J. Pritchard Honors Founding Family Of Pickleball With Apparel Line
Blessed by Joel and Joan Pritchard, the new brand offers fans designs made with the popular sport in mind.
Pickleball was all the rage in 2023, with nearly every athletic brand from Bandier to Staud quick to offer collections to thriving fanbases all over the U.S. — even Chris Evert, known for her connection with the tennis bracelet, revealed she had picked up a paddle. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, pickleball is America's fastest-growing sport.
Still, while looks for the pickleball court seemed plentiful, Steve and Darren Gable said they were looking for something that was truly authentic for the sport and captured the essence of the founding family's heritage. Together, and with insights and a blessing from the Pritchard family, the duo teamed up to create pickleball's premium apparel company, J. Pritchard.
Sharing a quick history of pickleball's history, which includes the family inventing the game at home in Bainbridge Island after a day of playing golf, the cofounders told WWD that they wanted to honor the legacy of the sport and creators, Joel and Joan Pritchard, with J. Pritchard — a brand that combines classic style and modern comfort for those who play in life.
According to the Gables, J. Pritchard is the “most authentic brand story in pickleball, inspired by the rich history of the founding family of the sport.” It is designed to be the most functional active fashion for on and off the court. In addition to giving a blessing to the brand, the Pritchard family continues to be involved with the brand through a licensing agreement.
“Steve and I are ex-professional athletes and have always been into marketing and apparel,” said Darren Gable. “We were introduced to the game of pickleball back in 2020. It did not take long for us to become fascinated by the game and the culture. Being branding guys we immediately were able to identify that there was not a meaningful lifestyle brand that matched the passion of the burgeoning Pickleball community.”
The founding team shares a special relationship with the Pritchard family, who advised them on the history of the sport and the importance to them of preserving the true nature and ethos of the game they invented. While creating the brand, the Pritchard family had two requests. First, the brand had to be elevated. They said this was critical because quality was always part of the utmost importance to their family and they only wanted their name attached to something that could be part of, and honor the heritage. Second, it was important that the story of how the game was invented and how the game was named was told correctly.
Darren and Steve Gable describe the current pickleball market as young, something they say shows. They see the J. Pritchard consumer as active and welltraveled while being a creature of comfort and consistency — and importantly seeks out quality, luxury and experience. “Our consumer is aspirational,” they said. “They might enjoy cocktails and like to celebrate the good things in life.”
Moreover, they told WWD that from their perspective, “start-up brands feel like they're missing the mark by leaning too much into the recreational aspects of the sport and not enough into the heart of play, and larger brands are often just reallocating [or] renaming tennis outfits as pickleball attire to take advantage of the growing interest without focusing on developing products made specifically for the sport.”
Gable said that it is important for consumers to know that the J. Pritchard brand was designed to authentically connect with the incredible pickleball community and inspire people everywhere to play proper, in whatever way that means to them.
“J. Pritchard celebrates not only the sport but also what being in a community really feels like,” said Gable. “We want it to be an experience to wear J. Pritchard clothing. Once you try the clothing you become an ambassador for the brand and embrace the culture and the lifestyle.”
Looking ahead, the cofounders said the heritage-built luxury-inspired brand will always be rooted in pickleball and celebrating all different kinds of play both on and off the court, course, field and beyond.