Equipment isn't Illegal

We're in interesting times. Despite every indication of innovation in the market, the rules are being made to protect the viability of large brands. These brands are essentially dinosaurs stuck in business models that are being disproved and deconstructed every day as variation in competition multiply. They are disproven every day when smart players go to Temu and Alibaba to buy essentially the same paddles cheaper. This is how we started.

The USAP doesn't publish it's full standards. Want to know how to build a "quiet" paddle? They apparently didn't figure it out until Gearbox showed up. We couldn't even get the metrics that had to be met. Neither can you, nor most of the actual documentations that manufacturers are supposed to abide by. 

Our idea isn't rocket science. Honestly, it's amazing it took as long as it did for this sort of technology to enter the sport. Even the scions of mainstream pickleball found it puzzling. From a manufacturers perspective it's obvious. This is a market ripe for distribution white knucking it's hold on legacy designs. It's really only a matter of time. 

To be frank the USAP and large brands would like to make paddles that have no meaningful differences between them to you. They believe they can sell you on new surfaces and minor modifications forever. It's a reasonable assumption on their part. 

In terms of quality control and paddles being removed from certification large brands not surprisingly are exclusively the ones effected. Yet the new rules that are being developed essentially wipe out the market for small brands and hand it back to a large ones. 

The USAP has no cohesive MO. The dialogue established in which paddles can be called illegal is destructive. The USAP has no power to make a paddle "illegal". You can play with your paddle anywhere. You can bring it to any tournament you want. Very likely the nature of your paddles of legality will never be questioned or will never matter. Your paddle maybe broken and illegal anyway. This rhetoric should end. You call my paddle illegal you'd soon find out just how legal they are outside of the echo chamber of mainstream pickleball. Frankly manufacturers should question if certification can have a temporal dimension. Once certified I can lay claim to that certification forever.