Community and a sense of belonging are the biggest parts of the Pickleballin’ Lifestyle Club. Owned by Stephanie Allen Tunsil, Sun JaLeon, Lauren N’Namdi and Aisha Stith, the four women strive to make a safe and inclusive place for women of color to come play pickleball together and model a healthy lifestyle.

In Miami, N’Namdi’s co-workers started playing recreationally, and she noticed that there were not enough black and brown people on the court, inspiring them to start a business to get people interested in the game.

“We wanted something that was modern that appeals to people who are getting into this sport, and we didn’t want to only focus on pickleball, we also wanted to ensure the lifestyle component,” Stith said. 

Pickleballin’ Lifestyle was started in Miami, but they have since expanded to Atlanta. Creators are all black women, as well as mothers, and have their own businesses. Stith said how empowering it is to work with other women and how working with like-minded women helped them to accomplish goals faster and grow as a company.

“We were just initially playing and introducing [pickleball] to people, and now it’s just realizing we need to find more people to build our brand,” N’Namdi said.

When Stith first started playing pickleball she noticed that there weren’t many people who looked like her on the courts, but now she and the other co-owners have noticed more diverse groups playing pickleball.

“Our initial audience was people in our age group, people who looked like us, and now we are really out there with everyone, and we’re happy to include everyone,” Stith said.

Pickleballin’ Lifestyle is community-oriented, as they can reach people in both Atlanta and Miami. Their goal is to reach out to communities, especially black women, and bring joy to the people in their inclusive environment.

“We all have the same mission which is to grow the sport, introduce people to the sport, and have fun while doing it, in that regard being in two places hasn’t been a challenge at all,” Stith said. 

Stith said Pickleballin’ Lifestyle has had many collaborations with other companies, most recently Ladies Athletic Club of Atlanta, which has similar goals to Pickleballin’ Lifestyle aiming to get women moving.

“It was probably the biggest showing of newcomers I had ever seen, we had over 100 people there, we had 20 courts going, it was a fantastic event,” Stith said. “The amount of people asking when we will play again [was], it’s incredible.” 

Junior Kaili Stith, the daughter of Stith, said she has noticed her mom becoming much more determined because of Pickleballin’ Lifestyle and is inspired by the company.

“It shows me that black women can be business owners and change the world one ball at a time,” Kaili Stith said.

When looking at the future of the company, all four co-owners have different views of what they want the company to look like; JaLeon wants to bring pickleball to younger demographics, Allen-Tunsil wants to extend the company with social media to Portugal and N’Namdi and Stith want to focus on merchandise to engage their audience.

“We are interested in partnering with local schools to offer programs so we can usher in the next generation of pickleball players,” Stith said. “We want the community to benefit from learning a new sport and learning from people who play all the time. We want the sport to remain inclusive or become inclusive.”