Episode 226: Matt Peek

On Episode 226 of Women's World Football Show, we feature an exclusive interview with Matt Peek, co-founder of Parkside Trading Cards, as he shares the inspiring story behind the NWSL trading cards. Discover how these cards are empowering players and captivating fans young and old. (15')

Tune in to learn:

• The journey of Parkside Trading Cards and their mission to highlight the talent in the NWSL.
• How NWSL trading cards are revolutionizing the way fans engage with the league and its players.
• Insight into the process of creating these cards and the impact they're having on the women's football community.
• Matt Peek's vision for the future of NWSL trading cards and their potential to elevate the profile of women's football globally.

Don't miss out on this uplifting episode that celebrates the strength, skill, and spirit of women's football. Listen now to be inspired and join the movement empowering players and inspiring fans worldwide!

Episode Links:
Visit Parkside Trading Cards – https://www.parksidecards.com/collections/soccer
Follow Parkside Trading Cards on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/parksidecards/ More

WWFShow Links: 
Follow Women’s World Football Show on Facebook, Instagram, and our blog at wwfshowblog.com.

Listen to Women’s World Football Show on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Spreaker, TuneIn Radio, Google Play, Castbox, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and direct from our website at www.WWFShow.com.

Original Broadcast Date: March 23, 2024 

Women’s World Football Show is hosted, written, edited, and produced by Patty La Bella.

Additional assistance for this episode by Matt Peek 

Women’s World Football Show website design and theme music by Patricia La Bella  Women’s World Football Show® is a registered trademark and its audio and logo cannot be used without expressed written authorization.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to anotherexciting episode of Women's World Football Show.
I'm your host, Patti Labella.How you doing, How a y'all doing?
I hope you guys are enjoying allthe women's soccer we we have going
on. It's been a couple ofweeks since I've put out a show and
just want to say that, youknow, I'm just changing up some formatting
a little bit. You know,it's been about five years since we've done

(00:33):
that, and not big changes,but you know, just some little things
that I'm working on as far aschanging the types of interviews that we do.
And you know, there's just somany soccer podcasts out right now,
and I mean you've got like teamswith their own podcasts, and players with
their own podcasts, and supporters groupsand you know, fans and just I

(00:55):
mean, it's just so awesome tosee because, like you know, eleven
years ago and we started this podcast, there was none of that. It
was very few of us out there, and so still being an interview driven
podcast is which what we do.It's just me, so I don't have
any partner here to banter with,although those are fun too, Those are
kind of fun podcasts to listen to. But you know, this is a

(01:18):
little different we do. We areinterview driven and got a great interview on
this show coming up, and we'lltalk more about the types of interviews that
we'll be doing and you know,as we move forward a little bit later.
But today I just want to getinto the show because there's so much
going on. The twenty twenty fourseason of the NWSLS kicked off. Wow,
just an exciting start to the season, and so many other like tournaments

(01:42):
going off as well. So justjust a lot of fun things and what's
old is new again, I thinkas we as we welcome to expansion teams
into the NWSL BAFC of course,and then the return of the Utah Royals,
which I'm so excited for. Soglad I didn't give rid of my
Utibe Royals jersey. In fact,I'm actually wearing my old Seattle rain jersey

(02:06):
today. Head over to TikTok andyou'll get a nice picture of it.
They were they returned to their oldlogo, which I love. They brought
the Queen back in style and justthey're having a lot of fun with that
on social media too, So reallygreat and well we started the NWSL season.
We're gonna talk about the NWSL todaybecause of our guest, our very

(02:28):
special guest that we have on today, co founder of Parkside Trading Cards,
Matt Peak, is here to talkabout this. I mean, this great
product that he and his team haveput together, highlighting what some people say
is the greatest league in the world. I don't know if it is.
You know, there's a debate,but you know here in the States they
like to say that, but ah, so many great players. That's a

(02:52):
fact. You cannot deny that thebest players in the world play in the
NWSL. And this card set thatMatt Peek and his team and his partner
Eric Christensen put together, high qualitycards, trading cards, spotlighting all these
great players, you know, inthese great teams in this great league that

(03:13):
we're just so thankful for. Youknow, they're going into twelfth season.
I mean, can you believe it. I'm just like, we're just so
grateful that we have this league,you know, with all these great players.
Twelve seasons already so amazing, andy'all have to say, like I'm
wearing I love to wear like myjerseys and my market you know, I
have every single team in the NWSsell Now there's fourteen teams, and I

(03:36):
have every single like either a hat, a jersey or you know, a
T shirt or something of a team. And I can't really wear them to
games because most of the time I'min a press box and you know,
they they you know, you're veryneutral dressed in the press box. You
can't wear the gear. So Ijust wear it around town. And it's
such a conversation starter. You don'tknow how many times, Like I'm at

(03:59):
a I'm out to lunch, LikeI was out to lunch a couple of
weeks ago and I was I waswearing the new the Casey Current jersey and
somebody came up to me and startedtalking about them and actually just I mean
they saw the end of Yourself patchand that was like, oh, yeah,
I've seen that logo. You knowwhat is this? Like what kind
of team is It was actually agirl dad who came up to me as
soccer dad, and he was talkingabout his daughter playing high school soccer and

(04:24):
everything. But I mean, it'sjust such a great conversation starter. And
that's happened to me so many times. I can't even tell you where I'm
just wearing like some merch and somebodycomes up and starts talking or or is
at the airport not long ago andI saw somebody walk by with Angel City
shirt, and you know, I'min the LA market, so I see
that probably more than a few times, and I just kind of like,

(04:45):
hey, yeah, Angel City andgave the girl high five and so and
then you start talking about the seasonand everything. So I mean, it's
just a great conversation starter. Andthen plus I don't know, I just
love talking about soccer and anybody thatyou can kind of spark up a conversation
with. So I really ur youto go on to your you know,
your favorite team's website and buy somemerch And it helps the team too,
and also helps the exposure of theleague because that's what people notice, that

(05:11):
logo and they're like I've seen thatlogo before, you know, if they
don't follow the NWSL regularly. Sowe'll be talking to Matt Peak about this
league and also you know, aboutabout the company and his story such a
great story. But first le's talka little bit about the NWSL. And
like I said, the season kickedoff some great like surprising matches. Did
you see the Casey Speaking of Casey, Current and the Portland Thorns went into

(05:35):
the brand new Lynn Family Stadium therein Kansas City, oh Man, breaking
all kinds of records and tennants wasgreat. Atmosphere was awesome. And then
the Current of course coming up withthe big win, high scoring game and
that one. It's just really excitedto see those two teams matchup and boy
that Casey Kurr. They came outlike they were on fire, and I

(05:58):
think that just that adrenaline probably ofgetting their first This is the first time
in the NWUSL that they actually builta stadium for an NWSELL team. Very
cool stuff. We had a differentformat to the Challenge Cup. Of course,
Challenge Cup kind of kicked off theseason and so the NWSL did reformat
the Challenge Cup. They made ita single match competition between the twenty to

(06:23):
twenty three NWSL champion Gotham FC inSan Diego Wave, the winner of the
twenty twenty three nw CEL Shield,and they went head to head. Strong
defensive performances from both teams and thegame was scoreless until about the eighty eighth
minute, with a late header fromWave star forward Alex Morgan just the put

(06:45):
the match away. So San DiegoWave winning the Challenge Cup in one game
a tournament against Gotham one nil.But you know, I'm okay with that,
you know. I mean the ChallengeCup has always been kind of debatable
as far as like is it theright time to have this huge tournament.
You know, the players are stillkind of just getting in shape, and

(07:08):
then you know they sometimes then they'vethey pushed it into like it's part of
the season, and I don't know, a lot of the coaches really didn't
like it. So the one gamegreat because you know what, there's a
lot of other tournaments going on thisyear. I don't know if you've heard,
there's the Olympics coming up. Ohand then also there's this great inter
league competition that was announced recently betweenNWSL and Lega MX FEMINL. Wow.

(07:32):
How long have we been waiting forthis? I mean, this is gonna
be so awesome. All twelve,Oh wait, all fourteen. Now we
have fourteen teams in the league we'llbe playing in this tournament, as well
as the top six teams from LegaMX FEMINL. This is it kicks off
in July. July nineteenth is thekickoff of the I guess they're calling it
the NWSL LEGA MX FEMINL Summer Cupand again playing kicking off July ninetheenth and

(08:01):
most of the games are in theStates, but there is a game against
Tigras and Pachuca that would be playedin Mexico, those top teams in Mexico.
Let me see if I have thislisted here. Oh yeah, okay,
here it is. Yeah, soTijuana, Pachuca, Reatas de Monterey,
Chivas, Club America, Tigras,Cossura, and Opertura. They'll all

(08:26):
be playing in this against the fourteenNBUSL team. So great. It'll be
going on the same time as theOlympics, right, yeah, so the
Olympics kickoff. Well for the USone, the national team, they have
their first game on July twenty fifth, So the Summer Cup will take place
between July nineteenth and I think thelast game is August second. I don't

(08:48):
know. There's some great games thatI'm are, great matchups that I'm looking
forward to seeing. The Houston Dashversus Patchuca in Houston. You know,
there's a lot of Mexico fans inHouston. They're gonna be coming up for
that game. And also what wasthe other one that I was looking Oh
yeah, San Diego Wave versus ClubAmerica. That's on July twenty six,

(09:09):
and that's at snap Dragon. Youknow there's a lot of Mexico fans in
San Diego as well. I predictthat that stadium is gonna be half Wave
fans and half Club America fans forsure. The other game that I saw
that I was really looking forward tothe Utah Royals playing in Utah against Tijuana
and heard some really great things aboutTijuana, so I'm really excited to see

(09:30):
them. I might take a roadtrip there, might take that six and
a half. Maybe it's like anine hour drive from me to go see
that game. But yeah, somegreat games going on this summer. And
of course, like I said,we got the Olympics coming up, and
they just had the draw for that. We'll talk about the Olympics a little
bit later on another show as itgets closer. And then don't forget this.

(09:52):
She believes Cup kicks off in April, and you know you got usay,
Japan, Canada and Brazil. Tho'sgonna be some great matchups and USA
for sure is gonna gonna have tobring what they brought during the inaugural version
of CONCA CAF Women's Gold Cup tosee any of those games. I mean,
such great matches. Oh, inthat match against Mexico, speaking of

(10:15):
Mexico, the USA and Mexico inthe group stage, Mexico ends up beating
the US to nil. So excitedfor that team. For the Mexico team,
they've had so many changes and it'sjust great to see, like here
in the States, like we justfollowed these players, a lot of these
players played, these Mexico players haveplayed collegiately here in the States and being
able to follow them. And thenonly the second time that Mexico has beat

(10:37):
the USA, and that was probablya highlight of the tournament for me.
I kind of thought the USA wasgonna, you know, come out on
top, and than they did againstBrazil, USA and Brazil in that final.
So Brazil doing great things as well. So got USA, Japan,
Brazil, and Canada and the SheBelieves Cup, and that'll be really fun

(10:58):
to watch as we gear up forthe CELL season. Yay, that's so
great. It's so fun. Okay, So, without any further ado,
I've been waiting for this interview forso long and I was so excited to
get him on the show. Ialways run into this guy like he's everywhere.
That's how you know somebody's really investedin this league, in this game.

(11:18):
Here is when they show up.A lot of times we see and
I know, I've been around along time, and I see like opportunist
type people who try to come inand you know, oh, they try
to be like a big fish ina little pond and going into the you
know NWSLL or into the women's gamein some way and try to make a
buck you know where they can ortry to build themselves up as something.

(11:39):
But Matt Peak is not one ofthose guys. He is genuine. He
does this for the love of thegame of Sure, he's an entrepreneur,
you know, and he's a businessman, but he really saw a need or
you know, something that he reallyloved growing up, which was card collecting.
And that's where we kind of havea little kismet because I was a
huge collector as a kid. Iwell, I collected everything, but baseball

(12:01):
cards were my number one hobby asa kid. I loved it. I
love sitting in front of my TVback in the day when there was like
six channels and on Saturday, Gameof the Week, but the only time
you could watch a baseball game basically. And I remember just like opening up
the packs while I was watching thegames and putting all the teams together and

(12:22):
putting the players together. If ateam is playing, I'd have all the
cards of that team, and youknow, just devouring the statistics on the
back and the pictures. And thenthe qualities changed as the years went on
and cards really evolved. And Ithink what Matt Peak has done is he's
taken that hobby. It's like ageold hobby that kids loved back in the

(12:46):
day. We didn't have video games, right, we didn't have robots and
you know Mario Kart and all that. And he's taken it and he's saying,
look, this is like a reallygreat hobby. Kids love it.
Kids still love it today. Andhere's something. As a women's soccer fan,
you have the opportunity to collect cardsfrom your top teams or your favorite

(13:07):
players. And when I was akid, I had no choice. I
had to collect like men's sports basically, right, That's what I had to
do, and I loved it.I couldn't even imagine like being a kid
and having the choice to say,yeah, I want to collect you know,
women basketball cards or collegiate basketball cardsor women's soccer cards. And you

(13:28):
know, now we have that andit's so great and big thanks to Matt
Peak and his team, because hereally took it to another level, I
guess, and he's bringing it tokids today and I see it. You
know, I even told him inthis I tell him in this interview,
I've been to games where you knowthey sell these packs at the stadium.
Are they giving them away at thegate and you see kids sitting on the

(13:50):
ground like like putting their cards together, and it's I mean, I'm like,
wow, there is there is aspace for this now, there is
a space for something tangible that youcan take your hand and just really enjoy,
like the pictures and the stories andthe stats and your favorite player and
to get your favorite player out ofa pack or get something that will complete

(14:11):
your set. No matter what youknow you're collecting. If you're collecting teams,
you're collecting the whole set. Itold Matt, you know, I
like to collect international players, soI like I love to have every time
I get an international player in apack. I'm like, yes, you
know, I'll add that to myto my little subset. But I just
so great to hear his story andwhat caused him really to do this,

(14:33):
you know, to put everything onthe line to produce these high quality cards.
So please welcome the co founder ofParkside Trading Cards, Matt Peak.
Hi, Matt, Welcome to theshow. Thank you so much for taking
the time. I feel like,you know, sometimes I feel like I
do this show for the listeners,you know, I do episodes for the

(14:54):
listeners, and then sometimes I feellike I do episodes just for me,
And I feel like this is oneof those times, because I've spent my
life collecting cards and it's brought meso much joy over the years. It
taught me so much growing up,and I just love it and I love
what you do, and so thankyou so much for coming on. Thank
you buruh inviting me. I hopeit's I hope I hope someone other than

(15:18):
just the two of us. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I
think I think that collecting and cardcollecting and women's sports go together really well.
And I think that, like Ican't just can't wait to hear your
story, and especially like as akid. When I was a kid,
you know, and it came tosports, I had to collect men's sports
cards. And now, you know, thanks to people like you and collectors

(15:41):
and kids today we have a choicethat we can collect cards and stickers of
our favorite female sports stars. AndI think it's just so great and I'm
getting goosebumps right now just just talkingabout it. And I have so many
questions for you. But first tellus about yourself, your background, and
what led you to create Parkside TradingCards. All right, So me,
my name is Matt Peak. Iam one half of the the founding team

(16:07):
of Parkside Collectibles. So I Iwill I will gush about my partner,
Eric Christensen, uh incessantly, buthe's not here, and so I'm just
gonna talk about me. So sorry, sorry, Eric. He's he's he's
he's doing something fun right now.I'm sure I'm gonna have more fun though.

(16:29):
So I'm from I'm from Maryland.I was born and raised in Columbia,
Maryland, which you know, throughoutmy entire upbringing, we were under
the impression Columbia, Maryland was soccerdown USA. You know, you were
born, and essentially given your soccerAssociation of Columbia, you know Jersey,
I think at the hospital, andit was pretty rad and so obviously the

(16:52):
the you know, footy is isin my blood. I grew up playing
recreational to club to high school andand and I thought I was going to
be a college athlete, and that'sa dedication I did not have. But
the cooler thing was I was theyoungest of three children, and I had
a brother who was a lacrosse superstar, played professionally in the early indoor league.

(17:18):
And I had a sister who wasa soccer superstar, and she ended
up being one of the title nineathletes to go to Penn State. She
was there when it was a cluband when she left, they were I
don't I don't really I need tocall her. I don't know if they
were still a club when they left, but they were a varsity program in
short order right after that. AndI got to witness some of the struggles

(17:41):
she was going through as a asa you know, a young teenager.
It's one of those things that youknow, you don't really realize what you're
witnessing while it's happening, but thenyou sort of you get a little bit
older, you get a little bitmore reflective on some of the things that
have made an impact in your life. And here we are my sisters,
my I'm sorry, I have nofilter. My sister's a badass, and

(18:03):
I came from a family of justa whole bunch of robust badasses. So
here we are Parkside Cards is adirect result of being raised in a household
of bad asses, partnering up withanother complete maniacal badass guy Eric, and
having a daughter along the way.That sort of made me realize what needed
to be my north star in thislife. And so is that what inspired

(18:26):
you to put out a collection oftrading cards featuring women's soccer players? Was
it mostly your daughter or it's soyes, it was the most direct thing
I can point to is my daughterI have. My daughter is a named
Sophie. She's about to graduate fromhigh school. So in twenty eighteen,

(18:48):
her and I were at Target buyinga pack. I was buying whatever body
buys a Target. You go forone thing, you over one hundred and
thirty bucks worth of cart And Ialways bought baseball cards. I loved baseball
cards and so as a kid,I would pick him up every now and
again as an adult just to sortof have that ten minute, you know,
a nostalgic feeling, that reconnection tosomething that keeps you young and vibrant.

(19:12):
And she was standing in that aislewith me at Target. She just
very Happenstanceley was like, did theymake trading cards of the women's soccer stars?
And I was like no, andshe just said that's dumb. And
you know, anybody that's heard apodcast with me has heard this story.
It's it is literally the genesis ofParkside. And she said, that's dumb.

(19:33):
Light Bulb called Eric. He said, all right, when we're around
the table tomorrow, let's talk aboutit. And parks I was born the
next day around a gigantic, youknow, wood dining table in Eric's burbank
house. And literally like three dayslater we were emailing Amanda Duffy, who

(19:56):
was the commissioner at the time,the acting commissioner at the NWSL, and
I will forever applaud her foresight.She didn't say no, she just said
not yet it. You know.Lisa Barrett came along, and Aaron Salzburg
was with the league. At thetime of the legal side. They made
it happen in twenty you know,twenty twenty with the with the with the

(20:17):
Bubble Challenge Cup, and it's beenamazing every day since then, and I
love it. Were you surprised thatcompanies like Tops or upper Deck didn't jump
on the end of usl that surprisedyou? Are? Did they? They
didn't? They left a chasm openfor us to dive into. It's shocking

(20:37):
to me. I mean, thisis the question you're asking is actually so
much bigger than just they didn't doit. The things that surprised me are
baffling every day. Why do Iwake up to countless emails that I had
no idea why someone felt the needto tell me that, you know,
no one watches women's soccer or theathletes aren't good. We wake up to

(21:02):
those emails and social media things stillevery day. Why do I wake up
to, you know, the ideathat it's still surprising to people that this
league is amazing, these athletes areamazing. I'm I'm no longer shocked by
anything, no longer are I'm nolonger amazed that this was a lane that
we were gifted by everyone else's apathy. Yeah, yeah, and even like

(21:26):
lack of knowledge too. I meanI've run across people all the time to
say, you know what, theyshould really have a women's World Cup.
I'm like, are you serious?Yeah, but yeah, I'm like with
you, I'm like, nothing surprisesme anymore. It's you know, those
are the folks still looking for indoorplumbing. As far as I it's laziness.
And you know, I don't knowwhat everybody's going through in their lives

(21:47):
these days. But for God's sakes, we have been blessed in the United
States since the eighties to get towitness the greatest women's soccer players, probably
some of the greatest soccer players toever play the game, and every single
one of us should be celebrating anhonor that they're wearing our flag arcrest.

(22:08):
And then you have this league thatis a byproduct of these amazing players want
to keep wanting to stay home andinspire generations. Like it's all a bit
overwhelmingly awesome and I love preaching thegospel of it every day. Couldn't be
a ratter way to spend my professionaland personal life. Well, you got

(22:30):
this car, you got these cardstogether, and you have this collection together.
Tell me a little bit of thechallenges that you face that you Neeric
faced especially are maybe still face,especially with such a niche market. And
I know, like you, Iwas a big baseball card collector and they're
like, I mean that was likemy whole world. Everywhere you go you
could see baseball cards and pick themup. But what were your biggest challenges

(22:55):
when you first we first started distributingcards and creating them. So there were
personal professional challenges in starting a tradingcard company because you know, Eric was
making reality television and I was acomedy writer who had opened a restaurant.
So we dove into it without reallyknowing what we were doing, but luckily

(23:15):
curious enough to sort of figure itout pretty quickly. The biggest challenges are
the same things that women's soccer isdealing with, misogyny, ignorance, and
you know, I'd like to sayit's something other than fear, but it's
fear. People are scared of thefuture of a world in which equality is
you know, something so many morepeople give it care about. That's what

(23:38):
we deal with on a daily basis. That's the hardest stuff about growing the
brand. That's it. It's notoutside the realm of norm for people to
have, you know, women's collectiblesin their gigantic multi sport collection. It's
not outside the norm to want tobelieve that a twenty year old or an

(23:59):
eighteen year old is going to bea four time World Cup winner, or
that's probably not realistic. There's onlyone Marta, maybe it's not a World
Cup winner. You know, it'sit's commonplace, and it's just a matter
of making people realize that it's okayto be interested in things that you know,
their dad wasn't or their mom wasn't, and it's okay to you know,

(24:21):
have actions and appreciation for things thatare a little new or different for
us. It's just like, howdo we continue to educate people about how
awesome these athletes are, how awesomethis league and these teams are. That's
our job. Trading card has beenaround for over one hundred years. Everybody
knows what they are, how tocollect them, what to do with them.
We just got to keep making peoplerealize how fantastically cool. You know,

(24:45):
Alex Morgan all the way down totwenty fifth player on Houston's roster,
I'm sorry I picked Houston. Pleasedon't hold that against me, But like,
every one of those players is amazing, and every one of them has
fans, and every one of them, every one of those players has an
opportunity to interact with a little kid, which is going to inspire that little
kid who might become the next AlexMorgan. It's always funny. So I

(25:08):
grew up in a fairly conservative houseand I am the black sheet raging liberal,
and I always, you know,whenever we get into heated arguments about
that kind of stuff, I alwayslook at my dad and I'm always like,
it's your fault. You raised meto be better than you, you
know. So I look at thisgeneration at kids, and I'm like,
man, we're doing a good job. Most of them are better than us.
And there are people that are strugglingwith it. But it's like,

(25:30):
hey, you know what, youraised your kids that they're going to be
better than you. So for mydaughter to say that's dumb, it was
just that light bulb we needed.We see it every day. Kids are
awesome. They're supporting us and lovingwhat we're doing. And you know,
we can't discount how amazingly generous theplayers are and the League is by letting

(25:52):
the players go into autographs post gameor at events or pregame and all that
stuff. That's a huge driving behindwhat we're doing, the inspiration that that
puts in to these kids' hearts andminds. I'm sorry every time I talk
about what we're doing and what Ithink it means, it's all so damn
romantic. It is. You're soright. I was at a game,

(26:18):
I think it was a San DiegoWave game, and they were giving out
your trading cards at the gate,and I remember walking or just around the
grounds there because there's a lot ofactivities and things going on, and I've
seen all these little little girls sittingon the grass with their trading cards,
you know, putting them all inlike their buy teams or you know,
whatever they were doing. And Iwas watching those like, you know what,

(26:40):
kids have a million things to dotoday. They have got the video
games, they have internet, socialmedia, everything is right at their fingertips.
And my concern was like, Wow, this is really going to be
interesting for kids, you know,to have you know, some cardboard cards
in their hand, and you know, but it really does like transcend.
Well, what do you like tributeto some things are eternal. Everybody likes

(27:03):
to collect. Everybody wants something toshow. You know, we went through
this amazing phase in our lives wheremusic became completely digital, and yet vinyl
records have all of a sudden becomethis thing. Everybody wants to show other
people things they care about, andso trading cards are just an obvious extension

(27:26):
of us. You know, it'sloopy, I get it. It's it's
absurd to think that, like,yeah, everybody on the planet wants credit
cards. Everybody does, or whetheror not somebody's making something that they care
enough about. You know, everyfandom has its devotees and and and it's
looking for those that it can canconvert and woe. So when we got

(27:51):
into it realized we realized right awaythat it had It had a huge healthy
audience of diehard fans looking for somethingthat they could claim as theirs, looking
for something that they could purchase andand show off to their friends and family
and their their their you know,like minded fandom and say look how cool

(28:14):
these are. Look how cool mindmy collection is. And that's what baseball
cards and football cards and basketball cardshave always been. I think it's just
ingrained in US. Yeah, andit made me smarter. It made me
a smarter fan to like growing upa baseball fan, like like you,
where I could just I mean,I would do the same thing. It's
from the TV on Saturday, youknow, the game of the week,

(28:34):
when baseball game a week that wehad on our TV and just and go
through. I had all my cardsand I could look at the stats,
and you know, that's something thatnever changes. It's you know, it's
very concrete. It just made mea better fan, made me a smarter
We always talk about how there's there'san element of how your collection also allows

(28:55):
you to do time travel. Totime travel. You know, if I
pick up a box of baseball cardsfrom when I was a kid, I
can tell you what year it is, where how old I was, what
school I went to, who myfriends were. I can remember if I
went any games that year, Ican probably tell you who won. You
know, for baseball, I cantell you won the World Series. And
I think the NWSL cards are goingto do that down the road too.

(29:18):
You know, it's still young,it's still new. I think we're a
few years out from probably seeing someonewho we make a draft card of that
collected our cards. We're waiting forthat opportunity, that experience. I think
it's going to be super cool.You know, I said it already,
and I'm sorry, I get Iwaxed romantic about this stuff because I think
I had the benefit as a manof seeing my dreams on cardboard when I

(29:44):
was a little kid, And Ithink now we're doing the same thing for
an entire generation of young ladies andby default, possibly a bunch of young
men you know that will be introducedto it through mom, dad, an
older sister, a friend at school. They'll realize is professional soccer is a
thing and a really cool path ifyou can dedicate yourself. We'll hear more

(30:07):
from Matt Peak after this short break. I might be overthinking this because I

(30:32):
know that trading chart trading cards haveevolved so much over the years. It's
definitely different than when I was akid. How did you envision the role
of trading cards and helping them promotethe women's game and also empower female athletes
and their fans. I mean,am I overthinking it when I say that?
Because it or making it more thanit is? No good, no,
no, Because every bed of thatplays into it so like there's elements

(30:57):
of or there's there's sort of likesteps along the way. First things first,
we have to deliver a product.We have to deliver a product people
actually like and care about. That'sour job and we need to I always
remember this conversation we had very earlyon with the NWSL. You know,
they're like, we've had some likeyou know, cursory interests, but it's

(31:18):
like, you know, we justwant to make cards of four or five
players, and we're like, no, we want to make cards everybody,
because again, every single one ofthose players is an accomplished professional athlete,
and that in its own right isinsanely cool. The level, the level
of skill it takes to get intothe NWSL is in my mind, I

(31:44):
accept all haters and angst about thisstatement. It is the hardest professional league
to play in across every sport inevery country. And the reason is because
as Americans, we have supported women'syouth soccer, collegiate soccer for so long
and made it so amazingly advanced.So if you can make the twenty five,

(32:10):
the thirty person roster at the endof your cell, you are superhuman
in my mind. So we decidedwe're gonna make cards of everybody. We're
gonna, you know, represent thetotality of the league to the best of
our ability. Do we think there'sempowerment in all of this? We do,
but it's you know, I'm aman. It's not my job to

(32:31):
talk about it. My job isto just do the things along the checklist
that enable us to put a goodproduct out there. I see young girls
get inspired. I've witnessed it.I've seen immense generosity the NWUSL players have
shared with bands, and I knowthat it is opening up hearts and changing

(32:54):
minds, and I wholly believe itis changing the path of life. But
we have a very simple job.We've got to make cool trading cards and
get them into people's hands. Soyeah, like, do I think there's
something larger happening. Absolutely, that'sgonna be something that others get to talk
about down the road. Right now, we're just going to keep making some

(33:15):
really cool stuff, having some fundoing it, Yeah, and hopefully get
to do it for the next twentyor thirty years. Love it And I'm
glad that you're you're putting out cardsof all the players because some of my
I got to I like to tryto create like little subsets, and I
find myself more attracted to international players, so like Ali Riley's and Sophia Yakubsin's

(33:37):
and those. So I have myown little my own little international subsets that
I collect, and I think thatthat's I think kids that do collect and
kids at heart like me, youknow, do that creatively. And by
the way, thanks for being anadvocate for for this, because we definitely
need your entrepreneurship and your creative mind, which'll obviously you and Eric bring,

(33:58):
and so it's very very much appreciated. What's the biggest reward for you?
I see you, Gushen and youlight up when you talk about this,
But personally, what's the biggest rewardfor you putting out these cards? There's
two answers to that. It's cool. There's just no denying that. This
is like I've said this before,I'll say it again. This is like
a treehouse job. You know.This is the kind of nonsense you talk

(34:22):
about when you're a little kid upin the treehouse saying I'm going to start
a trading card company, and thento do it is just like it's ridiculously
cool. My kid likes it too, like she thinks the way I'm spending
my time is sort of cool.The biggest reward is that I never ever,
and I say this with absolute sincerity, I never have a bad day

(34:45):
doing this. There are tougher days. But then you pause and you're like,
we're making trading cards. Yeah,Like we're not, you know,
we're not solving world peace, althoughmaybe they're a through line there could be
if we could get FIFA to comeon board and let us do the World

(35:05):
Cup. It's rewarding because I getto see what it means to people we
get. We get horrible, hatefulemails sometimes, but they are so outnumbered
by the ridiculously cool emails or theInstagram direct messages and stuff like that.
We get so many emails from fromdads that are like I never thought I'd
be able to share this hobby thatI love with my daughter, Thank you,

(35:30):
And every time I get one ofthose, I'm just like, yeah,
that's that's powerful and wonderful. Yeah, it's just it's just a really
really good way to spend your time. What's the most surprising thing that you've
encountered since putting out this collection?I hate Yeah, salute, hatred,
and misogyny baffled and I did notsee them coming. I wish I was

(35:54):
more aware before we started this abouthow much professional women. I wish I
was aware of how much just womenwere up a kids on a daily basis
before any of this. It wouldhave it would have informed so many things
that I didn't have done in mylife as a you know, a young

(36:15):
man to a young adult. Andnow it is shocking. See that's that's
something that wouldn't be surprising to me, but I could see how it would
be surprising. I'm a guy.No, we I mean it was,
it's it's you know what. I'ma naive guy too. I will admit
that I am eternally optimistic. Iam absurdly enthusiastic. But yeah, no,

(36:40):
it bottles my mind. I cannotimagine what it's. You know,
God, I can't imagine what mysister went through. I can't imagine what
my mom went through. It's changingfast enough. It's the evolution of girl
dads out there that are really investedin their daughters. I don't think that.
I think it's a generational thing thatit's not like our dads the way

(37:05):
that they like approached their daughter's lives. I guess, and I mean,
I don't know. Well, Ithink we can probably talk about this forever
because there's like so much like psychoanalyzingand everything going on. But let's switch
gears a little bit, because Iwant to know what's the heart? What's
the no that's believe me, Icould take you down a rabbit hole,
Matt. We can go on forever. But what's the hottest card right now?

(37:29):
If I'm a kid out there listeningand I want, like, are
the kids at heart? I guesswhat do they all clamor rine for?
What's what's your most popular card?So that's a that's a tricky question,
that's hard. We try to makeeverything so oh god, we're the weird
trading card company too. We knowthat there's like value on the second side,

(37:49):
on the on the other side ofwhat after what happens after we sell
the cards, and and we payattention to it because obviously it would be
insane not to, it'd be almostimpos not to, But we try,
we try not to let that affectwhat we're doing and how we're building product.
We're just trying to make stuff that'scool and fun. The hottest cards
are going to be like your bigrookies, your Sophia Smith's, You're Trinity

(38:14):
Rodmans. Now you're Alyssa Thompson's.You know, we did a really cool
card this past this past year,we did a three player autograph card with
Olivia Moultrie and Clorie Ricketts and Melaniebar sentence. And I think that that
is going to probably be one ofmy favorite cards we've ever managed to do
for a really long time because ofwhat Multrie fought for and those two youngsters

(38:39):
got to to do because of thatfight, And there will be players for
a long time that get to benefitfrom Olivia Moultrie breaking down a little bit
of a barrier and that was That'sa hot card. Golly. There's so
many things we do a lot ofweird things too, do, like little

(39:00):
subsets that are you know, funkyand strange that people really like. You
know, we did a confetti cardfrom the championship where we ran out onto
the field and grabbed confetti and madea card. Yeah, it's that's a
hard question for me to answer.This is also there's this thing I really
like all of our cards. Ilike they're all my I'm not gonna say

(39:22):
child or offspring, but if youbreak out thesaurus, I'm sure we could
find a word I'll agree on.Yeah. Yeah, I got the stickers
too. The stickers are very cool. On that. I love the stickers.
Yeah, it's the hottest cards arethe ones that make the kids happy,
make the collectors happy. I justsaw today somebody got a a really
rare Christine Sinclair card to complete theirwhole collection of having like every single one

(39:46):
of the cards, and I wasjust like, yeah, there you go,
that's rare. I get the makecards with Christine Sinclair, like she's
going to go down as the greatestto probably you know, the greatest goalscorer
ever, certainly Marta and here inthe conversation all the time together like come
on, this is fun. Yeah. I know you're a data guy,
and I know you guys run alot of data and do an analysis and

(40:07):
things like that. When you're brainstorminglike right now or like you're talking,
oh how about doing a legend seriesor doing this and that, do you
guys kind of get ahead of yourselfand say, well, let's then do
you kind of step back and thengo back into how does that work actually
when you come up with an idea, because I can come up with ideas
all day long, but they're notgoing to sell. Or you know,
if you find that there maybe thedata doesn't really justify doing something like this,

(40:30):
how do you do that? Soif Eric we're here, he would
walk you through how we make businessdecisions because again, remember I'm naive and
optimistic, and he's the one thatsometimes will have to be like no,
which is great because keeps you inlind Again, a lot of this is

(40:50):
the wild West because our patriots justnever did anything in the space. So
a lot of the time we're like, why not? And that's enough to
push forward on something. We've brainstormedwhat these cards are going to look like
all the way up until like twentythirty eight, how this could be an
evolution through what is a long formbuild of NWSL collectibles, because again,

(41:17):
it was a barren wasteland before wecame on board. Nobody was doing it.
We knew in year one that wecouldn't just explode a thousand different products
out onto a consumer base that hadno idea this existed. We knew that,
you know, I hate to sayslow burned, but this was going
to have to be something that incrementallybuilt itself up so that we could get

(41:38):
a lot more people invested in involved. I hate the word invested. I'm
sorry. It's not a wrong wordto use the trading cards engaged, engaged.
So you know, it's a process. We're still in the midst of
a process. We're still in thebuild and hopefully, you know, next

(41:59):
Women's World Cup we'll be able tosort of say this is what this is
going to look like every year asfar as a product rollout, promotional rollout
and stuff like that. That's awesome. And actually I stepped right into my
next question because I wanted to askyou about the future of park Side and
about the NWSL cards, but alsowondering if you are obviously you want to
branch out to the Women's World Cup. Would be awesome because the Panini cards

(42:21):
are like, you know, peoplecan't see what I'm doing right now,
but it's like, I mean,I collect the Panini cards for a long
time and then I just stopped becausethey started putting out cards players that weren't
even in the Women's World Cup.Are you looking to branch out into that
and then also into maybe other countriesor other women's leagues. Obviously we're an

(42:42):
international show, so that's interesting.Want it all, we want everybody.
Let's let's one thing first things first, we should at the very we should
applaud Panini for this year making aWomen's World Cup set only World Cup trading
card sect. I think it wasa great move by them, and I
think we should app audit. WouldI like it to have been a park
side Women's World Cup set, absolutely, but you know we're not there yet.

(43:07):
We'll get there, gone would butyeah, you know, we'd love
to expand intelligently as much as ashumanly possible. So yeah, hopefully we'll
get to go and do some internationalfun. There's a roadmap, yeah,
and uh, you know we're bothwe're both building the right car and and

(43:28):
getting ready to traverse that roadmap everyday. Yeah, I bet. And
so the popularity of women's soccer hasgrown so much. Do you almost feel
like you're running to keep up withit? Or do you feel like you're
Do you have your eyes like onSiria or the fron Bundesliga or things like
that, or are you trying tostay local? First? I know I'm
making you run before you. Well, so it's interesting. So pretty Hards

(43:52):
are very much an American you know, Panini Panini to reference them again,
I mean, you know they madethe stickers that You're anything, and so
there's an interesting kind of duality ofthe two things. Yeah, you know,
we're paying attention to the world ofsoccer and you know what the women's
game looks like, what the men'sgame looks like. You know, in

(44:14):
order to really be able for usto preach equality, we have to have
to pay attention to everything and wantto participate in all of it. So,
yes, there is a path forwardwhere we get to do a lot
more fun stuff. You know,we're aligned and partnered with US Soccer.
Now we've got to do a reallyrad product last year which was dual branded

(44:35):
of NWSL and US Soccer called OneOne Nation, One Team, and there'll
be more of that. If Iwas a betting man, maybe Conca CAF
could be an option in the nearfuture. So it's there's a lot of
fun stuff that we'd like to getinvolved in and are working towards. So
fingers crossed. Yeah. As founderof PARKSI Cards, Matt, I have

(44:57):
a more questare for you? Whatmessage experience. Do you hope that collectors
take away from owning and trading yourcards? Oh golly, that's a hard
question. I mean, I knowit's a very personal for everybody, but
for on a whole like, well, what do you hope that kids get
out of it collected? Well,you know, at the end of the
day, I hope kids know thattheir their futures are limitless, their paths

(45:22):
are completely undefined, and and Idon't know that trading cards really have an
opportunity to convey that. I mean, if they could, that would be
that would be awesome for kids towalk away from from seeing something like that,
that that that might be far tooambitious for two and a half by
three and a half inches of cardboard. I just I hope. I hope

(45:44):
at the end of the day,every collector that stumbles onto what we're trying
to do and what we're doing knowsthat everything was done intentionally, that that
our goal was to to make surethat the players, the league teams were
celebrated appropriately. And if we can, if everyone knows that, then then

(46:07):
we're doing then we're doing a goodjob. It is an honor for all
of us here at Parkside to havealigned with the NWSL when we did,
and so I just hope everyone knowsthat, like it's a really great place
to be and you love what you'redoing, and we definitely can can hear
that sincerity. And that's that's soawesome because so many times people will jump

(46:30):
on something like the nwsller upon women'ssoccer just to see what they can get
out of it. You know,they're right on the backs of these players,
and it's it's so frustrating for me, you know, because I see
it all the time, and you'relike, what does this guy have invested
in women's soccer? And you cansee it's just to make a buck or
something, and from from what Iknow about you and from your company,

(46:51):
it's just like you guys are suchthe opposite of that, and it's so
can't express the gratitude enough. Ourjob is to elevate everyone. Yeah,
not us. It's funny, likenow, I mean this is this is
so such a mac or micro partof our our reality. But we like
we've had conversations where we're like,does our logo even need to be on

(47:12):
the front of these things, becausethat's not well, it's not it's about
it's it's about us, but it'snot about us. It's like there's just
these stories that we have that booyus through every day. But one of
my favorite stories, there was aplayer in Orlando back in twenty twenty one,
and you know, she was arookie, probably fighting for five minutes
a game. I get an emailfrom a dad and he's like, we

(47:36):
met Phoebe mccarne, and my daughterand her have like a thirty minute conversation
on the sideline, and here's what'shappened. Since my daughter is now committing
to just soccer, she was goingto play pro soccer. That is her
goal in this life. And itis because this player, after a game,
spent so much time that she literallybrought her onto the field and walked

(48:01):
her through technical exercises that will makeher better. And just this one interaction
from this one generous professional soccer playermolded this child in a way that I
don't think any of us are goingto get to witness or understand. But
in that moment, the dad waslike, I need to write the guy

(48:22):
who made the trading card, whomade my daughter walk up to this player
for an autograph and email about howsignificant this night was in her life.
And for me, it's such anabsurd thing. Because we made a piece
of cardboard with this player's face onit, that interaction occurred, which in
turn motivated this kid who knows what'sgoing to become of it. That's just

(48:47):
such a strange, wonderful, beautifullittle thing. And it all happened because
we started Parkside. I'm like,I don't even know if that's a story
or if that's just me ramble,but like, doesn't it it's just changing
lives. Romantic, Yeah, Likea little piece of cardboard can change a

(49:07):
life. That's awesome. H MattPeek, I'm I'm such a huge fan
of yours. I'm so happy Ifinally get you on the show to talk
about all the amazing work that you'redoing to help spread this excitement of women's
soccer, Parkside and changing lives,and so thank you so much for all
you do, and thank you fortaking the time to come on the show.
It's so amazing talk to you.Thanks for having thank you so much.

(49:29):
So great to hear from Matt,Like I said, I'll run into
him all the time, and everytime I run into him in the past.
I'm like, we got to getyou on the show, and he'd
like, yeah, yeah, getme on the show. Here's my contact
information. And then just time passes, you know, things go on,
and then I see him again andI'm like, Matt, we got to
get you on the show. SoI ran into him actually at the end
of You So College Draft, andI made it a point. I'm like,

(49:50):
I'm not going to go like anotherseason without talking to this guy because
what he's doing is just so greatand very genuine. Right. You can
hear it in that interview that hereally cares about this game. He loves
what he's doing, and he's havinga great time. And I think I
kind of get a little over philosophicalabout collecting and about cards and about you

(50:12):
know, their their role and theempowerment that they bring to the I get
a little overboard, I think inMatt's like, man, it's just fun.
You know, it is all thosethings, you know, it is.
It is empowering. It's empowering players, and it's empowering fans, and
you you know, the day thata player grows up and plays a professional

(50:35):
soccer and says, yes, Icollected these nw cell cards and they inspired
me. That day will come,I'm a thousand percent sure. But at
the end of the day, theyare fun and they're super cool, and
they're such high quality, and asa collector, that's what you want.
You want to collect the high qualitystuff. It's so great, So get
it you. I really encourage you. If you don't know anything about Parkside

(50:57):
cards, go to parkside cards dotcom. We'll have all all the information
on the show notes. We'll havethe Instagram and you know, all his
social media links there on the shownotes as well, so you can easily
just click. And just so great. I don't love how all the stickers
theyse did a special US Women's Nationalteam set, Like he was saying,
so many other things and he's gotlike an indie cars set and squish mellows.

(51:22):
I mean, there's a lot ofother things besides endbousel, but the
NWSL cards, you know, that'snot an easy thing to do. You
got to get licensing, you gotto get approval from like, you know,
all these entities, and he didit, you know, and kudos
to him. And I just justlove the sets, just love what they're
doing. So thanks Matt. Forcoming on the show. We really really
appreciate you. It's very cool totalk to influencers. Yes, well,

(51:46):
of course we are still going tobe featuring players on this podcast, but
I really am kind of really gearingtowards focusing behind the scenes interviews light at
like some of the previous interviews wedid with a Safe Sport in the United
Soccer Coaches Convention and things like that. So there's a lot of behind the

(52:07):
scenes stuff going on in women's soccertoday that I'm justugh. I love to
hear the stories, don't you.I mean I love to hear the stories
and the real people really care aboutthe game, and that just like us,
right, we all care about theginname, and we care about people,
and we care about stories and justgrowing this beautiful game that we love.
Like I always say, hey,I really hope that you enjoyed episode

(52:29):
two twenty six of Women's World FootballShow Wow to twenty six? Is that
right? Yeah? There it is, two twenty six. I would love
to hear your thoughts on my interviewwith co founder of Parkside Trading Cards,
Matt Peak. Feel free to emailme at Pattie at wwfshow dot com.
I read all the emails and Ido my best reply in a timely manner.
And if you did enjoy this episode, subscribe now on Apple Podcasts,

(52:51):
Spotify, iHeartRadio app, Google Play, tuned in, castbox, Speaker,
Stitcher, wwfshow dot com, orwherever you're listening to this right now.
And if if you really really enjoylistening to Women's World Football Show, one
of the best ways you can showyour appreciation is to give us a five
star rating and leave a review whereveryou listen. I always love to know
your thoughts and reviews are the bestways for others to find the show.

(53:13):
Also, another way to help growthe show and grow this beautiful game that
we love is to tell your friendsand family about Women's World Football Show.
If you're listening on a mobile device, swipe over the cover art and you'll
find the episode notes, including somedetails you may have missed. Her relative
links from this episode. Visit ourshow notes on wwfshow dot com, connect
with us on Facebook, Instagram,and TikTok at WWF Show. Women's Role

(53:34):
Football Show is hosted, written,edited, and produced by Patti Labella.
That's Me. Additional assistance for thisepisode by my friend Matt Peak, and
thank you, especially you for joiningme on this exciting journey through women's football.
Stay strong, stay mindful, keeploving your heart, and we'll see
y'all next time. She