How does HEAD make the world’s finest pickleball paddles?

Hidden within some of Austria’s ancient woodlands, HEAD is making state-of-the-art pickleball paddles. The newest ideas, technologies and materials. The freshest designs. Ultra-modern performance. The very opposite of ancient, you might say.

What’s happening inside the HEAD headquarters? Just how does HEAD go about creating the world’s finest pickleball paddles? To find out, Michael Loyd, a professional pickleball player and HEAD ambassador, visited our HQ in Kennelbach in Austria where he met some of the team and learned about our process. As our ‘special guest’ from the United States discovered, HEAD designs and creates paddles that allow picklers to perform at their best.

Dr. Nathan is from HEAD’s research and development. While many in his family are “actual medical doctors”, he has a PhD in sports engineering and considers himself “a doctor of paddles”.. Dr.Nathan explained to Loyd how making the prototypes on site in Kennelbach means that HEAD can quickly experiment and test ideas: “Adopting a more agile way of working and developing our prototypes here allows us to react more quickly and test more ideas, test different processes and materials and, most importantly, get them on to court and assess their performance to see if our ideas are actually working and making sense.”

Dr. Nathan loves getting his hands dirty. “One of my favourite moments in the development process is actually getting my hands dirty and coming down to production, working with the materials, [introducing] new ideas and concepts and getting feedback from our players that our new ideas actually work on court. And, last but not least, getting our paddles approved by USA Pickleball.”

The “visual magic”

Loyd was also introduced to Nadine from HEAD’s product design team. As Dr. Nathan said: “She’s the face behind the visual magic of all our paddles, even though she often has to fight against my analytical and rational mindset.”

Loyd was also introduced to Nadine from HEAD’s product design team. As Dr. Nathan said: “She’s the face behind the visual magic of all our paddles, even though she often has to fight against my analytical and rational mindset.”

Nadine offered some insights into how she creates the striking designs. “We always start with a briefing from the product manager. I get a timeline and we create some goals for the product. I then start to research and get some inspiration from other industries, such as the car and cycling industries and shoes,” she said. “If we have to do the whole development of a paddle, then it’s not really easy to say how much time we need because it’s not just the graphic, it’s also the whole shape we also have to look into and the materials. It’s way more difficult because we need more sample runs, and therefore we need more time.”

The “visual magic”

Working with Nadine is “a real pleasure”, Dr. Nathan has said, because “she always shows a smile, even if she has to redo an entire design direction”.

Bringing the performance to “the highest level”

Once the product process is done and “we’re happy with the results”, Dr. Nathan has said, “we’re then ready to head on to the court to test these paddles in a real game scenario”. The testing is overseen by Martin, the test performance manager. “As a former tennis pro player, Martin constantly provides us with the right insights and feedback to help bring the performance of our paddles to the highest level,” Dr. Nathan said.

Martin and his team see whether the paddles are performing as they should be – and also whether they have the durability required to put them into production. “When we have the first prototypes, which we produce ourselves in Kennelbach, we ask our play-testers and target consumers about the benefits we think those paddles should have,” Martin said. “And the second step of the development process is about the durability of what’s nearly the final product so then the testers have to play a lot of hours with the paddles and we see if they are really durable. And if that’s the case those paddles can then go into production.”

Just like Michael Loyd, you now know a little more about what goes into making HEAD’s pickleball paddles. Have you explored our range yet?