SM Active Hub anniversary brings pickleball to 24 malls nationwide

Pickleball is no longer confined to a single sports venue in the Philippines. SM Supermalls turned its anniversary celebration into a 24-mall rollout that put courts, runs and free play in front of ordinary shoppers, making the sport feel less like a niche add-on and more like part of the country’s everyday mall culture.

The scale matters. SM Active Hub began on March 9, 2025 at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, where the launch drew more than 30,000 participants. It started with 44 pickleball courts across 21 SM malls and 14 running hubs nationwide, then expanded by January 2026 to 61 pickleball court locations across 25 properties, including 37 permanent courts. SM’s Active Hub page now lists 110,000-plus members and 260,000-plus event registrations, a sign that the concept has grown into a recurring platform rather than a one-off campaign.

That growth gave the April 11 anniversary activation real weight. Under the theme “One Day, Every Mall, One Movement,” SM brought together communities across 24 malls, with the main celebrations anchored at SM Mall of Asia and SM North EDSA. The day was built around movement that could be seen, tried and repeated: running, pickleball and free play all sat inside the same activation, which is exactly why the format works in a retail setting. Mall courts give first-time players a short path from curiosity to participation, while families already spending the day at the mall can step in without needing a separate sports trip.

The pickleball push also leaned on familiar faces. SM staged a roadshow for the anniversary headlined by Canadian Pickleball National Champion Mackonner Dy, adding an international name to a local growth story. Earlier SM programs also used Fil-Am pickleball player Lauren Mercado for clinics and exhibition play, showing a steady effort to attach recognizable athletes to the sport as it moves through the SM network.

For SM, pickleball now sits inside a wider sports-and-lifestyle strategy that includes running, ice hockey, figure skating, basketball, volleyball, biking and football. For the sport itself, the bigger message is simpler: when 24 malls can host it in one day, pickleball has crossed from specialty courts into mass-market visibility, and the mall has become one of Asia’s clearest access points for that expansion.