South Korea’s Retail Giants Are Not Waiting for a Pickleball Boom

FILA and Lotte have installed a regulation pickleball court inside one of Seoul’s most prominent shopping centres, combining play, coaching and equipment sales in a market that remains relatively small. Rather than waiting for demand to arrive, some of South Korea’s biggest companies are beginning to create it themselves.

South Korea does not yet possess the player numbers, dedicated facilities or established competition structure found in Asia’s largest pickleball markets. Industry estimates reported by the Seoul Economic Daily place the country’s recreational playing population at approximately 10,000, spread across around 100 clubs, which suggests a sport still establishing its position within a crowded leisure and sporting market.

Inside Lotte World Mall in Seoul, however, two major companies are behaving as though that early stage represents an opportunity rather than a limitation.

FILA and Lotte Department Store have opened the FILA Pickleball Club, a 260-square-metre space built around what the Korean business newspaper describes as the first regulation pickleball court installed inside a retail store in the country. Together with the neighbouring Tennis Metro store, it forms a 750-square-metre racket-sports zone where visitors can play, receive coaching, explore equipment and make purchases without leaving the building.

The significance lies in the order in which this is happening. FILA and Lotte are not responding to a large participation market that already exists. They are investing in the facilities and experiences required to help create one.

Turning Shoppers Into Pickleball Players

The FILA Pickleball Club carries 292 products, including FILA clothing and footwear alongside paddles and balls from brands such as Selkirk and Prince. Its regulation court can be booked through NAVER for 40,000 won on weekdays and 50,000 won at weekends, while full-time coaches provide individual and group instruction in Korean and English.

Former South Korean national tennis player and coach Lee Hyung-taik is also involved in delivering sessions, giving the project a recognisable sporting figure who can introduce pickleball through a tennis background familiar to Korean consumers.

Those features make the club more than a showroom with court markings. It has a booking structure, regular coaching, open-play sessions and a defined route into the sport for complete beginners. Customers who purchase a paddle can choose between an introductory lesson and an hour of court time, reducing some of the initial cost and uncertainty involved in trying the game.

The commercial logic is straightforward. Someone who arrives without knowing how pickleball works can leave having played, received instruction and bought the equipment needed to return.

That journey might otherwise involve finding a club, locating an available court, arranging coaching and then deciding which paddle to buy. FILA and Lotte have compressed those stages into a single visit, removing several of the obstacles that can prevent casual interest from becoming participation.

When Retail Space Becomes Sporting Infrastructure

The court’s location inside Lotte World Mall matters because prominent retail space is expensive. Every square metre allocated to play is space that cannot be used for a conventional product display, which makes the project a practical commercial commitment rather than a decorative marketing exercise.

For a young sport, the club also performs a function usually left to community organisations, local authorities or specialist venue operators. The retailer is providing both the point of discovery and part of the infrastructure needed for someone to begin playing.

That reverses the usual relationship between participation and retail. Sports stores have traditionally waited for people to take up an activity elsewhere before supplying the appropriate footwear, clothing and equipment. In this model, the retailer introduces the activity, teaches the customer how to play and then supplies the products associated with it.

FILA and Lotte therefore do not need to wait for South Korea’s playing population to reach a particular size before entering the category. The venue itself is designed to increase that population.

Park Ok-woo, head of the sports division at Lotte Department Store, said the company wants to establish Lotte World Mall in Jamsil as a racket-sports hub where visitors can experience tennis and pickleball under the same roof. The association with tennis gives pickleball a familiar frame, but it also places the newer sport inside an established commercial category rather than treating it as a temporary attraction.

The approach reflects a broader pattern across Asia, where sporting infrastructure is increasingly being placed inside existing commercial, hospitality and mixed-use developments. In Japan, a resort in Higashiizu has already made a much larger bet by opening the country’s largest pickleball venue with 20 dedicated courts before tournament-scale domestic demand has been fully established.

Companies Are Testing Different Routes Into the Market

FILA and Lotte are not alone in exploring the possibilities.

Skechers has introduced a smaller pickleball area inside a pop-up at Lotte Mall Eunpyeong, placing paddles and balls alongside its footwear offering and a miniature running track. It lacks the depth of the FILA club, but it follows the same principle: consumers are more likely to understand an unfamiliar sport by seeing or experiencing it than by encountering its equipment on a shelf.

Kwangdong Pharmaceutical has taken a sponsorship route, forming a partnership with the Korea Pickleball Association and supporting the association president’s cup at Oak Valley in Wonju. The company plans to supply its Vita500 Ion Kick drink at association tournaments and events through 2027, placing the brand inside the organised playing community rather than a shopping centre.

The three approaches occupy different parts of the developing market. FILA and Lotte are combining court access, coaching and sales. Skechers is using pickleball as a point of product discovery. Kwangdong is connecting its drinks business with tournaments and recreational participation.

None of those investments proves that pickleball will become a major South Korean sport. Together, however, they show that established businesses from different sectors consider the possibility substantial enough to justify early positioning.

Japan has shown a similar pattern, with companies entering through equipment, facilities, tournament support and player development rather than relying on one route into the sport. As WPM’s examination of corporate investment in Japanese pickleball found, commercial involvement can accelerate an emerging market when it connects directly with places to play and organised participation.

The Running Model, With One Important Difference

The comparison being made within South Korea is with running, a participation category in which brands have learned to sell more than shoes. Specialist stores, community sessions, sponsored races and social clubs have allowed companies to build longer relationships with consumers around an activity rather than a single purchase.

Several of the companies now entering pickleball already understand that model. FILA opened a running-focused store in Seoul Forest during the same month as its pickleball club and has a 10-kilometre race planned for November. Kwangdong has previously supported running and marathon events before moving into pickleball sponsorship.

Pickleball offers some of the same commercial qualities. It brings people together repeatedly, supports equipment and apparel purchases, and can accommodate different ages and levels of physical ability.

There is also an important difference. Running requires little explanation and almost no specialist infrastructure, while pickleball needs courts, opponents and an organised playing environment. That requirement can restrict participation when facilities are scarce, but it also creates a wider commercial chain involving bookings, coaching, open play, equipment, events and venue partnerships.

The FILA Pickleball Club brings much of that chain under one roof. Its potential value is not limited to the products sold after a session. Every booking, lesson and return visit produces information about who is playing, what attracts them and whether initial curiosity develops into a lasting habit.

Investment Is Not Yet Proof of a Pickleball Boom

The Korean market remains at an early stage, and the language used around it should reflect that reality.

An estimated 10,000 recreational players may be enough to attract experimental investment, but it does not amount to a national movement. A well-presented court in a major shopping centre can generate attention without necessarily producing a network of regular players, clubs and competitions.

The central test will be retention. Retail activations can persuade people to try pickleball once, but the sport will need accessible courts, opponents and playing communities if those first experiences are to become weekly participation.

There is also a risk that the novelty of playing inside a shopping centre proves more powerful than the sport itself. If bookings depend mainly on introductory offers and one-off visits, the project will have demonstrated curiosity rather than durable demand.

That uncertainty does not weaken the significance of the investment. It explains why the experiment deserves attention. FILA and Lotte are using a functioning court to test the market directly instead of waiting for sales figures to tell them when the market is ready.

Public and Commercial Investment Begin to Meet

Commercial interest is not developing in isolation. Earlier this year, Seoul opened the 14-court Gwangnaru Pickleball Complex beside the Han River, providing a significant piece of public infrastructure in a market where purpose-built court access had previously been limited.

Local authorities have also begun incorporating the sport into community programmes, while clubs aimed at players in their twenties and thirties are reportedly becoming more common. They sit alongside middle-aged and older participants looking for an alternative to the physical demands of tennis.

South Korea is therefore beginning to build demand from two directions. Some people will discover pickleball through a public complex, community programme or existing club. Others may first encounter it while visiting Lotte World Mall, where a court operating in full view can turn an unfamiliar sport into something immediate and understandable.

Visibility has particular value at this stage. Pickleball cannot depend entirely on people searching for a game they may barely know exists. Placing a regulation court inside a major shopping destination allows it to reach consumers who had no intention of finding it.

The development is smaller in scale than Hebi’s attempt to build an entire Chinese pickleball economy around courts, manufacturing and competition, but the underlying question is related: can investment in places to play create the market that eventually sustains them?

For FILA and Lotte, being early offers more than the chance to establish brand recognition. By operating the court, selling the equipment and observing how newcomers behave, they can learn which consumers are interested, what persuades them to play, what they purchase and whether they return.

If South Korean pickleball develops into a substantial participation market, those lessons may prove more valuable than the immediate revenue generated by one court.

The country’s retail companies are not simply preparing for a boom. They are testing whether their space, products and consumer reach can help bring one into existence.

Further Reading

• Seoul Unveils 14-Court Han River Complex as South Korea Joins Asia’s Pickleball Surge
• Why Japan’s Largest Pickleball Venue Has 20 Courts
• Japan’s Pickleball Market Is Being Built Through Companies
• From Coal to Courts: Inside the Chinese City Building an Entire Pickleball Economy
• More Pickleball News and Analysis From Across Asia

Chris Beaumont

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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…

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