About SALT ON WOOD
Salt on Wood was founded in 2016 in Munich, Germany and offers high quality wooden Frescobol sets and accessories for the beach.
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Why Frescobol?
How do you come up with selling wooden rackets? Legitimate question. But a few years back. In a small surf shop in Portugal, I had bought two wooden rackets, on which the logo of the shop was printed. I remember that the clubs were not cheap, but they looked relatively useful. The ball, which was made of rubber, not plastic, looked pretty solid too. In the next ten days I played, together with my girlfriend more often than expected. After the vacation, however, the rackets landed in oblivion and disappeared in the basement. Fast forward to the winter of 2015/2016. I flew to Thailand with one of my best friends, especially to learn diving. When I prepared my bag, the rackets came to my mind. So they flew along. My thought was that maybe we would play once or twice. At our age (35+), we would certainly have better things to do..
But things turned out differently. In the nearly two weeks on Ko Lanta we had daily matches, mostly over several sets. Since we are both very competitive, there was of course always a bet. We used the beach with a volleyball net as our arena. The loser then had to submerge, for example, in stagnant ponds or pay the next round in the bar. In addition, we were often addressed, where the rackets are from. Of course we also borrowed them – and it was surprising to me how quickly really good rallies resulted.
Back in Munich, I thought about offering this type of sporting goods in direct sales. I’m actually a sports journalist, but have already written two training books and self-published them on the market, which count in the niche “German Golf” among the best-selling books. I also know a lot about online marketing and the press. The only question left was who could make a racket and a ball.
Beachball, Frescobol, Matkot: international beach sport
So I dived into the world of Frescobol, Beachball and Matkot, doing research on Brazilian websites and on blogs dealing with beach sports in Tel Aviv. The Brazilian brand Frescobol Carioca makes great rackets, but a price of 200 euros is rather something for people who do not have to worry about money. But considering that the shops, the sales and the tax office have to earn their margins, it is not surprising that the price is so high.
It was important to me when selecting producers that the quality of the product is high and everyone involved enjoys it. Fun for me in this case means: I only work with people I trust and who have similar values to me. In addition, the work should be paid appropriately. I’ve never understood why certain people always have to negotiate to the last, just to be a little better than the other party.
In the end, I found a producer in China, whose contact person I could meet at the ISPO in Munich. The best quality for the ball was provided by a company near Madrid specializing in the production of sports balls. The packaging was designed by a young Bavarian company. The owner-managed fulfillment (logistics) is also located in Bavaria.
All this led to the rackets ,from Salt on Wood, being not cheap and also quite different in appearance. This is because part of the production is manual labor and can cause errors (e.g., when applying the paint). So if there are any complaints, I will replace a faulty racket without cost to the customer.