Pickleball Magazine 2-6 Courtesy of PickleballTournaments | Page 80

BIZ
SPOTLIGHT ON GAMMA SPORTS
GAMMA
SPORTS—
MORE THAN 40
YEARS OF SPORTS
INNOVATION
BY MARK BERTON
G
AMMA Sports originally
had an untraditional and
unique start in tennis,
and again in pickleball,
before enjoying the recognition it
GAMMA’s New Razor Paddle
does today. The company was the
idea of Harry Ferrari, a materials
At first, GAMMA Sports’ grips
engineer with Westinghouse who was also a tennis
were marketed to tennis players,
enthusiast. Ferrari’s inspiration came during a local tennis
but the company soon saw that
tournament. During the match, his natural gut strings
the product was being used in
broke so he picked up an identical racquet strung with the
a variety of ways.
best synthetic nylon strings available at the time. They
“We realized we were
performed so poorly that he went from winning to losing
selling grips to people who
the match. He thought to himself, “There has to be a better
manufacture equipment for
way.”
martial arts, for jumprope
And the engineer in him discovered that bombarding
handles, hammers, or for
the nylon strings with gamma rays would result in a more
anything with a handle,”
elastic, more powerful, more natural-feeling string. The
Ferrari explained. “We saw
difference in play was dramatic, which also helped him turn
this huge spike in pickleball
around his court performance. The innovative GAMMA
manufacturers using our grips. We
GUT string was the start of GAMMA Sports.
had been making tennis equipment
Today, Ferrari’s son, Matthew, runs the company and
for 35 years, so we applied that
the history of innovation and experimentation continues.
technology to pickleball paddles
GAMMA Sports is not only a dominant player in the tennis
and came up with some interesting
realm, but a strong contender in the world of pickleball—
things.”
bringing decades of product development experience to our
GAMMA Sports innovations
sport.
include the edgeless, flush fit bumper,
“Our second product really got us into pickleball,”
a recessed bumper that protects the
Matt Ferrari said. “We developed innovative overgrips
edge of the racquet without affecting
and replacement grips for racquets using proprietary
play.
materials and inks. Our grips have 40 years of research
“We focus on doing things
and development in them to create the right combination
nobody else is doing,” Ferrari said.
of absorbency and tackiness that make them perfect for
“And the response has been great.
players.”
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Matt Ferrari, GAMMA Sports
President and CEO