RPM Paddles CEO James Ignatowich Relocates to China to Oversee Manufacturing

James Ignatowich has packed up his Florida apartment, made a stop in Los Angeles, and is now settling into a new life in China. The RPM Paddles founder and CEO is relocating full-time to be physically present inside the manufacturing ecosystem his paddle brand depends on, a move he laid out in a recent PicklePod episode summarized by The Dink on March 10.

The reasoning is direct: distance costs time. Being on the ground in China lets Ignatowich visit factories, keep a hands-on grip on quality control, and push prototype development forward without the delay that comes from coordinating across continents. That proximity matters most when a new design needs rapid iteration, and every round-trip email or overseas phone call is a round of lag that slows a paddle from concept to court.

Ignatowich knows the competitive side of pickleball from the inside. He was a fixture on the PPA Tour and in Major League Pickleball, recognized for quick hands and quicker footwork, before the league terminated him for participating in an unsanctioned event in Japan. Since then, he has channeled that energy into RPM Paddles and its signature model, the Friction Pro, building the brand into his primary focus.

The move itself is already underway. He flew back to the United States for roughly a week and a half to clear out his Florida apartment, then routed through Los Angeles before committing to China full-time. The Dink describes the transition plainly: Ignatowich is settling into an apartment there and preparing for this new chapter.

What remains to be seen is the specific shape that chapter takes. The Chinese city he is based in, the factory partners he is working alongside, target production improvements, and any changes to the Friction Pro's development pipeline are all details the PicklePod episode touched on but were not fully captured in available summaries. For the pickleball equipment world, though, the headline is already clear: one of the sport's more entrepreneurially minded figures has bet that the fastest way to build a better paddle is to live where paddles are built.