Here’s a market to target during the COVID-19 crisis: tennis.

It’s a great way to exercise while maintaining social distancing. Plus, you can play fetch with your dogs to keep them active, too.

Greenville, NC-based SmartPlayUSA (asi/87800) has been imprinting tennis balls for more than 25 years. As the official logoer for Wilson Sporting Goods, Penn Racquet Sports and The United States Tennis Association, the supplier has provided equipment for most tournaments you see on TV.

At 68 years old, Jim Palumbo, president of SmartPlayUSA, considers himself the “last of the Mohicans” in the tennis market. Counselor recently spoke with Palumbo regarding the popularity of tennis during the coronavirus pandemic and which end-buyers distributors should target.

Q: How is the tennis market doing right now?
Jim Palumbo: Well, there are actually two markets for tennis balls: the tournament market for professionals and nonprofessional players, and the novelty pet product market. I created the novelty pet tennis ball market 20 years ago when I got the bright idea to put brands’ logos on tennis balls that dogs use. It took off and I started selling them to PetSmart, Petco, veterinary hospitals and pet groomers. It’s now become the majority of my business.

Q: Is there a difference between balls for pets and balls used in tennis matches?
JP: It’s basically the same rubber ball, but the pet ball doesn’t get pressurized. The felt on a regular tennis ball is abrasive, whereas pet balls are made with a nonabrasive felt that has an extra thick rubber core that’s harder to split. When you see companies advertise that their hard balls are made for big dogs, that’s total baloney. That means they put clay in there because it’s cheaper than rubber. When you heat clay, it gets hard.

Q: How have sales been this year? I’m curious because tennis is a great outdoors activity during the pandemic, and it’s really a micro market for distributors to target.
JP: Tournament balls dropped off the face of the earth because everything was canceled. As far as canned, pressurized, logoed tennis balls go, sales have started to come back these past few weeks. Pet ball sales dropped off, too, but they’ve come back to 20% to 25% where they were before the pandemic. People just stopped going out in the spring. Truthfully, tennis ball sales overall have gone down the past three years.

Q: Why is that?
JP: I truly feel that the large online distributors working with certain large suppliers are ruining the industry as far as quality and ultimately sales are concerned. The total demand for tennis balls has diminished in recent years because of poor imprinting. These large suppliers are silk screening logos into the ball, like you would a T-shirt. Well, the ink sits up on the felt and you can take it off with your fingernail. Silk-screening your tennis ball is like painting your house with watercolors. The only way to keep a crisp, clean logo printed on a tennis ball with plenty of ink is by gravure hot stamping. It’s not cheap and you won’t get a one-day turnaround, but it’s the only real way to do it. 

What’s happened is these large suppliers either source the balls from China or partner with an e-commerce site. They advertise a shiny logoed tennis ball, but that’s not what shows up at your door. If you have a bad experience, you’re never going to order the product again. As far as I’m concerned, the internet has hurt the industry. It used to be made of smaller suppliers who specialize in an item. Now that’s been taken over by large distributors who sell to unsuspecting users via the internet. It’s like when Walmart enters a neighborhood and smaller mom-and-pops go out of business. All you’re left with is junk.

We have to educate customers about this. It’s disheartening to see companies with no passion for the product just push it out there to get the sale. When Wilson calls me up looking for advice, that’s an intangible you can’t put a price on. Our goal should be to put out a good product the first time to start a trusted relationship with distributors.

Q: How did you become so knowledgeable about tennis balls?
JP: Tennis is my passion. I am the man in the United States; I’m the last of the Mohicans. I’ve been in every factory. Wilson actually sends people to my factory to do experimentation. I didn’t even play tennis until college. I got my finance degree from Syracuse and a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Rutgers.

One day during football practice, the tennis team came over for their own practice. I saw this scrawny kid holding hands with his girlfriend. He only practiced for an hour and then left. He was on the same scholarship I was on! So, I picked up a tennis racket and it’s kept me in good physical condition all these years.