. So it was so nice meeting her. And then we also got to finally meet in person, pickleball Nikki. Yay! And she was out here and she was doing so much content and just serving the people. And they did a lot of different activations where they played um creators versus you know, you could uh what is it? You could play a creator. Um, and I think uh black girls pickleball too, she was there. Alyssa was so Alyssa was awesome. She took my dance class, my booty on the court class, and she killed it. She was amazing. She's out there making content. So make sure you follow those people as well, pickleball, Nikki, and black girls pickleball too, because they were huge supporters and they were amazing.

Paddle Princess 8:18

We also had a lot of fun meeting Casey with pickleball shot. So she 3D prints her own like pickleball mugs and shot glasses. And she was also like my bestie during the Dylan Scott concert because no one else knew who he was except for her and I. So we had the best time at that concert together. She's awesome, just love her, and her products are phenomenal. Um, she makes glow-in-the-dark ones. So if you're going to a glow-in-the-dark pickleball party, or if you just want to hang out on your back porch and have a glow-in-the-dark pickleball mug or shot glass, awesome. Love them.

Stephanie 8:53

Yeah, and her Instagram is pickle shot L L C. Such a sweet human. Absolutely. Amazing person. Then we got to do the, we watched the celebrity showdown. And that was fire. It was so good. It was so great. We got to meet some of the celebrities, which was awesome. Carrie, why don't you talk us about that? Well, not so much a celebrity, but the pro that was playing. So they mashed up pros with celebrities. Oscar Sarah was such a joy to watch. I don't think he stopped smiling on the court the end. And he did it. The entire time he was playing like just a genuinely amazing human. And he's originally from Italy, and now he's in the East Coast area in the Philadelphia area. And so if you're in that area and you watch some pro stuff, you might see him. But he was an absolute joy of a human. And we got to chat a little bit, and I really enjoyed watching him play.

Paddle Princess 9:44

Absolutely. Also, we really enjoyed watching uh Richard Bias. Is that how you say it? Blaze. Blaze. Sorry, I'm horrible with names. Everybody, excuse me. But he was also absolutely phenomenal to watch. The whole show was just great. We had a fun time. Everyone was out there laughing and smiling and just having a good time. And that's what pickleball is all about. It wasn't about like the seriousness of people wanting to win. It was just all about being out there on that court and having an amazing time. So it was really fun and enjoyable for all of us to watch. Also, um, we had a really great time meeting Ziggy with Into Pickleball.

Stephanie 10:23

Yeah, that's that's a that's into pickleball is an amazing media company that used to be print, published magazine, but now it's all gone digital. And it's pretty much going to be the Amazon of pickleball. So you're you're gonna anything you want to know, like, and trust about pickleball, you're gonna go to Into Pickleball and you can get a membership. It's comp it's completely affordable. It's like $36 for the whole year. And any food, drink, game, place to play, everything pickleball is into pickleball.

Paddle Princess 10:54

And just a little side note, he did offer a free membership to everybody on the Dink and Dash app, and he put that in there. So if you want that free membership, make sure you download the Dinkin Dash app, get in there, and he will be on that social wall and you get that free membership to Dink and Dash.

Stephanie 11:10

100% free membership for a year.

Paddle Princess 11:12

Take care of that. He's taking care of us and he wants to take care of all of y'all. So make sure that you get in there and get that membership. Yes. Let's talk about the MC. Oh my gosh. The MC. So the MC was Dane Robinson, phenomenal. Absolutely loved him. He is originally not from this area. He's from Atlanta. And he came in so that he didn't quite know much about pickleball, but he picked it up really quick. He rocked that entire event. Absolutely loved him. Can't wait to connect with him. Looking forward to him being on the podcast here soon.

Stephanie 11:44

Absolutely. Tons of fun. I would say that Celebrity Smash was, other than the vendor events that we did and met all the vendors, the that was probably my favorite art so far. Yeah, it was it was neat to see just everybody out there enjoying, you know. I mean, we did have VIP seats. Let's with nice chiccuteries. So shout out to the PickleCon people. Yes. Like, y'all treated us so well. And Kelsey, like, she ran this whole thing and it was amazing. Then you have the Casey's. All of the Casey's. All of the Casey's that work for PickleCon. You have Stephanie and she was amazing. She's great. Everybody throughout this whole weekend has been phenomenal. They had so many signs up. There's no way that if you attend PickleCon, you're not going to know where to go, how to get there, where to be. Uh, it's so organized, and it is so much fun. And, you know, I think lastly, I think we should talk about glow pickleball. Oh, yeah. So it was all of our first times doing glow pickleball. Pickleball for and what was really neat is that we got to use Dylan Dink's card deck, and then we also got to use his new glow paddles and his net, which is glow balls. And the little glow balls. It was definitely a lot easier. It was a lot easier, but I'm a I if we had to do a dink or destroy, I would be a dink for the fun aspect, but a destroy because I could not see the ball. And I was more like dodgeball than anything.

Paddle Princess 13:11

Paddle Princess, what do you think? With the regular glow pickleball, I didn't like it because one, I can't I have zero depth perception to begin with with broad daylight. But with the with it blacked out and with the black lights, I had a very hard time seeing anything. But with the glow pickleball, with the glow paddles and the net lit up, it made it so much easier. So I would definitely dink that with those products, but destroy regular glow pickleball. I don't like it.

Stephanie 13:39

Agreed. Agreed. And plus because Kanan was playing with us. Yeah. I mean, you're you're with the creator of the product, and his energy was just there. He was so much fun. So glow pickleball vibes, yes, but actually playing was not one and done. One and done. Like we would, I think we played till six and then started switching out because we there's just no way we could.

Paddle Princess 14:06

But other than that, like you're not really playing the role.

Stephanie 14:08

But I do want to get one of the Dylan Dink glow sets for the house, like for our kids and stuff. I definitely think like the younger generation would have a ball with it. So if you're like not over 40. And smash ball. Yes. Yes. Smashball was so fun too. Paddle smash. It's like it's a combination of like pickleball, volleyball, smash ball, all of it, and it's called paddle smash. And we went out and took a lesson, and it was so much fun. From a distance, it looks like, oh, that should be really easy. But once you start learning it, it is not easy. And I wanted to just keep slamming it over and over, but once I got the hang of it, it became like so much fun to play. It was one of my other favorite things to get it was so much fun to play, and you just go around and it just, y'all gotta look that up on Instagram. It's Paddle Smash. I think it's a good warm-up for you because you get all of that aggression out that you have. I mean, because literally smashers out there, let me tell you, every third shot, you get to smash. Like you're supposed to smash. It really made it really fun. It was like your favorite thing ever. I loved it, except I just wanted to spash on two and one sometimes. But overall, picklecon, let's let's give a rating. We'll start with Paddle Princess, rating one to ten. What do we do? Okay.

Paddle Princess 15:29

It's my first Pickle Con, so I really don't have anything to compare it to. And I'm not somebody who goes to conventions a lot like Stephanie and Carey. So overall, I'm gonna give it an eight. Awesome. I had a great time.

Stephanie 15:42

I'm gonna do, and I've been to a lot of conventions. So from the vendor side, 10 out of 10. As a vendor, like you cannot miss PickleCon. Like if you are in the pickleball space and you are not at PickleCon, you're missing out. So 10 out of 10 as a vendor. I can't say much as a participant because I was working the booth. I was the one doing all the pins with everybody. So I didn't get out and do much. What I did get to experience is like a player spectator. It seemed at least eight or nine out of 10. There was a lot of games playing, everybody had good vibes and stuff. But as a vendor, 10 out of 10. They treated us great. The setup was great. It was easy, phenomenal. Would do this again in a heartbeat. I'm gonna go from, she already covered vendors, so I'm gonna go from an activation standpoint. I did booty on the court, and it was the first time PickleCon had brought something like this to PickleCon. And the people out there that participated in it were amazing. They were full of energy. We had so much fun from an activation standpoint. I think 10 out of 10. The only thing I wish we would have done is had booty on the court Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So if we could do one, if we could do one every day in the afternoon to kind of pick everybody up, that would make it 11 out of 10.

Paddle Princess 17:03

Absolutely. Yeah, we had a great time. You know, Triple Crown sports was phenomenal. The entire staff was phenomenal. All of the vendors were so friendly, so kind. Everybody who patroned us was so kind as well. We've met phenomenal people that we will have friendships with for the rest of our lives. It was a great experience. And I definitely look forward to coming back next year.

Stephanie 17:27

We will be back 2027 PickleCon, and we think you need to be there too. Yeah. So this is us signing off from PickleCon 2026. We have another long day tomorrow. Yes. So thank you for listening, and we will see you next week with our regular show. Bye guys. Bye.

Speaker 17:45

That's it for this episode, unless you've got something to say. Think we got it wrong? Have a better take. We want to hear it. Find us at bbodcast.com or at bbodcast on the social. Drop us a message. We might just speak to you in the next episode. If you had a good time, well, thank you. If not, make a try to get the floor on people. Follow the show, tell a friend, and leave us a review. Or just pretend what never happened. Until next time, keep the pick stop and