A Tall Tale by 2 Tall Dudes: 4 Years in the Making

This story begins about 7 years ago, when I worked with Marc Stimpson, the owner of Hope’s Woodshop in Wilbraham, MA, to build a custom dining room table from a walnut tree that had recently fallen down in upstate New York. Marc had a reputation for creating heirloom quality objects and furniture that respond to the inherent traits of each tree.

Fast forward 2 years and Selman had just moved into a sweet new spot at the Seaport in Manhattan. I was looking at Instagram on my commute to work on the NYC ferry, as one does on an hour-long boat ride. I saw Marc had just built one of his clients a custom shuffleboard table so I asked him if he’d ever done a foosball table. He said he hadn’t but would be up for the challenge! And so begins the 4-year journey of trial and error, uncooperative machines, a pandemic, and a friendship. 

From the beginning, we knew this was going to be a unique table. We illustrated graphics that Marc routed out of the walnut side panels on his CNC machine. We designed the graphics for the playing field that were carved out of local elm and filled with black epoxy. Selman red and black hardware were ordered. The custom cast iron legs were inspired by Gotham City and produced by a local foundry. 

A year passed and the foosball table remained on the meeting notes of Selman’s monthly company all-hands. As the project timeline extended, folks would joke that I was making the whole thing up.

“How’s the foosball table coming? Lol” 

“So, this magical foosball table is getting delivered next week, right?”

Another year passed and I took the table off the meeting notes... A guy can only take so much of the foosball inquisition. 

Marc and I continued to chat about it though. Our conversations weren’t just about foosball and tables – we spoke about fatherhood, health, and craft. And in 2020 as the planet shut down, we offered advice and encouragement to each other as small business owners. 

In 2021, things started to come back to life for both of our businesses and the foosball table was one of the first projects that Marc dusted off. He delivered the table to our new office in Gowanus, Brooklyn along with a new 12ft walnut conference room table.