The USAP continues to the delist paddles seemingly arbitrarily. Implementation of whatever take of coefficient of restitution they have generated has not been distributed to manufacturers and has thrown a wrench and r&d totally to anyone developing paddles per USAP specifications. As to officially what the specifications are it has not been stated. With no one knowing what these new metrics are they're certainly no point in developing new paddles. The market has effectively stalled for any company that's not in the know. Why they're taking the section they haven't justified. There has been no justification on the part of the USAP as to WHY these paddles are being delisted.
Fortunately our company has extensive contacts where it counts and where many big brands neglect. We have extensive contacts overseas or paddles are made in China. As a result we have been able to keep abreast with most updates that big brands are getting through back channels.
It is very disturbing that major manufacturers have had their paddles banned based on this metric yet it has not been released even to the public or other manufacturers. As the Vatic Oni was a derivative of our design we are not surprised that they have discontinued it.
When we started in January we paid for approval of both of our paddles and both passed. We will continue to release our 13 mm Delta version which will be tested by an independent lab to USAP specs as of thid date. We will continue to manufacture our popular Alpha and Omega paddles and we will continue to print that they are approved by the USAP. Can approval have a retroactive or temporal aspect? We think that it cannot. Once the paddle has been approved it cannot be arbitrarily deproved especially based on information we have regarding communications between major manufacturers.
We will continue to make quality paddles our own way as long as players play with them and we have great confidence that players will continue to play with our paddles, regardless of any decisions made by the USAP. As far as we are considered the USAP has done themselves in the sport irreversible damage and it is only a matter of time before it becomes apparent. This could be a good thing though as adversity is a much needed factor in this sport. So much growth and success must eventually be checked.
CoreTek Pickleball will not be abandoning our designs and we hope that other pickleball companies that find themselves in this situation if they should stand up for themselves and their customers. To be truthful if we find our paddles on the receiving end of this sort of treatment we will consider it a badge of honor.
As opposed script we will note that for all we know this test may if applied fail the vast majority of pickleball paddles. The conditions described would place far more paddles than 13 mentioned as questionable for coefficient of restitution. How is clearing error can be made we do not know but this is part of why we will not recognize any decision made by the USAP regarding this. If we don't even know how to make our paddles in the future who would deal with this organization?
