Source: Blog – Alliance for American Manufacturing
Courtesy Players Pickleball
Washington-based manufacturer stands out in a burgeoning market for the sport’s equipment.
Depending on the source tracking the number of pickleball players in the United States, there are anywhere from 19.8 to 48.3 million people who have played the paddle game in the last 12 months. This count is certainly not an exact science.
The one thing that is unequivocal, however, is that pickleball has been the fastest growing sport in America over the past three years.
And along with this surge in popularity comes an annual retail market share of more than $1.5 billion. Pickleball’s average growth rate has increased to 311% during this period.
Competing in what has become a crowded market of manufacturers is Players Pickleball in Ferndale, Wash., a small city in the state that is the birthplace of pickleball.
Players Pickleball is strictly a manufacturer of the sport’s paddles, which are sought after by serious players the way a musician hones in on the perfect instrument.
“I started the business about 11 years ago and we’ve had some ups and downs, but it is interesting as the sport has grown my competition has just exploded,” said Players Pickleball founder and owner Josh Bechtel. “Ten years ago, we were just one of 10 manufacturers and now there are literally hundreds of manufacturers making thousands of different paddle options.”
It is likely that many Americans have never heard of this growing sport with the odd name. Think tennis and ping-pong and you will begin to get the idea.
The game was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Wash., at the summer home of Joel Pritchard who later served in the U.S. Congress and as Washington’s lieutenant governor. Pritchard and two friends are credited with devising the game to placate their bored families one Saturday afternoon.
You might say that the game’s research and development came in the form of ping-pong paddles, a Wiffle ball and a badminton net. Two years later, a neighborhood friend of Pritchard’s constructed the first outdoor pickleball court.
Today, along with the large variety of equipment, pickleball courts have sprouted up across the U.S. with nearly 70,000 courts in play. It may have taken 50 years but pickleball today is played by children and senior citizens alike on municipal courts across the nation.
Bechtel and a friend were contract manufacturers of pickleball paddles for other companies before they officially launched Players Pickleball in 2018.
“We were making paddles for a couple of companies for about four years,” said the 46-year-old Bechtel. “We made about 70,000 paddles during that time that we sold to a retailer in the U.S.
“Boeing is in our neck of the woods here, so pickleball paddles eventually went from plywood to the composite materials they used in aviation for the inside of the airplanes. These were a honeycomb type of material and Boeing was glad to find a place for its excess materials. We came along and told Boeing that we’ll take whatever you can sell us.”
As paddle manufacturing became more refined, Bechtel moved away from Boeing to suppliers of the all-important honeycomb designed panels in California, Michigan, and at home in Washington.
“Historically, almost all paddles have been made of honeycomb material of some sort but in the last year or two, due to some changes in the sanctioned regulations, there are now foam-core paddles,” said Bechtel, who runs the business along with his wife Macy. “The surface of the paddle is just a solid carbon fiber or fiberglass. The paddles have to be really stiff, really rigid and the surface has to be nothing you can compress like rubber on a ping-pong paddle.”
Unique to Players Pickleball is a Gel-Core paddle, which contains elastomer to ease the vibrations when hitting the ball. It also makes for a quieter game.
“I’m sure you’ve heard about the complaints of noise from the paddles, and it is justified at how loud the game can become,” said Bechtel. “Another major concern is tennis elbow; tendinitis in your elbow. The elastomer material helps dampen both the noise and paddle vibration.
“Elastomer has the sort of the consistency like Silly Putty inside the paddle core. It dampens the sound, reduces the vibrations, and also makes the paddle face more stable because the weight is pushed out to the perimeter.”
Pickleball paddles are smaller than a tennis racket yet larger than a table tennis paddle. To be USA Pickleball-approved and -sanctioned, paddles can be no larger than 24 inches when adding length and width. The paddles cannot be longer than 17 inches, which includes the length of the handle.
The balls used in the sport are similar to a Wiffle ball so that the holes in the sphere help to reduce the speed, making the sport less about speed and spin and more about finesse. The balls are made of EVA plastic, which is durable and strong in both warm and cold weather.
“As far as I know, most pickleball balls that are made are coming from China,” said Bechtel. “Paddle production has also shifted to China as well. As time has gone on, just kind of market pressures have driven most of the manufacturing overseas.
“Of the 10 or so original major pickleball paddle manufacturers, I would say six or seven were still mostly made in the U.S. five years ago. Now there is only one or two manufacturers that are majority made in the U.S. Almost everything has moved to China.
“Most of the demographic was a little bit older and a little more concerned with USA manufacturing and we certainly appreciated that. We design ourselves; we build them ourselves; we ship them ourselves. Making them in United States feels good to us.”
Bechtel feels the reason Players Pickleball is still able to compete in this global marketplace is because of its online, direct-to-consumer business model.
“Since we sell direct, our markup is lower than most,” added Bechtel. “If it costs us $50 to make, we are selling it for $150 whereas someone else would be selling it for $250. These Chinese-made paddles are landing for 25 or 30 bucks and then they are selling them to American consumers for $300. Most paddles today are coming straight out of Asia with a different label slapped on it, so that’s kind of what we’re up against.”
You may have seen photos and videos of older folks enjoying a pickleball game because the reduced amount of running fits this demographic. But the game has now caught on with players of all ages. It is played year-round throughout the U.S. on both outdoor and indoor courts and professional competition is even televised.
The game encourages hitting the ball with precision and without spin and curves but Bechtel believes speed will be essential in competitive play, just as it is in tennis and ping-pong.
“When we started, a fiberglass face on the paddles was preferable because you get a little more power,” said Bechtel. “My prediction is we’re going to come full circle, and fiberglass is going to be popular again because the sport has drifted back to being more about power.”
To that end, Players Pickleball continues to offer fiberglass paddles along with those made with carbon fiber.
Go to www.playerspickleball.com to shop for Players Pickleball paddles, which range in price from $109 to $199.
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