What Tufting Tools and Pickleball Paddles Have in Common

At first glance, tufting and pickleball don't have much in common. One involves yarn, fabric and a tufting gun. The other involves a paddle, a perforated ball and a court.

But when you spend your days working with products, materials and design, the similarities are surprisingly easy to spot.

At Tuftingshop, we've spent years helping makers, artists and studios find the right tools and materials for tufting. Alongside Tuftingshop, our company also operates TOCO67, a Dutch pickleball brand with a focus on distinctive design, materials and equipment for the growing European pickleball community.

And while a tufting gun and a pickleball paddle will probably never share the same toolbox, developing products for both worlds comes down to many of the same things.

Materials matter

Anyone who tufts knows how much the choice of material can change the result.

Wool behaves differently from acrylic. The backing fabric affects how comfortably you can work. Even small differences in a tufting gun can change how the machine feels in your hand.

Pickleball paddles are surprisingly similar in that respect.

The face material, core construction, thickness, weight and surface all influence how a paddle feels and responds. Carbon fibre, fiberglass and aramid-based materials each have their own characteristics, while different core constructions can change the balance between control, feedback and power.

It's one of the reasons TOCO67 puts so much attention into the construction and materials behind its pickleball paddles, rather than treating every paddle as essentially the same product with a different graphic.

Good design should be functional

We love colour at Tuftingshop. That probably isn't a surprise if you've ever seen our wall of yarn.

But good product design isn't simply about making something colourful.

A tufting gun has to be comfortable to operate. A frame needs to be practical. Yarn has to work with the project you're making. We can make these products attractive, but they still need to do their job first.

The same principle applies to sports equipment.

With TOCO67, visual design is deliberately more expressive than much of the traditional black and grey sports equipment on the market, but what's underneath the design remains just as important.

Shape, balance, handle dimensions, core and surface construction all have a purpose.

Different people need different tools

There isn't one perfect tufting setup for everyone.

Someone making their first small rug at home has very different requirements from a professional artist producing large pieces every week. That's why we don't think about tufting equipment as one-size-fits-all.

Pickleball is no different.

A player picking up a paddle for the first time may value completely different characteristics from someone who has already developed a preferred playing style.

TOCO67 therefore develops paddles for different levels and preferences rather than trying to make one paddle that supposedly does everything.

Creativity doesn't belong to one hobby

Perhaps this is the biggest thing the two worlds have in common.

One of our favourite things about tufting has always been seeing what people do when they're given the tools to make something their own. A technique that can look relatively simple produces an enormous variety of styles, colours and ideas.

We're seeing some of that same personality in pickleball.

It's a sport with a strong social side, and its growth in Europe is bringing together players with very different backgrounds and styles. There is room for performance, but also for humour, colour and individuality.

That's an environment we understand very well.

Two very different worlds, one appreciation for making good products

Tuftingshop remains dedicated to the tufting community we've built and to improving the tools, materials and resources available to tufters.

TOCO67 exists alongside it in a completely different world.

What connects the two isn't the activity itself. It's our interest in materials, product development, colour and creating products that don't have to look exactly like everything that came before them.

If you happen to spend your time away from the tufting frame on a pickleball court — or you're simply curious about what else we do — you can discover TOCO67 and its collection of pickleball paddles.

Otherwise, we'll see you back behind the tufting frame.