Pickleball just starts in China

Beijing – While the American pick -up madness is still strong, China is just beginning.

Online sales of the Pickleball paddle and related equipment in China increased sharply to an average of $ 1.2 million in the monthly sales since July-raising more than short compared to the year.

This is according to data from Wical Marketing + Technologies. The company helps foreign brands — such as Ohio based in Ohio, Vitamix food blends and skin care brand are clinical from California-Seell online in China and other parts of Asia.

“The rise of Pickleball in China reflects a wider shift towards an active lifestyle and recreational sports,” said Jacob Cooke, co -founder and CEO of WPIC.

Racquet Sport receives an elevator from the influences of social media and the recovery of tennis in China, partly thanks to the Chinese tennis player Zheng Qinwen, who won the first Olympic gold medal in tennis last summer, Cooke said.

Interest in tennis and pickball in China began in 2023, accelerated in 2024 and this year “is still doing very well,” said Daniel Zipser, senior partner of McKinsey and leader of her Asian consumer and retail division. “We are still in the very strong momentum of growth of acceleration (period) for missile sports wider.”

He pulled out that locals increasingly increase sport, but also watch professional games more.

During the first “Hong Kong Open” competition in the USA based in the US (PPA) from August 21 to August 24, based in the US (PPA) was in fact “a big crowd that disappeared (watch) Western Gold Medal matches,” said Patrick Yan “The whole tournament was the maximum as waiting lists.”

Yan also noted that the region in Hong Kong now has much more about Pickleball compared to only two when he visited in December and January.

Hong Kong was open part of the PPA Tower Asia inauguration, which included matches in Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Jack Wong from Hong Kong won the singles men’s championship, while Roos van Reek from the Netherlands won the female singles. PPA did not like the request to express whether “China slam” originally set out in early October, according to plan.

PPA organized its first American tournament in Arizona at the beginning of 2020. Sport increased in popularity during the pandemic because the communities quickly transformed public spaces into free courts for Pickleball. Since then, Pickleball has been a fast -growing sport in the United States for four direct years, according to the latest report on the Association of Sports and Fitness Industry in May.

The recent pick -up growth in China has different business consequences.

Unlike the American suburbs, the large Asian cities do not tend to have a wide neighboring space, Yan stressed. “All these courts must be built by people who run business. They work for profit …. people began to see that it could be a huge profit, all these competing businesses and startups.”

He added that the local tournament system Pickleball is operated by the National Chinese Association of Tennis, which makes the development of sport “the WHO system compared to others, where they are local organizations that have to organize and finance everything”.

Lu Bing, Deputy Head of the Association Suzhou Pickleball, said he learned in 2023 about Pickleball from an American friend. Subsequently, the local Shishan Sports Club is that he is the CEO open with several pick -up courts, where he starts hourly fees for 60 yuan ($ 8.39). He added that many local schools also encourage students to play this sport by inventing basketball courts and other facilities, he said.

Part of the attraction of Pickleball in China is how easy it is to learn sport for the locals – some people still found hard after a few lessons in the sports club, he added.

While LU said that the club is an authorized sales partner for the Jola brand, American brands on Pickleball, it is less clear how easily other foreign brands and organizations can connect immensely.

Despite the great Chinese potential compared to Vietnam and Malaysia, which are large Asian pick -up markets, it may be difficult for foreign enterprises to navigate the Asian giant on the market for language barriers and unique ecosystems based on WeChat’s news, Yan said.

“I know that in the same probably some shorts will stop business and some will survive and take the market in certain areas,” he said. “Because it’s so early on the market, many people try to be the first basically.”

The increase in consumer expenditure to Pickleball and other sports in China is coming because the total retail sales were Pandemic.

McKinsey’s Zipser said he was “very confident” about picking up in the second half of this year by 2026, because they think consumers are now more separated from a depressive feeling.

“The last two years, when the consumer has waited for the good old days to return,” he said, and the hope of hoping to revive the real estate market and wide two -digit growth.

“People have now realized (that) will not happen,” he said. “They moved on. He’s not there long.