Childhood Friends' RPM Pickleball Tracks $31M Run Rate

By Amara Osei

Childhood friends James Ignatowich and Marwan Abaza launched RPM Pickleball last September without outside capital. A year in, the brand is tracking $31 million in annualized sales. It has shipped more than 35,000 paddles to 100 countries.

The paddle maker pulled in $4.5 million last month alone, founder Ignatowich told Business Bearings. Ignatowich, a four-time PPA champion and former world No. 2 player, called the run rate the last thing the pair expected.

How did two childhood friends find a $31 million gap in pickleball?

Ignatowich didn't like his own paddle, even while winning matches with it. He kept dialing his friend Abaza to vent. The two met at a South Florida tennis tournament at age 12. Abaza went on to play Division 1 tennis. He now studies computational data science.

For years, the pair talked about launching a business together. RPM is the first venture for both. "We decided to make a paddle that was made for pros," Ignatowich said.

Why design for pros first?

In tennis, manufacturers build racquets for elite players. Recreational buyers then pick up the same models because they want what the pros use. Pickleball flipped that approach. Most brands built one paddle for everyone, tuned for beginners.

RPM went the other way. Its flagship was engineered for tournament play, the founders said. To pull it off, Ignatowich and Abaza spend half the year on Chinese factory floors. They fine-tune foam density, heating times, and dozens of other small variables. They've developed multiple patent-pending technologies along the way.

What's Abaza's role?

Abaza runs operations and supply chain, leaning on his data science background. He described the duo to Business Bearings as "paddle connoisseurs" who hand manufacturers far more detailed feedback than a large sporting-goods company could match.

That feedback loop helped RPM iterate fast. It also created a problem on the supply side.

How bad is the backlog?

RPM was backordered for roughly half of its first year, Ignatowich said. "We were always dealing with angry customers that were waiting," he told Business Bearings. The company has since expanded production. Some SKUs still ship with multi-week delays.

A few quick numbers from RPM's first year:

• Launch: Last September, no outside investors
• Annualized sales pace: $31 million
• Last month's revenue: $4.5 million
• Paddles sold: 35,000-plus
• Countries served: 100

What does Ignatowich want to build next?

Ignatowich told Business Bearings the next category to crack is pickleball training tools. Golf has a massive training-aid market, he noted. Pickleball has nothing comparable yet. He's scouting a separate company in the space, while RPM broadens its paddle lineup.

The pros-first playbook will face a stiffer test in training. Golf built its training-aid category over decades. Pickleball's buyer base is younger, louder, and still sorting out what gear it actually needs. RPM's $31 million year suggests buyers will wait for the right product. The next chapter will show whether they'll pay up.