New York, USA
What’s the Score?
New York, USA – The United Pickleball Association of America (UPA-A), the governing body for U.S. professional pickleball, has escalated its fight against the proliferation of counterfeit paddles, declaring the issue an “existential threat” to the sport and the legitimate paddle manufacturing industry. UPA-A President Jason Aspes reached out to sanctioned paddle manufacturers via email on November 27, proposing a collaborative, open-sourced strategy to pool industry resources and combat the fakes flooding secondary markets globally.
Hit it Deeper!
The counterfeit market has rapidly expanded, with clones or fake versions of popular paddles from leading brands like Selkirk, JOOLA, and CRBN widely available on platforms such as Alibaba and Temu. These knockoffs are often priced to deceive, appearing “too good to be true”—for example, selling a $333 paddle for $28—and threaten brand integrity and player safety due to their shoddily made quality. The scale of the problem is immense; one brand reported having manually identified and reported almost 400 counterfeit companies this year on Temu and Alibaba alone.
For individual paddle brands, combating this issue has turned into a costly and time-consuming game of “regulatory Whac-A-Mole”. The responsibility falls heavily on manufacturers to protect their intellectual property (IP) and innovation against counterfeits that sometimes even copy exact model names or product images. Some companies have been compelled to dedicate personnel specifically to IP protection.
Recognising that a fragmented defence is inefficient, UPA-A President Jason Aspes advocated for a unified front. The goal is to move beyond individual efforts and create a consolidated, proactive framework. The UPA-A is currently gathering information on specific steps, technologies, and practices—including digital verification, authentication measures, and supply chain controls—that manufacturers have successfully implemented to curb counterfeiting. This collective knowledge will be compiled into a publicly shared document titled “Best Practices for Combating Counterfeit Paddles”. This is framed as the first step in a larger coordinated campaign to safeguard products and collectively protect the integrity of pickleball. The UPA-A also advised consumers that the only surefire way to guarantee authenticity is to purchase directly from a brand’s website or authorized dealers, warning that purchases from secondary markets risk receiving a “shoddily made knockoff”.
The World Pickleball Verdict
The UPA-A’s strong stance marks a critical turning point, acknowledging that commercial integrity is essential for the health of professional pickleball. By framing counterfeit products as an “existential threat,” the governing body underscores the damage done not only to current profits but to the long-term capacity for research, development, and innovation within the legitimate industry.
The call for an “open-sourced” defence is a pragmatic strategy, leveraging collective power to protect the ecosystem and ensure consumer safety, reflecting the reality that in a rapidly growing sport, safeguarding the core equipment is paramount to maintaining competitive trust.
Chris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at all levels of pickleball. Chris is also an avid player, currently struggling to make the breakthrough from 4.0 to 4.5.