“ I was looking for a new pastime and Lori suggested I try pickleball . She was already an accomplished tennis player and would ‘ beat me senseless ’ on the courts ,” he explains . “ My motivation was to simply keep up with her . The other side of that motivation was to look at this new passion with an ‘ open lens ’ as I do the other companies I operate .”
That lens led to the development of a revolutionary new type of pickleball paddle . With the common denominator of speed , Junkins named his new paddle company Veloz ( pronounced VEE-lowz ), which is Spanish for , you guessed it , “ fast .”
“ We knew early on we had an innovative design that could deliver control , speed and accuracy ,” he says . “ Knowing that velocity or speed plays a big role in winning , our creative team headed by the amazing Ed Ball landed on the name Veloz .”
With his innate knowledge of design and technical know-how , Junkins quickly went to work with his collaborators and designed cutting-edge technology for his paddles , named Ellipse and Quadra . “ I observed that a traditional paddle with a rail guard had two distinct disadvantages . First , when a pickleball is struck , the center caves in on a micro level , reducing the sweet spot . The face of a paddle can be very inconsistent ,” he explains . “ Second , when a pickleball strikes the rail
guard ( present on 90 percent of the paddles in the market ), you can see up to a four-foot variance in where the ball was intended to land . Most rail guards are 1 to 1.5mm in height .”
Drawing on his prior experience with laminates , fiberglass , composites and molding , Junkins believed a fully carbon-wrapped paddle could produce a superior weight and sweet spot . “ The very next day , I bought a roll of carbon fiber material , a hazmat suit and gloves , and started pulling and forming the first two pickleball paddle prototypes in my workshop garage . It showed promise and that ’ s when I deployed our designers , engineers and manufacturing partners to create the very first paddles now known as Veloz .”
Not one to sit still , Junkins still enjoys skateboarding , surfing , body surfing and skiing , and finds time to venture out onto the pickleball court at least 20 hours each week . Whether he ’ s “ hanging ten ” on a cool surf , gliding on a halfpipe , navigating moguls on the slopes or dinking on the pickleball court , Mitch Junkins is always on the lookout for the next innovation . For more information on Veloz , visit velozusa . com . •
Drew Wathey is the author of “ A Season with Hope ,” and former director of communications for the PGA Tour ’ s Phoenix Open . Wathey is owner of SportsLink , a home-based sports public relations and marketing company . He is also a national sports anchor for iHeart Radio . His family lives in Phoenix , Arizona .
I view pickleball as a ‘ four-quadrant ’
sport — male and female , and over and under 25 years of age .”
Early on , skateboarding was an obsession of Mitch Junkins .
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2023 | MAGAZINE 43