Richard Lee started out hosting table tennis competitions. When a longtime table tennis paddle maker from Germany approached him about US distribution, he decided to jump at the opportunity. In 2019, he acquired the company.
Through this experience Richard learned almost everything there was to know about developing new technology for paddles, so when pickleball began gaining popularity—he saw another business opportunity. “We found …, based on our experience in producing products for table tennis, that we potentially can make a better product for the sport of pickleball,” Richard says.
Here’s how Richard maximized the business opportunity in a new and growing sport.
Modernizing the business
When Richard took over Joola, a German table tennis company dating back to 1952, he faced the daunting task of modernizing a well-established brand. Beyond updating the business tech stack, he decided to replatform to Shopify, so the ecommerce platform could act as the foundation for Joola’s launch into additional international markets.
Richard thought centralizing resources for the company would make the business more efficient. He says the idea was to develop products in one place, and from there they could be shipped worldwide. But he quickly realized the sports equipment market in different regions is distinct. “What we found is that when we centralized it, we were slowing ourselves down,” Richard explains.
Understanding the individuality of each region helped Joola speed up product development by utilizing local experts. This, in turn, later helped Joola unlock pickleball as a new category of sports equipment.
Meeting pickleball pros serendipitously
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Joola team started looking beyond table tennis for other paddle sports, especially ones that could be played outside with social distance. They decided to give pickleball a go at the courts near their office.
At the court next to them, they noticed two men playing at a very fast pace. The players were Ben and Collin Johns, two of the best professional pickleball players in the world. Watching this match was enough for the Joola team to decide to design and produce a pickleball paddle, and after some development, they had Ben and Collin test it. “Ben tried it for the first time and he said, 'Hey, I think you got something going here,'” Richard says.
Joola’s team applied its knowledge of the construction of table tennis paddles to pickleball paddles. Richard attributes much of the success to the company’s table tennis foundation. “We’ve brought some technology that pickleball has never seen,” Richard says.
Building the pickleball community
For Richard, it wasn’t just about entering a new market; it was about building the market and teaching people about the new sport. “Pickleball is all about community, and once you get in, you meet so many new people,” he says. Joola engages with the community through partnerships and support for local facilities, aiming to integrate themselves into players’ entire journeys, from beginner to competitor to pro or instructor levels. It also sponsors players, like Ben Johns.
To learn more about how Joola became the number one pickleball brand in the world, listen to Richard’s full interview on Shopify Masters.
