Local country singer blends love for community, pickleball into new brand

What do you get when you combine a desire to give back to the local community, a passion for getting the whole family active and a love for the fastest-growing sport in America? 

In the case of Mark Houghton, the resulting concoction is called: Renegade Pickleball — a local apparel and equipment brand that focuses on organically bringing the West Orange County community together for fun, fitness and maybe even a little country music through the sport he loves. 

From the stage to the court

Houghton, an Ocoee resident of more than 20 years, is best known for his work as a local country music performer. He uses his talent on stage as a tool to promote local charities, help raise funds for those charities and ultimately give back to those in need locally. 

“I’m all about community and charity when it comes to my singing,” Houghton said. “I do charity events like Toys for Tots. I just did an event for a local Clermont charity horse ranch that heals and takes care of abandoned horses or horses that people can’t afford to take care of. … That’s what I like to do with my time — events to give back to my community.”

As a longtime tennis player, Houghton, 49, gravitated toward pickleball for the same reason many others do: It’s an easy way to stay active and competitive with a reduced chance of injury. He never expected to find an environment that mirrored his passion for gathering the community for a good time.

As the sport has done for countless people around the world, it captured Houghton’s heart, and now, he wants to do what he does best, give back to his community through his new brand. 

“I’ve been seeing the sport just continuously growing, and the more I’ve played, the more fun I’ve had with it,” Houghton said. “I take my son out to play, and we have a blast. … To me, it’s exciting to get people involved. It’s exciting to get people out of the house and moving. I feel like I’m doing a good thing by bringing people to play with me. 

“That’s really my main thing with the brand: I want to get people up and moving,” he said. “In this society, that’s what we need because of things like social media, which has everybody on their phones all day. I just want to get people to take an hour and a half and go out, get some good sun, some vitamin D and get their heart pumping. I think everybody’s going to feel better and make our community a better place.”

That mindset is exactly how he wants to go about building Renegade Pickleball, through an organic approach of growing the game in West Orange. To do that, Houghton plans on hosting free Renegade Pickleball clinics and tournaments as core elements of his business to go along with equipment and apparel sales, and private lessons. 

There was even a mention of a country music concert, pickleball tournament crossover event. 

For now, though, Houghton’s budding business is still on the ground floor — specifically in the product design and development phase, following its acquisition of the appropriate licensing — but as the sport keeps growing locally, there will be a void for a local-first brand like Renegade Pickleball to fill.

“I just got the licensing, I’m designing paddles, I’m designing merchandise right now; it’s just a really exciting moment for me,” Houghton said. “I’m not sure which direction we’ll be going in as far as how we’ll get our products to the customer, but we’re obviously going to be hitting it hard locally at our pickleball courts in Winter Garden, Oakland, Ocoee, so get ready.”

Houghton expects to fully launch the brand’s initial line of products in mid-August. Join Houghton's pickleball group at this Facebook link to stay updated on the brand.