At seven years old, Melanie Romero was learning to weld from her father on their New Mexico farm. While most kids played with store-bought toys, she was building a tambourine out of wood, a couple screws and washers. She would watch in awe as her dad would “reach into a pile of junk and pull something out,” and then transform scrap metal into working tractor parts. “I was just his little shadow,” she recalls fondly.
That early exposure to problem-solving and creation planted seeds that would bloom decades later into something unexpected: Oktō, the Ultimate Pickleball Backpack.
A Second Lease on a Sports Life
Romero discovered pickleball in fall 2022, and it changed everything. Despite a demanding career as a West Coast Regional Sales Manager, covering Denver to the west, New Mexico to the south, and north to Wyoming, she found herself spending 2-6 hours on the court multiple times per week.
“I always loved athletics as a kid and pickleball just gave me a second lease on a sports life as an adult,” she explains.
Her flexible sales schedule allowed her to play during off-peak hours, but that created an unexpected challenge: “I still had to answer my email and my voicemail. So that’s why I thought it important to create an integrated workstation into the bag, because us picklers sometimes are playing pickleball when we should be working.”
The Problem Every Player Knows
The frustration was universal. Like many pickleball enthusiasts, Romero found herself constantly rummaging through traditional bags. “I just don’t want to dig below sweaty t-shirts for my Chapstick,” she says. After buying three or four different bags from major brands, the same problem persisted: “Everything just always ended up in a bundle at the bottom of the bag.”
She noticed something else: the pickleball court had become the new golf course for networking. “We do so much business on the pickleball court,” she observes. With over 100 contacts in her phone listed under the last name “pickleball,” she needed quick access to business cards, pens, and a proper writing surface.
“I just looked at the 15 to 20 most commonly things we all use on the pickleball court, and then I just tried to make a thoughtful place for each of them.”
The Octopus Connection
The name “Okto” wasn’t random. “I’ve always been a lover of animals, because I grew up on a farm,” Romero explains. “When I watched the movie ‘My Octopus Teacher,’ I realized that what made them such incredible creatures was that they were adaptive, fierce and smart, which are exactly the skills you need on a pickleball court.”
All players, old, young, beginners and pros face constantly changing conditions—wind, sun, new partners. The best players are the ones that can adapt and are smart and fierce, like the octopus.
From Steel to Textiles
Moving from mechanical engineering to bag design presented unique challenges. “All my previous inventions have been made of steel,” Romero explains. Her garage shop was equipped for welding and cutting metal, not designing textiles.
Through research, she found a bag designer in Fort Collins, Colorado, who had worked with North Face. “I always like my service providers to be local,” she notes, appreciating the accountability that comes with face-to-face collaboration.
The partnership proved invaluable. When Romero initially wanted everything exposed on the outside for easy access, he suggested enclosing items in dedicated quick-access areas, making the bag “sleeker, smaller, everything.”
The factory collaboration brought additional improvements. Romero learned that most bags hang from a single hook in the middle, creating an unbalanced load. Her design features two sturdy hooks for level hanging. The factory also relocated her planned bottom shoe chamber to the front, ensuring the bag sits level when placed on the ground.
Innovation in the Details
Every design choice was intentional. While most bag interiors are black, Romero chose a bright blue. “I knew I wanted the interior of my bag to be a light color so that you could see things. You could find things easier.”
The bag features 16 customizable pockets across two square feet of quick-access area. The innovative workstation folds down to provide a firm writing surface with a magnetic clasp perfect for holding scorecards during tournaments. Three large quick-access areas zip open but close quickly with magnets, eliminating constant zipping and unzipping.
The back chamber holds up to four paddles or can accommodate a laptop with two paddles. Sunglasses get their own secure zippered pocket at the top—”because if you locate them anywhere in the bottom of the bag, other things are going to crush them.”
Community Impact
True to her values, Romero built “giving back” into her business model. Every bag sold contributes $1 to DiverMojo, supporting coral reef conservation—a cause close to her heart after experiencing the beauty of coral reef gardens first hand and learning what it takes to protect and clean them during one of their diving education programs.
Built to Last
In an era of planned obsolescence, Romero took a different approach. “I like to build things to last,” she states firmly. “This is the last bag you should ever need to buy.”
The satisfaction guarantee backs that promise—any manufacturing defect earns an automatic replacement. Using only the highest quality zippers and materials, the bag includes thoughtful touches like utility loops for Bluetooth speakers and a trolley strap for travel.
From concept to delivery took two years. This included a cross-country move and time to secure a patent (which she wrote herself with AI assistance). The first 500 units arrived in Denver to enthusiastic reception.
The Inventor’s Spirit
Just as her father transformed junk into essential tractor parts, Romero took a universal frustration and engineered an elegant solution. Romero believes “everyone has one invention in them” and encourages aspiring inventors to “just take the next logical step and keep pushing.”
The Octo Pickleball Backpack will retail for $225 but their special launch price is $195. Melanie is generously offering a special extra discount for Fit Pickler readers! Use code FITPICKLER to save an extra 20%.
