Par One expands into pickleball apparel, balls and paddles

A Cleveland golf supplier is betting that pickleball is no longer a side shelf in pro shops. Par One Golf Specialties is expanding beyond its longtime custom golf business and will now carry J. Pritchard apparel, pickleballs and paddles, a shift that shows how quickly the sport is changing buying decisions across adjacent retail categories.

The move builds on more than 25 years of work in customized golf products for the promo industry. Par One already sells travel gear, custom packaging and accessories, and its lineup includes familiar golf names such as Titleist and Callaway. By adding pickleball-specific items, the company is signaling that customers want merchandise built for the sport itself, not repurposed gear from other racquet categories. For clubs, tournaments and corporate buyers, that opens the door to apparel bundles, branded accessories and gift packages that can travel from the pro shop to an event table without losing the pickleball identity.

Ron Miller, Par One’s CEO and president, said the partnership fits the company’s customer base because J. Pritchard brings both heritage and design. J. Pritchard calls itself the original premium apparel line for the pickleball community, created by the sport’s founding family. Its history traces the brand back to Joel and Joan Pritchard, and says the family returned home from playing golf and invented pickleball. That origin story gives Par One a name that can sell on both style and authenticity, especially in merchandising programs where the story behind the logo matters as much as the product itself.

The timing lines up with the sport’s broader growth. USA Pickleball said pickleball remained the fastest-growing sport in America for a fourth consecutive year. Its 2025 Annual Growth Report put membership at 104,828 nationwide, while Pickleheads added more than 2,300 locations in 2025 for a total of 18,258. The database now lists 82,613 known courts, including 14,155 added in 2024, and USA Pickleball sanctioned 144 tournaments in 2025, 18 of them Golden Ticket events. That level of activity helps explain why suppliers that once lived almost entirely in golf are now making room for pickleball on the same shelves.

For buyers, the practical takeaway is simple: more dedicated pickleball apparel should start showing up wherever golf brands already have a foothold, especially in retail bundles, travel gear and event-ready merch. Par One’s expansion is a sign that the sport is moving deeper into the supply chain, where the next wave of gear will be judged not as a novelty, but as part of a permanent category.