With the blockbuster opening of the new Barbie® movie, we are having flashbacks today on VELOZ Pickleball's origins, reminiscing how the company had its roots in action sports at Mattel. VELOZ founder and inventor Mitch Junkins began his professional career at just 16 years of age, performing slalom, freestyle and high jump maneuvers at Mattel skateboard exhibitions across the country. As a pro rider and competition sports manager for Mattel Athletics Groups, Mitch and his team collaborated with leaders in the surfing, boating and skating industry, including Kryptonics, Hobie and Gordon and Smith (G&S). He received firsthand design experience alongside Mattel’s product developers, manufacturers and engineers, producing a variety of composite materials, laminates, and molded product technologies still in use today for slalom racing, downhill and freestyle skateboarding.
When the challenge of inventing a new and improved pickleball paddle with enhanced performance was first presented to Mitch in 2021, he was inspired by his early days at Mattel to create a new edgeless prototype based on the principles of aerodynamics . The result? An edgeless paddle with an optimized sweet spot and unparalleled accuracy, created by the proprietary layering of carbon in four layers, during a seven hour production process at precise pressure and heat. Today, you can see Mitch’s handiwork in fuchsia pink performance paddles in Ellipse and Quadra styles that would meet even Barbie's approval.
"It's been a fun ride, and we're just getting started." Junkins said. "At VELOZ, our end game is the evolution of leading-edge patented performance paddle technology, from our headquarters in Newport Beach, California."