Spikeball Inc. is an American sports equipment company that chiefly produces equipment for the game of

roundnet Roundnet (also commonly known as spikeball) is a net sport. The game is played between two teams, usually with two players each. Players initially line up around a small trampoline-like net at the start of a point. The game starts with a serve (v ...

. The company is the largest provider of roundnet equipment and sponsors tournaments in several countries including Belgium, Canada, and the United States. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. Spikeball Roundnet Association tournaments began airing on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

in May 2018.

History

Spikeball was founded by Chris Ruder in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The company was incorporated in 2007 and began selling equipment for a

net sport Net and wall games are court games where either a net separates the opponents or a wall serves to reflect the ball to the opponent. The object of these games is to hit the ball or bird over the net or against the wall back to the opponent. Play t ...

game in 2008. The game was invented in the 1980s by

Jeff Knurek Jeff Knurek is an American cartoonist, industrial designer, and toymaker. He is the current cartoonist for the syndicated Jumble puzzle, working with David L. Hoyt. Personal life Knurek was born in 1966 Wyandotte, Michigan. In 2007, Knurek ...

, an American toymaker who did not patent it.

Roundnet Roundnet (also commonly known as spikeball) is a net sport. The game is played between two teams, usually with two players each. Players initially line up around a small trampoline-like net at the start of a point. The game starts with a serve (v ...

, as the game is now known, is played with a small

trampoline A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame using many coiled spring (device), springs. Not all trampolines have springs, as the Springfree Trampoline uses glass-reinforced plastic rods. ...

-like net placed on the ground between two teams with two players each who bounce a ball back and forth on the net, in a gameplay that has been compared to volleyball. Ruder was one of the purchasers of a set when it was originally sold briefly in the 1980s. He and five of his friends raised a total of $100,000 as

seed money Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' ...

for the company which Ruder started in his basement. He purchased the rights to the product and contracted a manufacturer in China to produce the equipment. When he started the company, Ruder was employed at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and

Monster Worldwide Monster Worldwide, Inc. is an American provider of employment services, the largest of which is Monster.com. Through online media sites and services, the company delivers targeted audiences to advertisers. In 2010, these operating segments re ...

, while working in his free time to develop the company. He later worked for

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...

in the ad sales department while continuing to build the company he founded. Ruder left his career in corporate sales in 2013 to work full time on his business. By then, the company was earning more than $1 million in annual revenue. Dick's Sporting Goods contacted him to become a retailer of Spikeball equipment in early 2013, followed by

Big 5 Big Five may refer to: Animals * the Big Five, large African wild animals said to be most difficult to hunt: lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo * Big Five animals of the Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India: Indian rhinocero ...

and

Modell's Sporting Goods Modell's Sporting Goods is an American online sporting goods retailer that had locations in the Northeastern United States. Modell's carries both sporting goods and related apparel. Modell's had more than 150 retail locations in ten states and ...

. The company was granted a US patent for the game in August 2014. In 2014, Ruder appeared on ABC's

Shark Tank ''Shark Tank'' is an American business reality television series that premiered on August 9, 2009, on ABC.Hibberd, James (May 10, 201'Dancing,' 'Bachelor,' and a bigger 'Shark Tank' returning to ABCInsider TV. Retrieved June 24, 2012 The show i ...

to offer 10% of the company for sale.

Daymond John Daymond Garfield John (born February 23, 1969) is an American businessman, investor, and television personality. He is best known as the founder, president, and chief executive officer of FUBU, and appears as an investor on the ABC reality tel ...

offered him $500,000 but wanted 20% of the company as well as control of licensing, manufacturing and retail. Ruder accepted, but the deal fell apart, before the episode aired, due to differences in strategy for the direction of the company. In fall 2017, the company said it had sold its one-millionth net and was generating $15 million in sales per year.

Tournaments and Spikeball Roundnet Association

In the early 2010s, the game began to gain a following among college-age enthusiasts in the Chicago area and then spread across the United States. Spikeball first sponsored a roundnet tournament in 2013 and founded the Spikeball Roundnet Association. A ranking system was introduced in 2016. The game has become popular among the

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

community in Lancaster,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. In 2013, Corey Heck attended

Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...

, a Christian music festival, where he played the game and brought it to his community in Lancaster. He and his brother Caleb started weekly games which turned into daily events. They also started a

Facebook group Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...

and eventually a local tournament. Initially, Ruder would write thank you notes to each customer who bought a set from his company and realized the popularity of the game in Lancaster. Spikeball brought its tournament tour to Lancaster in 2015 and 2016 before moving to a larger venue in Philadelphia in 2017. The move was unpopular, and the event garnered fewer participants prompting the company to go back to Lancaster. The first College Spikeball National Championship was held at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

on April 29, 2017. A Spikeball tournament held in Lancaster in May 2018 became the first to air on

. Another tournament in

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New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, named SummerSpike 2018, aired on the same television network on June 30, 2018. The Spikeball tournament tour has also included stops in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, at the

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and Dewey Beach in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, in

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, in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

in California, and in

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The first World Championship was scheduled to take place in Belgium in September 2020, before it was rescheduled for September 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://spikeball.com/
Spikeball Roundnet Association
2007 establishments in Illinois Sports equipment makers