The Origen Story
How it all Started
The Story of how we decided to launch this brand and what we are trying to do.
Moms
The story of Tampon Ball — the backyard game for all ages — started where most good stories start: with moms.
My mother-in-law, "Grandma Kathy," was an elementary school teacher before she retired. One day she called us up and said the PE teacher at her school was clearing out equipment. She asked if we wanted anything, so we grabbed a couple of pop-up soccer goals and a set of strange sticks with foam on the end.
Then there was my mom, who used to tell me, "I think you may have missed your calling in life. You're always on the lookout for fun and making up random games. You probably should've been a camp director or a youth pastor." Neither of those ended up in my future — but the comment planted a seed that eventually grew into this company.
Not long after we got the equipment, my parents hosted a family get-together. At some point we dug it out, along with a large ball they had lying around the backyard, and started whacking it around. That afternoon, Tampon Ball was born — a family backyard game built for every age, from little kids to grandparents.
The Name
While the game started around 2014, it took years before it finally earned the name "Tampon Ball."
Over those early years, we played a lot of it with family — it became a regular part of 4th of July celebrations and summer birthday parties. Then, as our kids got older, we started playing more and more with friends. One summer in particular, we made plans with a big group of friends to meet at the park for a picnic every Wednesday. We'd end up with large groups of elementary school kids running around for hours, playing Tampon Ball until the sun went down.
One day we were talking about a get-together with our friends Josh and Tammy Rogers, who came out to Wednesday Nights at the Park pretty regularly. Josh asked, "Are you going to bring those sticks? You know — Tampon Ball?" We all laughed, and he just shrugged and said, "Well, they do look a lot like tampons." With middle schoolers in the mix at the time, the name stuck immediately — and that was that.
The Decision
Over the years we played more and more, and the name became entrenched. But our original set was badly worn out. We looked online for replacement parts and found that everything out there was either overpriced or had terrible reviews for durability — so we decided to make our own.
We sourced the materials, designed a few parts, and started printing new sticks on our 3D printer. Once our friends saw them, they started pushing the idea that we should sell full sets. We'd joke around with them about starting a Tampon Ball business — and with a name like that, there's no shortage of jokes to make. At that point we were considering it, but not too seriously. Starting a business is a ton of work, and between two full-time jobs, neither of us had a lot of spare time. It still felt far-fetched.
Then one day my wife, Sarah, came home and said, "I know what we should do — start the Tampon Ball business, and give 10% of the proceeds to fight period poverty." That was it. That gave the whole idea purpose. It turned a joke into a mission, and it's what finally convinced us to take the plunge and launch Tampon Ball.