Two brothers skipped college to start a pickleball company before the game was cool. They cashed in on the pandemic boom and expect 9 figures in revenue in 2026.

• Selkirk Sport, an Idaho-based, family-run company, dominates the pickleball equipment market.
• Brothers Rob and Mike Barnes started the company in 2014, before pickleball became cool, they said.
• After breaking even for years, they capitalized on the pandemic boom and expect to do $100 million in revenue in 2026.

If you play pickleball, you've probably seen a Selkirk paddle on the court. You might even use one yourself.

The Idaho-based, family-run company Selkirk Sport has become practically synonymous with pickleball. It makes premium paddles, shoes, apparel, balls, and nets — "everything except the court surface," said Tom Barnes, the youngest of the three brothers who co-own the company.

There's just one nonnegotiable: Whatever they produce has to stay in the pickleball lane.

"We will only ever do pickleball. This was intentional from day one," Tom, the director of R&D, told Business Insider during a tour of the company's innovation lab in Coeur d'Alene, where paddles are put through rigorous stress testing using cannons and CT scanners. "It's called Selkirk Sport. It's not called Selkirk Sports."

Tom joined the company after his older brothers, Mike and Rob, who started Selkirk alongside their father, Jim, in 2014. At the time, Mike and Rob were just 19 and 22, but it wasn't their first venture.

A few years prior, they'd started a company selling airsoft equipment out of their dad's basement. It was part of a homeschool project. Jim, a retired fireman, saw value in teaching his kids entrepreneurial skills. The company quickly outgrew the basement and took over their childhood home. By 2013, they had leased a small building.

For a short time, they ran both companies simultaneously, but eventually sold the airsoft business and chose to skip college to go all-in on Selkirk.

It was a risk. Back then, pickleball had a very different reputation. It was considered "a senior sport," said Rob. He and Mike, who first discovered the game at a local rec center in 2009 and were immediately hooked, were convinced it would take off beyond the retirement community.

They were right, but it took years — and a global pandemic that encouraged socially distant activities — before the rest of the country caught on.

Breaking even for years before capitalizing on the pandemic boom

The Barnes brothers saw a lot of opportunity in the pickleball space, as there was virtually zero competition.

The paddle market was wide open, said Mike: "Everyone had basically the same paddle. There wasn't innovation. There wasn't anything new."

They set out to change that. Their first year in business, 2014, was pure trial and error. They sourced materials, assembled paddles themselves, and tested and tweaked them until they were satisfied.

"It was definitely more of an art form than a science back then," Rob said.

Today, Selkirk has invested millions into an in-house innovation lab dedicated to understanding the physics of pickleball and building high-performance equipment. But, for years, the company broke even, and the brothers barely paid themselves, despite working 100-hour weeks.

"I calculated it once," Mike said. "When you factor in the hours we worked versus what we paid ourselves, we probably made less than minimum wage for the first eight years."

They never felt discouraged. Pickleball continued gaining traction, and the company grew every year. They said Selkirk has posted double-digit annual growth over the past decade.

Then, the pandemic hit. After a brief shutdown during which public parks and courts were closed, pickleball emerged as a safe, socially distanced activity.

By the end of May 2020, "things really started picking up, and by June it fully kicked into gear," Rob said. They sold out of nets as people set up courts in driveways and backyards, and blew through paddle inventory.

"And then it just kind of never stopped."

Staying ahead of the competition, and aiming for 9-figures in 2026

As pickleball has continued to win over Americans — it's been deemed the fastest-growing sport in the US three years in a row by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) — the market has become increasingly competitive.

In the early years, the brothers were competing with five to 10 brands. Now, it's closer to 600, said Mike: "After the pandemic, interest rates were low. Lots of easy money and investment flowed into the sport, and so the number of brands exploded."

Concentrating on one sport, Mike said, is their edge.

"We think our ability to focus is one of our secret weapons. You've seen major brands like Head and Adidas try to enter the pickleball market, but they've been really struggling to make an impact. We see pickleball more like golf, where you need to be an endemic brand that's really focused."

It's worked so far. Selkirk went from 16 employees in January 2019 to 230 by January 2026, and said revenue has increased by 1,900% since 2019. The company fulfills roughly 1,000 orders a day and up to 2,500 during the holiday season. They also have more than 1,400 retail partners, including Dick's Sporting Goods and Target, as well as an exclusive partnership with Costco.

The brothers plan to stay ahead by continuing to invest in R&D to deliver premium products.

Outside capital will help with that.

Earlier this year, Selkirk took its first-ever institutional funding: a $30 million growth equity investment from Bluestone Equity Partners, Forbes reported. It also reported that Selkirk expects to generate at least $100 million in revenue in 2026.

Those are big numbers, but it's been more than a decade in the making, Mike pointed out: "It's a lot of work. I think there's a lot of glamour nowadays — a lot of hype about what it means to be an entrepreneur — and, at the end of the day, it is about doing the boring things and just waking up and being consistent every day."

Taking a chance on a game they believed had potential before most everyone else did helped, added Rob: "We got into pickleball before it was cool. If you're waiting to jump into the latest trend, you're probably too late."