Kincardine entrepreneur aims to grow interest in 'the ultimate tossing game'

When the pandemic hit, a local entrepreneur and 10 of his childhood friends joined forces to turn a pastime from their youth into a lucrative business. Now they’re trying to get the Kincardine community playing Waddies, too.
“It’s starting to gain some traction in the area, but I just want to get more people exposed to the game,” said Kincardine resident Trevor Aitchison. “I would love to get a league night started here in Kincardine.”
In 2020, during the pandemic, Aitchison and his friends decided to utilize their various skillsets to produce and market Waddies, a tossing game they started playing as youngsters in Centre Wellington.
“We all grew up together. We went to high school together, played hockey together and we all played this game,” Aitchison said of his business partners Andy Speers, Todd Machin, Jeff McLean, Ben Smyth, Dave Turner, Amr Galal, Chris Schwint, Paul Hewer, Tim Hewer and Ben Ellis. It was Speers’ grandfather that introduced the group to the game of Waddies after playing it at the legion in Fergus.
The original game was played using rubber furniture cups and a homemade game board. The new design doesn’t stray far from its roots using specially created rubber “Waddies” on game boards manufactured at a Mennonite-owned workshop in Wallenstein, Ont.
“We said, if we could sell 50 sets, we would be thrilled with that and we sold 200 in the first day when we launched,” Aitchison said. “It’s kind of just grown from there, which is exciting for us.”
According to Aitchison, nearly 3,000 Waddies game sets have been sold so far.
In order to spread his love of Waddies locally, Aitchison has hosted two annual beach tournaments in Kincardine. This year’s event was held July 20 and drew 15 teams. Read More