Fresh Nets

“When you get your technique right, and you know that you're releasing the ball at the right height, and you've got a really good arc on the ball, and you hear that swish sound … it's just the ultimate for any basketballer.”

Growing up, Zac Schroedl was a soccer kid. He played a bit of basketball with his brother from time to time but it wasn’t really his thing. Whenever the two of them went down to their local court at Black Mountain in O’Connor, they’d have to chase the ball down to the road every time it crashed through the bare metal hoop.

Fast forward to 2018, and Zac was living and working in Sydney. His work colleague was obsessed with NBA and often had live games playing on a second screen while he worked. Over time, Zac found his interest in basketball returning. He went to the shops and bought a ball.

At the local courts, Zac found a thriving community of basketballers who played from dawn until the lights were extinguished late at night. Whenever possible, Zac would take his ball down, find his own hoop, and practise his drills.

For Zac, playing basketball is a solo pursuit which he likens to a form of meditation.

“It's honestly the funnest thing that I do, as sad as that could sound. But it's exercising, it's being outdoors … and hitting good shots like that and hearing that net is a dopamine hit.”

Zac noticed that the nets at his court disintegrated fast and were replaced infrequently. When the net is damaged or missing, it’s sometimes hard to tell if the ball went through and it can bounce away at awkward angles. And the shooter is deprived of that sensory thrill.

So, Zac took himself off to Rebel Sport and bought a generic basketball net for about $25. He borrowed a ladder from a mate and installed it at his court.

“And while I was doing that, I remember some people sort of waved at me and said, ‘thanks, brother!’ and that sort of thing. And you know, it was kind of a selfish act to make my own play a little bit more satisfying, but I guess it was at that moment I realised: wait a second, this is going to help everyone.”

That was the spark of an idea. Like most young professionals, Zac was time poor with limited capacity for volunteering. This idea represented an opportunity to give back to the community in other ways.

At over $20 a pop, nets from brick and mortar retailers were not a viable option. But online research revealed a company in China that would produce quality nets in bulk for about $7 each. And in the colour of your choice. Zac placed an order for 50 nets.

Soon, bright purple nets began appearing at courts around Sydney and Canberra in the place of torn and missing nets. Freethrows was born.

Zac is a communications professional who graduated from university with a journalism degree. His mind turned naturally to branding and promotion, and his friendship network of creatives sprang into action. One friend helped to design the Freethrows logo and mascot, a winking and melting basketball named Dribble the Ghost. The ghost element is in reference to how Zac wanted his operation to fly under the radar.

The Freethrows model was inspired by an episode of the podcast 99% Invisible which told the story of a group of friends in the United States who’d taken it upon themselves to fix an error on a massive freeway road sign. It was an act that one of the men called “guerrilla public service”. That style of public service spoke to Zac.

After each net install, he leaves a calling card on the hoop’s pole.

Zac also started an Instagram account inviting people to tip off Freethrows with a photo of their “sad net”. Another creative friend followed Zac around Canberra and filmed a Freethrows promo video for social media as he responded to a dozen tip offs.

Thanks to that promo video and the Freethrows social media presence, Zac was soon receiving requests for nets from all around Australia, and as far away as Texas.

From time to time, Freethrows will be tagged into a sneaky photo on Instagram of Zac doing an install, with a simple comment like “legend”. Other times, players will come right up and thank him in person while he’s hanging the net. But like Dribble the Ghost, Zac’s work often goes unnoticed until someone shows up to their local court and spots that flash of purple.

From time to time, people reach out directly to express their gratitude. One of the most moving acknowledgements came after Zac installed a net at a dark and overgrown court in Sydney, wedged between tall apartment buildings. About an hour later, he received some photos from the person who’d made the tip off. They showed the man’s son, who uses a wheelchair, playing at the court and loving the brand new net.

“That is the kind of stuff that stays with you because you do feel like, even though it's this tiny little thing, it does make a bit of a difference in people’s lives.”

Despite the high quality of Zac’s mail order nets, they still degrade quickly on busy courts. There’s one hoop near his old Sydney home that has been through five or six Freethrows nets. And the requests continue to come in thick and fast from around Australia.

He’s done the research and estimates that there are about 1,100 public basketball courts in Australia. Each hoop on those courts ideally needs a fresh net roughly every three months. It’s an impossible task for one person.

Occasionally, Zac will mail a few nets and stickers to interstate tipsters and ask for photos of their installs in return. Despite toying with the idea of trying to scale the operation, he’s decided to keep it personal and stay focused on Canberra and Sydney for now.

Even at just $7 per net, the costs add up. Zac estimates that he’s installed at least 150 nets himself, and provided a few dozen more to volunteers. He’s experimented with selling Freethrows merchandise like hats and tee shirts to offset the costs, but the hassle is barely worth it.

Zac has now returned home to Canberra with a new job, and the pace of installs has slowed as his career responsibilities have evolved. But he still has a bag of nets in the boot of his car at all times so he can quickly pull over if he spots a hoop in need. Zac is determined to continue providing his guerrilla public service.

And this is what it keeps coming back to: Zac strongly believes that welcoming public spaces are crucial to individual and community wellbeing.

“Often you’ll drive past these courts which were once probably thriving basketball courts or netball courts. And now, due to the state of either it's missing a net or it's often missing a hoop as well, they actually become really cold and barren places. The way I see a nice fresh net, I think the role that it plays is it becomes more of a welcoming place … it's a place that's attractive to children, to families, to adults as well. And a little bit of a splash of colour is always nice.”