Hey, it's Cesc & Julian here from Padel Smash Academy and joining
us today all the way from Portugal is Pedro from Volt Padel
We are All Things Paddle.
Welcome Pedro.
Hi guys, very nice to be here.
Great, great to have you here at the podcast.
Um, we really Are amazed how good of a quality the vault rackets are.
I mean, vault, the vault 800 is one of my favorite rackets.
And we want to learn about the whole history of vault paddle.
How did you come up with the idea?
Where are you from and all the juicy details about the brand.
Okay.
So that, that could be a long story, but I'll try, I'll try to make it short.
So first of all, very nice to be here.
And it's very nice to start with such kind words from your side.
It's usually, I say that it's the biggest motivation for ourselves
is to hear people saying they like our products and they understand.
What we dreamed, uh, 10 years ago around, more or less around it.
So I'll start, uh, from the beginning.
Um, I, I have, I have myself a background on marketing and international
sales in completely different area.
I worked in a wine company, a Portuguese wine company, the biggest Portuguese
wine company exporting to all the world, but I'm a sports fanatic.
I've always did all kinds of sports.
Uh, and, um, I did tennis when I was young.
Uh, And I stopped and I did a bunch of other sports like
soccer, surfing and other sports.
And about 10 years ago, uh, I was with this Addiction, uh, called paddle.
That's all of us know pretty well what it is.
And Portugal was actually one of the early starters, uh, in
Europe after Spain, of course.
So I started playing paddle, I think around 11, 12 years ago.
And, uh, more or less around 10 years ago, uh, I come up with a very simple
idea, which, which I basically, uh, Had a feeling that something was missing,
uh, from a consumer perspective.
So when I was trying to buy a racket, I felt that something was
missing or some things were missing.
Uh, I first, it was all about the design.
I couldn't identify myself with any of the designs of any rackets in the market.
and of course, things have evolved until today.
So at that time it was pretty different.
Uh, and for me personally, I didn't like the statics of any racket.
They were very noisy.
Visually, they had a lot of things written, a lot of colors.
Um, so the basis of the idea was let's say, Come up with something very
clean, very premium, but with very good, good taste in terms of design.
And of course, if we want to make this premium, we need
to find high quality rackets.
And basically that was the key idea of everything, of how everything started.
Putting myself in the, in the, in the, in the, in my own shoes at the time.
For the thinking about the process, I had to buy a racket.
There wasn't nearly any option to buy a racket in physical
stores in Portugal at that time.
So I was buying them online from Spanish, uh, online stores.
And the, the, the purchasing process was also very difficult for,
for, especially at that time, we didn't have a lot of information.
So it was confusing.
So many, uh, types of rackets, so many formats, so many materials,
so many concepts around the racket.
So it's, it's.
So, uh, one, one thing that we had clear since the beginning also was
we, we want to have, um, a small portfolio, which is very easy to
understand and very easy to explain.
So this would help not only final consumers, but also, uh, small
stores, especially in paddle clubs.
To explain this easily.
And that was also where we focused.
It was on the, on the, on the paddle clubs, on the pro shops, on the paddle
clubs in Portugal, um, offering them this small collection of high quality.
So it, it also demanded from them a high, uh, not a high investment initially
because we had a small collection and it was easy for them to understand.
Easy for them to explain.
And at the same time, we We protected a lot the positioning of the brand and
the prices, so they weren't having that competition that at the time was very
aggressive, still is, from the online.
So when someone was interested in buying a racket from our brand, they
didn't have the competition from other online stores selling the same item.
Very, very cheaper, much more cheaper than what they were selling.
So this was the basis of the idea.
So, uh, we, we started, uh, with, with, with these three concepts, especially
in terms of brand concept and commercial proposal, uh, and then we went from there.
So why don't you talk to us about the development?
Like, uh, at one point you're just, um, a player, right.
And you see that there's a need there.
How do you get to that point?
Uh, okay.
So I'm going to develop my own racket because there's a
lot of things involved, right?
It's like number 1, who's going to, who's going to make them for you?
Are you going to have your own special mold?
Are you going to have what materials you're going to use
the characteristics of that?
Of the, uh, of the record, the research and development of the
record, how did that whole process go?
And how long did that take you before you, you know, before
you got where you were satisfied with the collection that you had?
So the whole process, it took around 1 year and a half.
two years, uh, from the moment we, we, we had the initial idea until
we, we, we launched in the market.
And I think it started as, as most business started as like a, it's almost a
silly idea or almost a, uh, Uh, thought, uh, of course, I had this dream of having
my own business, especially having my own business connected to sports because as
I told you, I'm really a sports fanatic.
Uh, so everything made sense, but I had no idea if this was, was going to work.
I, I didn't understand anything about, uh, the, the, the production
of a paddle racket at that time.
So I did.
What most people do in this situation, I Googled it and I Googled it for,
for, for, for where to make paddle rackets, where to produce them.
But I went deep and I got to a few options, which,
which we made a connection.
Started doing some prototypes and then started, uh, we spent a lot of time
testing them, uh, and testing them, uh, with, with, with advanced players
at the time, because since I was coming from tennis, I knew most of the
best players in Portugal at the time because they all came from tennis also.
Uh, but not only with, with advanced players, also with, with more beginner
players or people not with so much experience, because in the end, those
are your true customers because pro players, they don't play for rackets.
So, uh, our, uh, we, we targeted all types of, of, of, of people and we, we started
recording all the, all the feedback we had from the different suppliers, the
different shapes, the different materials.
And we, we did this around six months, uh, uh, with, with, uh, about 15 to 20 samples
from, from four different suppliers.
And by the end of it, we, we, we had a very easy conclusion because, uh, the,
the one, one particular supplier, which is the same supplier where we still produce
until today, uh, nearly eight years, uh, after we've started, uh, was, uh, the,
the, the biggest winner by far, uh, in terms of all the choices people made, uh,
and at the time we, what we felt is that.
These particular rackets at a different touch from the rackets that were common
in the market because they were a little bit harder than the rackets existing in a
market which were much more softer and The feedback we had from people is that being
these a little bit harder the feeling of the ball was much more Real for people who
play who played with with those rackets.
So We, we kept that, that feeling, uh, uh, of the racket until today.
So that's something that we try to do, is to have this feeling of not very
soft rackets, a little bit medium hard rackets because we believe that this is
a better feeling when you touch the ball.
You can feel much better where the ball is going to land and when
you are going to position the ball if you have a much softer racket.
Um, so this, this process went, uh, for a long time and this was the
part we didn't control, uh, at all.
Once we had this, this, this parts more or less, uh, established, uh, then the rest
of the process was relatively easy because then it, it went, it, it came inside my
area of expertise of, uh, developing a new brand identity, naming and all, all
the other things which take time, but where I was much more comfortable than
of course, producing a pilot rocket.
So let me ask you a question.
Um, When, when you're developing that, was it just you or did
you have a group of people?
Did you have a board?
I mean, or was it just you?
No, we were two partners at the beginning, uh, and it were the two of us.
Uh, but we were, we had a lot of help from, from friends who worked
in the business already at that time.
They were, uh, paddle coaches, paddle club owners.
So they weren't exactly working in the project with us, but
they were cooperating a lot.
So we had like a small group of people helping us do that.
And now did you get an investment to do this or did you fund this, this
project yourself and your partner?
No, no.
We funded everything by ourselves.
And one of the things that we, we tried to did since the beginning
was, was to grow organically, uh, without, uh, external investments.
And fortunately, it was something that we managed to do.
Of course, in some moments, it's a little bit difficult, especially
because of the investments you have to do when you are kicking off
the project and also in inventory.
But fortunately, we were able to grow organically and the business
was enough to finance the growth we had all along the years.
So let me ask you one thing.
So do you have a group of engineers or we just only the two of you because
what I'm you know, you feel that the records are first of all, they're very
good looking brackets and you sense and you feel the good quality of the racket.
I mean, maybe you can tell.
You know, if you, if you know the market, if you know, if you're a player, you can
feel that these are good quality rackets.
How did you come up to that level of quality and, and,
you know, and look and feel?
Okay, first, uh, we were, we were two in the beginning, then this
partner I had actually left in the middle of the project and then
another person joined the project.
So I was the one starting and until today.
Um, but we don't, we don't have any engineers internally.
Uh, we, we have a small structure and that was also something that we
wanted to have since the beginning.
So we subcontract a lot.
We have, we have trusted partners who work with us, uh, with a lot
of expertise on that, on that side.
Um, And of course, as time goes by, we ourselves, we, we, we, we started to
have more and more information about the materials, the production, the quality
production and how, what we wanted to do.
So we already have a little bit more know how, uh, uh, than of what we want.
Uh, but basically we test a lot.
That's for me.
That's, that's key thing.
We test a lot, different samples, different materials.
Um, every time.
and try to understand how does that feel, not only for ourselves, but
for, for a large group of people, professional players, amateur
players, and try to understand exactly how these, these fields.
But I would say that also the production process is very, very important because
although it's, it is very manual to do, to produce a paddle racket, it's a process
which from 80 to 90 percent of the full process, it's manual in all the places.
Um, But of course the expertise while using the materials, the temperatures that
you use to, uh, cook, uh, the, the, the carbon fibers to put everything together.
It has a lot of, of, of, of know how behind this and the place where we
produce, luckily, I think it's, they are really, really good, especially
in terms of the feelings that you have while playing with the racket.
So, uh, that was something that we, we, we, We, we felt very important since
the beginning, and that's why we, we've, uh, invested in keeping always the same
partner, uh, until today, which also has evolved in this, uh, as, as is, is
has brought into this their facility.
A lot of innovation and a lot of new equipments that allow us to
be, uh, better every everyday, uh, uh, while producing new rackets.
All right.
So one quick question.
I mean, um, and, uh, I spent a lot of time on the paddle core coaching,
teaching, supervising and all that.
And sometimes the students get confused, you know, when, when you put numbers on
the rackets or names and things like that.
So why don't you explain a little bit?
What, you know, what is it?
Then, you know, why the V 800?
Why the V 9, 950?
Does the number means anything specific?
No, it doesn't.
It's basically the, the, the, the, the brand, the brand, the brand was, was,
was, uh, brand concept is volts and it's around energy volt from voltage.
So the, the numbers are, are, uh, we, we thought an easy
way to identify the models.
We prefer this side than having difficult names to pronounce.
So we thought we wanted to have a very easy thing, uh, on how people
should associate to our models.
So this initially were, uh, the voltage of each racket.
So, uh, in theory, and, uh, eventually, uh, I think things will, will be, uh,
completely, um, uh, tuned to be like this.
Uh, the voltage should be from the less powerful racket
into the most powerful racket.
The truth is that it's higher, the number, the more powerful.
Yeah, it, it should be, it should be, and it is with, with one exception
because market marketing wise, we, we, we launched the 800 on top of the 700
because at that time it was a signature racket and, uh, we thought it made sense.
And we won't change it for now.
But if we take that exception, because the 800 is actually a round racket, so
it's less powerful than the 700, all the other rackets are from the less
powerful to the most powerful racket.
So that will be the voltage.
The biggest the number, the biggest voltage, more power.
So it doesn't mean it's better or worse, it just means it's more on the
control side or on the power side.
Very interesting.
I love that concept.
I mean, plus the numbers are very international, so everybody can, if
you're in Germany, if you're in the United States, go anywhere you are.
They hire the number.
Now, when we come, they come up with these crazy weird names, you know, the hacks
and this and that, is that good for me?
Is that good?
So I think the simple concept of they hire the number, the more
power, it makes total sense.
And let me ask one thing.
Where is the company located in Portugal?
We are located in Portugal.
Which is on the north of Portugal.
It's the second biggest city in Portugal.
One of my favorite cities in the world.
So now Portugal is known for making wine, but not necessarily paddles, right?
So where do you guys manufacture your, your, your rackets?
So we manufacture our rackets in Pakistan.
Uh, actually, this is something that we've learned with the process.
As I was telling you, Pakistan, they have a huge tradition on working
with, uh, fiberglass and fiber carbon.
Especially because of the cricket bats, which is their number one sport
for, for Pakistan and for India.
So the place, the place where we manufacture is, it's, it's a big facility.
They produce for a couple of brands, not only for ourselves, and they had this.
It's experience from the past, which is tremendously important, especially,
uh, with the products that they, they use to assemble, uh, all, all
the layers of the racket together.
This is a little bit where the secret is in terms of manufacturing
a paddle racket besides of course, using high quality materials.
Usually I say it's, it's, it's, it's not rocket science at all
to produce a paddle racket.
Of course, you need to get, you need to, you need to choose a good
carbon fiber, a good foam, and then you need to know how to produce it.
Basically, that's, that's what it is.
So once you have the good quality materials, and then you know
exactly how to put them all together, you have good quality.
If you don't have both things, there's always room for, for, for
less quality in terms of production.
Do you guys have any professional players that play with VOL at this moment?
That we sponsor?
Yes.
Yes, right now, right now we sponsor Alex Chausas, which is currently
I think on the number 27th.
He was the highest jump on the ranking this year.
He started about I don't know, close to 100.
And so he was the player who went up the most is now going to play on the
World Cup for the Argentinian national team, which was really, really good.
Uh, we also have Federico Mourinho also on the top 50 players, uh,
off the premier, um, We have Jesus Moya also playing on the premiere.
Uh, so Spanish, not Argentinian.
And then we, we have a long, long term, uh, relationship with Ana
Catarina, which is known on the, on the, on the tour by La Porto.
Because she was the first Portuguese player to play in the circuit.
She was, uh, she was number six.
She went to number six on 2019 and she's now around the top 30 and she's
probably the oldest player in the circuit.
Uh, I think she's 46 or 47 years old, but she's still in amazing shape.
And she's Portuguese, so she's like a an important flagship for us in
terms of representing us in the tour.
And now we're getting close to the end of the year, so there's always, uh,
Some movements on, on, on, on that, on that chapter in terms of sponsorship.
So, um, we, we should have some, some, some news for next year.
So, let me ask one thing.
So, uh, you know, you've been on the, on the panel scene
for quite a few years where.
From five years ago to now, do you, are you from, from the marketing point
of view and from the brand point of view, do you see a lot of growth?
Uh, where do you see Paddle, you know, going in the next five, 10 years?
Well, the, the, the, the, the, the inflection point on Paddle, it was, it
was by far for the industry, for us.
And for everybody was already in the industry during COVID.
That was the inflection point by far because Paddle somehow managed to
stay open in most of the countries for most of the time and with this unique
characteristics that Paddle has of being very accessible, very easy to play and
very easy to have fun with together with the sociability that you have
within the Paddle, the Paddle community.
It made it a huge success during those years where people had no restaurants, no
bars, no discos, no place to be social.
So Paddle grew a lot during those two years, 2020 and 2021.
Uh, I think Paddle in 2019, should be, uh, I don't know, present,
uh, about 10 to 15 countries.
And by the end of 2022, it was already in 100 countries.
So that was the boom off of the sport and the industry and exactly the same for us.
We, we, we were, we started, we started very clear with a very clear idea of,
uh, Let's make a test in Portugal, understand if this has traction and if
people understand the concept, and then if so, let's make it international.
But we always saw this as international project.
We, we, we developed the brand to be as, as you said earlier about the models,
but the brand itself to be very easy to pronounce in all the languages, to
be understood in all the languages.
And we've always communicated in English since, since early start.
Uh, so we always saw this as an international project.
And in 2019.
We ended the year, I don't know, selling 75 percent in Portugal
and we, we saw a few things for another four or five countries.
And by the end of, uh, 22, so post COVID, uh, we, we, we were, we
were selling to over 60 countries and we were exporting around 85%.
So that was the big inflection point.
I think, I think battle now is, is, is, It still has a lot of room to grow,
uh, uh, but I don't think it will grow as fast as it did in these two years.
Uh, the, the, the, the key potentials for me are our countries exactly as the U.
S., which are huge markets.
And still, uh, on a very early stage, of course, then you, you have the
same other, uh, potential markets that you have in all the business, like
China, like India, because they have huge populations, but I don't see the
potential there as I see in the U S.
Because the U.
S.
also has a huge culture of sports, a huge culture of racquet sports.
So, uh, I see the big potential coming from there.
And then you have a lot of small countries which are starting now, started one year
ago and two years ago, and usually they take one, two years to get to a decent
dimension and they start being interesting in terms of, of, uh, Of market.
So there's, there, there are, you have markets in completely different stages.
Uh, one more, much more mature, uh, other that are, uh, finishing what I would
call the boom stage, and then you have a very big group of markets still on the
early stage, which are very still, still very small, but usually from one, one or
two years, they tend to grow very fast.
So, um, there's a lot of potential and, uh, in, in most of the countries.
You see that, uh, when, when the sport starts, usually there's no,
no, uh, there's no courts enough for all the people that want to play.
So there's, I usually say that our business in terms of paddle equipment
always comes after the sport.
The, the, the, the, the business related with the courts construction, of course,
because the first you have to, you need to have these, uh, complex to, to, to
facilities that will allow people to play.
And then the brands will can sell because you only have rackets
if you have courts to play.
So there's still a lot, a lot of room to, to, to, to grow there.
And a lot of, a lot of, uh, a lot of grounds to build courts in, uh, and
then we'll, we'll, we'll come after.
So I think there's still a lot of room for Paddle to grow.
So now is Volt entering into any other type of products?
We, uh, curious enough, we, we, we, we, we started, uh, uh, very, very, I don't know,
it was about one month ago, not more, uh, we, we, we are doing a quick, uh, a small
trial in beach tennis, which is picking up, uh, in some countries in Europe
and in South America, it's very strong.
Uh, we know there are others, other rocket sports, of course, pickleball.
For example, uh, which is also something that we we've been
studying and we've been testing.
Uh, so I think that within this, I would say new racket sports, I think,
The brand can fit and is the last sufficiently in elastic to, to cover
these grounds, but, uh, our, our strategy and our focus is clearly on paddle.
We, we still see a lot of room to grow on paddle and we really
want to be a paddle specialist.
So, uh, I would say that we will, we, we, we might, uh, open our, our wings
to another, another, uh, categories, but, uh, that I think that would.
Uh, not take our focus from parallel where we see clearly
that we have the biggest assets.
Okay, so now United States is pretty big.
Are you going to divide that territories for distributors or just
have one distributor for all USA?
At this moment, we are, we are working with one single distributor.
And, uh, I think at this stage, it's.
It's more than enough.
I don't know the markets very deeply, to be honest, because it's one of the
other problems with paddle industry.
The information is very, very small when you want to know more about the markets.
But from what I've heard, it's still, uh, A lot, there's still a
lot of concentration around, uh, Miami area, uh, and in the other
states, it's, it's still very small.
So I think that, uh, a national distributor, uh, should be enough for now.
And also for us, uh, we try to have one unique partner per country, because
we believe it's very important that this partner can control, uh, 100%,
what is the marketing strategy, the pricing strategy, commercial strategy.
If possible, I think we will keep the one single partner in the United States.
Of course, it depends on how the market evolves, how big it gets and how relevant
it is to have regional distributors.
So one quick question.
Let me ask you from from the point of view.
I'm always trying to put my shoes on the student aspect.
So, you know, most of the brands every 6 months, every once a
year, they change the models.
I mean, the same model.
They change the look of the racket and all that.
You think that's beneficial for a racket brand?
It's the same racket painted differently.
They add some new technology.
How do you, how's Vault doing that?
I mean, and how, how, because honestly for me, the V800, I love the look and feel.
I mean, don't change anything.
It's just a great, great racket.
Well, the new one just came out.
It's a different color.
I suppose it's the same thing, but I guess.
A question on top of that question is how often do you change the
characteristics of the racket?
Is it every couple of years or every three years?
Um, besides just, you know, every year changing the color,
which a lot of companies do.
Okay, so it's, it's true.
Uh, I think.
Honestly, I don't think business wise, it's, it's a very, uh, interesting,
uh, thing to do, but it, it, it was created by the industry itself.
And I think that now players, uh, they, they, they, they, they need to
have new models every year, even if, Is as you say, the same racket painted
differently, of course, in an industry like like paddle or like tennis or
like golf, it's impossible to bring innovation every year into the product
because it's not a technological product.
So, of course, we continuously work in, uh, having a better quality,
better production, we're testing new materials, but it's, it's not possible
to bring innovation every year.
So with this, with, with, with this, with this trend.
that people are expecting new models to come every year.
And this, this comes to us, so people start asking, where are you
going to launch the new, uh, 1000?
So what, personally, what, what, what we've decided here in Vault was to Change
a little bit this into something that, uh, it was a little bit more truthful, uh,
when we are launching something new, we are presenting, presenting something new.
And at the same time, it would be much more easy to manage business wise, because
if you launch new models every year.
Of course, there's the whole chain from, from, from the brand owner to the
distributor, to the retailers, which have to do a clear, a clearance of stock from,
from the previous model to the new model.
So, uh, our plan and our strategy from actually starting on next year,
uh, it will be to, to launch a new version of every model every two years.
So every year.
We will change half of our portfolio, uh, because of course, we know that,
uh, people are expecting new things.
And we, we understand that that is important to have new things, to
communicate new things, to present to the consumers and to show also that the
brand is alive and doing new things.
But, uh, but every two years, so, uh, each model changed one
year, one year, it doesn't, uh, and that's how we want to do it.
We're doing this.
We want to do with this change with more than just something
that's just aesthetical.
We want to bring something new to the to the racket, even if it's a
new material, a new type of carbon, a new shape of the racket, a new mold.
Uh, for the same shape, it will depend a lot on what we are working on.
Uh, for next year, we have, we have some, some news, which of course we are already
working on for, for a large period.
Uh, and these will be, uh, effectively, uh, uh, changes on the, on the racket
construction, not only on the, on the, on the, on the pint for the first
three models that we will change.
So, uh, Pedro, so what, what is Volt?
Okay.
So what represents, um, for us, uh, it always represented a different concept.
Uh, we want, we look, we look for ways of doing different things
differently, but at the same time, we, we, we, we want to be very consistent
on what we do and how we do it.
So the initial idea we had, which.
Basically it's, it's having a high quality product with a different design.
Then of course, uh, we, we, we didn't stop only on the products.
That's something that we, it's, it's transferred into the, into
the communication we do into the way we are present in events.
Uh, because we want to, we want people to feel, uh, something different when they
are in direct contact with our brand.
Uh, and for the same thing that we, we, we, we also know which, which is
our ground, uh, of course the market is big and, uh, we in the end compete
with all the brands, but we don't want to be as big as the big brands.
We, we, we know exactly which is, uh, our territory, which is our niche.
Uh, and, uh, I usually say on a very simple way that, uh, our customer, our
target customer is someone who looks for a cool racket with very good quality.
I love that.
It's, I feel like Vaub is sort of like the boutique.
You know, the boutique hotel of paddle, you know what I mean?
Where it's very precise, the look and feel, the way it's presented.
It's very, very unique compared to the massive, you know, the bull
paddles and the noxious and all that.
I think it's, I get the same feeling, honestly.
Okay.
That's great to hear.
Me and Julien love the V800.
Yeah, that's the racket.
So, so Pedro, what is your number one selling racket right now?
Right now, our number one selling racket, it's the 1000.
Really?
Good.
Yeah.
Too much for me, maybe.
The 1000 is, is, it's the most particular racket we have, actually,
because one of the things that we, we, we searched for since the beginning
was to produce uh, uh, Uh, all types of rackets, very comfortable and very
accessible, very easy to play with.
And, uh, actually the 1000 is the only one which is a little bit, uh, uh,
apart from this, from this concept.
Because we developed specifically for one player, we sponsored, uh, in the past.
And he, he wanted to do a very different racket.
He had a very big hand.
So he didn't, he needed a very big handle.
Uh, and then he told us he didn't need so much area of
impact on the face of the racket.
So it's a small face with a big handle.
And usually I say that, uh, it's a racket that people, uh, are love it or hate it.
But who loves it?
They don't change.
We have people that are on the 4th, 5th, 1, 000 for the last three years, and
they cannot play with another racket after, after playing with that racket.
So also, of course, the racket that's being used by, by players.
For example, now Alex chose us, which is also happening in terms of visibility and
people look for those kinds of examples.
So I think it also has some impact.
It shows us playing with the 1000 as well.
Yeah, it shows us is playing with the oneself with the 1000.
Fantastic.
I love everything about the brand.
Congratulations.
And, uh, we wish you all the best luck of the world.
We are truly believers of the vault, especially the 800.
It's our favorite rocket.
So, uh, we wish you all the best luck in the world.
And then hopefully we'll see you soon here in Miami.
Guys.
Thank you so much.
It was great talking with you.
And, um, I hope you, you, you keep loving the brand.
We are all things paddle.