9 Paddles, 5 Destinations & Lots of Bubble Wrap - Submitting Paddles to USAP

Recently, it has come to my attention that the details of formally getting a pickleball paddle USAP approved is not common knowledge. I am a paddle nerd on a very deep level. I'm learning to cope with this affliction - teaching myself how to discuss paddle specs with normal humans without sounding like a guy who keeps a spreadsheet ranking polymer core densities in my favorites folder. Last week we posted a photo that apparently required explanation.

Nine C-605 paddles, bubble-wrapped, tucked into Hannaford grocery bags, bound for five different addresses. The comments were mostly variations of "what is happening" and "are you okay." Fair questions. Here's what's actually going on.

What USAP Approval Is

USA Pickleball is the national governing body for the sport. They maintain an approved equipment list of over 2,500 paddles, and if your paddle is not on it, it cannot be used in sanctioned competitive play. That is the rule. Doesn't matter how well it performs or how many players want to use it. Off the list, off the court.

Getting on the list means going through their certification process. That is what we recently did with the P-1, and what we're in the middle of doing with the C-605.

What the Submission Actually Involves

You don't just mail them a paddle and wait. If only the process were that simple.

First, there's manufacturer registration. That is $2,500, one time. Then, for each paddle model you want approved, it is another $5,000. Per model. With each submission, you also send nine identical, production-spec paddles - final graphics on the face, same materials and construction as what will actually ship - split across five destinations.

In our case: two testing labs receive three paddles each. Three members of the USAP board each receive one. Nine paddles, five packages. That is the formula.

Those paddles don't come back. USA Pickleball will test not only the paddle specs, but also the limitations. The standard timeline from submission to decision is four to six weeks.

What They're Actually Testing For

The labs run several tests, most of which, brands clear without much drama.

• Surface roughness is measured across the paddle face in six scan directions using optical profilometers. The limit is 40 micrometers. This is essentially the anti-sandpaper rule. No problem.

• Deflection checks how much the paddle face gives under a 3-kilogram load at the center. The limit is 0.005 inches. Pass or fail, no ambiguity. Pretty straightforward.

• PBCoR stands for Paddle-Ball Coefficient of Restitution. The test fires a pickleball at the paddle face at 60 miles per hour and measures how fast it comes back. USAP's limit is 0.43 (for now). What that number actually captures is power transfer: how much energy the paddle puts back into the ball. Too high, and you have a trampoline effect -- the face deforms on contact, springs back, and launches the ball faster than sanctioned play allows. This is the tough one.

Engineering a paddle that performs well enough to be competitive while keeping the power transfer below 0.43 is a genuine problem. Small variations in face lay-up configurations, resin percentages, or press temperatures during manufacturing can push an otherwise compliant paddle over the limit. Brands have had paddles pass initial testing, reach the market, and then get recalled after follow-up testing flagged them. It is a tighter window than it looks.

A Note on What This Costs

Paddle brands going through this process 10-15 years ago were paying under $1,000 total. The current entry point for a first-time manufacturer submitting a single model is $7,500, not counting the nine paddles you won't get back. That is more than five times the cost in just over a decade.

We're not saying the price is wrong (don't come at me, USAP). Maintaining a credible testing program for over 2,500 approved paddles costs money. We're just noting that the barrier has shifted considerably, and that shift lands differently depending on your size.

Then, There's the UPA...

The UPA, short for the United Pickleball Association of America, is separate from USA Pickleball. It runs its own paddle certification process for professional-level play on the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball (UPA-A). Different labs. Different standards. Different approval process. Same sport. Mostly.

As of 2026, UPA-A certification costs $10,000 annually per brand, plus $3,000 per paddle model submitted for testing. Expedited testing, retesting, and additional paddle variations can push that number higher pretty quickly. A year earlier, the annual fee was $20,000. Before the official rollout, widely discussed early proposals reportedly had the number much higher. In some conversations, as high as $100,000 annually for brands trying to enter the professional ecosystem.

A lot of the tension between USA Pickleball and UPA-A is really just pickleball going through the weird transition from recreational sport to serious commercial one. The sport gets bigger, the labs get bigger, the lawyers get bigger, and suddenly everybody is talking about licensing structures.

For smaller paddle companies, the economics can get uncomfortable pretty fast. Certification itself is not always the end of the bill. UPA-A has also stated that separate licensing fees may apply for brands participating in professional PPA and MLP events. Which can create the slightly surreal situation where a fully approved paddle shows up on a televised court covered in black tape because somebody did not pay the correct additional UPA licensing/marketing fee.

None of this is written as outrage. As paddle technology keeps accelerating, paddle testing becomes more technical. But it is important context anytime somebody casually describes pickleball as a “low barrier to entry” industry.

SALT's submission is to USAP. We would be remiss to talk about the USA Pickleball paddle approval process without providing context about the UPA and their equipment testing.

Why Small Brands Feel This Differently

Same process for everyone. Selkirk, Head, Franklin, Joola - same labs, same tests, same wait, same PBCoR limit of 0.43. The process does not know or care how many employees you have.

What changes is the infrastructure around it. A brand with forty people has a compliance team. They plan approval cycles months out, track testing schedules across multiple models, and absorb the cost of a failed submission as a line item. A failed submission has a completely different impact for a brand run out of Maine with two people managing everything.

Our submission looked like paddles on the kitchen table, bubble wrap from Amazon, and bags from Hannaford. We couldn't fake that big-brand corporate polish if we wanted to.

Where We Are

The C-605's USAP application has officially been accepted, and the testing paddles (pictured above) have been submitted. It is in USA Pickleball's hands now. If it clears, it joins the USAP approved list and becomes legal for sanctioned competitive play - which matters for players who compete and for retailers who stock equipment for players who compete.

If something comes back, we address it and resubmit. That is how this works.

In the meantime, I will continue to repurpose grocery bags because I don't like to be wasteful ;)

Demo the C-605 and our P-1 variants at the Wicked Pickle, Foreside Fitness, or through one of our ambassadors (contact us for more details).