RELOAD Paddle System

Reload is a patented system of a pickleball paddle base + a replaceable textured topsheet.

The textured topsheets are called grit.

Grit wears out really fast.

REALLY REALLY fast.

PROs swap to new paddles within a few hours or days of playing to keep at maximum performance. But up until now for COMPETITIVE amateurs this was extremely expensive.

Some wear is understandable when hard plastic balls hit hard pickleball paddles - but our research indicated that a paddle loses up to 50% of its surface grit in less than 30 days of play.

This leaves players with a lot of bad choices.

Buying new paddles all the time is expensive.
Playing with an older paddle for too long means sacrificing performance.
And tossing paddles in the landfill is generally a bad idea.

You wouldn’t throw out a car just because the tires wear out. Now there’s no need to do that anymore.

RELOAD is a system where in under 10 seconds, players can just take the old surface off and put a new surface on.

You can replace your grit.

Fresh grit, whenever you want, at a fraction of the price, with 800 times less environmental waste.

Better PERFORMANCE.
Better VALUE.
Better for the ENVIRONMENT.

That's RELOAD.

Grit is the word used to describe texture on the surface of a pickleball paddle.

Grit allows you to spin the ball more (in tennis the term used is shaping the ball) and the more grit you have the harder you can hit the ball while still keeping it in the court - or by applying more spin you can place the ball more precisely and aggressively and make it harder for your opponent to return the ball.

Which allows you to win more points.

But the FRESH GRIT that feels great and gives great spin on a new pickleball paddle wears out very fast.

So there are excellent reasons why PROs swap to new paddles within a few hours or days of playing.

Competitive AMATEURS cannot do this without spending a significant amount of money.

Whether you're a pro or an amateur or just keen to improve and tired of paying 100s of dollars for a paddle that wears out fast - grit means spin. Spin means points. Points means winning.

If you want to have fresh grit on your paddle whenever you want - you only have two choices - buy a brand new paddle every few weeks - or - Get Reload.

Like many players who get addicted to the game - we noticed that the grit on our paddles wore out VERY FAST.

What nobody knew at the time was exactly how fast the paddles wear out.

So, given our scientific background we decided to analyze this – and we realized that pickleball paddles lose up to 50% of their surface grit with less than 30 days of play.

This was an astonishing conclusion for us - and we had the right mix of curiousity, engineering and entrepreneurial mindset to not be willing to accept this reality.

No one should be happy paying $200+ for a premium product that degrades
significantly in less than 30 days.

We spent over a year pushing for a better way, a way to make a product that provided not only better VALUE and better PERFORMANCE for customers but also a product that was better for the PLANET.

That’s the Reload Triple Threat.

You hit one piece of plastic repeatedly with another hard piece of plastic with sharp edges and eventually it’ll wear out. That bit is fairly obvious.

What is less obvious is how fast this will happen.

Of course this will depend on how hard you hit, what kind of ball you play and at what temperatures – and how often you play.

ALL pickleball paddles have this problem – from ALL manufacturers.

Because the surface textures are all made in pretty much the same way (often using the same underlying base components).

But none of them want you to know how fast their paddles degrade. They want you to keep buying new ones.

With USA Pickleball’s guidance we conducted an in-depth, extremely detailed study of surface degradation. We used specialized aerospace equipment more accurate and significantly more expensive than any used to analyze pickleball paddles in the past – so you don’t have to do the research yourself.

The results of this study were clear - pickleball paddles lose up to 50% of their surface roughness in less than 30 days of play (details will be published soon).

This astonished us – and further cemented our original idea.

Replaceable Surfaces are a game changing step that will take pickleball to a new level; as the numbers of players keep growing, our impact on the planet doesn’t have to.

10 Seconds.

Give or take – to remove the old one and add the new one.

Time deducted if you can’t find your Reload sheets in your bag 😉

The patended Reload Sheets are easy to add AND to remove from your paddle.

The RLD-1 16mm is designed as an all-court paddle and it plays very similar to a Gen 2 Thermoformed paddle.

The patented RELOAD sheets are made of Unidirectional T700 Carbon Fiber with a custom 3M adhesive.

The Paddle Base is made of a combination of T700/T800 Carbon Fiber with a Polypropylene core.

Measurements are:

Length: 419mm (16.5")
Width: 190mm (7.5")
Grip Length: 140mm (5.5")
Grip circumference: 106mm (4.17")

Weight: 8.2oz (±0.2)
Swing Weight: 124kg-cm² (±2)
Twist Weight: 6.0kg-cm² (±0.1)

It also has a custom overmolded polypropylene K8003 2-color butt-cap.

Nothing prevents you from attaching the Reload sheets to your own paddle - however USA Pickleball are very specific in their rules in sanctioned play.

Reload Sheets are only approved for use in a paddle configuration that has been tested and approved by USA Pickleball.

Brands that are interested in licensing Reload technology can look here.

Absolutely yes.

That’s one of the founding principles of Reload.

Other pickleball paddles on the market are made of multiple materials bonded together - this makes them so expensive to recycle that they don't get recycled at all.

Reload sheets are not only possible but cost effective to recycle. We worked with some expert carbon fiber recycling partners to identify a process to convert used Reload sheets to other carbon fiber products (sports insoles for now and possibly, in the future, new Reload sheets)

Unfortunately - Reload sheets are only recyclable by us and not by your local recycling center.

In the future we will have a recycling program for every x used Reload sheets you send back to us – you get a free 6 pack of Reload sheets.

For now just hang onto your used Reload sheets until we set that up.

Reload are even working on a way to make them from recycled carbon fiber.

There are a couple of answers to this - but in general it's the same as other Raw Carbon Fiber paddles.

Paddle Base:(with no sheets attached)We like to use Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser but a wet sponge or cloth will also do. Just don't soak it too much and make sure it's completely dry before you attach a Reload sheet.

Surface Sheet:Some people like to use so-called Paddle Erasers - think of them like large pencil erasers. A pencil eraser picks up the graphite left behind by a pencil on paper. A paddle eraser tries to pick up the dirt attracted to the paddle as a result of play on dirty/dusty courts - or even pieces of the ball plastic as the ball wears down.

While Paddle Erasers do a decent job of picking up dirt - there is a danger (if used too much) that they will actually erode the grit due to the friction generated in using them.

So we also recommend Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser to clean the sheets when attached to the paddle - we find it much faster to clean and it requires less effort/friction.