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. They get into why James has zero regrets about leaving the tour, what it actually takes to build a paddle company from scratch, and why being in China is the biggest competitive advantage in the game right now.

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James opens up about his PPA termination, calling it suspicious given RPM’s early success, and shares a telling detail — he was already mentally checked out of pro play before it happened, more excited about the company than any upcoming tournament. He also reacts to Ben Johns calling him the most talented player he’s ever faced, and why that compliment doesn’t quite land the way you’d expect.

James also gets into the RPM playbook — how they sold 35,000 paddles without enough covers, why dropping the Q2 and V2 simultaneously was a calculated bet, and where he thinks paddle technology is headed.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify.