Amy and Carolynn from CourtMerch are back for a second episode.

Both have experience running small businesses but this business they started together focuses on their passion for having fun on the tennis courts.

Amy and Carolynn’s love of tennis and having fun is infectious. Listen to our fun discussion now.

Transcript of Part Two with CourtMerch partners, Amy and Carolynn

Carolyn: 0:09
Hi, this is Carolyn, and I’m here with Aaron, and this is our second episode with Amy and Carolyn, who are recreational players for Michigan that launched a tennis business producing shirts called Court Merch. If you’d like to learn more about their tennis background and why they started Court Merch, please check out part one. But here is part two.

Erin: 0:28
Okay, so let’s talk about crazy things on the court, because you know our audience loves that. So, Amy, I’m going to throw this to you what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you, playing rec tennis?

Amy: 0:37
The craziest thing. Maybe this isn’t so insane, but it felt crazy at the time. We were playing in a match, a USTA match, and my partner had pockets and she had a tissue in her pocket. The tissue fell out when she was going to retrieve the ball. It fell out and nothing happened. The opponents didn’t say anything, played out the point and then, like a minute after the point ended and we won the point, the player on the other side, like screamed bloody murder, had her finger pointing at this tissue like it was nuclear waste and was screaming foreign object on court. Foreign object on court. To the point where the entire club was just echoing foreign object on court and everyone was looking over to see what had dropped out of the sky. And it was this lady’s tissue. And then, of course, chaos ensued as we tried to figure out.

Amy: 1:34
And it was this lady’s tissue, and then, of course, chaos ensued as we try to figure out like OK, whose point is it that ended, as it usually does, with me saying, ok, let’s move on, you can have the point, and then you know giving them a few drop shots after that Payback.

Erin: 1:41
Exactly, it’s OK, we’re just going to move on here.

Carolyn: 1:43
That’s very nice of you, because you didn’t have to do that at all. Carolyn, how about for you? Oh yeah, carolyn, how about for you? What was your craziest moment?

Carolynn: 1:54
I had sort of a similar kind of thing where we were in my partner and I were in a final against another team in our town for like, the indoor championships, and they served and my partner called it out. And the woman on the other side one of them was very old and was so into it and started screaming at my partner that wasn’t out, that wasn’t out. And my partner who’s teeny tiny looked at her, put her hand on her hip and said I called it out and then we just stood our ground and they completely unraveled and we went on to win the match. So there you you go. That was pretty crazy but fun and I just loved the confidence right, exactly, she just owned it.

Carolynn: 2:30
Yes, that’s great, then I was too afraid to give in. It was then you, then you just don’t make eye contact after that’s right you just look at your feet, look down, look around, that’s right, yeah, you go awkward.

Carolyn: 2:45
Okay, next, carolyn, can you also tell us your most memorable moment on the court?

Carolynn: 2:52
Let’s see. Well, kind of a fun memory that I have is I think it was last year at the end of our team season indoors. Sometimes our coaches like to mix things up and they run the practices a little differently, and usually I’m like I like to have things the same. But they did a Billie Jean King Cup format, which I was all for because I love watching professional tennis and Billie Jean King is a huge idol of mine. And so they broke us up into teams and we had no say over who was on our team and I became the captain of Kazakhstan and our team won the little competition and they gave us a literal cardboard cup from the lobby with a Sharpie marker on it that said BJ King Cup champions and spelled Kasatstan correctly, which was very impressive, and that was kind of a memorable moment, just a, you know, super fun day playing some different format.

Carolyn: 3:43
Where do you have your cup? Is it in the light box?

Erin: 3:45
Do you keep your cup in a trophy case?

Carolynn: 3:48
I did keep it in my back hall for a long, long time, but I have to admit I did recently recycle it.

Erin: 3:53
Yeah, you just take a picture of it and then you can move on, I’m sure.

Amy: 3:57
I have a picture of it. I thought, Carolyn, you were going to say you brought it to Kazakhstan to have it certified.

Carolynn: 4:03
Yes.

Amy: 4:04
A disappointing ending here yeah that would be good.

Carolyn: 4:07
That would be good. That’d be good. How about you, Amy? Can you tell us your most memorable moment on the court?

Amy: 4:12
Yes, I can. Most memorable moment was Halloween 2023. So last Halloween that was my first time that I got to play tennis on Halloween indoors at the Huron Valley Club. And it turned out that Carolyn, her other job is as a balloon artist and she brought amazing balloons for us to wear and so I got to wear orange winged balloons and it was absolutely spectacular. I played in them, I just flew all over the court. It was like magical. I was like a fairy dancing through the court.

Amy: 4:48
She also had this Frankenstein monster head. That was amazing that she wore and I admired it. And at the end of the practice, which was totally a great fun practice, she’s like hey, you can have this monster head. You’re going out. If you’re going out tonight for Halloween, you can wear it. And I just couldn’t believe she would give that to me. I mean, I was so touched. I was like, wow, this is amazing. So I went, I took the monster head and I wore it to all my neighbor’s house that night on Halloween, got a ton of candy, got a ton of compliments.

Amy: 5:17
Everybody loved the costume. And then the orange wings she also let me keep. I took those wings and I did a photo shoot with some friends at a like a mall the next day and people just were like they didn’t know what was going on but they loved it. So I was like, wow, this has been so much mileage out of these balloons, but tons of fun to like dress up on court and play. And everybody was dressed up that day or not everybody. A lot of the players were dressed up that day for Halloween and we were really happy to wear those balloons.

Erin: 5:46
Did any of your balloons pop?

Amy: 5:48
No, Carolyn’s balloons are the best. They’re really sturdy.

Erin: 5:51
They’re so sturdy I was going to say that’s a really good way to distract your opponents.

Carolynn: 5:58
I’m sure there’s a USDA rule that that’s a hindrance.

Carolyn: 6:01
If that thing goes off, it’s probably a hindrance.

Erin: 6:03
I’ll bet if I look at friend at court, there’s no balloon rule, but there might have to be at some point. That’s great, that’s great. Did we miss anything? Is there anything we missed?

Amy: 6:13
The thing we didn’t cover is kind of like the seasonal, kind of like.

Erin: 6:18
Oh yeah, we have.

Carolynn: 6:19
We sort of have like a seasonal line, like right now we’ve got some clay themed shirts we have LA on the clay and then we have some British themed shirts that are grass season. So we have like a little grass season with a teacup and one with a corgi. So those are pretty cute. Are you going to do a US Open series as well?

Amy: 6:39
Probably. Yeah. Yeah, we’ve got a lot of products with Courtney. I’m wearing Courtney, our mascot.

Erin: 6:44
I know I saw that with a little bucket hat. That’s so cute.

Carolynn: 6:48
You named her.

Amy: 6:48
Courtney, she’s wearing a beret in the summer. Yeah, with a little bucket hat. That’s so cute. You named her Courtney. She’s wearing a beret in the summer. Yeah, yeah, she usually wears the bucket hat. She’s wearing a beret. Yeah, I love it. I love it.

Erin: 6:54
Get it.

Carolynn: 6:54
Courtney, my shirt says I play doubles twice the fun, half the responsibility.

Carolyn: 7:00
Oh, that’s good, we just made that up.

Carolynn: 7:03
Those are.

Carolyn: 7:04
Thanks very much to Carolyn and Amy for coming on the podcast. We’ve included a link to their website in our show notes. Also, if you are enjoying our podcast, we would greatly appreciate a five-star rating wherever you listen to it, so that others can find it. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.