Oakville High School alum Magdalen Pike has always been involved in the world of sports.
“My dad was a youth camp director and ran three of the largest soccer clubs here in St. Louis. I would always go to work with him after school,” Pike said. “I really saw as I grew older and became a D1 athlete myself, how much stuff was being left over in the lost and found, in my own closet. This was causing a lot of overhead costs. It was causing a lot of excess time and waste of potential for reuse, and almost all of it was plastic or metal.”
Following her soccer career at Southeast Missouri State, Pike began working at TinySuperheroes – a local nonprofit – while getting her MBA at Washington University. The concurrent ventures helped her realize her plan and goals for her future.
“(TinySuperheroes) really opened my eyes on how to solve problems and be a social entrepreneur,” Pike said. “At the same time, the networking connections (through Washington University) really introduced all different kinds of viewpoints and opportunities for me. I really learned to look at my own surroundings and my own passions and kind of build something from there.”
Thus Passback was born.
In August 2023, Pike founded Passback, a nonprofit seeking to “upcycle” used sports equipment from balls and cones to uniforms and bags.
“We upcycle sports gear so every kid can play. We have a grander vision of creating this circular economy for sports gear,” Pike said.
Located in one of the city’s Cortex co-working spaces, 4818 Washington Blvd., 63108, Passback allows sports clubs, relators or individuals with extra or old sports equipment to donate their gear instead of throwing it away. These products are then donated to youth and families in underserved communities for free, or resold for a fraction of the retail price at the organization’s re-commerce store, with all proceeds going back to further the mission.
Recently, Pike and her team donated hundreds of pairs of shoes to the St. Louis City Soccer Club’s youth development program.
“We are always looking for people on the collection side and the redistribution side. So if you’re interested in hosting a collection drive, we would love to hear from you. Or if you’re a business – specifically a sports business – whose lost and found is pretty crazy, or a retailer who just needs some help moving some stuff, we are there to help,” Pike said. “On the opposite side, if you’re a nonprofit or community leader and are serving families that need the gear, we’d love to hear from you as well.”
For more information on Passback and/or to get involved with the organization, visit https://www.passback-official.org/about.
“I’m very grateful to the partners here in the St. Louis region, many of them South County, South City based. They were very instrumental in kind of getting Passback up and running and really making a much larger impact,” Pike said. “I’m just really grateful to the overall community and my own team for making this impact.”
