Johnston County man turns hobby into business

By Randy Capps

CLAYTON — Perhaps you’ve tossed an airmail, right after a dirty, on a crisp, fall afternoon at a college football tailgate.

Or maybe you’ve just played cornhole and need a little help knowing that an airmail is when you throw the bag straight into the hole, and a dirty is when it lands short of the board.

Either way, you’re going to need a set of boards.

A sign on a building on Cleveland Road tells a visitor he’s arrived at Johnston County Cornhole, and inside, working over a slick blue board that will soon have a Honda Racing stripe is George Paris.

Paris owns the business, which started about 12 years ago in his garage — not terribly far from his current location.

“I flipped a house in Clayton, and doing that, I went back home,” he said. “I’m from Iowa and my wife’s from Illinois, and we went home, and people were playing this game. Never even seen it before. I played it, liked it and came back home. There was like one guy making them. He was retired, and he was making two or three sets a week.”

Bitten by the cornhole bug, Paris had no intention of waiting that long.

He went and bought the necessary supplies and made an interesting discovery.

“When you make a set, you start with a piece of plywood,” he said, walking over to a sheet to demonstrate. “You cut it and cut it, then you have enough for two sets.”

He made a second set, decorated it with N.C. State decals and put it on Craigslist. It sold almost immediately, and an idea was born.

These days, Johnston County Cornhole produces 400-500 sets a year, including about 75 or 80 during the shorter-than-usual Thanksgiving to Christmas window. Each set takes anywhere from three and a half to four and a half hours to make, and pricing for a custom set starts at about $240 with tax.

“Everything is custom made,” he said. “We make everything. We make the boards, we make the decals, we make the bags. The only thing we don’t make is the carrying case.”

While the sets would be fine for enthusiasts, Paris finds that most of his customers are like he was when this all began — new to the game.

“Most of the people that come in have never really even played the game,” he said. “That’s the fun part. ... Most of our business comes from somebody telling somebody about us, or somebody seeing it. That’s what I like. That’s how I know we’re doing a good job.”

Paris has been in the Cleveland Road location five or six years. Even his landlord isn’t quite sure how long he’s been there, Paris shares with a laugh that fills the room.

It’s a long way from his garage and that of his friend, Craig Bailey, who handles the woodworking. Still, as the business grew, things got a little too noisy in an otherwise quiet Cleveland School neighborhood.

“It really wasn’t me they were mad at,” he said of his neighbors. “My garage looked like a storefront. It was Craig building boards down the street in the same subdivision. You can imagine a nail gun, router, all this stuff going off. And it wasn’t like he was doing it for an hour.”

Now that happens in the shop, where nothing much is made until its ordered. Wolfpack items are traditionally the leading sellers, but American flags and beach scenes have been popular this year as well, Paris said.

Johnston County Cornhole makes boards that are lighter than most other brands, making them easier to carry to the beach. Paris also includes bags with each set of boards he sells.

It’s one more personal touch he offers his customers, because it’s one he missed in his quest for his first set all those years ago.

In addition to the workspace, the company has also acquired the equipment needed to produce his own decals and vinyl. Not bad for a guy who still has a night job as a mechanic at Carmax and is helping to raise three kids, Garrett, Madison and Gavin, with his wife, Jennifer.

Garrett, a senior at Cleveland High, is a seasonal employee. It seems he may have also inheirited his father’s passion.

“It’s not like we’re doing surgery up here, but people are paying us because we’re going to make it look awesome,” he said. “I never really wanted to be real big or huge with this. My son wants to be bigger with it, but, I don’t know, man. It’s cornhole.”

If the past is any guide, Garrett might be onto something.