Why are Vulcan Pickleball's the Official Ball of the PPA?

If you haven't heard already, On Jan 4th 2024 the PPA announced that Vulcan would be the official ball of the tour. This came to a surprise to many because...well...Vulcan didn't make pickleballs until this news dropped. Prior to Vulcan, Onix signed a 2-year extension in 2021 for their Dura Fast 40 balls. As this contract was reaching expiration in late 2023, many companies reached out to make a bid for the official ball spot. There were 5-6 serious bids, however Vulcan and another unnamed company were very close, and eventually Vulcan was chosen.

This shocked most people because Selkirk JUST launched their S1 ball with a ton of marketing hype behind it, such as "fibonacci sequence" drilled holes, varying hole sizes, and a 1-year no crack guarantee (which has been determined to be worthless). I believe a lot of people thought the behemoth Selkirk would've inked the deal with the PPA, but guess not.

VULCAN BALL PRICING?

Amateur players across the country were shocked to find how expensive the balls were on their website. Coming in at a whopping $24.99 for 6, $49.99 for 12, and $409.99 for 100. If you want to play with the same balls the pro's use, you got to cough up the cash. A big reason for this is the Vulcan bid for the 1 year contract was upwards of $2 MILLION plus a certain amount of ad spend AND a royalty for each ball sold.

Unfortunately, this cost is passed down to the consumer. However, I would assume most local and amateur tournaments will still use the Dura, or Franklin-X40. Will this Vulcan sponsorship help the brand? No way to tell this early on, but it won't hurt. Large companies like Selkirk and Joola are dominating the paddle sponsorships, and less pros are using Vulcan, so it's possible that this partnership will help the brand sell more paddles to amateurs, especially with 2024 predicted to be the largest year for Pickleball.

At the end of the day, all of these balls regardless of the company is made in...you guessed it, China. It's simply a plastic wiffle-like ball. They will always end up cracking or warping shape at some point, there is not much difference between these pickleballs besides the hype and marketing behind it.

 Update 1/12/24 - I played with the Vulcan ball today and I actually really liked it, as much as you can like a plastic ball compared to another plastic ball. The aestehtics are the best I have seen, the color POPS and it has a really nice shine (while new of course). It played great, a little bit softer than the Dura but not by much. I also played with the Selkirk S1 right after and the S1 felt very heavy, almost no pop. Yes, the balls are expensive, but if I had a choice I would definitely use the Vulcan over any other current ball.