If you follow pickleball on social media, you’ve probably come across influencer Emily Visnic’s account. The 29-year-old pickleball player from Branford, Connecticut might be better known by her Instagram handle, Pickle.Em (pickle_em on TikTok), an account that provides daily updates from her pickleball adventures to thousands of followers in the pickleball community.
Visnic started playing pickleball while attending graduate school in Florida for her doctorate of nursing practice in anesthesia and fell in love with the sport’s social, competitive and inclusive community. Those aspects of the sport that have continued to shape her life in New York where she works as a nurse anesthetist.
“Instead of going out and partying, we’re out there playing pickleball,” said Visnic. “I have literally friends who are above 70, and then I have friends in middle school. It’s such an all encompassing sport.”
This past February, Visonic began to turn her pickleball passion towards content creation. A self-proclaimed “super techie”, that side endeavour has rapidly expanded into a successful venture.
“I feel like it was the type of thing where it’s just like I was playing so much and I was getting the content anyway so I was like, ‘I should really I should really expand on this,” added Visnic. “Try to actually help other people get into the sport and make content that can help people see how great pickleball is. I love doing it. I’m hoping I’ve inspired people to start playing.”
It would be easy to forget that while Visnic balances a significant amount of time to pickleball, she also maintains a full schedule as an nurse anesthetist. An average work day kicks off with a 5:30 a.m. wake up call, and ends anywhere from 3:00 p.m. through to 7:00 p.m., roughly 10-12 surgeries.
Despite the intense shifts of work, her schedule allows for a window of late afternoon pickleball play at Lifetime or CityPickle (Tuesday nights are reserved for Pickle Chicks, a female-specific night at CityPickle), her most frequented pickleball facilities.
While her two passions are the definition of dissimilar, they’ve been bridged through another passion of Visnic’s: fashion. Enter Ameliora and their new sport collection, which includes a durable designer sport bag that provides a practical way of transporting daily essentials and the necessary items required for an afternoon on the courts. The bag in particular has been a staple in recent weeks with Visnic and her daily trips on the subway to play pickleball.
Visnic applauds the overall space in the sport bag, with ample room for her pickleball shoes and paddle on the side, along with being able to clean it with ease following a full day of work and play.
“I’m obsessed with the bag,” stated Visnic. “It’s a crossbody, which I love. It also has shorter handles which I can put over my shoulder. I love that it’s this nice, nice leather, and you can actually clean the inside. For me, I literally will put all my work stuff in there. You know, my stethoscope, my lunch, all of that. I’ll use it all day at work, and then I’ll literally bring it with me to the pickleball courts.”
With Ameliora’s foray into the pickleball community still in its infancy, the reception to Visnic’s new pickleball attire hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Walking around New York with this bag, I literally get stopped on the sidewalk,” recalled Visnic. “People are always like, what bag is that? It’s so beautiful, because a lot of people don’t have a proper carry bag, they might have their backpack that they use.
Receiving approvals both on the street and from her family, Ameliora’s sport collection has also received the approval of Visnic herself thanks to the overall quality and aesthetic of the collection.
“I’m so lucky that Ameliora found me and asked me to help spread the word about this collection, because I’m genuinely happy to,” admitted Visnic. “You never know with new products or brands if it’s actually going to be well made and the Ameliora bag was chef’s kiss. Ten out of 10. It’s nice to kind of tie everything with work and pickleball together.”
Visnic isn’t slowing down for the new year, with plans to take her on court play to the next level while continuing to balance her work and pickleball, Ameliora bag in hand.
“I love competing,” Visnic concluded. “I’ve been competing at the 4.0-4.5 level. My mixed doubles partner and I are planning to enter into our first pro qualifier in 2024, so I’m excited for that.”
