ITTF names Double Happiness Shanghai official ball supplier for para circuit

The International Table Tennis Federation used July 2 to lock in Double Happiness Shanghai as the official ball supplier for the ITTF World Para Circuit from 2026 through 2028, making the equipment deal a central part of its sustainability push rather than a routine commercial note. The federation said the agreement brings recycled-material competition balls into the para circuit and gives the sport’s global disability pathway a three-year equipment framework.

That matters because the para circuit is not a single showcase event. The ITTF says the 2026 para table tennis calendar will include around 25 events worldwide, so the supplier change reaches a broad competitive network that depends on consistency in the ball, one of the sport’s core pieces of equipment. For para athletes, standardization is not a branding detail. It shapes the conditions of play from one stop on the calendar to the next.

The move also fits into a larger governance and sustainability structure the ITTF has been building for months. Its Planet Game Plan 2030 took effect in January 2026, and the federation says the roadmap is designed to embed measurable, long-term sustainability action across the ITTF, its programmes and the global table tennis community. The federation’s sustainability vision is built around People, Planet and Prosperity, and Governance & Sustainability remains one of the three strategic priorities in the plan adopted at the 2023 Annual General Meeting.

The DHS ball link did not come out of nowhere. In August 2025, the ITTF said the DHS RS40+ ball made with 65 percent recycled ABS plastic became the first recycled ball used in international competition at Europe Smash - Sweden 2025 in Malmö. That earlier milestone gave the new para-circuit designation a practical precedent, showing that the federation has already tested recycled-material equipment on the international stage.

DHS is already embedded deeper in the sport’s commercial structure. In April 2025, the ITTF named DHS the official table partner of the World Championships Finals for 2025 through 2028, and World Table Tennis later said DHS had extended its partnership with the World Table Tennis Championships Finals through 2028 as official equipment partner. Put together, those agreements leave DHS with a multi-year footprint across both elite and para table tennis as the ITTF enters its centenary year, marking 100 years since its founding and the first World Table Tennis Championships in London in 1926.