James Ignatowich is a former top professional pickleball player turned paddle company founder, best known for creating RPM — one of the fastest-growing and most talked-about paddle brands in the sport. In this episode of PBallers, James joins Roscoe and Jared virtually from Shenzhen, China, where he’s living full-time and running RPM’s operations on the ground. […]
Recently we asked The Kitchen Facebook community (which has more than 190,000 members) to tell us which pickleball paddle brand was their favorite. There were 2,600 respondents and a total of 71 brands received votes. You can find the poll here. Read next: The Kitchen’s top pickleball paddles on the market right now Below are the […]
JOOLA Pickleball this week filed a patent infringement lawsuit against 11 paddle companies, alleging that the competitors copied JOOLA’s “propulsion core technology.” The paddle companies named in the litigation are: Franklin Sports, Proton Sports, RPM Pickleball, Engage Pickleball, Friday Labs, Diadem Sports, Facolos, ProXR Pickleball, Paddletek, Adidas Pickleball and Volair. JOOLA is credited with creating […]
Anna Leigh Waters has been on an unprecedented tear in women’s singles on the PPA Tour, going more than 675 days without losing a match. Most of her wins have been by huge margins, making me think that she could actually beat most of the women’s tour with her shoe laces tied together. She was […]
With several brands releasing new paddles in the first few months of the year, many of the top pro pickleball players have recently switched up their equipment. Below is a breakdown of exactly which paddle models are being used by the current top 10 men and women in the PPA Tour points standings, as of […]
Roscoe Bellamy is the co-host of Pickleballers and currently the No. 6 ranked men’s singles player in the world. A product of a tennis dynasty — his father founded Tennis Channel and his mother was a pro player — Roscoe rose to become the No. 1 nationally ranked junior in the U.S. before a series of […]
For decades Dominator has been a well-known brand in the basketball world. Since the company was founded in the early 2000s, they’ve specialized in making quality hoops and lighting for backyard courts, becoming a household name in the niche industry. In the late 2010s, they started to notice a trend: More and more people were […]
Augie Ge this week became the latest pro player to sign with rising paddle brand 11SIX24. He joins Dekel Bar and a handful of other pro players who have switched to the company’s latest model — the 11SIX24 Power 2, which has been getting a lot of buzz in the paddle industry. The Power 2 […]
James Ignatowich is on a heater. The former PPA Tour pro started his own paddle company — RPM Pickleball — in 2025, and the brand saw immediate success. RPM’s first paddle, the Friction Pro, received great feedback from multiple reviewers and quickly sold out of the initial stock. Ignatowich has continued to see high demand […]
Anna Leigh Waters will be making her international pickleball debut this week at the PPA Tour Asia MB Hanoi Cup in Vietnam. Waters leads a strong U.S.-based contingent of players that also includes Ben Johns, Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin, Federico Staksrud, Kate Fahey, Christian Alshon, Gabe Tardio, Catherine Parenteau, Tyra Black, Tyson McGuffin and more. […]
