About Us

Side Kick Drums was founded by Jim Darnell in 2012 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was built around the concept of providing foot operated drum kits and compact drums for guitar players, drummers and musicians alike. We pride ourselves on being innovators in the world of foot operated drums, providing a real solution for one man bands, guitar duo’s or any musician that wants to add a beat to their music.

Home of the only true foot operated snare drum, the patented Snare Kick Riser Stand (PAT.NO. US 8,723,008) is where it all started for Side Kick Drums. Soon after, we started creating small, compact bass drums called: Skinny Bass Drums. These compact bass drums have been added to our line-up as well as specialized beaters for different desired volume levels and different accessories. Put it all together and you’ve got a pretty full sound.

At Side Kick Drums we wanted to make sure our products are modular. Instead of a one piece kit that you can only use for certain applications, ours are made so you can use our snare drums with our Snare Kick Riser Stand or your favorite “go to” snare drum.

We also offer different size bass drums ranging from our Skinny Bass Drums to our Double Skinny Bass Drums to full size bass drums. With our different beater options and choice of pedals we have you covered for any playing situation and our products are compatible with standard size gear as well. Of course we cater to drummers as well with our innovative products, custom drums and compact drum kits for tight spaces as well as full size drums.

Whether we are at the 2014 NAMM show, or the Folk Alliance Music Show we are always getting a lot of attention with our unique line of products and there’s always something new we are working on for our next product. All our proprietary products are made here in the good old U.S.A. If you can tap your feet to the beat, you can play these foot operated drums. “Music needs a beat, so give it a beat”

After many years and some success playing in the band 3JC and various rock band projects, I found myself in the second phase of guitar playing, called the acoustic guitar duo. Having played guitar pretty much all my life, as well as a brief stint playing drums I still wanted to play and entertain and write music and record and still license my songs for cable shows, movies, ect.

I was fine playing in an acoustic duo, but the music still had to have a beat and keep things interesting…right? Just because you’re a two piece band instead of a five piece doesn’t mean you can’t still have a full sound, so I wanted to add a bass drum for the back beat and then I had one foot left not doing anything so I wanted to add a foot operated snare drum.

Much to my surprise, the foot operated snare drum had not been invented yet with the exception of some homemade apparatus projects but no one had developed and manufactured a foot operated snare stand. I always said if I found something in the music world that hadn’t been invented yet, that I would take it on and give it a go.