Slinger in action at The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club

If your not a tennis player you might want to stop reading here - just kidding. I have not really spent a lot of time writing about what I’ve been up to since retiring from my previous posting. I certainly could spend a few hours talking about things like eating pizza, drinking latte’s and generally enjoying the beautiful weather this summer. However I’ve actually been involved in a number of things and I’m going to let you in on what some of them are….. - of course all in good time.

So, back in late January, I received an email from someone in a past life. The message said - Doug, give me a call. I looked at the number and it began with a 44 which I knew was somewhere in the UK. First thought was - geez, do I have to call London? Who is going to pay for this? Anyways, I sucked it up and dialed the number. The person on the other end was Mike Ballardie. We had worked together probably 25 years ago as he was the Head Honcho for Wilson Racket Sports in Europe while I was looking after Canada. We had travelled together to Asia and attended various Global Meetings together. Eventually he decided to leave Wilson and he moved on in the industry ultimately becoming the CEO for Prince. We never did run into each other again, but I did follow his name in various industry publications. Anyways - when he answered he said - “You’ll never guess where I am?”, well that was not in doubt. He said I’m in Belleville, Ontario. I was puzzled for a bit as Belleville is the home of the warehouse for Wilson. Hold that thought…..

He asked me if I had heard of a company called Slinger and interestingly enough, I had. It had showed up on my social media feed about 6 months prior and I thought it was interesting. The concept is/was a portable and affordable “personal” tennis ball machine. Can’t find anyone to hit with - take your Slinger bag to the court.

We spoke for awhile and Mike asked me if I’m open for lunch the next day. I checked my very busy schedule (that was a joke) and we decided to meet for lunch at a restaurant near the airport - as he was flying back to London the next day.

When we met it was if we had not lost 20 odd years and our conversation about old friends and challenges etc, picked up quickly as if it was yesterday. Mike took me through the history of the company. It was started by “Joe” an avid tennis player who was frustrated by the availability of tennis partners so he would use the ball machine at his club, but he thought they were were cumbersome and expensive. So - he had an idea and he brought together a team of people to bring what is now known as Slinger to the marketplace.

They launched by using “crowdsourcing” which is where individuals pay money to receive a product that eventually might get produced. I don’t know a lot about how this works but I know there is sometimes challenges as products often take longer than planned to make it or sometimes they actually don’t make it. So - there is an element of risk involved.

Mike was brought into the project to be the CEO of the company and he told me the first time he saw the concept he knew it could work. First of all the typical ball machine is usually priced close to $2,000 and the usual purchaser is not an individual. The end buyer is more often than not a club. As we continued to talk, I asked Mike where did he think I would fit in? The business model they have created is called Direct to Consumer or D-C. This is becoming more common as many companies are selling direct to the end user. This happens for a number of reasons. The idea for Canada is/was to have a website and a strong social media presence and CDN consumers could buy online and have Slinger shipped directly to them.

In February, I was asked if I would fly to Florida and pick up the Bryan Brothers (the greatest doubles team ever) to be part of a video shoot filming them delivering Slinger to two different early backers. I spent the weekend in South Florida and I picked them up at their house (it’s a secret) and I drove them to Miami and we were together for most of the Saturday.

Not only was it a lot of fun but these guys were true professionals. They knew how to engage the client when needed and the day was a huge success. With March and the start of the outdoor tennis season coming around the corner I thought we were setup for success in Canada and then this happened…….

Unless you’ve hiding under a rock you will know that this pandemic has impacted us in many, many ways. The original plan for Slinger was to have it in the marketplace for the start of the tennis season. Unfortunately, those timelines have come and gone. The good news is we now have product available for sale in Canada.

What is it…….it’s really is a personal ball machine. You can carry in the car and wheel it up to the courts. It looks like a large travel tennis bag. It’s also rechargeable and it holds about 144 tennis balls. Of course there are a number of ways to alter the performance of the product including the speed, height and it can also be purchased with an oscillator that that will ensure you are running from side to side.

Did I tell you how much it costs? The suggested retail in Canada is $899.00 dollars which includes everything (except the tennis balls) but we can supply these if you need them. And of course where do I fit in? Well…I’m the Canadian Business Development Director. Fancy title it would seem. I have personally used Slinger and it does what it says it will do. It generates Nadal like topspin and as with all ball machines it important to play around with the speed, height and location on the court to find the perfect place for you to use it.

If your interested feel free to contact me at doug@slingerbag.com and you should check out the website at www.slingerbag.com