Pickleball Metrics Pt 1

The Quick Points

🔎 A quick look into a pickleball e-commerce store. Pickleball Superstore filed a Form C with the SEC (TL;DR: filing for companies looking to crowdfund) to raise a target of $50,000 (with capacity to raise up to $250,000). Pickleball Superstore is one of the better online e-commerce businesses based in CA, offering a broad range of pickleball paddles, balls, shoes, accessories, bags, and more. Put together a brief overview of the financials they reported in the Form C for context. To be clear for all the finance people out there, the additional publicly traded ecomm comp set is purely illustrative, as these businesses differ materially in size and scope from Pickleball Superstore - unfortunately not too many pure-play comps out there, yet.

📈 Pickleball market growth back in the spotlight. Consumer research firm, Circana, put out its latest report on U.S. racquet sports. The highlights:

• Tennis shoe sales +21% y/y end Jun’23; +37% Jun’20-Jun’23

• Tennis apparel +15% y/y end Jun’23; +38% Jun’20-Jun’23

• Athletic skirts & dresses +24% y/y end Jun’23; +100%+ Jun’19-Jun’23

• Consumers generally don’t distinguish between different racquet sports (e.g. tennis & pickleball) when it comes to purchasing apparel

• Analysts believe the versatility of athletic dresses, skirts, and other tennis apparel is having an impact on sales as consumers swap their sweats for something stylish and comfortable

• Circana’s receipt-based tracking service “Checkout” found that racquet sports equipment +27% to $684M y/y end Jun’23, driven by the continued surge in pickleball

• Pickleball captured just $50.8M in retail sales three years ago; Paddle and ball sales now generate $304M for market participants

• Circana analyst: “We are seeing market share shifts, as pickleball racquets are gaining share at the expense of tennis racquets.”

🎥 Steve Kuhn at CNBC’s Game Plan conference. Check out Steve’s interview discussing the rise in the sport’s popularity and brand recognition across the country.

💼 Back to the office with pickleball. As some companies make a push to try to get resistant employees back into the office, some are taking a new approach to drawing them in. Washington Federal Bank (WaFd) asked their 240 employees based at the HQ to come back two days a month. In order to sweeten a relatively benign request (in our opinion), they’re now offering new amenities like a pickleball court and a golf simulator.

What’s on our mind

🖱️ When you get it, you get it. Ryan frequently jokes that with pickle, you are always one game away from getting hooked. A conversation today with the entrepreneur behind a new Brooklyn-based indoor facility reminded us just how much can hinge on that personal experience. The facility founder shared a story of how their now landlord was originally a skeptic eighteen months ago. He thought pickleball may be a passing fad and ultimately went with another tenant. No industry chart or graph could really move the needle on having the conviction that an indoor pickle and social club experience was viable. Do yOu kNoW WhAt tHe fAsTeSt gRoWiNg sPoRt iN AmErIcA Is? That corporate tenant ended up falling through and back the landlord came. But now a year later, the landlord had become an addicted player himself. So infatuated in fact that he is beginning construction on a court at his Hamptons home and his various hotel properties. The facility founder now has all the tailwinds they would need and want. A successful and supportive landlord who understands what this is all about at the individual and community level…an invested local name that wants to do more than collect a check. Every day, the believers are getting into business.

🐦 A few tweet X-like thoughts.

• Whenever we see mega facilities of 24-40 outdoor courts being planned, our first thought is 1. cut that number in half and 2. cover ‘em. We don’t have the data to back this up right now but we would bet good money 12-20 covered courts + 12-20 outdoor courts would have higher community value and on-court utilization than 24-40 outdoor-only courts.

• Husband + wife or two lifelong friends are incredibly common facility owner backgrounds. We have looked into the teams behind 100+ indoor clubs and these two combinations far exceed the lone operator.

• The new Diadem paddle looks super clean, don’t fall for the price tag. Here are the 5 best paddles you can buy for $100, we told you about the Vatic Prism Flash a long time ago 🙂 . If you don’t have a paddle eraser, you should. And no it won’t ruin your paddle but only use it on raw carbon fiber paddles.

Pickle in Pictures

Pickleball at its core is a local phenomenon. The seeding, growth, and adoption of it happen in communities, facilities, and clubs. Skimming major media headlines doesn’t truly paint the picture. You need to know how everyday towns and people are bringing it into their lives.

It’s hard not to be pro-pickle when you see what we see every day across geographies and platforms.

Municipal court announcements on Twitter. You can hear the joy flowing through the keyboard.

Colleagues playing to network and team build

Breaking Ground

The Reset is tracking publicly available court construction data to keep track of locations, costs, and development projects across the nation. Our tracker can be found here.

Featured Developments:

The state of Utah continues to blow our minds. Provo City is installing the second-largest planned sports complex in the nation, which will cost $20M. For the numbers. They’re building 21 multi-use fields on 100 acres, as well as 45(!!!) permanent pickleball courts. The cost of the pickleball portion will run ~$5M, of which, of which they’ve already funded $2.5M privately, with a citizen group actively fundraising the remaining portion (our bet is that it’ll get funded quickly). As we mentioned above, if they’re already going for a project this grand, we’d love to see some of these courts covered. Especially in a state like Utah which has months of inclement weather conditions. Provo’s Mayor (we want to meet her), Michelle Kaufusi, believes the sports complex will draw in over $30M in out-of-town spending to Provo and the surrounding areas, with the city citing sports tourism as one of the country’s fastest-growing sectors, generating $90bn annually ($1bn+ in Tuah County alone).

After a year of permitting and building, Temecula, CA is getting a new 10,000 sqft indoor facility, the SoCal Pickleball Club, which boasts four courts and a pro-shop. The facility was built on the back of the usual crazy demand we’ve seen across the country. Their opening had over 500 players come in to see what was new to the city.

Best of the Rest:

• Surfs up. Honolulu, HI opened its first dedicated courts with 12 new pickleball courts at Keehi Lagoon Beach Park. But that’s not the end of the road. The Department of Parks & Rec plans to repurpose 20 existing tennis courts (don’t worry…they’ll still have 190!) to 67 courts by the end of 2023. Twist our arm…we’ll go check ‘em out.

• Wood Dale County Park in Bergen County, NJ cut the ribbon on two new pickleball courts, alongside two renovated tennis courts. The total project cost $965k.

• The Shenantaha Creek Park in the town of Malta, NY opened three new pickleball courts and one tennis court (tennis also lined for pickleball).

• Minneapolis, MN didn’t have any dedicated pickleball courts until they just opened 6 at Lake Nokomis. They’re not stopping there though, with courts part of the city’s master plans at Loring Park, Minnehaha Parkway Regional Trail, and Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park.

• The Riverside Park Conservancy in New York, NY opened 5 new pickleball courts. The project was part of a $250k budget for new adult fitness equipment, of which, pickleball was ultimately added later.

• The city of Huntertown, IN opened 6 new public courts.

• We’re tempted to put this in super tiny font so y’all don’t rush the Courtreserve page…but…Austin, TX is finally getting a few more indoor courts with AC (yes we know about Life Time). Last Stand Brewing Company installed two courts as an amenity which can be reserved for $25/hr. It doesn’t currently have AC (ouch), but plans to install it in August. Austin subscribers…don’t say we’ve never done anything for you - see y’all on Courtreserve…