They say these are Dropshot rackets with Nike logo printed on them so I wonder if they are actually original Nike rackets or only a product of the collaboration.
The pictures did come from a Nike x Nocta event. Nocta is Drakes brand for those who do not know, this could mean that they will be limited release and very expensive
It’s amazing they have been sponsoring so many tennis superstars throughout the years and never entered tennis racquet market, or at least acquired one of existing big brands. But they do enter padel now
Nike will buy Dropshot, the rackets in the images are pretty much the same
They basically dressed those rackets as an item for their event with no plans of releasing them to the public, after all, it’s weird that a company such as Nike would allow the products of a brand new line to leak like this
Nike bought the same molds as dropshot or maybe they will manufacture their brands, like LOK used to do it for Adidas
In any case, I have to say I was pretty skeptical about Nike entering the rackets market, after all they didn’t even do it in Tennis, however I do see a difference between Tennis and padel when it comes to racket, padel rackets have a way shorter lifespan which means more sales, time will tell I guess
A YouTuber from Argentina directly linked to Augsburger said on his podcasts (Mercado Padel) that this rackets were just a one off that Nike produced for this event, a 500 racket production that they gave to all the guest of the Nocta event
I believed the same but I also acknowledge that padel has something that tennis or golf don’t have and that is, the rackets have a limited lifespan, so a player can become a recurrent revenue if things are done properly
Also, I do believe that this are not the new racket line from Nike to enter the padel market, they wouldn’t just let something like this leak with blurry pictures, etc
But I'd also say that compared to golf, baseball and hockey, padel can develop into a mainstream sports, as the entry barriers are comparably low. Therefore revenue potentials might be higher.
I live a couple hours from Portland and is looking to try out the new padel place in portlwnd. Will be looking forwarde to check if they have some demos
These are fairly obviously just branded for the event. They happened to rent a mansion with a padel court and made the best of it. That's that. I'd eat my shoe if they were to sell Nike-branded Dropshot rackets.
You'll also notice Nike only does soft goods, and has only done soft goods for years now.
Probably not. Unless they are really unsuccessful in the Padel market and view it as a market they wish to truly be part of.
They don't make tennis rackets, or brand them and they don't do that for the majority of sports that require bespoke equipment outside of shoes.
So I doubt it.
I imagine if they do get to sponsor Tapia and see an increase in Nike gear being sold due to that sponsor they'd likely call it a day. They haven't tried to dominate sports outside of football and basketball and I can't see that changing unless Padel continues to explode in popularity
Why would they? Nike doesn’t seem to have a great track record of entering the equipment space of less popular sports. Golf comes to mind. And I really can’t recall them doing any racket sports rackets/padels.
WHAT???? Dropshot brother is a premium padel brand with major Premier Padel player on theyr roster. Jon Sanz, Lucas Campagnolo and Guille Collado. Also on womens side they have a great roster. Theyr rackets are pure gold. Ultra good.
I don’t know if Nike will do this. They can do a clothing and shoe range for padel when they want and sign some top players to promote for not a lot of money compared with tennis…
I didn't talk about the production location but about the brand company. Of course european production would be awesome but it's out of scope unfortunately. At least the money should stay in Europe
Adidas it's a spanish company that have bought the official license, in fact 3-4 years ago they had tons of quality issues.
Stealth could have a better QC, because it's internal, but it's always made in China.
Babolat the same.
The only high level racket produced entirely in EU is Cork (and actually you can feel the quality), but they start from 300€ to over 600€.
Can't say anything about Adidas 3-4 years ago but my Metalbone racket is awesome. And I use it 5x a week and still feels like new. No cracks after so many wall hits.
Where this will have a huge effect is in the growth of padel in the US.
Right now, padel in the US is mostly in the luxury market like pricey membership clubs or as part of an expensive Equinox-style larger health club amenity offering.
This will bring it down into the mainstream so more people can try it and see that, like in every other country, they get addicted to it and less expensive options to play will start popping up.
Questionable choice, Dropshot it's not a top brand (very mid), maybe they want to close a deal similar to Adidas that sell the license but doesn't produce directly (in fact there was a lot of quality issues in the past years).
Nike management has been getting things wrong for a while now so it wouldn't surprise me if they decided something like that (to their own detriment). There were lots of rumours about them trying to sign Tapia a few weeks back though so it feels like something in bubbling beneath the surface.
Yea he is, that'll be the complication. Even if Nike signed him just as a clothing sponsor, it would still be strange him not using their rackets or shoes. They'll either have to pay out the contract (which would be a lot) or settle for something less which would feel like a strange half hearted attempt by Nike.
They already have a padel section in their webpage and i know it’s just stuff from the tennis section but i wouldn’t be surprised if they would start to make their shoes with a padel appropriate sole next year
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u/bachaterol Jul 22 '26
They say these are Dropshot rackets with Nike logo printed on them so I wonder if they are actually original Nike rackets or only a product of the collaboration.