Our Story

from ballet to one-ton table

HENGE founder Alan Good danced for 15 years with a world-class avant-garde dance company from Berlin to Beijing.

In 2009 he hurts his foot. Doctor’s advice: don’t jump, for up to a year.

He checks the web to see if the US has concrete tennis tables like he saw in Berlin. He finds only two.

His friends scratch their heads. How do you move from a product that evaporates in a second to one-ton amenity you expect to stand for decades? To Alan, it is not a big step. Both dance and concrete ping pong tables seek to bring together those who do with those who watch.

HENGE founder Alan Good grew up around science and art and New Wave films in a medical family. Summertimes at his grandparents’ house in Germany he saw the country rebuild after WWII.

After college he danced for 15 years in a world-class avant-garde dance company. In 2009 he leads his own troupe. One day he hurts his foot. Doctor’s advice: don’t jump, maybe for a year. Alan disbands the troupe.

He checks the web to see if the US has concrete tennis tables like he saw in Berlin. He finds only two.

To Alan, it isn’t a big leap from a ballet company to an outdoor ping pong table company: both seek to bring together people.

The company starts out as Public Ping Pong the same month Susan Sarandon opens SPiN — the great table tennis social club in New York. The name Public Ping Pong says it all: a utility like a library that belongs to all, where when we enter we can see each other.

Unfortunately it turns out that another company owns the term ping pong. Alan’s table company needs a new name.