UM graduate doing ‘killa’ business with custom-design pickleball paddles

Griffin Toren was 17 in 2020 when his grandmother bought him his first pickleball paddle.

“I thought it was an old person’s sport,” Toren said. “But then I discovered that it was kind of fun, but the paddles were all generic.

“There was nothing that catered to young people.”

Now 22 and a recent graduate of the University of Miami, Toren is aiming to address that issue with his company, Killa Dinks.

Toren, who majored in Entrepreneurship with minors in Finance and Business Law, started his company during his sophomore year at UM.

He was selling his brand of pickleball gear, but he was finding it hard to compete with big stores.

“So, I pivoted to custom paddles created specifically for companies,” Toren said.

Bingo!

Toren hustled his way to success as Killa Dinks partnered with Hard Rock International.

“Our paddles are in their gift shops all around the country,” Toren said.

Along with his girlfriend and marketing director Lainey Green, Toren has also struck similar custom-paddle deals with the Miami Marlins, Poppi, Chick-fil-A and OnlyFans.

He also still has his own brand, Killa Dinks, with his signature cartoon bear that is popular with the younger generation.

Toren credits UM professor Amy Agramonte with helping him evolve from an introvert to a true entrepreneur.

Agramonte told The Herald that Toren was beyond shy went they first met.

“I try to get to know all my students, and I asked Griffin to tell me about himself,” Agramonte said. “He said he had a pickleball company, but he said it under his breath.

“I said, ‘You know we’re here for marketing and entrepreneurship, right? Tell us more.”

Toren admitted that he was anti-social.

“But she pulled it out of me,” he said.

From those humble beginnings, Toren has built a company. He sells paddles with his designs on his website, www.killadinks.com. Those paddles sell for $39.99.

For companies who want Toren to design a paddle for them, the minimum purchase is 25 paddles. At that bulk rate, those unique designs average $30 per paddle.

“I wanted to create an affordable and fun brand where people didn’t have to spend $300 per paddle,” Toren said. “Our paddles are high quality, especially for a promotional product. It’s a fiberglass paddle with a gritty surface.”

Besides the aforementioned big companies such as Hard Rock, Toren has designed paddles for smaller groups such as a lawyer’s office.

Toren said he also works with a dentist in Arizona who gives the paddles away to his patients.

“Companies want to show they are hip and that they know that this sport is trending,” Toren said. “It’s an awesome way to become a part of pickleball’s popularity.”

Toren has become so successful that he is already serving as a mentor to kids at Miami’s Booker T. Washington High School.

In addition, he has spoken to beginner entrepreneurs at UM, and many of those students have asked about an internship with him or a commission-based sales job.

This past December, Toren worked with Miami artist Vic Garcia on a toy drive to help underprivileged kids. Garcia painted on blank paddles and awarded them to anyone who donated toys.

“Vic is an awesome artist,” Toren said. “He sat there for six hours and painted on paddles.”

Toren, who hopes to play more pickleball now that he has graduated, loves how the sport unites people.

“You can go to a park and see a grandma playing with a jacked guy from the gym,” Toren said. “There’s no other sport like that.”