Alex Fraige shares his “WHY” behind his latest passion project, Great American Paintball Magazine

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Paintball Nerd’s Media Mogul Interview with Alex Fraige. Alex Fraige is co-owner of Team Dynasty, Field One, and Hormesis. Over the past couple of years, Alex has been working on a documentary, a movie, and running 3 brands at the highest level. His next passion project is The Great American Paintball Book. Alex shares what motivates him to keep making things, what we can expect to experience the first time opening the GAP Book, and his excitement towards his other passion projects.

https://dynastypaintball.com/pages/dynasty-champions-club-experiences-and-engagements
https://hormesispaintball.com
https://greatamericanpaintballmag.com

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📸Dan Shelley

Paintball nerd today’s guest on paintball nerd we are welcoming back the owner of Dynasty field one and hormesis he’s got more Pro wins than than Jesus ladies and gentlemen welcome to the show Alex frie are you gonna are you gonna sing us a little DD now that you now You’ tuned it

Up I can’t play uh piano man but you know it’s all right well you know you sounded great thanks man you know Alex you’ve been extremely busy uh I’d say the past couple years especially you know you uh your owner of Team Dynasty field one large gun company hormesis the

Biggest brand right now you got your Iron Man Iron sorry Iron Kids documentary that you’re working on you got the paintball movie that you’re working on and now this new magazine so man what’s driving you to to tackle all these things so yeah I mean I

Guess it kind of starts with um with hormesis and that you know Oliver and I started that in the summer of 2020 and it sort of just organically naturally snowballed and instead of you know looking at that like a business really um we were not really looking at the

Bottom line we’re like okay people are supporting this we want to uh use the money that we’re making from this to to put back into projects that we feel will benefit the the overall community and stuff we’re passionate about passionate about so like making a movie really not

The smartest business decision but fun and and also you know I feel it’s necessary because no one else is doing that um and and that’s sort of Oliver’s tour right like he felt passionate about that in the one-on-one format monetarily the best idea probably not but

Interesting and fun and and a great you know thing for people to participate in and making something that he wants to make all about it so um yeah that that leads us into the next project and that’s um sort of Reviving uh paintball print so you know I go back to when I

Was a kid and and you know uh carrying around my action pursuit games in my backpack at school and looking the uh you know I got I got a bunch of them here that I’ve been you know looking at all the old all the old magazines and I

Saved them all right like yeah I still remember you know you can you can call it you can call it back right and and uh you know look at the old ads and read the old articles and you know this is something that the internet sort of um

Uh crushed you know the tangible tangible thing well you know that’s funny cuz there are pro veteran Pro players today that have have never had the opportunity to purchase a brand new paintball magazine yeah that’s kind of amazing yeah so who is this magazine for so really um you know with any art

Project it’s hard to do this when you’re looking at it from a monetary standpoint but I try to keep um anything that I’m making artistic it’s something that I want to make for myself so this magazine is something that I want to and that’s something that

I want to have um and that’s uh sort of what’s driving me to do it and you know it’s kind of an anecdotal uh interesting story right because it it comes back like I was saying when I had the APG in my backpack and would show it to my

Friends and then they’d be like wow that’s what paintball is it became real you know it became real to them and for me I felt um I felt recognized and seen so now if I’m at a parent teacher conference and I run into some family that I know that you know are also

Parents at the school that my daughter goes to they’re like hey you’re the paintball guy and I’m like yeah and they’re like what’s that all about and then I’m like well you know let me get my phone out and try to explain it to you while I pull up Instagram and like

You know then by that time they’re like yeah this guy’s a Joker um so you know if I have something like this sitting on my coffee table you know they’ll be like huh what’s that I wouldn’t have to say anything yeah right they just pick it up yeah pick it up

With something with you know you know my my vision is to make it big and you know really present the photos well in a beautiful way and have thoughtful thoughtful features and um you know tell the stories about who we are and what we’re doing it’s not really

Going to be I mean news Gear reviews all that stuff is Antiquated right you you process all that online now I mean yeah we’re not going to tell you who won the tournament because you already know because you watched it on ghostport right and our magazine is going to come

Out six months after that so you know what’s the point of of uh retelling that story um so what we’re trying to to focus on is scratching beneath the surface on who we are and what we’re doing in an honest way so more like something that that you

Can enjoy year round or as MADD calls it like Evergreen content this is an evergreen piece of art that you can keep in your living room and it’s something you can enjoy regardless of the date absolutely you can go back and revisit the pictures you can revisit the

Articles um you know somebody who’s never ever seen paintball before you know look you’ve never seen paintball before and you walk into somebody’s house and you know this is sitting on their coffee table you know you’re gonna go you’re gonna go like all right uh what is that

You know like if I saw this in the bookstore I’d be like um yeah I’m gonna I’m gonna get that and open it up and just see what’s inside you know it’s um it’s sort of um you know it’s it’s novel in that way for this day and age that

That is that the cover we see there this is a mockup uh we might use this I mean it’s pretty damn good but um yeah I mean we we’ve been thrown around uh you know I’ve got a bunch of different you know mockups for potential potential covers

But you know I don’t know there’s there’s your boy sansky love that but I mean yeah I don’t know what the the first cover is actually going to be yet we’re uh we got a couple ideas we’re throwing around now and um yeah excited to uh you know be

Working on the layout and I’ve got a you know Wonderful team of of of uh creators you know the photographers in our community have been like super generous to try to get this off the ground um you know creative writers like yourself I’ve got a great piece from you that we’re

Going to put in and and I feel like you know it’s all sort of coming together because it’s a project that like me other people in our world want to see happen and um that’s what it’s going to take because you know it’s not it’s not

A cheap project to do right and um you know we’re getting it printed uh by a great printer here um in the US and it’s a a massive size it’s 11 by 17 a poster size so when you have it in your hands it’s like you know I don’t even like to

Call it a magazine it’s it’s a book um yeah and uh and yeah I just uh I’m I’m I’m stoked to to hold one in my hands for myself yeah it’s funny Alex because I remember at the hormesis tour you were asking me like do you think you asked

Something like do you think people read think people read articles and I didn’t know you were asking about the magazine at the time or what I thought about it but you’re like you think people read I’m like no you know people just scroll through and it’s just you know I I I was

Talking about the medium of the cell phone right social media but then when you told me the idea about the magazine I found myself really wanting one and then at that point I got it I’m like I get I get I get what he’s trying to do

And then uh and then I received this oh yeah I got one of those from Riddle I just got it yeah I just got it yesterday in the mail and as soon as I saw the cover I found myself plunging back into these emotions that I had as a

Kid purchasing a magazine and I started to think about all the other emotions as I went through my career with magazines and how they were they were a substantial part of my paintball experience you know like as a kid you know before I started playing competitively I’d get magazines and like

Okay that’s the cool gear that’s the kind of mask that I want you know who are the best players this guy boblong they talk about all the time you know I found myself doing that and then I started to think about as as a as a professional paintball

Player and how I viewed magazines at that point and a new one what come out and I’d immediately get it or I’d you know be in the grocery store looking through it and and thinking I hope I’m in it right I hope I made it in this one

So uh you know what I’m talking about like that that feeling like I mean just looking at the magazine was amazing to start with before I even you know started playing in tournaments and then you know the first time you got your picture in one you’re like you know your

Your mind was blown and uh totally yeah and like get waiting for the new one to come out right like there’s anticipation there and when you see it you’re excited and you’re holding you know it’s like you know it’s like um you know watching the new Star Wars trailer like there’s

Anticipation there’s you know there’s um there’s like a payoff you know thumbing through the pages and again and again and noticing things you didn’t and taking your time to look at the photos and the ads and the and and read the articles and yeah Clint’s awesome I mean

Uh he’s amazing and he’s actually working with us on this project too so um I’m stoked to yeah he’s doing some um some uh layout and some paintings uh they’re going to support some of the Articles and also you know people are nowadays are used to assimilating

Information in in that sort of like quick payoff way and you know I’m I’m totally I’m about that and our magazine sort of lends it our book lends itself to that anyway because we do have thoughtful articles that are long form and in depth and detailed but also we

Have beautiful photos and I’m going around and I’m I’m talking to the the photographers and the players that are in the photos and I’m saying like hey I text him my picture of and say hey what goes to your mind when you see this right so almost it’s like

Looking at an Instagram post but in 11 by 17 on paper right so like I’ve got this beautiful spread here I’m looking at um of Brandon short from 2009 right shot by Drew Templeton and uh we we laid it out and I sent a picture of it I just

Snapped it and sent it to Brandon sh I said hey what stream of Consciousness what do you what do you think of when you see this and he says uh I think we just beat Dynasty I bonus balled green spand at the end to get my point across

Right so like that’s you know a moment in time you know that’s that’s what we’re trying to that’s what we’re trying to display in a lot of these right you know’s really powerful Alex yeah is like that the book kind of forces you to be in the moment and

And and appreciate paintball like when you’re scrolling through your feed there’s a lot of things kind of kind of grabbing at your attention outside of paintball yes you know we follow a lot of paintball players and stuff like that but there’s a lot of stuff that’s gonna

Pop up there’s ads and there’s different followers and you know maybe there’s different things that you follow outside of paintball but when you’re going through this book it forces you to be immersed in that in in in paintball content you know that’s all there is

Yeah so and I wanna I want to be honest about what it is right it’s so funny like I I sent Tyler I got this great picture of Tyler and I sent him Tyler Haron and I sent him the picture and I said hey man what do you think of here

Right and he says you know Houston heat is hungrier than ever to claim the number one spot in 20 blah blah blah blah blah right and I then I I talked to him on the phone today for another reason and I was just like hey man you

Know thanks for sending me that um you know really that you know I appreciate the the response right it’s thoughtful and and uh you know definitely you know premeditate yeah and and then then he goes you know what bro 2023 was a bust so like actually I like that a lot

Better you know so yeah yeah for sure right in there to to just take 2023 as a bus Tyler Harman like that’s how he that’s how he feels right and and I I appreciate that like that’s the kind of honesty that I want to show right and

That combined with this you know you know beautiful photo from Dan Shelly it’s like it works you know like it makes me want to be there and want to see it and want to read it and want to play it you know so um you know I’m like

You know obviously getting excited about it because I feel that same feeling when I’m putting this together right like uh Philip Swindle and I are are doing a lot of the layout and I when I’m doing that I’m almost like feeling that excitement from when I opened up paint magazine for

The first time right and uh that’s the kind of thing I want to create and yeah for for it to work we need the support of the whole Community to to do it right so hopefully uh if you if you do want to support it yeah head over to our website

And um and uh yeah pick pick up a a script for the first two issues which uh which website do we go to for this it’s uh it’s Gap paintball so Gap paintball.com so it’s uh two PS in the middle there I tried to get Gap with one

P but uh it was uh what was it I think Georgia paintball I called the guy and he was like uh it was some paintball Fielding in Georgia and I was like hey this is a Alex fre like who I’m like like yeah I’m a paintball player

And I’m starting this magazine I was wondering if you want to sell your website and uh yeah we’ll call you back and that was so we got yeah and we’re on we’re on Instagram too there’s a link to our website on there it’s great American paintball on

Instagram and um yeah I know that uh you probably understand the the the meaning behind the name um but uh yeah we can we’ll that story in the in the book um for for you all to uh to sort of uh get a piece of paintball history well can we

Talk about the name because that that was the name of your father’s paint company that’s it yep let me find a actually I got a picture here I don’t know it’s in it’s in the other room oh here we go um so we’re talking about doing looking at this photo for one of

The for one of the layouts which Eric Crandle um my partner in field one and and our manager for dynasty actually saved Saed the very first box of Great American paintball and it’s uh paintballs from back in 99 and uh it’s still in his office and

It’s like signed by me and my dad and my sister because we packed it right and uh and uh there there it is so um yeah that’s uh classic iconic case of paintballs right there white box yeah um so that’s that’s sort of the reason

Behind the name is it’s it’s a it’s a nod to um you know I was thinking about calling it like paintball journal or or you know another name we had uh was um uh paintball Gazette maybe I don’t know we just wanted it to be something

Paintball and I was like you know what I think Great American paintball is a perfect name because that’s what we are you know paintball is American thing and it’s to me it sure is great so um I it’s the way I think um you know our game should be

Portrayed how did how did your dad come up with the name Great American paintballs um you know he was a very uh thoughtful guy when it came to stuff like that and he was experienced in marketing products because he came from the water mattress waterbed World and um

He said that you know there’s so many things out there called Great American something that there’s a positive ined right like if you’re I mean maybe that’s not the case anymore depends on where you live I mean maybe in Texas if you’re driving down the street there’s you know

Great American Horse Trailers great American fish tanks I don’t know like it could be anything uh I mean maybe that’s a bit Antiquated these days but you know it’s a bit oldfashioned um which is something I like about it and that’s that’s I think why he named it um Great

American paintballs and at the time I don’t know if there were any paintball manufacturers based in the US um I think that there is also an element of of Pride there um and yeah we’re using us-based printers and obviously us based contributors um but we do have you know

Some some European uh flare in it also so it’s not only coverage of American paintball it’s all paintball it’s just that’s the name of it your father was a a brilliant businessman wasn’t he he was a brilliant man I don’t know if he was a brilliant businessman but he was an inventor and

An entrepreneur um that’s and he had an engineering mind so yeah he was a brilliant guy um business you know he probably made some better decisions but like me I’m uh throwing money down the toilet making a paintball book you have a return your return may not be monetary

But your return is Passion no you’re right and he got that right he did the way he wanted to do it Alex how do you find the time to do all this man like how many how many kids do you have two I’ve got two yeah you

Got two kids you own three or four businesses in just in paintball and I know you got stuff outside of paintball as well like how do you make the time um you know I do what I can when I can do it and I I uh if it if it takes longer

Then it takes longer and uh I have a great team of support you know I mean the guys that are helping with this are amazing I mean it’s a fully it’s you know it’s it’s a group effort from our community to make this happen I mean I

Didn’t write the whole thing myself I wrote One Piece in it you know and then you know I’m doing the layout I I didn’t take any of the photos other people did that that are helping out you know Philip is great Mike Jeffrey is amazing

Right like I got you know I had a I was on the phone with Maddie for about two hours last night just talking about stuff you know I’ve got you know great I mean this kid Nigel duza he’s taking photos on on film he’s down at World Cup

You know snapping his uh black and white photos and then he goes back to Canada where he lives and develops them in his dark room you know I mean it’s a cool story right so I looked at his photos and I said man these are great photos

Not only do I want of photos in the magazine but your story is interesting enough in itself so like you know I want to talk about that a little bit um the oldfashioned way of doing things which is you know sort of in the Journey of making something there’s a element of

Gratification right like even if you can now just take a digital camera shoot it you know send it to your phone in that moment and there it is post it to Instagram done right but before you had to go buy the film load it in your camera set this make the settings make

Sure they’re right because you only got you know 24 Shots yeah and and uh or 36 or whatever it is you shoot them but you don’t know what’s on them you know you gotta go develop them no screens back then no he looked through the viewfinder

Yeah and see see what see what comes out right and there’s the process of developing right there’s the chemicals there’s the technique there’s all these things that are nuanced that can change the outcome of the thing right and that’s all part of the art and also there’s a meditative state in that right

Like it’s the journey uh almost that is more fun than the result right like when I look at back in my paintball career I’m like Oh yay we won World Cup that’s not those aren’t my fondest me memories my Fondest Memories are getting my ass kicked and and you know riding is

Sharing a hotel room with with you know seven people and you know you know all all of those like things that that were part of the climb of doing it um and yeah win or lose you know it’s it’s the journey that uh really um is memorable yeah they say that the

Destination is not is not the ticket right it’s not it’s not what makes it it’s the process right the journey is is where you become the person that’s the champion right not not winning the championship it’s the journey to there that makes you that totally

So d i I love it’s good it’s it’s a sign that you’re a strong leader when I tell you hey how do you have to time for all this and you just boost your team you just boost the people supporting you but I know that you’re working hard too Alex

So I I appreciate everything that you do for painball yeah you too man so many ways and and it’s fun work right like this is what I want to be doing like it’s it’s not like I’m coming here every day and go like oh God now I have to

Work on you know my paintball magazine I’m like I’m truly stoked to be involved in you know the headband creativity project the magazine creativity project the movie Project I mean those are cool things that you know I feel like a lot of people are um you know not so happy

In their job and I’m lucky enough to be like stoked to do it right like even no even if it’s long and tiring it’s creative right like I honestly today when I that story about Tyler like when when I called him I was like man that

Was like that was like a moment of like it was a small breakr but it improved what I was doing right in an honest way and I was like got I got a true Stoke out of that I was like yo can I change your quote to that he’s like yeah you

Know I was like you know he’s rad so um yeah and uh and and and that’s like part of Storytelling right you want to be visceral and real and honest and uh I feel like that’s what that’s what we’re going for and and not pull any punches

Like this is again like something I want to make for me and my homies and uh and uh yeah I mean it’s gonna be good I know that oh it’s gonna be great it’s gonna be great Alex because you love what you’re doing yeah just for the photos alone I mean just

The the the team of photographers that have that have decided to um help out with this uh are amazing and there I mean here I’ll just I’ll read you off some of them I mean so Nigel dusza Sam Bennett Carl marowski Tom G Tom guest Dan Shelly Dave stufflebeam Ethan Levy

George FAA Drew Templeton John mclaughin Ryan luki uh Ludo Perry Trevor will Arthur DOL dolansky Darren Cina Gary Bal Chris Williams Danny Lincoln danne Hawkins I mean I’m talking to Roman who’s the guy that did you know all the old faceful talking to Chris dils about doing

Something in the future so like I mean I I I feel like there is a a yearning for something like this I’m yearning yeah so I mean I I think that I think I think that it’s even though it doesn’t seem like right now it you know

It’s going to be the greatest idea but I I think that uh I think that once people see it and hold it in their hands they’re going to want it and it is going to be limited we’re only making a certain amount um and that’s gonna be it

Um so so that’s because you can only print them I mean you could do a reprint but we’re not going to do that it’s too expensive um so issue one would be printed uh few uh just over a thousand and then um and then that’s not very

Many no uh we might push it depending on how many because we still have time uh before we actually pull the trigger on it um but yeah it’s not going to be more than 2,000 I know that um so how many uh how many issues are you gonna make so it

Be every six months so we’re committing to do two issues um if it’s working out we’ll just keep it rolling so we’re going to do uh an issue in Spring and an issue in winter so like this issue will cover you know basically the entirety of last year um through photo but we’re

Also doing archival stuff like there’s a large section we have called eras which is like you know all kinds of archival photos from a lot of these guys that are you know uh have been around for a long time and you know it’s so funny because

I I I was looking at Dan Shell’s uh Instagram and I was looking at these pictures and I was like that’s a great picture that’s a great picture and then I took those same pictures and printed them out in that large size and I’m like this is a different picture you know

It’s not it’s not the same thing yeah you see the little Flex of mud you see the guy’s pupils you know it’s like it just it it hits different um so I I just think it’s going to be a very um sort of Novel experience uh for the at least

Current um group of players that like you said have never held a a current paintball magazine in their hands yeah I’m super excited Alex it’s gonna it’s going to be great dude and you know i’ I’ve heard you say it I’ve heard people quote you say it if if I don’t do

It who will yeah I do I do I do feel that way it’s true Alex because I mean if you and and it’s it goes even deeper than that because without hormesis like would would you have the ability to even pursue these projects not at all I mean

That’s the thing people bought headbands and then you know we’re now in this position to really be creative with the resources that we’ve been given which is amazing right like I mean dude this paintball movie moo is making is gonna I mean it’s gonna be mind-blowing I can’t

Wait yeah me too right and I haven’t even seen anything from it zero I’ve seen like I’ve seen like two shots on their little screen at the tournament Like Pat was like yo come over here and I was like just because I was standing there and he shows me the shot of mouse

And I was like you know like like imagine that on a big screen you know like it’s just uh yeah it’s G to be cool and uh I do feel I feel blessed and stoked that you know the the community has been supportive of what we’re doing

And I hope that continues and we can keep bringing you projects like this so go uh go pick up an issue and and uh so we can keep making them all right so we can pick it up at Gap paintball.com that’s gap paintball TW words.com uh yeah yeah two words but

It’s all there’s no spaces because it’s a URL um so yeah paintball.com or go check us out on Instagram at um Great American paintball at Great American paintball and uh links on there and um yeah shout out to uh to you and all our contributors and um yeah Mike Jeffrey

And Philip sendell especially um you know we’re really putting in a lot of a lot of work on it and hopefully we can get it out to the Press um within the next month and and have something for you in in uh April May so uh we’re doing

It awesome dude can’t wait thank you so much for your time here Alex anything you want to part with for the paintball Community uh just stoked to see everybody in Vegas and uh yeah changing 100 yeah buddy see you There