Beyond The Bags with Jordan Stephenson (Bagdaddys)

Beyond the Bags will be a series of articles that will take a deeper look behind the scenes at the individuals who work diligently to provide us with products we love. Who are they really? What drives them? Why Cornhole? These are just some of the questions we hope to answer along the way….enjoy!

Jordan Stephenson is a family man first and foremost. He has been in the Cornhole game for 10 plus years, but has been a ground breaker in the bag game for only about 3. Here is his story:

Q: Let's start off with a little background about yourself and maybe your brand so we can all get to know what you are about.

A: For sure, in terms of cornhole, I've been around. I like the game, I like to call myself the Bagdaddys closet OG, Bagdaddys had been around for 10-12 years, not what they are now, I used to build boards in the garage, not like they are now. They were hand painted, made everything in the garage and that grew on me without that being my intention. I still worked a day job traveling all over to all corners of the country, i ended up getting so busy with the boards that i ended up getting a license with the NCAA to do logos, the legal way, even with the fancy hologram tags, I went through that process and got the rights to a bunch of Universities, and ended up having cornhole boards in college bookstores up and down the east coast, didn't really get traction anywhere as far as store are concerned except on the east coast, NC state, North Carolina, a bunch of schools out there. I was selling boards that I made out of half of a 2 car garage. That's how Bagdaddys started, but ended up getting burned out while still working a day job, and wasn't making enough money making boards to pay the bills, so I hung it up. It disappeared over night, it stayed that way for the better part of 3 years. I kept my eye on cornhole and watched what was going on, and i saw the bag thing going crazy, a couple years ago, and some situations at home lended to me being able to give it a shot, this was 2019, Bagdaddys was reborn and here we are living the life of a bag maker.

And this is what you specifically do now is just bag making?

That's all I do. It's a fun conversation when you get to tell people what you do for a living, and the array of responses you get from that are amazing, everything from "wow that is really cool!" to, "what the hell did you just say to me!?"

I was told not too long ago you were still working full time, tell me about the transition?

So the way all that happened was I had a job where, worked in the world of construction, sales, project management, pretty much everything under the son as far as construction. Basically I lived with a suitcase in my car for 6 or 7 years, and my phone could ring right now and I would have to hop off the phone with you and go find a plane ticket, and hop on a plane, and I did that for a while. The kids started getting older, and my wife, who is career oriented, was climbing the ladder, doing what she does now, and she had an opportunity that she couldn't take if i was gone all the time. So I kind of backed off, changed jobs with the intention of not traveling, unfortunately with what I was doing, travel was part of it and came back into the picture quickly. So I jumped a couple jobs 6-9 months at a time to try and find one that didn't involve travel, then she had another opportunity to jump up, which made me decide to call it quits and stay home. Mind you, I have never not done anything since I was 16 or 17 years old, being home, it only took about 3 months before I started losing my brain, so I had to find something to do, so I started making cornhole bags.

You know who the curator of our page is right? So being on brand i have to ask you about your adult beverage preference?

It changes, it morphs. If we are talking beer, it's Coors light, it's not because I'm in love with it, it's because it's your everyday hanging out in the garage kind of drink. If I'm sitting down having "a" drink, some sort of bourbon, whiskey, old fashioned....but honestly right now, i'm on a Margarita kick! It comes in and out, i think when it gets cold outside , I tend to lean toward the brown water and when it starts heating up, the margaritas start flowing! I love all kinds of beers, unfortunately I have these crazy sinuses so, there are times I can have 2 ipa's, and wake up the next morning feeling like I drank a case. So I just fall back on the Coors because it doesn't mess my head up.

Tell me about your cornhole life currently, are you playing?

Pshhhh, I try to! So i play when i can, my son now, he is 12, he is super into it. If he is not playing basketball, he is throwing bags, so whenever there is an opportunity for us to go play together we do, it's the scheduling that is hard, he plays a lot of basketball, but if there is something that comes up that he and I can go play in, we do. We just played in an event down at Texas live, which is down at the ballpark in Arlington a couple weeks ago. He carries me. I'm a better backyard player, he is better when there is pressure and people are watching, so he does better at those things.

Does the son care about the cornhole world...... I mean you are centered in the cornhole world, you have pros that you are linked to, you talk to people high in the ACL, does he care about that kind of thing, or is that just Dad's job?

I think he separates the two, I think he knows that it is my job making bags, and as far as that is concerned he is like "ah, that's just dad's job." When it comes to playing the game, he is one of the most competitive people I have ever met in my life so, he loves to meet some of my sponsored players, he got to play with Bobby Fink on more than one occasion, a couple times when Bobby was in town we would go play, and he got to play with him and against him, which was really cool for him. He got to play against Todd Bridgman who is a local pro who has been around forever. The old school players know Todd and his partner Steve. He got to play against him at a switch in down the street here, and beat him a couple times which was so cool for him! But yea when it comes to the game he is all in, he is watching it on TV and he wants to win, he wants to beat everybody he plays. It makes me so mad he has got this natural throw, if you follow golf, Fred Couples had this long flowing smooth as sink swing, that's how my boy is, ever since the first bag he picked up, its the flattest bag I have ever seen in my life.

Does he have a bag of choice?

He likes the Crossover 2, but he has been kind of leaning toward the Tear Drops since I changed the fill. I tried to get him to throw the Rejects, but he throws low and hard, and that bag is a little too fast for him.

Lets get more into the bags and business end of this. Let's say a year ago, you had a bunch of different lines of bags, now you are down to 6 sets of bags, was that because you just found the right bags, you didn't really need the inbetween bags, or maybe was it something that was stamp related, you didn't want to have take the financial burden of so many stamped bags? How did that work out?

A little of both, primarily there was finding the right bag, right fabric combo, right template, right fill, you know. So last season was my first season, I kind of came in and jumped in the pool headfirst without taking my shoes or clothes off. It all happened so fast when I got licensed the first time last season that, some of those bags I was just shooting from the hip. Ya know? As far as fabric combos and what not, and maybe not putting the full R&D into them as far as how they were going to break in or how they would play after 2 months. I think I had 3 or 4 pro bags and 5 or 6 comp bags, and once things started calming down and I had some time to start tweaking things, I really tried to figure out a good lineup of bags to come into this season with as far as speed. I wanted to figure out the right combinations and I spent the last 6 months of the last season figuring out how I wanted to approach it. I would say 90 percent boiled down to, I liked the bag selection I had for this season more than I liked it for last season. Some of it was financial, you know some of the stuff on the comp list flat out wasn't selling from the season before, if it wasn't selling when it was brand new and came out, it wasn't going to sell going into the next season, so i just dropped them. I am lucky to have Todd (Bridgeman) and Steve (Wendling) here local, and Bobby(Fink) is close too, they are close enough that when i am testing something new, i can shoot them whatever i am coming up with, and let them work them in and give their feedback, and tweek bags, and that's really what i did with the exception of the 3.0. That bag Triple threat and Crossover carried over from last year. It really just boiled down to the bags I have now, are better bags with more R&D on them, and cover the speed spectrum.

I'm personally an advocate for your bags, partly because they aren't the same as everybody else's bags, they are original.

One thing that lends itself to that, from day one I went into this saying I was going to do something different, as far as the bag was concerned, whether it was fabrics or fill or whatever, I wasn't interested in copying what other people were making. It doesn't interest me, I wanted to make my own thing and develop my own thing. So i did the fill that i was originally put in the bags at the beginning of the season, that stuff was way different, people either loved it or hated it, because it felt so untraditional. Which is what I was going for, ya know? Like i said, i didn't want to do the same thing Bg, or WTF, or Lucky bags or whoever, I didn't want to do the same thing, i wanted to try and make my own thing.

What is your intention for the company, what do you want to do? How big do you want this thing to go?

I'm all for going as big as it can go! That involves some different things, I haven't done the brand justice, I want the brand to be bigger than it is right now. I have pockets of people in places where the brand is big. But there are people all over the county that have never even heard of Bagdaddys, who are very very tuned into the cornhole world. I need to do better, my team Bagdaddys, the 10-12 people, some pros, some pdc, some just guys who play all the time, I've told them all the time "look guys I feel like it's my duty to better your y'all as far as marketing and branding." I want the brand to get as big as it can get, there are some underlying things for that. What drives me is that I want this at some point to be busy enough and sustainable enough to be able to employ young adults with special needs. So my daughter, she has down syndrome, which is kind of where that originates from. I would love to be able to have a set up where I could have 5 to 7 young adults working on one off customs type stuff. I would run the mundane stuff, but I would love to have a set up where I could get some special needs people in there doing something different than the opportunities that currently present themselves. To that group of people, thats my pipe dream for it, so if that means we have to get this name as big as the big boys, then let's go do it. If it means we can do it with the way I am operating the way I am now, okay, let's do that.

So I thought you were working on a storefront kind of thing, is that still in the makings?

So, I have a shop. The other arm of it is, yes I want a storefront. We are not quite there yet, I don't necessarily need it. This is all e-commerce. 99.9 percent of selling bags, whether it's me,somebody just starting out yesterday, or Allcornhole, it's all e-commerce. But the other arm of what I'd like to have that the companies are opening up, is cornhole venues, you have seen them online. I have a vision of what I'd like it to look like. I would love to have a venue, more like a beer garden type place that has cornhole as an option, and that doubles as a storefront. A place where you chill out, have a beer, get some food, listen to music, and cornhole is there if you want to play cornhole.

You just switched fills kind of mid-season, personally, I love the switch, it has changed all the bags in a big way, let's hear your take on it.

So that whole thing was a blessing in disguise, I was having some trouble with getting a consistent supply of what I was using prior to the Evo fill. So I had some correspondence with the ACL about having those difficulties and asked about my options, you know because when you submit a bag at the beginning of the season, that bag has to stay consistent in fabric, size and fill through that season. Talking back and forth with them, I said I would do whatever necessary, I'd pay another submittal fee, which was a substantial price per series, but was willing to do anything, cause I couldn't make bags without fill. About a week later they came out to all the bag makers, apparently I wasn't the only one having problems having supply problems with fabrics or fill. So they allowed us a one time to make changes, so we had to send in new bags. I already had this evo fill, and I had been playing around with it but i couldn't use it because it wasn't approved. But they came out and said now's your chance, if you need to make changes, do it now, send us the bags and we will tell you if they are approved or not. They approved mine and I was like "Thank goodness." I had made all these bags and had been using them myself and had just loved it, this made all my bags better. That's how it came about. One of the stipulations was that the players needed to be able to differentiate which bags were the original bag and what your new bags were. Some companies had to change fabrics, for me it was just fill. So that's why all bags now say Evo Fill.

That explains some bag companies changing generations and series of bags and what not.

Yea and they didn't tell us what to do, it was up to us, they just had to approve it. They even told us we could change the bag if we needed to. I think Local, went to their new pro fill, for example.

Some other bag makers may find this a little controversial, but bear with me a second on the question. So arguably the most copied bag out there is the sure fire, but they always credit them as variants. I would say the second most copied bag is the Crossover, but it doesn't get credited for that, we should be calling these Crossover Variants. Does it bother you that you aren't getting credited for that?

Yea that was my bell cow. It was the first ACL stamped bag with that carpet. I would be lying to you if I said it didn't bother me. Let me preface this by saying, it bothered me a lot more 8 months ago than it does now. Now it kind of is what it is. It really just is what the industry is, it's a copycat atmosphere. I know that there are some bag makers out there that do things differently, for instance Nola bags do things differently. There are bag makers out there that I feel like, without having talked to them, that we operate under the same principles. We want to make our own thing, we don't want to copy what everybody else is doing. Yea, that crossover carpet, I kind of opened Pandora's box with it. I'm sure people had played around with it, but it was different, when I came out with that bag, people kind of looked at it side-eye! Like man, that carpet feels weird and different and people weren't sure about it. But then they started throwing it. Bobby Fink was behind that bag, he was the reason that bag was created and it went from there. There were some big name players throwing that bag behind closed doors, when they didn't have to be visible, and didn't have to throw the bags they were being paid to throw, they were throwing the Crossover.

But all that being said, I blame myself. Going back to before, i didnt market that bag like I should have. At the beginning of the 20-21 season we were all in a sweet spot as bag makers, people were just buying bags, they didn't care who was making it, or what it was, they were just buying the next new thing. Those times are gone, they came and went fast. It was easy to fall into the trap of, hey I made a new bag, here it is world, and people bought it, that's all you had to do. It's not that way now. I fell into the trap of this is easy, I don't have to do anything, i don't have to do marketing, i just have to make bags and post it on Facebook and people will buy it. So I lost focus on the business side of running the business and marketing. So at the end of the day, I blame myself for people not comparing any other bag to the crossover.

Let's talk about your sponsored players, a lot of them seem to be gaining some traction right now. Let's get a run down.

Yea, Ben and Bri, (Ben and Brianna Close) they are present right now, you see them everywhere. Especially on social media, this is a social media game right now. SHe does a really good job of making herself visible, but more than that, she is grinding, she is putting in that work. She is playing everywhere, and when she is not playing in tournaments, she is working at home, just throwing bags figuring the game out. Ryan Burris (another sponsored player) helped her make a switch from Crossover to Reject and it has really helped her PPR.

We Got Adam Acton, who is a PDC player, he came just shy of making the main field at the last national, but he did go undefeated in the PDC tournament.

We got Bobby Fink and he is playing with Tony Hughs, Tony is a big ghost cornhole guy and that's how they got linked up. They play the same type of game and they fit well together. Bobby does so much for me. He was my first pro player and will probably be my last if this thing ever comes to an end. He has his ear to the street all the time when it comes to bags and players, he is always hooking me up, and that's how Tony came about.

We also have Todd Bridgman and Steve Wendling, Texas guys, they are a pro team. They have been around forever. If I am not mistaken, one of the first cornhole events ever televised out in Las Vegas, a while back, Steve won that event.

Can we talk about Grant Upchurch?
Yea we can talk about Grant!! He didn't get his pro card this year, but he has played in 2 or 3 opens so far. He has a couple more on the list to hit

I watched him play probably one of my favorite matches ever at an open, I believe it was against Jordan Power and he was down big, he didn't win, but he mounted a massive comeback and made it an incredibly entertaining match.

He was throwing the Rejects, and that's when I knew I had something with that bag. Normally you aren't taking carpet out of Grant's hands. His first bags and the only bags he threw were PA's, the carpet bag, then to see him throw that reject, i was like "Oh my god, what is going on?" I knew I had something. Those boards were super sticky, and under those conditions the reject played more similar to the Crossover.

Do you think he is headed back to the ACL?

I would say he is considering it. That is a lifestyle choice. The grind that those guys go through, from a travel perspective, and just that whole thing, everything that is involved with that, besides actually playing, you have to be all in on that choice. There are definite benefits to him going back for Bagdaddys, cause the dude is good! I don't care if you like him, love him, hate him, you can't say the dude can't throw a bag. I would love for him to get his card next season, but I also told him it's his choice. He has to be bought in100 percent to do it.

Back onto bags, your designs you have been dropping lately have been amazing, between team bagdaddys drops and collabs, they have been poppin.

It seems to go through blocks, i finally opened up something. Anybody who is in the world of design knows that it comes and goes, sometimes you throw some stuff out there that works well, and sometimes you can't get anything good out there, its design block. I have had a design block for about the last 6 months and I finally feel like I have powered through it in the last couple weeks.

We got anything new to look forward to?

I attempted to roll out a mid-season bag, I procrastinated a little too much and so I was up against a timeline, so I submitted a new bag for the midseason release, and they got it, and it did not meet spec. They tested it, it was a little bit too round in the corners. Looking back at it, it was a brand new crispy bag, every other bag i have submitted got worked at least a little bit to work the fresh press out of it, and this bag, it happened so fast that i pressed it, i sewed it, i filled it, and i put it on a box and went. I wasn't paying attention because a couple of the corners were not really stretched, you have to stretch them before you fill them to get the bag fully formed out, and i didnt, there were two corners that didn't get fully stretched. So when they gauged them on their template those 2 corners were kind of tucked in and they didn't pass. After that I passed the deadline and didn't make it. So I had intentions of a new bag, but to nobody's fault but my own. It didn't happen.

So at the very least we are hoping to get to see a new one in August?

Yea, i haven't completely dialed in what i am going to do in august but, I would venture to say at a minimum, there will be one new carpet bag and one new speed bag. But there could be two of each in August. I don't quite have the specifics dialed in yet, I know what the bags are going to be, I just need to figure out the right plan of action.

I think it's important for people to know, and I want this point to get across in this article, that you and the all bag makers, you are all people, you have lives and family; you have a vested interest in taking care of your families, through doing what you do, which is bag making. You want to put out the best products and give the best service you can. People have an affinity to believe that these are just companies, not people, and that they are always at fault.

Yea for sure, and I think you, the bag world has been a microcosm, of basically everything else. It has gotten to a point that it operates the same way, the people who do their job, who handle things responsibly, who are nice, who don't take to Facebook and are keyboard warriors, there are plenty of us out there, we just aren't as vocal. It's really easy to see the negative and say online, oh I got this bag 8 days ago and it blew up and I sent them a message ten hours ago and he hasn't responded to me and he is shady. I mean come on man, i am going to either replace your bag or send you your money back, you let me know what works best for you, i'm game for it. People expect a business, no matter what business to be on their P's and Q's and be professional. I mean, I expect the customer to be the same way. Send me a message, call me, my phone number is on facebook and the website, pick up the phone and call me, say "hey man i just got this bag 8 days ago and it blew up." I'm not even going to ask you how it blew up, I'm gonna be like, what did you get? What's your order number? I'll have a new set in the mail to you tomorrow. Even if you do blow me up, if you bash me on facebook, either way, I'm still going to take care of you. It may ruffle my feathers, because yes I am one guy right now, with a little bit of help, but I'm still going to handle my business like I'm the biggest bag maker in the world. That's just how I am, not going to use the small business excuse to say, I'm just one guy to give me a break. I'm just one guy, but I am still going to take care of you!

Before we go, is there anybody or anything you want to shout out?

Man, really my players, I have said it to them before. I want them to be players first, I don't want them to have a heavy heart or a heavy head, and feel like they are not representing my brand accordingly. That's not their job, their job is to just go throw my bags. Really i applaud them, them and all the players for doing what they do, especially the people on the pro circuit, cause that's a grind and i didnt realize what a grind it was until i went to worlds last year. They put in work, my hats off to them. And then hats off to the guy who is doing things like you are doing, cause you know you are taking time out of your everyday life to do what you do for the game,which is awesome.

I really want to thank Jordan for the time he gave me to put this together and his optimism and for being so open with everybody. Show this man some love!

-Nick