Floatsup: Making Paddleboarding More Fun, One Accessory at a Time
- Jack Flynn
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
There are outdoor brands built around going farther, faster, and harder. Floatsup is not one of them. Founded by Paige Fitzgerald and her husband, Eric, in Whitefish, Montana, Floatsup is building products for the other side of paddleboarding: the afternoons when the cooler is packed, the anchor is dropped, and nobody is particularly concerned about how many miles they covered.
As Paige puts it, they are the “leisure paddle boarders.” That laid-back approach is central to Floatsup, but it does not mean the company takes its products lightly. Behind the bright colors and playful personality is a growing outdoor brand built around solving the little problems that can make a day on the water better. And it all started because Paige and Eric needed somewhere to put their drinks.
From a Paddleboard Problem to a Patented Product
Floatsup’s story began in 2020, when Paige and Eric bought their first paddleboards. Eric loved kayaking, while Paige loved being outside but, as she joked during our conversation, also loved “a good floaty.” Paddleboards became the perfect compromise. They could paddle when they wanted to explore, or throw a cooler on the board, drop an anchor, and simply hang out.
It did not take long for them to discover a surprisingly annoying problem: where do you put your drink? They tried the options available at the time, many of which relied on suction cups. But suction cups did not work particularly well on textured paddleboard pads or the surfaces of inflatable SUPs.
Paige and Eric kept coming back to a simple question: why couldn’t a drink holder just attach underneath the bungee cords already found on most paddleboards? They started experimenting, including creating early prototypes on a friend’s 3D printer. Eventually, the concept became the Floatsup Cup, a bungee-secured drink holder protected by both utility and design patents.
The idea was simple. Turning it into a real business was not. Paige and Eric worked with a product designer, sourced manufacturing, and eventually launched a Kickstarter in 2022. The campaign gave them enough validation to make the significant investment in tooling required to bring the product to market.
Built for the Leisure Paddleboarder
Spend enough time around the outdoor industry and you will find plenty of brands centered around technical performance. Floatsup occupies a different part of that world.
Paige and Eric certainly use their products on rivers, and Floatsup works for kayakers and more adventurous paddlers too. But the brand’s core customer is much closer to its founders themselves.
“We kind of joke like we’re the leisure paddle boarders.”
Paige describes their typical day as bringing a cooler and an anchor out onto a lake or floating a mellow river. They might paddle somewhere, but getting somewhere is not necessarily the point.
That distinction gives Floatsup an interesting position in the outdoor market. Not everyone getting outside is chasing an expedition. Sometimes the adventure is paddling out with friends, finding a good spot, and staying there for a few hours.
Floatsup’s own philosophy sums it up nicely: “PADDLE YOUR WAY™.” The brand encourages people to enjoy the water at their own pace, whether that means paddling hard, exploring with friends, or barely paddling at all.
A Fun Product That Takes Quality Seriously
Floatsup’s success also created one of the less enjoyable realities of inventing a product people want: knockoffs arrived quickly. Paige said counterfeit versions began appearing within weeks of the original product going viral, including sellers using Floatsup’s own photos. At one point, the company pursued more than 400 Amazon sellers. Competition has continued as other companies have altered their designs to work around Floatsup’s patents.
Floatsup does not intend to win that battle by becoming the cheapest option. Instead, the brand competes on quality.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take our product quality seriously.”
The original Floatsup Cup is made from flexible material, incorporates 30% recycled material, and is built to take abuse. Paige said they have even run one over with a truck and found that it continued to work. That durability gave Paige and Eric enough confidence to put a lifetime warranty behind the product.
The flexible construction was intentional for another reason, too. Paige explained that they did not want a hard plastic holder that could break into a sharp piece if someone fell onto it.
It is a good representation of the brand as a whole: fun without being disposable.
More Than a Cup Holder
The Floatsup Cup might have created the company, but Paige does not want Floatsup to remain a one-product business.
That vision is beginning to show in the product line. Floatsup has started expanding into complementary paddle and float accessories, including gear straps and dry storage products. The Gear Strap solves another problem Paige and Eric encountered themselves: securing a cooler or connecting paddleboards together. More products are being developed, including cooler dry bags, although Paige made it clear they would rather take longer to get a product right than release something they do not believe in.
The bigger opportunity is to create an entire ecosystem around the casual paddleboarding experience. Instead of trying to manufacture every major piece of equipment, Floatsup can focus on the accessories that make an existing board more useful, more organized, and more fun.
Building the Fun Side of Paddleboarding
Paige sees an opening in the paddle sports industry. There are already great companies making paddleboards, kayaks, and highly technical equipment. Floatsup does not need to compete with them.
Instead, Paige noticed that accessories often seemed like an afterthought.
“There really wasn’t a lot of personality or thought put into the accessories around paddle boarding.”
Floatsup wants to own that space. The long-term vision is to become a one-stop shop for paddleboarding and floating accessories without necessarily moving into paddleboards or other major hard goods. Products can be colorful, approachable, functional, and durable without becoming overly technical.
Paige described what she sees as a gap between two ends of the outdoor market:
“There’s a place in the middle of the market that’s not like highly technical, but it’s not crap on Amazon either.”
That might be the clearest explanation of where Floatsup is headed. It is not trying to turn every casual paddleboarder into an expedition athlete. It is building better gear for people who already know exactly what they want from a day outside: good weather, good water, good friends, and a reason to stay out there a little longer.
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