If you’ve spent any time watching professional pickleball, you’ve likely witnessed the energy buzzing from Tyson McGuffin. His bright, bold, multihued outfits; those tattoos, the mustache, the mullet…it all adds up to a certain dynamism we don’t typically see on the court.
In fact, he’s been named “the most electrifying man in sports” by Barstool Sports, the sports and pop culture blog. It’s one reason Skechers, the shoe company, is so psyched to collaborate with him on a Tyson-style signature sneaker and other brands like Selkirk are aligning with his beloved and contagious spirit.
We had a chat with Tyson, who shared that, yes, he totally digs being the bad boy in a world he describes as “vanilla,” but he’s also a teddy bear at heart, a committed family man of four children, and married to a wife he adores. Here, we get into it all.
Ok, your style—it’s famous. Tell us your fashion philosophy, please.
I’ve joked around in interviews that my wife dresses me, but that’s not true, I think I have pretty good style. I like being loud.
Not only do I like to be loud with my personality on the court, but I also like to dress loud and play a different character out there. I think pickleball can be a little vanilla and plain… I will gladly take that role and own that role.
Anytime I’m rocking my pink shoes, I’m usually rocking some sort of purple, white, or pink shorts with a neutral shirt. I like to go loud with the shoes and shorts, then pair with a black, white, or gray shirt. I am often rocking a trucker hat too—the color of the hat usually matches the color of the shirt.
You recently added “shoe designer” to your list of talents. Let’s talk about your signature shoe with Skechers.
One of my big points when signing with Skechers (to create a Tyson McGuffin shoe) was that I wanted my personality out there.
The whole experience was awesome. Skechers has a great engineering team. There’s a guy named Keith, the shoe guy, whom I worked closely with. We played with different materials, and went through three or four models before we found the right one that molded to my foot. It had the right toe space, toe guard, heel guard, it was supportive around my ankle, and we made the outsole big enough that even though it’s only 10.5 ounces and feels like a running shoe, it’s durable.
How do you feel when you see players and fans emulate your look, including the popular content creator ThatPickleballGuy?
I think it’s pretty cool—I feel honored. Over Halloween I got over 80 DMs with people dressing up as me. It was a first in my career. I think I’ve made it!
You look like a party boy, but there’s obviously an extreme level of fitness, and discipline, under those loud outfits. We’d love to hear your schedule.
I’m such a boring dude, I go to bed around 9pm. As long as I get seven hours of sleep, I’m sitting pretty.
I eat dinner around 5:30, put the kids to bed in the next couple of hours, and then spend time with Mommy (his wife Meg), before bed.
I’m usually in the hot tub each morning at 5am, and back in at 8:30pm. I do two dips a day, and two practices a day, plus I work out in between both practices. I try to do everything as best as I can, cuz I’m coming to take over!
I just think if you do things the right way, if you’re disciplined, if you stack up your cards in the position to make you successful, there’s nothing that can get you and I truly live by that.
How did you get into pickleball in the first place?
My whole family, including my mom and siblings, play pickleball now. It may not look pretty, but (my siblings) are complete dogs like me and they can fight all day.
That’s the beauty (of pickleball). It caters to anybody, whether you’re mobile or athletic or not. You can be on a family vacation and hop on a court. It’s the type of sport in which it’s tougher to figure out how to score than it is to actually play, which is why I think the sport is growing at such a rapid rate.
So, about that shoe…
Skechers is making it easy to capture Tyson’s personal footwear style. You can snag his Viper court sneakers, designed for players of all levels, in four colors here, with the pink version to drop right before the US Open this spring.
