PART TWO: Thinking of Starting a Pickleball Company? Read This First.
This is Part Two of "Thinking of Starting a Pickleball Company? Read this first.
If you haven't read Part 1, you can find the link to that article below.
Part 1 – Market Opportunity and Answering the “Why”
Part 2 – How to Build a High-End Paddle in 2025
Part 3 – What It Really Costs to Make and Run a Paddle Brand
Part 4 - Tariffs and Made in USA
Part 5 – What’s Next for Avoura
Part 2 – How to Build a High-End Paddle in 2025
So, we’ve looked at the market opportunity in Part One.
We’ve answered the big question—“Why Avoura?”
Now let’s talk about how to actually make these paddles.
This is where things get fun. And a little chaotic.
The Beginning: A Pile of Emails and Big Promises
Let’s rewind to late 2023.
Back when “Avoura” was just a word floating around in a few text threads.
You start doing the obvious thing:
Look at what other paddle brands are doing.
And pretty quickly… all signs point to China.
You reach out. And suddenly, your inbox explodes.
Agents from all over are promising you the moon.
Every single one, it seems, is making paddles for JOOLA. (Convenient, right?)
So, we start narrowing things down.
We ask them to send samples.
If they ask for a shipping address? That’s a green flag.
If they ask a bunch of follow-up questions and disappear? You move on.
And as the samples roll in, you learn something quickly:
Most paddles are coming from just a couple factories.
Those few manufacturers control the bulk of the market.
Of course, there are exceptions. But they’re rare.
Opening the Box
Eventually, a box arrives.
Wrapped in more tape than a mummy.
Inside are the “sample” paddles.
One hit from the Dawsons and the verdict is in:
“What is this garbage?”
Despite all our emails and promises to send their high-end paddle cores, we were sent a cheap, catalog construction.
The kind they mass-produce for whoever will pay.
The paddles felt awful. Played worse.
They made that infamous “ting” sound that screams: this isn’t it.
We told them as much.
Their response?
“We can customize it to make it better.”
But here's the thing:
If the core is junk, no amount of edge tape is going to save it.
The Dawsons weren’t going to put their names on something that felt like a toy.
So we kept looking.
The Deeper You Go
We started talking to more people.
Digging around. Asking questions.
Turns out, many paddle companies send their specs to a factory and let them build from there.
But here’s the kicker:
The real profit for these factories is in the plastic.
The cheaper the honeycomb core, the more margin they keep.
Something you'd only learn with a knee-jerk flight to China to take a rep out for dinner.
So, we started asking for higher-grade materials.
Suddenly… silence.
More factories dropped off the map.
And the ones that stayed?
Those were the real ones.
Getting Serious
We brought in a friend—a serious product engineer and longtime player.
Someone who could spec out a paddle from scratch.
We created CAD files, listed material call-outs, the whole deal.
But let’s be real.
You don’t send your actual designs.
Not unless you want to see them on Alibaba a week later.
The factory gave us a timeline.
Build the samples over the next few weeks, ship by air, and get them to us in about a month.
They arrived—and quality control was a disaster.
That’s when it hit us:
Working with overseas factories is an art form.
And it takes years to master.
Lead times, production timelines, quality assurance...
These things start keeping you up at night.
Is that what we wanted to be doing with our time?
We'd likely need to go through dozens of prototypes before "freezing our design."
We'd be launching in 2030 at this rate.
There had to be another way.
Enter: Made in USA
We started looking closer to home.
At first, it was just an idea.
But the deeper we went, the more people we met.
Sure, everyone’s still trying to sell you something—but it’s easier to spot the red flags.
It’s easier to have real conversations.
We found a core supplier.
Asked for samples.
And then—we hit gold.
The paddles felt incredible.
Pop. Sound. Feedback. All of it.
It was the first time the Dawsons smiled after hitting a sample.
A New Path
We signed NDAs we knew would hold.
Started brainstorming.
Turns out, this supplier makes advanced plastics for the Department of Defense.
NASA. Even SpaceX.
They weren’t just making “paddle cores.”
They were making options—different densities, different materials, next-level stuff.
We started sourcing carbon fiber (all is not created equal here!).
Bonding it to the honeycomb cores.
Trying different weaves. Blends. Kevlar. Custom layups with fiberglass
It was a sea of possibilities.
And here's the funny thing:
We never set out to be Made in the USA.
But suddenly, it made perfect sense.
Was it cheaper? No.
Would we need to learn a lot? Yes.
But we were finally building something truly unique—without all the unknowns of offshore production.
Control, Customization, and Speed
We still needed domestic partners to bond the face to the core.
But after that?
The panels came to us.
And we took over.
We could cut, print, customize weight, and hand-finish each paddle.
Right in San Diego.
(that sounds so easy when written in a sentence but could be a whole series of its own)
Lead times dropped off a cliff.
Quality skyrocketed.
R&D was fast and efficient.
With panels we could have an idea in the morning and play with it that afternoon.
We weren’t crossing our fingers on overseas QC anymore.
We finally had what we wanted:
Control.
And in this business, that’s everything.
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Up Next: Part 3 – What It Really Costs to Make and Run a Paddle Brand
In the next post, we’ll break down the real numbers—how much it costs to make a high-end paddle and what it takes to actually run a paddle company.
And why we took a bet on a wide-body paddle as our maiden product.
You won’t want to miss it.
Follow us on Instagram so you’re the first to know when it drops.