Raquex has launched a junior padel racket with Crayola. The face is printed with outline drawings that children colour in with Crayola wipe-off markers before they play. Afterwards, a cloth lifts the colour and leaves the outlines ready to start again.
The crayon is built into the drawings. On the yellow racket, a rocket shaped like a Crayola crayon flies past a ringed planet, with a dinosaur theme on the reverse. On the pink racket, a unicorn has a crayon for a horn, alongside a rainbow and a bird, with a nature theme on the other face.
Both versions cost £69.90 and are available to pre-order from today. Four markers come with each racket, and orders ship worldwide from 13 November.
A case for the committee
Olly Rose, Raquex’s founder, told World Padel Network the project started just over a year ago, when two problems turned up at once. Children weren’t picking up padel young enough. And the schools Raquex was talking to wanted padel in the curriculum but kept stalling at committee or trust sign-off.
“There had to be a stronger case for them to sign off new spend in padel,” Rose said. “So we knew we needed to create a tool that covered all bases: create excitement in children to pick up a racket, while blending something that’s already in the curriculum with something that isn’t. We knew a pretty picture on a racket wouldn’t do either.”
That is the commercial bet. A racket that children colour in during an art lesson, and that builds fine motor skills along the way, can be paid for from a curriculum budget rather than the sports equipment line, and it is signed off by different people.
Raquex says it has spoken to six schools, including an academy trust with 13 academies.
According to Rose, Crayola shared the aim of getting more children active and was keen to take part. The idea of a fully customisable face came from Raquex’s own team, which then had to find a way to make it work.
More than one session
Testing was limited to a small group of children, and Raquex did not give a figure. What surprised the company was how long the interest lasted.
“One child did some colouring at a padel club in the seating area, went onto court with a huge smile, but then did more colouring in the car on the way home, more at home, then more the next day,” Rose said. “It’s that spark that turns a one-off activity or padel session into something that stays with them, keeping them motivated to go and be active again.”
The racket underneath
The colouring sits on the surface only. Underneath, the racket is built like the rest of Raquex’s range: a frame made entirely of carbon fibre with no fibreglass, a round head, which gives a generous sweet spot and is the most forgiving shape for a developing player, a cushioned grip and a wrist strap. It weighs 285g, compared with 350–380g for a typical adult racket.
“If we inspire a child to try padel and then hand them something that holds them back, we have shot ourselves in the foot,” Rose said in the launch announcement.
Starting younger
Rose’s wider argument is that British padel won’t reach Spain’s standard until children start playing earlier. Getting people to play isn’t the problem. The LTA’s latest figures put Britain at 1.5 million players across 2,445 courts, up from 15,000 players in 2019.
Asked whether an adult version might follow, Rose said the focus for now is on children, “but never say never”.
The Raquex x Crayola racket is available at raquex.com and through selected Raquex stockists and partner clubs. Replacement marker sets are sold separately.
