A new Pickletile court installation using its patented Pickleglass technology.
Pickletile
Today, USA Pickleball announced an unprecedented partnership by naming Austin-based Pickletile to be “the Preferred Court Builder and Official Noise Reduction Partner of USA Pickleball.” USA Pickleball, as the National Governing Body of the sport in the USA, fields dozens of calls weekly from organizations around the country looking for court construction guidance, even to the point of maintaining a 182-page manual that it offers to help provide standards of installation and maintenance. Now, thanks to this new partnership, it will turn to a private company to be its primary resource guiding these organizations, whether they’re Parks & Rec departments, individuals looking to build private courts, or existing clubs looking to add or convert courts for their members.
“This is an incredibly exciting partnership for USA Pickleball,” said Mike Nealy, CEO of USA Pickleball. With Pickletile’s support, we can go beyond advising on how to build courts and truly walk alongside communities through the entire process. That’s a big win for the future of our sport and for the players who are fueling its rapid growth.”
I sat down with Pickletile’s founder and CEO Scott Miller to talk about the genesis of this partnership and how it may play out. I asked Miller how this monumental partnership came to be. Said Miller, “USA Pickleball has the Quiet Category now, and always looking for latest innovations to advocate for this real problem of the sport.
They came to our factory, saw several of our recent installations, and tried it out. They quickly be sold on the solution.”
The “Quiet Equipment Category” was an initiative launched in September 2023 which sought to promote the development of products primarily aimed at addressing the one major criticism that the sport faces to the general public; noise. Some think “quiet equipment” means felt-covered paddles or lower-decibel pickleballs, but the category also focuses heavily on acoustical mitigation practices in court construction. Enter Pickletile’s leading innovation product Pickleglass, which offers roughly 50% sound suppression in its outdoor installations out of the box.
Says Miller, “Our glass solutions drastically reduce noise without sacrificing aesthetics or playability. We’re also undeniably sleeker and more modern looking.”
We wrote about Pickletile earlier this year, when we reported that the Chaifetz Group had purchased a stake and taken a management position on the board. Ross Chaifetz, Managing Director of the Chaifetz group, whose holdings now include a variety of positions in the pickleball industry (UPA-A, DUPR, the Picklr, a MLP team, and now Pickletile), noted that in January one of the biggest “restrictions was fulfilling demand.”
Well, that demand is about to grow significantly. We know the Pickleball construction boom is upon us in this country, and Pickletile’s switchboard in Austin is about to light up. How is Miller going to be able to meet demand? Says Miller, “We’re completely aligned with the specifications and direction that USA Pickleball has laid out for calls asking for construction recommendations. Now we’re the preferred court builder as recommended by USAP, it’s hard to say what kind of volume we’ll get, but we’re ramped up to meet it. Pickletile has spent the last 12 months building a nationwide team and now offers complete turnkey solutions, from single court construction to larger-scale facility design build projects.”
Even though Pickletile promotes its more modern Pickleglass installations, it’s more than happy to entertain a less-costly, more conventional court build. As Miller notes, “We can handle any type of build. We absolutely can do more budget-friendly options while still doing them in a manner that meets all USAP dimension specs, painting,
surfacing requirements, etc. There are always premium options for luxurious facilities, but there’s also room to standardize and improve every customer’s experience.”
The “sell” behind Pickleglass makes a ton of sense, especially for facilities that are looking to put courts into more densely populated areas or closer to homes. Instead of sound radiating out at all angles, the sound is redirected by solid glass upwards to initially dissipate vertically instead of horizontally. There’s additional benefits to the glass though. Says Miller, “Even though its higher upfront cost, the glass adds long-term value compared to cheaper alternatives. The higher one time investment upfront gets you a longer life out of the court with less maintenance.”
How, you might ask? Well, all of us have played on public courts with chain link fencing and mover-blanket like felt screens zip-tied to the links to provide both wind protection and rudimentary sound protection. And, everyone of us has seen what happens to those screens when they’re left out in the elements all winter; they get tattered, they rip, they flop around, they get damaged, and within a couple of years they have to be replaced with the next set of flimsy screens. Pickleglass offers “buy it once, and it lives for decades. Chain link and acoustic tarps come with a one year warranty; our stuff has a 10 year warranty.”
It’s a solid argument that may soon start to play out more frequently around the country as Pickletile’s construction advice begins to take hold.