Slinger Bag is a rather revolutionary, patented product that is expected to help stimulate the largely static level of participation in tennis around the world. It is described as “your 24/7 tennis partner” and as the most versatile portable launcher of tennis balls in the market, allowing individuals to practice tennis anywhere and anytime. It is incorporated in a trolley-sized tennis bag that will also hold you racquet, towels, bottles and other gear, and can even charge your mobile phone. It can be carried on your shoulders or wheeled as a trolley.
Mike Ballardie, a British executive who has worked for many years in leadership positions for Wilson, VF Corp. and most recently as chief executive of Prince, has agreed to be the CEO of the Israeli company that owns the brand, with a minority stake. Based in London, he has already established Slinger Bag Americas in the important U.S. tennis resort of Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Slinger Bag International in the U.K. Slinger Bag will operate a mix of direct-to-consumer e-commerce and traditional specialist distribution around the world.
Slinger Bag has already received pre-orders for 3,500 units that will be delivered as of September to individuals and retailers as part of a funding round of €1.2 million raised last July on Kickstarter to get the operation going.
The business plan calls for about 100,000 units to be delivered to end consumers, specialty retailers and distributors in 2020, and more in the future. About two-thirds of the volume is due to be generated through Slinger Bag's website, which will add other languages to English in the future, working in partnership with local retailers on a click-and-collect basis.
Several specialist tennis stores in the U.S. and Europe have already agreed to offer the product as a complement to their traditional product lines. Ballardie is currently building the European distributor base for Slinger with a plan to start operations in the autumn and says he is keen to hear from any interested parties.
Slinger Bag has partnered with a Belgium-based 3PL logistics giant, DSV, for its global warehousing and distribution operations and with Quinte Computer Systems in Canada for its business platform.
Founded in 2017 by an Israeli tennis enthusiast, Joe Kalfa, Slinger Bag is an attractive, affordable alternative to the products of the four or five other ball-machine suppliers in the market, which cater mainly to tennis clubs and larger country clubs. Their bigger, bulkier machines range in price up to $5,000, compared with the target basic price of $600 for the Slinger Bag launcher.
The market potential for Slinger Bag is huge, considering that there are an estimated 1.2 billion people around the world who play tennis or are regular fans of the sport. Of these, 100 million are avid tennis players playing 12 times per year. Slinger Bag targets mainly this group, which is estimated to be spending around $10 billion a year at retail on tennis equipment, excluding footwear and clothing.
Slinger Bag can carry up to 72 balls when closed and launch up to 150 of them in a single cycle at variable speeds of up to 45 miles per hour and at different angles of elevation. The lithium-battery-powered device can operate for up to five hours and can be set a slow speed to serve as a ball boy for practicing a serve.
Slinger Bag will offer a range of innovative accessories including an oscillator and a phone camera holder for the launcher, specialist tennis balls for optimum use in the launcher, a patented extendable ball pick-up tube and a range of other tennis accessories.
Ballardie, who is now 58 years old, has spent all his life in tennis. He began using tennis ball machines 45 years ago to train himself as a professional tennis player. He joined Wilson in the 1980s and worked for the brand for 11 years, ultimately running its European racquet sport business unit.
After working for VF Corp. to build up the international operations of its JanSport brand, he participated in the leveraged management buyout of Prince from the former Benetton SportSystem in 2003 and ran the brand's European operations until the end of 2012, when the U.S. company filed for bankruptcy protection. The Authentic Brands Group then bought Prince, and its new global licensee, Waitt Company, promoted Ballardie to global CEO, based in Atlanta. He left Prince in 2016 to set up his own sports consultancy.
