Interview with Christophe Michon, Sales Manager for the South East area of ​​Wilson France

- Hello Christophe Michon, you are sales manager for the South East zone for the Wilson brand. Can you introduce yourself please?

Christophe Michon: Yes, indeed, I am therefore the representative for the Wilson brand for all racket sports: tennis, badminton, squash and padel in the large South East quarter of France.

- What is your daily role within Wilson?

CM: My role is to offer stores the best possible assortment, whether specialists or general practitioners, to suit consumers and practitioners.

- When did you discover the Padel ? Your first impression?

CM: I've heard about it for a good ten years now. But really, I heard it in France, 3-4 years ago with Wilson of course. My first impression was an image of a playful, accessible and fun sport.

- Why is it not Wilson's goal to settle in padel? What are the arguments?

CM: Quite simply, because padel remains a micro-phenomenon at the international level even if, it's true, there is a great boom at the moment and a little loss of momentum in tennis. But there, where there are more players, it's still tennis. In padel, there must be a maximum of 10 million players. It remains very low at the international level.

-Are there countries where Wilson has a strong presence in terms of market share for padel?

CM: In South America, already, where the brand has been established for a very long time. Even if we are not super present, the Wilson brand has been manufacturing padel rackets for 20 years. Also, in Spain, even if in this country, padel is a very practiced sport, there are many more players on the market.

– Do you have a relationship with padel on a daily basis? Do you work on different projects?

CM: Yes, of course. It is a diversification for tennis clubs, also for tennis racket distributors so yes we are talking about it but it remains a much less important subject than tennis for example. But it tends to become more important in the future.

– What is your view on the evolution of padel over the past 5 years?

CM: We feel that it is well pushed by the French Tennis Federation which tends to subsidize the clubs that invest in padel because once again, padel is fun, it brings people. It is a slightly different audience from tennis. So, we feel it is rather pushed at the federal level and it is going in the right direction even if we must not forget tennis.

-When you say "a different audience", that is to say that we can bring other people who were not necessarily made for tennis?

CM: That's right, absolutely. Either because technically, people were not comfortable with playing tennis, too technical or quite simply it lacked a bit of fun or playfulness. Padel is played by 4 people on a small court, we can chat more easily. Whereas tennis, when you are 24 meters apart, it is immediately more complicated.

- Do you have contacts with the FFT to try to develop the sport as well as possible?

CM: So, at my small level as a representative, no, even if we can see the departmental representatives when they come to the clubs, they talk a lot about padel, but it is rather at the level of the promotion manager that there can be exchanges with the federation.

- Do you think that they are putting all the necessary means to develop this new sport of rackets?

CM: They put the means on the infrastructures specific to padel but then there are all the extras like reception agents, padel teachers etc… which are super important because the practice is quite low like the equipment rate so there is always a need to have someone to lend or rent rackets. We must not neglect this fundamental step in the development of padel in clubs. It is not just about having infrastructures, but also having people to develop the practice and learning and also people to welcome people.

-In Spain we see that there are more padel players than tennis players, more padel players than tennis players. Would this be possible in France or is tennis still too entrenched?

CM: Honestly, I don't think so. The Spanish market has always had very few licensees with the Spanish Tennis Federation. It's always been like that in tennis, it's quite cultural. In France, we have a little over 4 million tennis players (1 million licensees), I have doubts that there is the same craze in our country. Today, if we have 100 padel players, that's already huge so there's still a lot of progress to be made to tickle tennis.

– Do you know the key factors in the democratization of padel in Spain or South America?

CM: Honestly no, I never really cared about it.

-Can the professionalization of padel be a lever for the development of tennis clubs?

CM: Yes, I am convinced that tennis clubs are becoming centres for practicing racket sports: tennis, padel, badminton where playing is very easy. And once again, bringing in a different audience can lead to playing tennis later on.

– So for you, padel cannot compete with tennis? But it can be a key factor, especially within tennis clubs?

CM: Yes, there you have it, it can actually be a complement or even the possibility of bringing your family to discover this sport and share a good time with your family.

-Do you think the Federation of Padel will become independent in the coming years?

CM: It remains a possibility if ever the core gets bigger, bigger and the market expands. For my part, I do not wish it too much because it can have a complementarity between these two sports but it remains a possibility.

- I return the question, without the Tennis Federation could it survive or even exist? In terms of means, structures and events?

CM: It would be more complicated right away. There are more than 7 tennis clubs that make up a very important territorial network. And then, there is already know-how and volunteers who are involved in tennis on a daily basis. With the support of the FFT, these same volunteers can help people discover padel. But otherwise, I think that it would indeed be very complicated if we simply had a padel federation in France.

-Do you have anything to add regarding the means used and possible for the development of padel?

CM: I don't have much to add, but as the world number one in racket sports, we have to be present on the padel market. Once again, in France, we are a little behind at the moment, but we have a certain number of products and technologies that are very quickly adaptable. And then, we know that today, padel equipment is relatively weak and still facing discovery, so players are not necessarily ready to invest large sums on padel equipment, unlike in Spain or even Argentina.

Antoine Sarroste

Antoine Sarroste studied padel. He offers us his expertise on the development of padel in France.

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