About

Alfonso and Marcelino met in high school where they played together on the varsity soccer team during their sophomore and freshman years respectively. Coincidentally, Alfonso then attended Saint Mary’s College where Marcelino ended up also attending 2 years later. Their mutual love for sports and the outdoors kept their friendship strong through college and after graduation. 

In 2023 Marcelino and Alfonso discovered pickleball. After getting addicted and playing non stop against each other, they quickly realized that they were often the only people that looked like each other on the courts. This reminded them of the limited sports opportunities they had growing up in the Latino/a neighborhoods of Redwood City and East Palo Alto, CA. Growing up, the only sport they had easy access to was soccer. Sports like tennis and golf were unheard of. 

This is why Pepino was created. Pepino, meaning pickle or cucumber in Spanish, is a community based sport/lifestyle brand. Our mission is to not only create the most comfortable and fashion forward active/lifestyle wear, but also to expand pickleball and other sports to lower income communities. To do this, we will be donating proceeds to schools, after school programs, and boys & girls clubs in low income communities to enable them to be able to buy the equipment necessary for their kids to learn and play pickleball and other sports. 

Join us on our mission. 

Alfonso & Marcelino