padel
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Wilson Sporting Goods Co.
Wilson Sporting Goods is a Chicago-based, 113-year-old maker of sports equipment and apparel and one of the most recognized names in athletics. Owned by Amer Sports, Wilson designs and manufactures gear across tennis, basketball, football, baseball, golf, pickleball, padel, volleyball and soft goods, supplying professional leagues, elite athletes and everyday players. It is the official ball supplier to the NBA and NFL, backs a portfolio that includes Louisville Slugger, DeMarini and EvoShield, and has spent recent years pushing into apparel, direct-to-consumer retail and manufacturing innovation such as its 3D-printed Airless basketball.
Pro Padel League
Pro Padel League (PPL) is North America's premier professional padel league, founded in 2023 by CEO Mike Dorfman. It runs a city-based franchise model of 10 teams across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, each fielding both men's and women's sides, with a season of multi-city events culminating in the City's Cup Finals. Backed by a $15M Series A led by Charlotte Hornets governor Rick Schnall, PPL is building the commercial and broadcast infrastructure to capitalize on padel's rapid growth in the American market.
Michael Dorfman
Michael Dorfman is the CEO of the Pro Padel League, the top-flight professional padel circuit in North America, and the founder of the New York Atlantics franchise. A lifelong Knicks and Rangers fan who picked up padel at Brooklyn's Padel Haus during the pandemic, he left the tech insurance company he co-founded (Koffie Financial) to run the league full-time. In March 2026 he closed a $15 million Series A led by Charlotte Hornets co-owner Rick Schnall, valuing PPL at roughly ten times its seed round from a year earlier.
Park Padel
Park Padel is a San Francisco-based padel club operator building Northern California's home for the fast-growing racket sport. Founded in 2023 by Jessica Talbert, Neil Chainani, and Katie Lampert after they discovered padel while traveling in Europe, the company runs three clubs - outdoor courts with Bay views at Embarcadero Plaza, a flagship indoor facility at Oyster Point in South San Francisco, and a location in West Sacramento. Park Padel blends court reservations, coaching, leagues, and social events with an app-first booking experience and a community-first approach, aiming to open 100 courts across the US over the next few years.
Jessica Talbert
Jessica Talbert is the co-founder and CEO of Park Padel, a San Francisco-based padel club operator she launched in 2022 after discovering the racket sport on a summer trip through Spain. A former strategic UX researcher with a decade in tech at Chime, Lyft and Stanford's Graduate School of Business, she traded user interviews for blue glass courts and now builds membership communities around one of the world's fastest-growing sports. Park Padel raised $5M in seed funding, opened the most visible courts in the US on the Embarcadero, expanded to a six-court flagship in South San Francisco and a club in West Sacramento, and aims to put 100 courts on the ground across Northern California.