Mizuno’s New Paddle Misses the Mark + Community Foam Paddle Durability Feedback | Ep 124

[00:00:00] Welcome back everyone this is the Pickleball Effect Podcast Sip Casual sip We're here we do this every week I'm Braydon that's Aaron Aaron what are we doing on episode 124 of the Pickleball Effect Podcast actively searching for the sponsorship of Capri Sun this week we are we have a new micro segment called special delivery which we'll get into in just a second spoilers and then for let's see under review Braydon posted on Reddit and said how is your foam paddle holding up so we're gonna jump into over 50 comments of discussion

[00:00:29] talking about EPP MPP and how it's holding up for various players with different paddles and then for Aaron out MLP season kickoff MLP season is back so we're gonna talk about some of those rule changes it's gonna be the first event with that AI line calling new teams and then it's been covered but the Selkirk acquisition of bread and butter I took a new angle on it so we'll talk about five questions that you probably want to know neat answers to for the Selkirk bread and butter acquisition and then paddle babbling gear we're doing the Mizuno acro strike and the Dunlux

[00:01:00] Dunlap Dunlap what the trio I don't know what's it called the trio the triple trio the triple trio on episode 124 bam what's up Braydon how you doing doing good dude we're here we're at our desk took a minute usually usually you're the you're the one that's you know typing some notes I'm the one that came in late today trying to get some some final stuff lined up but we got some good stuff on the docket today I played a little bit lighter to this week with nothing

[00:01:26] crazy I have like usual Tuesday group and I played in like a charity event this weekend pulled out the the Thrive Ignite that was the one I just like you know what this is the one I play I play good ball with I'm ready to go compete and so that's one I did had fun play good it's always a good event they do that every year it's for this mental health awareness deal called growing happiness initiative and they got a lot of good stuff going on I'll put a link to them because they're they're doing some cool things and it's always fun to support them you've played this the last

[00:01:55] couple years in a row right this is like two or three yeah yeah this is like an annual thing that they've done and it's great dude always always there for it pickball Nikki he messaged me when she saw she's like yes braided yeah get involved joy good ball I was like thank you so on paddle talk were you playing the thriving night how much were you thinking about the p1 wide body or was it like full integration with the thriving night you guys were clicking having a good time or was there some

[00:02:22] light was there light thought I just went straight I went straight to the ignite I was like I'm gonna play tomorrow I just grabbed it and I was like wait a minute my p1 she'll be sad and she was I'm sure she was but were you sad the ignites you weren't sad it's number one I wasn't I wasn't no I was committed okay sick okay uh this week on weekly update we're adding a new little micro segment um from Aaron's head called special delivery great what's special delivery it's it's it's I'll tell you

[00:02:48] jokes on you special delivery it's we get things in the mail all the time and sometimes we're not ready to talk about them sometimes they haven't made it out to the court yet so special delivery is bing special delivery uh we're just gonna tell you what we got in the mail do a tiny quick preview and get a move on that way you can kind of see things first look as as we get it um and you don't have to wait but so it might not be first impressions it's gonna be like literal first vision impressions that's special vision but bags paddles balls uh hell it could be a circle k polar pop 44 ounce or here

[00:03:17] uh it's gonna be a special delivery so just a tiny little segment to tell you what we got going on things we got in the mail i put uh from the stoop to the scoop boom from the stoop to the scoop it's giving you the scoop there you go Aaron's always got it Aaron's always got all right first one first one is uh this is the new 2026 update to the luz glider this this literally came delivered to the door like an hour before we started recording so this is gonna stay at the

[00:03:41] hundred dollar price point it's gonna keep that gen 3 polymer core that they've had the update with this versus the original is in a durable grit texture so this is a usap and upa approved but this will be the i mean this is cool for a couple of reasons one this is it's a great paddle i think it's an excellent entry level really solid hundred dollar all court paddle like and not just entry level but just a solid like all court option and uh but now that they're adding this durable grit

[00:04:07] texture to it this becomes i believe the only all court hundred dollar durable grit option that'll be uh available and so that's launches what do we have here this is a be available may 23rd which is this saturday there you go yeah yeah real quick with it so they uh they sent me two i'm gonna have to forward yours on to you but you'll get one this week as well and that'll be yeah i'll be 100 101 bucks after code pb effect so that one's that one's in the system next one i got was was shoes

[00:04:34] this is squares so squares is a brand that i believe like they've been around and like golf and other sports their thing is like a little extra um uh room in the toe box with like this square design yeah they came into the pickleball space last year and i actually never uh wore that one but um looking at the specs they sent me the this is the second version they just barely launched the payball pickleball central but they made some updates to it that made a lot of sense i just put

[00:04:59] down some bullet points one they um they the shoe now comes with a blue monica insole so it's red looks cool this is uh just like what what daps did we're big fans of those so it gives you a little little extra traction inside the shoe um they made the outsole a little bit grippier they added it's a little more material here on the outrigger to make that a little bit wider which helps with planting and pushing off with lateral movement and then they also added a pivot point which is this little

[00:05:25] circle right here you'll see this uh you're starting to see that pivot point become like a standard for pickleball shoes it makes a lot of sense because you want your pickleball shoes to be a little bit grippier but when they are grippier it can slow you down at the wrong moments specifically when you're at the kitchen and you're like opening up your stance you're pivoting to like a step back for a dink or something so this pivot it's a circle right on the spot of your foot where you're actually making that that turn and it releases and it's not as grippy so this way you get the lateral grippiness but

[00:05:55] then you're able to to pivot easier for those step backs and so that's getting really common on on pickleball specific shoes and uh anyways so some nice updates there looking forward to trying those out and those are they are available now on pickleball central they're uh 160 i don't think you get the concept of uh special delivery here this is quick this is snappy you were going into like the history of the laces in 1960 gerald r lace wait two i mean it's good detail okay i'm learning i don't think

[00:06:23] anybody's gonna be upset about you saying ready here's my special delivery special delivery bam sketchers viper court elite 2.0 uh i won't tell you anything about it that's the shoe special delivery q2 this has been out you know about it you probably have it i just got mine cool i'm excited to check that out there you go john q special delivery mizuno acro strike we're talking about this one in paddle babble and gear paddle babble and gear that's a tough tongue twister i haven't even

[00:06:52] hit this i'm glad you have great special delivery new hybrid shape from enhance mpp turbo more of a standard hybrid they're not doing that crazy long handle it's very similar to a cosmos do i know how it plays no do i will i tell you about it no because it's special delivery boom there you go that's how you do okay i was i was wrong i was wrong i did that wrong i'll i'll be we got it we got our own we got our own flavors there's there's there's nothing wrong or right but i did it the right

[00:07:16] way there you go all right all right the uh let's go into under review so this is a really fun section so we posted a video earlier last week about an update to the power 2 series for 11 624 the big question here was how is the paddle holding up over time i'd put 100 hours on it i wanted to look at spin everyone's looking at spin but i also want to look at uh power and pop did it change yeah and

[00:07:41] with it being you know this durable you know foam core that it doesn't crush but also durable grids like oh this paddle lasts forever like i was like does it last forever that was my question right going into this sure didn't know what to expect go into it i put 100 hours rerun my power pop tests and it came back just like a touch less offensive and i i kind of threw it to the audience who are listening i was like what has been your experience with the power twos are you seeing the similar maybe a little drop off an offense a little slightly soft like kind of softening or like settling in

[00:08:12] and uh i wanted to just just hear what everyone else is experiencing and those who had put more hours on it that means like did did it plateau did it keep getting you know less powerful or did i get this wrong and uh the the consensus was at least in the comments of the youtube video was a lot of more people than not had a similar experience to me where just like a little more control a lot of people use the word control like i was able to control it better over time wasn't

[00:08:35] quite as poppy slight slight uh softening of the foam and nothing nothing big or like dramatic here but there um there did seem to be a consensus there was there was a little bit of change performance though not a big deal it did seem to plateau it's not going to like keep degrading and getting worse and worse over time so longevity here is presumably still going to be really really solid though that was um but not everyone not everyone experienced that some people said i didn't change a lot of comments on how great like the grit was and stuff and so that was uh

[00:09:06] that was that and then i wanted to uh kind of expand this beyond mpp because mpp is what the power two series uses i was like is this experience we had with this paddle you know unique to mpp or you know what's foam in general how's it holding out for people so i went on reddit the most what do you call reddit the most unbiased or yeah yeah the most objective place the most objective place in the internet yeah yeah i love this place yeah so i go there and i just throw out the question i'm just

[00:09:35] okay those who have been playing with foams how long have you been playing with it what paddle is it and how's the performance holding up and so there were over 50 comments there lots of players reported um you know 100 to 200 plus hours with the majority saying little to no change in power poppet control levels with just kind of foam across the board and if there was a reported change it was an experience very similar to what i found with the power two series and then 624 was like a little we have a

[00:10:03] little little drop and pop a little out of control a little softening of feel um but other than that that like if there was a change like that was that was what people noticed but most people didn't didn't notice anything there were there was some um problems with like desponding primarily related to to mpp models and there were some comments about that in the 11 624 power two series review that i did and so there there seems to be more of a challenge with the desponding on mpp versus epp but in general

[00:10:30] as far as power pop um levels that seems to hold pretty true across the board for foam paddles and this is just such a different narrative versus the gen 3 which you know it would it would fail to benefit right like as as it breaks down it gets hotter these ones either stay the same and if they do break down um kind of settle in it goes the other direction which is what we want like we don't want paddles to be getting hotter and so this is this is why you and i are huge fans of foam this is what we

[00:10:57] wanted foam to be when it first launched and it's it's fun to see that um just so many comments in one place where you from different sources everything was just kind of independent of each other and so uh fun to see that confirmation in foam that it's doing what we want and but yeah that's kind of the the general feeling of how foam paddles are are holding up uh any any thoughts well and if something is like breaking or broken or like if somebody's having a negative experience they're gonna run to reddit to write about it and so for you i think asking for it i do think

[00:11:27] you're gonna get a good like understanding of people like coming and being honest saying like this thing broke and then i got to like how long have you like how many times you heard this story like this thing broke i got the replacement that one broke i got the replacement and then that one broke like people you know get excited about either breaking paddles or like running through their grit or like you know they want to find something wrong right things to fail so i i think you're in the right spot asking for it um and i think it's also super good like in your video you talked about you know hey there's mpp cores there's epp cores but then there's also like density between so there's

[00:11:56] a spectrum you know this is why i miss dustin dustin folks posting because he was measuring densities of foams and so it's like oh i think one of the reasons like we got a really good one early not to go much on a tangent but like the true foam the waves and or the the the genesis was it was like a dense epp and that's why they were throwing it into a 14 and so we got like one of the most durable foam core paddles the first one that came out which i think is just like something you don't

[00:12:20] experience so it's good to see across the spectrum of um foam where it's like epp mpp mpp maybe shifts a little bit more and then maybe like a low density mpp is like the most susceptible it's good to hear that the broader horizon is durable because i think i would be expecting more paddles to fail considering it's not just two foams but it's like a like a whole ocean of like a variety of cores

[00:12:45] um so yeah going from gen 3 where it's like the narrative is mostly undurable to going to gen 4 where it's like yeah there's still new technology new cores lots of different variations inside but mostly durable like a huge a huge benefit and if things are breaking people will tell you and so it's like even with the desponding mpp yeah maybe it's more of a thing but it's so much less of like the history of core crushing with polypropylene paddles so it's like oh great you're

[00:13:12] to look like the percentage of gen 3s that core crust versus the percentage of mpp's that despond i would guess that gen 3 is is way more prevalent yeah so no i think that's great i i would expect i think a little bit more stories and so people coming in saying yeah i think it's going great and like 100 and over 100 hours that's like a ton of pickleball you know we talk about like hey it'd be great to get to 20 hours to test a paddle you know or like hey sometimes we'll see breaking on like

[00:13:38] five hours or less to get to 100 is like if that thing uh like it hasn't changed that it kind of won't change yeah uh so yeah that's great i'm not sure if i miss said it earlier but in my video it was 100 games not 100 hours so there were a lot of people who reported 100 plus hours yeah in the reddit comments and so that's uh make sure i said that correctly earlier i'm not sure how many hours is 100 games 15 minutes times 100 i don't know yeah someone do the math there

[00:14:04] more than 10 today's episode is sponsored by pickleball central whenever you need paddles balls shoes or anything else in pickleball think of pickleball central and hit the link in the description to apply the best discount they have site-wide and make sure to join the rewards program so you're getting store credit every time you buy click the link save some cash and support the show while you're at it yeah that's uh let's jump over to airing it out yeah okay airing it out everyone's favorite segment the segment where we air it out in case you're new to this segment

[00:14:34] mlp is back man mlp season is kicking off here in dallas is the debut and i'll call out it's the official launch of the new rule book a few weeks past we talked about the new the first edition this is uh what's it called like a spiral bound first edition of the upa rule book um it's making its debut here at mlp dallas and so if you want the full scoop on the rule changes lots of good resources to check out alex weaver's dink article we talked about some of the top five rule changes

[00:15:01] um a quick reset on some a few of them just to mention here drop serve is dead at pro level we got a new soccer uh card system yellow card red card uh paddle changes are codified video challenges there's consequences ball blowing is now a fault sorry eric onsens um so just a few changes if you want to dive in more you can go review those resources but it is active at mlp dallas so it's going to be a new system of kind of seeing how this affects pro pro game and whenever there's big

[00:15:30] changes uh as far as i've seen with with the ppa and mlp uh the pros don't like it and it's going to be a lot of argument so i think it's going to be a spicy weekend just one to see team sport mlp back uh two to see i just want to see red cards everywhere yeah yeah so that'll be cool uh second thing um owl ai line calling debuts at mlp dallas we mentioned this in the upa rule book but it's the first live implementation of an automated line calling system at the pro level so i'm not sure

[00:15:58] if it's got to work out some kinks but it's a lot easier to refer to you know at least a semi-objective ai system where you know uh it's a little bit different so ai line calling is here and will also be instated in mlp dallas that'll be cool to check out well with with this being mlp it's not like they're going to be oh yeah having a million courts running oh perfect you're totally right yeah so i think it fits the system well because they're just rotating teams on the court because it's team

[00:16:22] sports yeah great question yeah uh okay so new team the palm beach royals palm beach royals are mlp's first expansion franchise since the start of 2024 season they enter with special rules letting them trade cash for players and claim unsigned upa players their starting lineup is deckel bar 11 624 baby child tyson mcguffin tina pisnick and sophia suing suing suing uh she's lesser known sophia

[00:16:48] great player to round out the uh palm beach royals um also there we go no more challenger this year so all um uh there's like no more challenger so they they ramped up the team no like premier challenger it's just all one thing and so we've gone down from 23 teams because we've cut down to 20 teams so that the new york hustlers merged with the brooklyn pickleball team and nashville chefs and dc pickleball team are exploring a sales agreement and will not play in 2026 so last year we had 23 mlp

[00:17:16] teams this year we have 20 with the inclusion of the palm beach royals um i think that's all i got oh oh last one last one last one the structural changes remember this year there's um there's no more subs and starters and there's no more player roster stealing that rule is gone so each event now has a also each event now has a winner so it's less of a point system i think the points are still like globally tallied but each one is going to feel like a dedicated tournament

[00:17:44] so i think that will increase um incentives for players and this is also the start of like pinch hitters right yeah or you can have the singles guys come in on specialists on dream breakers yep so that'll be fun to watch it's gonna be fresh mlp is kind of always a shake up um new teams players are at different places new ai you know line calling new rule book um so i don't know i'm just excited to what i think it's just like they're implementing a lot so i think a lot of things are going to go great a lot of things are probably going to go wrong uh and i think it's

[00:18:13] going to make for good pickleball so that's mlp there we go yeah go find your team who's closest to you and cheer them on you know it helps when you get someone you're uh you're connected to and rooting for you got a favorite mlp team you know i i i just said that and then and i don't maybe i got some utah black diamond gear you know they gave me some stuff like they're probably the closest team so i'll cheer them on i don't know if it's the same team as they had before but uh i'm gonna find out we're gonna find out i was a flash guy forever um but then they lost georgia

[00:18:43] so georgia and annalee so that that'll be interesting but uh yeah i gotta find a new if you're if you're a lakers fan just root for the shock like that's just your team that's how that works what and then what are the fives so if the laker i feel like the lakers are more like the fives okay if you're a basketball guy oklahoma city thunder might be the shock all right all right yeah you know not to not to do you're you're you're more you're more informed there so i'll default if you know more basketball than me feel free to tell me why i'm wrong okay next one for

[00:19:11] airing it out we're gonna jump into the selkirk b&b acquisition so you've probably heard to death at this point selkirk buys bread and butter lots of podcasts talking about it lots of news articles so my angle here on airing it out here with the pickleball effect podcast here are five questions that haven't really been covered as well and the answers to them with the selkirk bread and butter acquisition all right what do we got question number one was selkirk the only option for bread and

[00:19:38] butter to sell to and the answer is no i don't have the companies that were interested but doug reports uh going through some of these um podcast gauntlet and news that multiple buyers were interested over the course of the last year of brian of buying bread and butter uh doug said people other people were interested which tells you bread and butter had real market value not just hype and doug says also he wouldn't have sold it to anyone so that begs the question question number two which is why

[00:20:05] selkirk specifically um and doug writes here this is a quote because selkirk has more horsepower uh bread and butter in you know in the future they needed larger operations distribution scale the ability to turn a cool brand into a much bigger one without it becoming totally different now bread and butter can have locos in stock bags shoes more clothes more time to develop amazing products all while like leaning into kind of that selkirk firepower

[00:20:30] question number four what did selkirk actually buy what do you think selkirk bought with bread and butter that they didn't already have let's do that one it's a whole new audience segment yeah like i think the people who are buying are attracted to bread and butter are not the same people that are attracted to buy selkirk yeah it's like selkirk is just this premium like brand that's very player innovation focus it's not this this i'm gonna have fun

[00:20:59] like they're a bit more serious right yeah yeah more uh more content i wrote that too bread butter is just the total opposite and then also i think i think they bought doug like doug has kind of been the core pillar of why bread and butter has been like creative and weird and wacky and entertaining yeah i wrote here it's like bread and butter is kind of like that your your funniest friend started a paddle company that kind of feels like what bread and butter is and so i said i wrote here they bought doug b&b feels like a paddle brand uh they bought the voice the vibe

[00:21:29] the community in a brand that already has cultural traction um and that's something that selkirk didn't have maybe they have like elite performance but they don't have this like community three five uh rec play vibe that i think they were really uh jealous of and and through the the blue stone investment 30 million dollar investment we talked about a couple of months ago uh they were ripe for acquisition so i think they were looking at multiple companies you know and a lot of times when you're gonna acquire you're trying to buy something you don't have whether that could be paddle

[00:21:58] technology maybe a smaller brand is holding something that you'd like to roll up to your your big markets or it's hey maybe they have this core audience or this um these players that we can't sell to and so it's like can we acquire that still keep it the same thing but it rolls up to the larger selkirk envelope in uh in connection to that one in the press release it mentioned that there's there's more potentially more uh acquisitions in the future for selkirk yeah do you think their next

[00:22:27] acquisition is that another you know audience segment type buy or it's more of like a tech buy what like maybe they go buy carbon or something because they have some patents on something that they like i could see that that's a good argument i i wrote later at the end of kind of these questions here and we can even start opening up that discussion now i said what company next buys who and why but so you're expanding the question what what does selkirk buy so maybe they've bought the audience they've bought this everything that bread and butter that comes with the community that they've

[00:22:56] built um but is you're right it's like two buckets is it something like that or is it an innovation buy and if you're going to buy an innovation then it definitely needs to be tied to patents so i haven't heard anyone propose that carbon buyout i think that would be a bigger one but carbon really has like um foam pigeonholed really well um they haven't come out they haven't come out with a durable grit so you could argue in fine of grit while you know maybe not the best

[00:23:21] still enhance i like that i like that but i think it needs to be a company tied to patents or else i think big companies would just iterate versions of successful technology that we've already seen so you have to buy uh the secret sauce that the company has but i have not heard that carbon one uh so that's interesting okay last couple questions here before we circle back on that conversation

[00:23:45] i have um is is doug and bread and butter going to be involved in the future now that selkirk buys bread and butter uh does the bread and butter vibe culture brand go away with doug so doug's new title here he says on podcast president of bread and butter division under selkirk sports he also explained that this wasn't a here's a check and goodbye he specifically talked about an earn out structure which

[00:24:11] basically means part of the acquisition payout is tied to future performance and revenue goals of bread and butter so doug is financially yes he's got he's you know he sold his 51 share in bread and butter but he's also financially incentivized to hit revenue targets to stay involved uh doug also mentioned uh this isn't the first business that he sold he sold i think a company called who rags which were like do rags i know nothing about that but he said after it sold within nine months

[00:24:37] they kept doug on um they ended up firing doug and moving on in a different direction so that that structure was obviously very different than uh we're buying the majority of the company but we're keeping you on with revenue targets and financial structures so doug can make a lot more money um and still build the brandy one so it's not like hey here's your check you're gone we're gonna do things our way it's uh hey here's a check and we'll give you more money if

[00:25:03] if like if they grow this so i think anyone who's worried yes there'll be differences in bread and butter i do think like you know larger changes will happen um things will pivot but also i think if doug stays with bread and butter if that team stays that's like the genesis and the nexus of why they've become successful uh i can't see them not still growing in a similar flavor um with selkirk's firepower keeping that core team in place i think that's the that's the linchpin if you keep if you keep

[00:25:32] the secret ingredient in the recipe then the recipe might taste a little bit different but still the same any other thing there yeah i think doug is just so tied to that brand and branding and like he he's he's more similar to like a creator brand than most brands are where like he's the face people know him yeah they connect him with the with the brand like it's this uh it's not like mutually exclusive right like like like pickleball effect is a tough thing to sell because it's a

[00:26:01] creator brand where like very much is is tied to to like you and me like we can't just like give this somebody and they just you know new face on the channel right like it's it's it's tough that way and you know i imagine you know like doug won't be there forever i there's got to be a point where he's like i there's got to be a total exit plan for him like he's gonna go have his you know have fun you can make money but i would think that you know one two three years he's like okay this was fun

[00:26:29] i'm gonna i'm gonna like i made my money yeah but it also move on or be done yeah it depends on how big these like revenue checks are in the future i think if they're big checks big money always keeps people incentivized but also from what i know about doug doug's going to be chasing the next venture whether that's in pickleball probably not probably another underserved market i think he finds like purpose and meaning and thrill from chasing that new growth right you know that zero to five million

[00:26:57] target whatever that is um and mike's and because he's done it twice now successfully my guess is those same ambitions in a couple years will start to circle he'll identify a new niche and he'll he'll dive right back in so so i agree but as long as doug and the team is at the center i think bread and butter um is good for pickleball and so it'll be different but it begs the question here at the end we talked about 2026 is like the age of acquisition uh consolidation um larger companies acquire

[00:27:25] you know gaps they don't have future acquisitions could be paddle technology innovators or master you know creators or marketers like doug so what does this mean for 2026 and do you expect more acquisitions uh in the future yeah no there has to be this has been something that's been foretold like for a long time right this this acquisition this consolidation with with the with the onset of

[00:27:52] like this this patent era that we've talked about before where like the there's so much more red tape involved now of starting a brand like it's you it's tough to be a mom-paw shop now with paddles because there's um so many much more expensive a lot of red tape you got to dance around and it's it's much more difficult and so the the players that are alive now we're going to see some disappear the ones that hang around that are in that kind of mid market if they have something worth buying they're

[00:28:18] likely um tied to patents they're acquisition targets they're tied to patents they have something that's working for them that um they they you know they could uh you know their targets and they could you know someone can just give them you know the equity that they need to go to go and explode and do something they've never done it could be global brands i could see like you know like a facelos or somebody like some sort of asian brand being picked up by a bigger or or vice versa you know an asian

[00:28:45] brand picking up uh like a u.s brand you know something like that along those lines i can see that yeah it's it's gonna happen and it's been foretold that it is is has been written in stone and is coming to pass but i think i would expect more innovation like consolidation so a larger company that has good products buying a smaller company with great products that is the playbook i think i would anticipate more than there's just not a lot of companies in pickleball that have mac like a mizuno

[00:29:14] buying somebody or like exactly things like that a lot buying somebody yeah or you know like you could argue maybe franklin buying someone smaller like somebody who's at the peak who has the pros who has good paddles um but is maybe looking for like hey we love this durable grit technology company x has or we love these foam core designs company b has like i assume if we can just put a franklin badge on these like we have the branding we have the money we have the pros we have everything but x and then now

[00:29:43] that we have the pressure of uh yola coming at us that's with um this lawsuit we just need this new paddle to say like oh like hey everyone attention over here like a franklin coming in and snatching like 11 6 24 or something something like that that would be the next and i love that you take a broader um because i mean we've seen massive money with brands like fakalos um leaning um you know

[00:30:07] mizuno babalot these giants that i think have the money and are willing to invest i could see a company like luz who's maybe started small sneaking into that medium category acquire someone else they've invested in the pro scene they're agile they're doing durable grits um but i i would expect the next acquisition to be less community focused branding and more innovation focus where like a large dog is going to steal not steal acquire a notable technology that we've either been harping on or like could you

[00:30:37] imagine if i don't think this would happen because i think honolulu's in their own world but like what if what if babalot bought honolulu and all of a sudden like babalot's massive global distribution is now like a honolulu core like i mean that just changes the game right awesome it'd be awesome yeah like that's something that like honolulu likely is never gonna be able to do on their own right like that just such massive scale distribution but somebody like them could like that'd be that'd be a cool one though yeah i don't think that one in particular would happen but that idea yeah that idea so

[00:31:04] so that's where pickleball is at man we've seen our first the largest pickleball company acquisition to date uh congratulations bread and butter we'll see uh how the nerdy tourney sponsored by selkirk goes my question is can i play a boomstick at the nerdy tourney or do i have to play a loco but uh all good things um that's all i got jumping over to paddle paddle paddle i meant second time i set up piddle bibble in gear with brayden there you go yeah here we are but yeah again dude

[00:31:33] huge huge congrats to bread and butter like how cool is that like awesome uh happy for them okay paddle babble and gear we're gonna first talk to mizuno acro strikes and then dumb up so starting with mizuno pulling these out all right just high level these are available now at pickleball central i believe these will cost 295

[00:31:56] bones whoo 300 yeah 300 nope 295 that's less than 300 yes five dollars for my footlong sub subway yeah i wish we could get a footlong sub for five dollars technically but yeah so these are 16 millimeter edgeless design gen 2 polymer core with a carbon face and then a special like facing layer they're calling energy but uh a little research makes it look like that

[00:32:21] could be like an air made or like a kevlar type surface as kind of what we're guessing there it's going to be available uh elongated and a wide body then they're also going to have a 13 millimeter versions in the elongated wide body i just got the elongated version did you get a different one than me or did you get the elongated 16 elongated 16 i got the okay so we both got the same paddle the uh it's got a shorter handle big thing here is the uh the weight system that they got

[00:32:48] so you you put a little tool on the side they have two weights these are four gram weights you can move them up and down i like that you can split the weights or the weights are split so you can put one higher one lower one middle put them both high both low i think as far as weight uh you know distribution or weight systems in the paddle i think this is the best implementation we've seen yet i think you know the only really comparison like you have the adidas one that and it has some adjustment elements to it but this is much more versatile compared to that and it's in a better

[00:33:18] spot on the side let alone a rail system to kind of like tweak personal preference versus just slots yeah like just yeah dedicated slots and you adjust the weight on those only slots so yeah i like the rail system yeah i think this implementation is the best weighted system and then uh but then the i guess the the other option or the other things approaches we've seen this is internal weighting and then you have selkirk's moi tuning clips so those aren't those aren't movable these are these are

[00:33:45] movable the um so yeah that's the the crux the big selling point here is is this rail system so a little more information on this with the elongated 16 millimeter the range the swing weight range it has when you move these if you do two up top you have a swing weight of 125 two at the bottom you have a swing weight of 117 so that's the that's the range you're working with and then every about or every there's like little lines on here that so you can keep track of where you're moving

[00:34:14] moving the weights every line you go down is about a half swing weight point cool they don't advertise that like they don't put any of that information on there like it surprises me that they don't have even maybe we'll add that on their their landing pages but um on the packaging and things didn't have any of that information which i felt like was was valuable they kind of simplified it and just said weight up higher more power weight lower more control right but those are those are

[00:34:42] the numbers behind it while um so i want to ask you this question before we get into the the fatal flaw of its of its of its spin because the that's what's keep really keeping this paddle back even though this kind of weight implementation system is pretty cool do you think this adjusted weight system um well like while it seems to be the best to date like is it is it good enough like do we stop here is there a better iteration is there something a brand could do more or like or is this like a lost

[00:35:11] cause do you even think that some sort of system like this is even worth it no i think adjustable weighting systems by no means are a lost cause i just think uh along the path of perfection um there's just going to be different implementations and everyone will have some pros and cons so it's like pro for mizuno i love that there's i love that there's four it's not just two so you can kind of dial in i mean we're big fans of like multi uh like putting weight in different sections not

[00:35:38] just putting one strips so like huge huge pro it's an edgeless paddle massive con it's like you know you're adding perimeter stability which we're big fans of but then like you're losing all of the perimeter stability by not having an edge guard and so it's like can you build a rail system into like a standardized uh edge guard system which i think a lot of pickleball players and reviewers would acknowledge is a more like it's a better system where we don't see edgeless paddles anymore

[00:36:05] for a reason um so so i think it's worth pursuing i think there's things they've done well i like the range if you're going to do an adjustable system of hey at the lowest you'll be at 117 at the highest you'll be 125 dialed range that's good range that's a great rag that's perfect like 117 would be on the lighter side for an elongated 125 is like hey i want this thing to hit hard um for them not advertising it they're obviously aware enough to have a good range um not my favorite elongated

[00:36:31] shape you know it's kind of bringing back that old magna shape that even yola admits is you know not that great so if yola is shifting then i guess that says something so no i think there's like it's it's a good implementation but um how much of the remind me how much what how much is each weight again four grams per uh shtick here yeah for i mean i i heard this argument a couple weeks ago when this thing first kind of making made the waves and that's it's not that much weight that you

[00:36:57] couldn't weight it yourself and so so what's the advantage of just buying a pack of lead or tungsten or tuning tape and and adding eight grams yourself versus having it built in um like i don't know so there's things i like i think there's genuine okay yeah let me hear it i i think the the the pushback or the advantage of this route is you're not adding weight like if i if i go buy a 1 18 swing

[00:37:24] weight paddle and i want to get to 125 i have to add say you know 0.3 0.4 statics statics the same get it there with this one you're not adding weight i'm just redistributing it so it stays i think it was like 8.2 or 8.3 ounces the static weight stays the same but i'm getting a different swing weight versus the static weight going up with the swing weight if that makes sense but we harp all the i

[00:37:48] mean i think i would argue like okay cool but static weight means nothing so like what's what's the value less i don't think it means nothing i think it's part of the equation in maneuverability though it's probably at the bottom of the totem pole it's just i think you're really deep in your preferences to know that like hey i want a 125 8.2 ounce paddle you know versus like just buying weight and being like cool i made a 125 hard hitting paddle that was 8.6 ounces like i just think that's

[00:38:17] so deep in like nerd niche it is a good argument you're right you're not you're not adding additional material you're not adding static weight but um in this representation with an edgeless design it's like i couldn't even imagine how this thing played without the eight grams built into the paddle um so i think it's a step in the right direction i also i just don't think visually it's done super well it's done super clean and it looks gonna get dirty in there yeah like these are

[00:38:46] some big grooves it kind of looks in like industrial and like bolty and i wouldn't say like they have like mastered like the moi system while glued on at least looks kind of sleek and i think it like builds out like the brand and like it's like a modern aesthetic that's nice i don't think this to me here and again i'm not a paddle designer just to just just a stupid dude from phoenix it feels a little it feels prototypey feels a little chunk like chunky where it's like they have the idea

[00:39:15] they have the rail system but they haven't quite figured out how to make it like showroom ready and maybe that's just if you want adjustable weights and a pickleball paddle which is something we've asked for so congratulations on making this it's a really cool idea um you know it just feels groovy like when you're when your iphone charging port stops working because you get like pocket lint in it it's like this thing could hold a lot of lint build up yeah yeah yeah those are all

[00:39:41] good points and i i also like while this is a good implementation i think of of this idea i just i'm just not sure sure you can make something like this perfect right like there's always going to be some nuance there's already some edge case that people are going to wish they had like this is an elongated paddle maybe i wanted more weight down here in the throat like in a hybrid or wide body like uh it makes sense like i usually just add weight on the sides here but you know it doesn't cover the full face so there's always going to be some limitations with uh with the system like this and is this better

[00:40:10] than than making a lightweight paddle and then just saying setting the paddle with some weighted tape with some different you know just layouts of how you could add that weight to the paddle and so i i'm just i'm not convinced that a weighted system like this built into the paddle is is uh is better than than weighting it uh a paddle yourself with tape um but as far as as far as it

[00:40:37] goes yeah i i think this is the best one we've seen so far and is certainly um could uh could really becomes i'm pretty sleek as they you know um iterate off of it the the challenge of this paddle in particular is okay this is cool but everything else has to be perfect at 295 dollars in order to make this a differentiating factor that's worth buying it you have to have the right core you have to have the right grit you have to have the right performance and that those elements are missing

[00:41:06] from this paddle the uh the sweet spot is it plays it actually has an incredibly high twist weight for an edgeless paddle it's like above seven for an elongated which is which is crazy but it doesn't feel like that when you play it feels like a the sweet spot of like a good 14 millimeter where like it's it's uh i guess playable it's fine but it's it's not uh it's not it's not as good as your typical edge guard 16 you know millimeter paddle the uh so we're we're um you're missing a little bit of the

[00:41:35] of the sweet spot and then the the big the big hangout for this one is just the grit it it has like a painted on grit reminiscent of like the original selkirk's before and finnegrit or even like before rock carbon fiber right like we had like those franklin ben john paint style grit textures that's what this looks like uh it feels like to me it's not a raw carbon texture and so i i i went and ran or just

[00:42:01] got the starting values for rarz put it through the the tk1 test just to see what it was because i was interesting or interested to see how how this would hold up with uh grit retention so just looking at the starting values alone the ra values are 40 percent less than your typical raw carbon and then the rz values are 25 so you're starting with less grit than a typical raw carbon fiber paddle which isn't always that big of a deal and when you actually look at the the uh the spin values for

[00:42:30] uh the rpm test it was actually averaged above 2000 like it wasn't elite but like it was much better than you'd expect something that doesn't feel like crazy rough but the uh the the problem here is in the retention so this had a 51 ra retention rate and a 42 rz retention rate versus the 85 plus percent uh retention rates that we're getting from durable grit textures and so this thing is just baby smooth

[00:42:56] when after i i put it through this through uh through the grit retention machine and it um it's just it's just gone you can't you can't have that you just cannot play in today's market with something that performs and holds its grit worse than than raw carbon fiber and um and and like performance wise it's like an all-court fill soft kind of what you expect from like a gen 2 thermo form paddle maybe like a little bit a little bit poppier than your typical you know gen 2 style paddles like the

[00:43:22] performance is fine but yeah you're having you're still uh missing a little bit in the sweet spot because the edgeless design and then the the grit just just isn't there unfortunately and so that's with those two elements gone or we're missing it you're uh it's just the rail system just isn't going to carry it right like i'm not going to go buy this thing for the rail system because those things are lacking but if this was maybe a modern foam core paddle maybe if it had the sweet spot and it had a durable grit texture then this rail system looks really cool yeah super unique okay maybe i go

[00:43:50] maybe i go you know buy this over something else because it has that element but in this case it's missing those and so it's it's a tough recommendation that's tough yeah i mean it's a tough recommendation at a hundred dollars right like there are better options at a hundred so it's like you go from 300 to 200 does the recommendations get better maybe maybe not really does it get better at 100 does it get better at 75 does it get better at 50 and i think if you have to make that argument um you're just you're

[00:44:19] just missing a lot really quickly um but yeah which is like a bummer right like like this is mizuno like yeah they are i they're huge in so many sports are so prevalent around the world like we want i want them to do be make a come out the sick paddle i want to do this come out the sick like i want these brands to be successful because they had the resource they're going to push pickleball and uh it's unfortunate that we we uh haven't seen one of those brands rise to the top yet right yeah and and

[00:44:46] shoes are elite like you know they sponsor lots of players they you know uh we we covered do you remember the name of the shoes last week um wave i mean they have the wave enforcers which are like awesome shoes tours exceed tours i mean i mean these are like you could top three pickleball shoes you know but yeah they're awesome so it's just you know different you know and we've seen paddle brands come out with shoes pickleball and and it's equal it's of equal value of hey they make elite paddles

[00:45:12] these shoes like aren't there yet and so it's just when you have a specialty and a niche and you're really good at this side it's just so hard to jump to this side and so um yeah i think those are really good thoughts and um like i like mizuno i think the brand is strong they've been some of my favorite pickleball shoes and like this paddle looks badass like it looks great and when you're going to test retention like you want a sneaky like it doesn't feel gritty you want a sneaky contender you like you

[00:45:38] get a test and it's like up there with some of these elite ones like how hyped would you have been if you got you know those some of those test results i would have been sick that would have been sick like we know like we're here to discover cool things and but you know when when things don't aren't up to the standard of where gear is at in 2026 i think you know you equally need to in a gracious way say that like hey the standards here and this didn't meet the standard and and while we have like some amazing innovation um arguably the the coolest representation it's like

[00:46:05] that's great but some areas over here just didn't meet that standard and we got to talk about it and that 300 it's like it's just tough it's tough yeah but the uh but generally very excited for mizuno to be in the game because like similar to like how we were punt for callaway to to be in the game because like their background unique you know in in sports equipment testing and material engineering like uh mizuno has those same capabilities that callaway has like they have some uh like they're

[00:46:35] huge in golf and their clubs are just so popular i i play mizuno irons and they have like they're fantastic i love them and so they uh they have a lot of stuff in the company and the system they have the capabilities but it's always tricky to introduce a new sport get at the correct resources get the correct people allocate everything it needs to be successful uh but like the fact that they came to market with something so unique so cool with this this little rail system yeah like not every brand

[00:47:02] is going to be able to just go and make that because that's like that's that's pretty cool like you really yeah you really have to have some connections some money and some chops to build and make something like that happen let alone get a factory like to mass produce like these are new sops new processes buying power right yeah you gotta when you when you want to bring innovation into pickleball and a racket if a vac if a factory is not doing it like you have to pay them to add new processes to add new machines to add new like hey this is how you're going to build this you have to train staff to build that that's all very expensive so that's

[00:47:31] why like we'll get micro iterations of rnd but when you get like a large american brand with american ip they have to travel to a factory you're smiling why are you smiling i say something what i'm just thinking of this not think of a comment my wife made about mizuno i'll tell you uh that's expensive and so they're obviously invested um but mizuno my i would say to you acquire or retire uh this is tough and okay and last thing perfectly timed last thing sorry i had to

[00:47:59] say it had to say it if uh if mizuno is is is watching braden what are like the what's your like your quick bullet points things to fix for for mizuno uh acro strike v2 i mean you said like you they they they have to meet the standard core spin durability they don't have to go beat those things they just have to match those and then their unique differentiator is the rail system like the rail system is cool and uh if they're if they meet the standard and those those other elements

[00:48:27] then uh then all of a sudden uh that they're a player so that's go get the foam core some sort of propulsion you know of course get that full floating foam core get a durable grit you know ditch the edgeless you know it's some find a way to you know implement this into an edge guard and uh and then all of a sudden you're getting you're in a lot of people's attention at least in the enthusiast world i'm sure that there'll be people that that buy this that aren't in the kind of nerdy community but within the nerdy community you'll you won't see these and if you got sweet spot and stability issues with the 16 millimeter for the love of god do not make a 13

[00:48:59] please yes and uh i was laughing but i was talking to my wife about the grit when i was like got the numbers oh she's like man they she's like they should have hired me like i could have i could have told that and i was like oh and the last roast time is you know i texted braden this i texted him uh yeah he shared uh grit um spin results a couple days ago and i said mizu no spin

[00:49:21] so it's a mizu no for me uh elite shoes elite products decent to subpar we love you we love that you're here yeah we uh the future the future is is possible yeah acquire or retire i'll say it again acquire or retire i can connect you there's some great companies you guys got some money go buy today's episode is brought to you by pickleball central hit the link in the description to apply a site-wide discount on almost all of your pickleball gear and if you ever run into an issue

[00:49:50] their customer service is top tier real people quick responses that actually help you out go through our link save some money and support the show while you're at it so these guys another like this is another like recognizable name you know these guys are huge and you know like they have tires they're they've been in tennis they were like the tennis brand for like i want to say like a decade or something in like the 80s 90s or something and anyways they're here so

[00:50:16] i got i'm holding three paddles but they're uh they're going with this approach where they have a power control and a uh all court option so they have it separated into three shapes and those are like the differentiators between um the three the three options so the first option is called the tt3 or is it this one this is a wide body 16 millimeter control paddle it's a gen 2 style

[00:50:42] 199 before code then they have the cr3 this is a 15 millimeter all court hybrid it's uh i guess you could say it's like a gen 3 build but it's not traditional it's doesn't have like a propulsion core type thing it's uh got uh foam filled uh honeycomb cells similar to like what olympus did or what spartas did with their olympus a little bit ago this retails for 229.99

[00:51:07] before code and then the last one they have is the ag3 this is a 14 millimeter power hybrid this is a gen four this is the most interesting of the three uh aaron the other two are i think are kind of overpriced for for what you get like they're fine paddles but there's nothing that like stands out to them it says oh i'm going to go recommend these as you know the best all core or control paddle yep the uh the power power power paddle option here is um more interesting to me so

[00:51:33] it's a full foam core what but it has three layers has two epp layers sandwiching a pmi so pmi is like a foam that we don't see uh we have i don't think i will actually the original adida metal bones were pmi cores those didn't work out though but pmi is like a firmer super rigid foam that's um very different for ppp so that they put like a thin layer of that in between two of those

[00:51:58] and it feels good dude so it's a 14 millimeter but doesn't feel harsh it's it's not like uh super plushy it's it's um it's kind of got like a firm but you can still tell it's foam so it's it's a it's a like a good feel experience it's pretty poppy it's very um it's a little bit lightweight it has like a higher balance point so it feels kind of heavy than what you expect but it's actually kind of nice that it feels a little heavier because it's a 14 so it kind of helps carry through the ball but this is uh this is 259.99 before go before code so it's it's pretty expensive but it's uh it's

[00:52:28] the most interesting of the three i'm gonna put more time on it to say oh man maybe there's a there's a group of people that this makes sense for but of the three this is the most interesting that they're uh they're coming with but at least they're coming in with some like interest like yeah they're trying to do something different something fresh but it's tough coming in at those prices like all these bigger brands come with these higher price points and at least within the enthusiast market right like the people who are listening to this you know these are more difficult buys because we know that there's these 100 150 paddles that perform so well that are kind of in these same

[00:52:57] categories that also have raw carbon fiber surfaces but this one is a unique core and it might bring something um more uh you know some performance elements that um could could surface over time but i actually liked playing with it i played pretty good with it um that the pop was there but i was still finding my resets and things with it and it kind of gives you that 14 millimeter experience where you know you're launching the ball a little bit lower the um the biggest con was just you know the the price but yeah it played good that there could potentially be some performance elements there that

[00:53:25] are that are unique to it uh and then it has uh that price but the uh pb effect does work on on their website if you want to go check out what they're doing but happy to see them in the space also also excited to see what they do they sent us oh yeah yeah yeah i'm gonna have to move the microphone so i will brayden will narrate for a couple seconds while i show off the product and then i'll come in here we go yeah yeah that's a full range it's not just paddles so they sent us these bags this is a

[00:53:50] backpack style and it's feels it feels pickleball specific and it's it's huge this thing is massive but it has it has the the paddle slot in the middle tons of space in the middle or uh tons of space in the main compartment huge uh pockets on the side where you can put balls and it's actually a pretty clever design and it's uh as far as like backpack style goes like you don't see huge like oversized backpack style bags and i think this one was they call them tour bags if they're like oversized yeah

[00:54:20] tour bag yeah yeah so i i thought they actually did a really good job with that yeah design's clean too it's got like a nice um like kind of like teal or like aquamarine color it's big and bulky but um i don't know price we'll like we can throw it on screen i can look it up but i could just feel super premium so you get some of these tour bags and there's like a really thin like either meshy material or like low quality and they're kind of collapsing on themselves like this this thing is

[00:54:44] super high quality built um kind of reminds me of you know like these kind of bigger bag brands like adv and and forward yeah um you could tell like there was thought and design put into this thing and it's also just like a tank so if you want to hold a ton of gear um i don't know this is yeah when i was impressed when we got it my uh i was carrying around my girls in it my way my six my five-year-old went in there and zipped her up and i walked around the house yeah yeah there it's the it's

[00:55:11] the full thing so it's fun to see them bring it bring it all but yeah that bag is actually pretty good also i mean i think it kind of validates that like hey big brands are investing manpower r&d and teams like into into pickleball and so companies won't waste money unless they like believe in something believe there's a return there or it acknowledges the the legitimacy on like a global scale and so mizuno made a pickleball paddle i think there's like rumors of sketchers making a pickleball paddle like a large companies like dunlop are like making a fleet of pickleball gear

[00:55:41] three paddles bag balls over grips um i think it just shows that like pickleball is still growing um bigger companies are turning their heads and are curious uh but i mean i think i mean it's cool like these are like they don't have to do this and they're choosing to do this because they recognize the legitimacy and and the scale of of growing sport so i just think that's cool but yeah that wraps it up for us man uh aaron as always appreciate you thank you everyone for

[00:56:09] tuning in let us know what questions you have in the comments and we'll see you again next week you