Utah has been named the top pickleball state and for good reason. It’s a sport that anyone can get into no matter their age, strength or skills. 

Sixty-seven-year-old Ed Beazer took up the sport as it began to sweep over the state and fell in love with it. 

“You know, I was kind of good at it, and I kept getting better,” Beazer said. “It’s easy to learn. It doesn’t take a lot of equipment. You don’t have to be super strong, you can be older. It just attracts such a large segment of the population.” 

As he started getting better, he wanted to learn more, so he hired a training coach and they started meeting once a week. After a year of training sessions, his coach, Jake Ralphs, pulled out a little rubber ball and said they’re practicing with it that day. 

After using the rubber ball and transitioning back to a regular pickleball, Beazer immediately noticed a difference. He felt like he was hitting the ball better, Ralphs noticed he was hitting the ball better. Beazer said the rubber ball was something you have to focus on more, because it’s smaller than a regular pickleball. So, after focusing on the little rubber ball, a pickleball feels much bigger and it’s easier to hit it. 

“Since we saw that immediate improvement, we made it part of our weekly routine,” Beazer said. 

Every week, they’d start practicing with the rubber ball and then go into drills with a regular ball. 

“I call it this ‘wow moment,’” Beazer said. “It’s easy to hit and it just made everything so much more fun.” 

Beazer comes from a business background and he said a lightbulb went off in his head. He asked Ralphs if there’s anything like the rubber ball made specifically for training purposes. So, they did some research. After searching and talking to a patent attorney, they couldn’t find anything like it that’s been made. 

So, Beazer and Ralphs jumped in with both feet and decided that if it didn’t exist, they were going to make it. But that didn’t come without challenges of its own. 

“It took over a year of prototypes coming to us,” Beazer said. 

They were working with a company in California to help design, build and create the product. 

They kept sending Beazer prototypes, but they weren’t quite right. He said they’d either be too soft or too hard, they’d have too many or too little holes in it, or the material wasn’t right. 

It wasn’t until December 2023 that Beazer finally got the perfect ball. 

“It did everything the way we wanted,” he said. “It bounced the way we wanted. It looked like a pickleball.” 

After finally getting the perfect training ball, Beazer and Ralphs got right to action. They launched the Bzer Ball at an indoor facility in Sandy and got the word out about their invention. Once it got warmer and people wanted to be outside, they’d go to Murray Park and demonstrate the ball to the crowds there. They started selling them on the spot, but they wanted to grow quicker. 

That’s when they got on the internet and created social media pages. They gained some traction and more people were hearing about the Bzer Ball. Then, they started getting contacted by influencers to help promote their product. After a podcast by Tyler Loong about them was released, the ball really got rolling. 

“When he did that post, it just kind of took off,” Beazer said. “And so we started getting orders from all over the place.” 

They started keeping track of all the places they were getting orders from, and one day they shipped to all 50 states. 

“I got so excited, because it just validated that I knew it worked,” Beazer said. “It worked for me, and it really validated for me that people around the country realize this is working. And just to have a presence in every state was just phenomenal in my eyes.” 

Beazer’s big vision is to one day see every pickleball player warming up with a Bzer Ball before they play. 

Currently, the business is based out of Beazer’s garage from his home in Murray, but they hope to have their own warehouse by the end of this year. Staying true to Beazer’s vision, that warehouse will also be located in Murray. 

“It’s still a little family startup,” Beazer said. “We stuff the envelopes ourselves. I’ve got a box by my front door that’s waiting to go to the post office this afternoon. So, it’s still just a small, little startup company. But we’re hoping for big things.” 

The Bzer Ball is available on Amazon and their website Bzer.net. A pack of three Bzer Balls is $19.99, but be sure to keep an eye on their website for specials throughout the year. 

“It’s been so much fun and rewarding,” Beazer said. “We’re looking forward to what 2025 is going to do for us.” λ