Someone should start a Pickleball Recreation Association for Rec players and they can hold tournaments with no nonsense like this. Only common sense rules of play. I would never support a big brand like Joola. Worse customer service. Only the pros need super regulation of thier paddles. We just need fair pratices and some basic guidelines/testing on paddles. Most of us don't need the UPA.
Nice video! Haven't heard from any other you-tubers on this huge news, kinda doesn't sit right. Glad you're speaking objectively and bringing broader awareness of it! I agree with a lot of your main points, it's going to take awareness and push back from us the customers against the UPA/big companies.
Is it just me, or did the sound go "weird" at about the 6 minute mark? Otherwise, thanks for speaking up for the small companies making PB more affordable...
They exist - may not see them all the time but they’re out there (hence why they are still “small”) The market is over saturated don’t get me wrong I just have problems with going from 800 to 4 instead of 800 to 20-30 or something like that which is still a 95%+ reduction
Great points made and your insight is hard to fault. Hopefully, there is a way for the little guy to enter the market, compete and innovate. We’ve seen what the big companies do and quality / innovation have not been their strong suit.
You gave them way too much credit in the motivation section. This is just run of the mill crony capitalism that locks the small guys out. That is 100% of their motivation, not transparency or leveling the playing field. It's literally all about the Benjamins.
BRILLIANT opening. You deserve 10K likes for that illustration. Subscribed. I've thought that the Joola lawsuit is a way to get rid of USAP to open the way for UPA.
The issue is PPA / UPA and their greed. Am I wrong when I say that I’ve never heard of tennis manufacturers having to pay WTA or ATP for their racquets. This is silly.
UPA, in collusion with the larger companies on their advisory panels, and from owning retail stores that only sell big brand names, will kill small competition. I hope the small companies gather and respond to the threat, and I hope the government looks at it from an antitrust POV.
Viewership of the PPA and therefore control of the vast majority of market sales is far higher than any other entity/tour in pickleball and it’s not even close…
This is a really good insight Rafa! Thanks for summarizing for all of us… will be intrigued into how this will play out in the future of Pickleball & the majority of paddle companies. Great video!!
This is just some sad B.S. Are the big companies that worried? I guess we'll all continue to support these companies and leave the Elitists to go play with themselves.
What’s gonna happen? Is that the small companies will make paddles that don’t need to conform with PPA restrictions at all they’ll be sold for recreational use. They will have ridiculous spin and unfortunately ridiculous power.
@@funnyism to be fair, USAP didn't really give Joola much choice. You can hate Joola and UPA as much as you want and you'll get little argument from me, but USAP made the blunders that opened the door for this to occur.
@@vanadyan1674 I agree with you that USAP made mistakes and they could have handled the situation better. They opened the doors to others with ulterior motives and may make them irrelevant later.
The only saving grace is that the contracts signed by the pros means UPAA has to not only keep the viewers it has but they also have to continue to increase the viewers. Without viewers, their product isnt sustainable - and lets be honest _ they aint investing much to improve their streaming product. The rec community still holds some power - we dont HAVE to watch a product that presents the same players in every single Finals. Personally i no longer wach Championship Sunday.
Amen, this was bound to happen. But it is happening now. I hope this video gets out to the masses! On one hand this will continue to legitimize the sport on the other hand it will kill the innovation and affordability that we paddle nerds have come to enjoy! I am a fan of Widebody control paddles myself and will only buy from brands like, Bread & Butter, Volair, and Spartus!
Good insightful video! Technically there are some important legal questions here, but without the resources to challenge/ask those questions vs a multi billionaire, its unlikely these questions will ever see the light of day. Legally/technically speaking, the free market should have been allowed to follow its course, and naturally widdle it down to the 6 - 12 brand survivors. Several hundred mom and pop, local and regional companies, woke up to their worst nightmare this morning, instant/forced bankruptcy.
I agree that the monopoly they’ve created needs to be dealt with. But pinning the disproportionate amount of gold medals won by those companies isn’t fair. Ben and Anna Leigh win basically every tournament. They alone probably count for 85-90% of those medals. But even if it wasn’t just those two, it’s natural for pros of any sport to contract with companies that will pay them the most money. Small companies just can’t do that. So the winners of those medals would most likely be with one of the big companies anyway. So while I agree something needs to be done to protect the sport against greedy business deals, you need to find a better argument. Because saying “you win too many tournaments” isn’t strong enough.
We need to formulate a plan to counter this by leveraging the influence of amateurs and online bloggers like yourself. I have quite a few ideas to hit at where it counts - the pocketbooks of the companies that is on the UPA board. Do you know which facebook site would be ideal to post? This is an egregious money grab.
The UPA-A will regulate the equipment for PPA and MLB only. Major league baseball goes so far as to require wooden bats but that does not limit other organizations from having different rules and allowing other bat materials. Pro leagues want to control the entertainment product they are selling which is normal business. They have already begun changing the rules of the game, for example serves hitting the net and the serve's motion. They have moved partially to rally scoring. It is not surprising to me that they mandate a specific ball and will regulate paddles to what they think will make a marketable league. They might someday change the size of the court, just like the NBA did which moved to a larger larger court than college basketball. Pro leagues mandating league specific equipment and rules goes with a major sport product with media contracts. Brace yourself because if Pickleball ever gets in the Olympics then there will be an international pickleball organization making different rules and equipment choices for that as well.
Very true - I suppose my grievance is how fast all of this is moving when there isn’t enough money in pickleball yet to be cutting out legit businesses in this way I think you’re absolutely right though for the sport to go international rules will only get more strict from here…
Anyone who has ever been in any big business will know that what is going on with pickleball right now is a bubble. 400+ paddle companies! Can you name any other sport that has over 400 individual entities each making a separate product and many of whom are simply copy cats of true innovators? In the real world you don't have this absurd amount of "little guys" coming in and trying to make a buck off the work of original manufacturers.
I have to wonder what happens to the PPA and MLP contracted players who are also contracted to play with non-certified UPA-A paddles. Seems like anticipitory breach by the UPA and ripe for a class action suit.
Pickleball brings back that classic school yard game that is very social and entertaining. The PPA is just trying to squeeze out as much money as it can from the game. Time to go Dink some. 😊
the cost of paddles or at least UPA-A approved paddles will go up quite a bit for sure. I doubt it will kill off all smaller companies. Some will not survive for sure, but they will still produce USAP approved paddles for non pro play and or continue to make pro/PPA paddles that will just cost much more. If you don't play pro you don't need UPA-A approved paddles!
it's trickling down to amatuer in 2026.. so can't bring your usap paddle to a tournament to play locally, which means you wouldn't play rec with a paddle that you wouldn't play tournaments with.. so same story
If you understand basic economics then you also understand that when barrier to entry is low the market will be flooded with new entrants until profits are minimized and then extra suppliers leave, making the market stabilized. Regulation leads to loss for consumers and suppliers every time and the actions being taken here are breaking free market laws.
@@mcnillerandsons7906 If you knew what the free market was you would know that large actors such as UPA have more control over the consumer market because of their size. This is not a regulation, its another free market company exerting its influence upon competitors. What you are thinking of is a market in which competition is prioritized over the ability of the few who can win. Competition should not be preserved for the sake of just having it also its not really competition when its just hundreds of tiny companies ripping R&D from large companies that actually put in the time and money to develop new tech. BTW I know there are small companies that do their own development such as Ronbus but most are just gen 2 Perseus rip offs.
Thanks for the update! Interesting views/opinions I haven’t thought about yet. Let’s see how it plays out. I hope businesses rally together and say no.
I'm not sure I agree. Among others, Diadem and Hudef offer USAPA USAP Paddles that are not authorized. As a casual player, purchasing unapproved paddles is OK to me. People that play tournaments will have to pay the constantly outrageous rising prices for paddles (that last 2-3 months); if they want to play in tournaments, but the 29.999 million other recreational players can do whatever we like.
I would totally agree and yeah no one is forced to buy a USAPA paddle right now but it’s undeniable that it fuels buying decisions for 80-85% of consumers. And most of the those consumers don’t watch pro pickleball but the ones that do certainly watch the PPA Tour…
won't work. they are not the final say, and never will be, in rec pickleball play. only the pros will care, and even they might bail on them in the long run.
The top cheater brands are now able to continue making glass cannon paddles and mark up the price as much as they want so long as suckers keep supporting them. I guess it’s time to play spec tennis or something.
Blah blah blah... welcome to the real world. As much as we all want to root for the under dog, survival of the fittest. Just like in any other industry or sport, if it becomes big enough this bound to happen.
Sorry but I have to comment as to your statement of the UPA motivation. The only motivation UPA (i.e. Pickleball Inc and it's owner) has it making money and forcing everyone else out of the business or coming under their purview. They don't give a crap about amateurs, they don't give a crap about fair play, they give a crap about transparency, they don't give a crap about small companies or pros that use small company paddles. They will adjust any rules/standards they need to in order to force people out of the business and promote their golden children. Ben and/or A.L. could totally put stickum all over their paddle, add 2 inches to their paddle length, or even play with a tennis racquet and PPA wouldn't do anything about it. We might as well rename the game PPA because pickleball will cease to exist if Pickleball Inc has it's way. I also think they are trying to kill MLP so that it (and all the owners go under) so that it can the revive Vive and sell all new franchises and get all the revenue for themselves.
Those are called qualifications, and you should absolutely care. Would you go to a car mechanic to fix a toothache? Does the fact your dentist frames his qualifications and hangs them on his wall also enflame your disappointment at your own failure? Sorry to be so snarky, but the growing American hatred of expertise really gnaws at me, it needed to be said, and Rafa is way too nice.
Rafa, keep doing what you do brother. You are crushing it and improving weekly. You are a very unique breed with your knowledge, education and passion for pickleball. Thanks for continuing to provide the market with up to date information.
Rafa knows his stuff!👊 Excited to switch from Joola to another smaller paddle company all thanks to his research, reviews and expertise! Thank you Rafa!!
