Dude Perfect looks to the perfect dudes (and dudettes!) at Robbins for new floor

Most of the time, Dude Perfect’s insanely impressive trick shots are met with a deluge of high-fives and creatively choreographed celebrations. That wasn’t the case, however, when a stunt last fall resulted only in a deluge of water, destroying the dudes’ basketball court – a necessity for the group’s Texas-based sports entertainment business.

With over 37 million YouTube subscribers and a hit show on Nickelodeon, the uber-popular band of friends who specialize in sports stunts were flooded with problems when the coupling on a hose busted inside their warehouse while filming one of their famous trick shots.

“With Dude Perfect’s business, we’re filming for our clients constantly,” Dude Perfect Business Manager Jeff Toney explained. “We’re also filming Season 3 of our television show on Nickelodeon, so we really only had a short window of opportunity to kind of basically rip the old flooring out that was damaged from the flood and replace it with brand new flooring, because we had to put it in use quickly.”

Keeping on track with their production schedule is important, so when things went awry in the Dude Perfect world, they turned to Robbins and Ponder Company, an exclusive Robbins dealer in Texas. Toney said Ponder and Robbins came highly recommended because of their work at area high schools and universities.

“We got in touch with them and actually were very impressed with not only their crew, but their creative design and some of the things that we could do with our floor that we hadn’t even thought of,” Toney said.

Abby Mitchell, chief operating officer at Ponder Company, said since there is no slab depression and the court sits directly atop concrete, they opted for a Robbins Bio-Channel® LP (low-profile). The Bio-Channel LP would fit seamlessly in the facility and offers better performance, better deflection characteristics and better floor uniformity than the previous Junckers floor. Because a quick install was a must, Ponder brought in pre-sanded XL maple to save time and cut down on dust.

But it was the total redesign of the floor graphics that took the dudes’ court to a new level. Mitchell suggested amping up the look of the previous court to reflect the awesomeness of Dude Perfect. What better way to do that than a one-of-a-kind GameTime Wrap?

GameTime is a Robbins partner company specializing in permanent vinyl graphics for sports floors, and other surfaces like vehicles and walls. GameTime has the most advanced design and printing capabilities in the market, so any graphic or center court logo imaginable may be printed. Not only are the graphics capabilities, detail and uniformity unmatched with a GameTime Wrap, but for a project like this where time is of the essence, it’s a lifesaver. Traditional painted and stained logos and graphics can take several days to hand paint and dry, so the time and labor savings is a great benefit.

“The fact that we can pretty much do an unlimited array of graphics – things you really can’t paint even if you had time to do it – you still can’t produce what we could do in a day and a half,” said Bob Sahr, owner of Arkansas-based GameTime Wraps.

Sahr said working with Dude Perfect, Robbins and Ponder was seamless.

“They (Dude Perfect) were extremely nice and helpful and Abby’s group, Ponder, is always incredible to work with,” Sahr related. “We have really good relationships with many of the Robbins dealers and it seems to always go that way.”

The collaboration between GameTime and Dude Perfect resulted in a honeycomb graphic with a grey stain and Dude Perfect mint green that looks amazing next to the gradient in the design. And the entire project took two weeks, about half the normal time.

“They worked with our schedule and actually worked straight through the weekends and did a fabulous job,” Toney extolled. “It’s a real conversation piece and obviously we’ve got a 30,000-square-foot facility that we use to film and play, as some people would say. It’s just something that is really kind of eye-catching and looks good but also performs well.”

Not only has the floor been used during filming, but the athletic dudes also use the floor for regularly scheduled weekly basketball games.

“You can definitely tell the difference,” Toney continued. “The floor seems to be an upgrade in terms of, not only the look, but the professional feel of the floor and its responsiveness.”

The new court, as well as the stunt that resulted in the flood, will be featured on Nickelodeon during Season 3, which premieres Feb. 8. It has also been nominated for a Robbins Sports Surface of the Year Award.

Mitchell submitted the project for SSOTY nomination due to the quick turnaround and stunning results for such a high-profile client. Plus, the dudes, known to be generous with their time and finances donated the old floor so that it could be repurposed into toys for children who are patients at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.