Be cautious of industry market reports that cover pickleball. Just saw a link from a Forbes article claiming the pickleball market is worth $1.2 billion. The link goes to a 100 page "industry report" that is all yours for just $3,370. The outline of the report starts with this: Global Presence: Who leads the Pickleball Market Globally? FILA Nike K-Swiss Paddletek Franklin Sports Lacoste Lotto Gamma Sports Wilson Manta World Sports Onix Sports (Escalade Sports) Pickleball Inc New Balance Adidas Head Under Armour Nike? Lacoste? Lotto? Manta? You have to be kidding! And no Selkirk? No Pickleball Central? A little further down is this gem: "Nike is one of the major players operating in the Pickleball market, holding a share of 14.45% in 2020." Enough nonsense. This is one of many such "reports" that are advertised on the internet. They are churned out of a template used for multiple markets and are light on hard data and heavy on fantasy. Buyer Beware.
Wild Wild West out there!
And people use them as sources in the news
Spot on! I have been solicited for "these" reports on various categories in the past. They all have unsupported data and an obvious lack of knowledge in the category they are trying to represent.
That Forbes article looks like a paid marketing piece to sell the report. Forbes does that all the time.
So, you’re saying Forbes is using AI to create content about spaces which they know little? Probably some industry association reports would be more worthwhile and a better investment.
Big shoe & shirt manufacturers aren’t even in the running in pickleball ; let’s talk Selkirk, Gamma & Pickleball Central …. Everyone says “we have THE pickleball shoe , THE pickleball insole and THE ball …..
oh, so true. Thanks for posting David Johnson.
Retired Cable TV and Sports Exec, Bestselling Author, Spreading the Joy of Pickleball!
5moThanks for this, David Johnson. Could you share the actual link from the Forbes article. Would love to read it. It’s shocking Forbes would be citing four-year-old data for such a dynamic and rapidly-changing industry. They need to be called out on this.