Interview with Christophe Michon, Sales Manager for the South East area of Wilson France
Christophe Michon: Yes, indeed, I am therefore the representative for the Wilson brand for all racket sports: tennis, badminton, squash and padel on the large south-eastern quarter of France.
CM: My role is to offer stores the best possible assortment, whether specialists or general practitioners, to suit consumers and practitioners.
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.
CM: Quite simply, because the padel remains a micro-phenomenon at the international level even if, it is true, there is a good boom at the moment and a little breathlessness in tennis. But where there are more practitioners it is still tennis. In the padel, there must be a maximum of 10 million practitioners. It remains very weak at the international level.
CM: Already in South America, where the brand has been established for a very long time. Even if we are not super present, the Wilson brand manufactures racquets of padel for 20 years. Also, in Spain, even if in this country, the padel is a very popular sport, there are many more players on the market.
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.
CM: We feel that it is well pushed by the French Tennis Federation which tends to subsidize the clubs which invest in the padel because once again, the padel it's fun, it brings people together. It's a little different audience than 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.
CM: Exactly. Either Because technically, people were not comfortable with playing tennis, too technical or quite simply it lacked a bit of fun or playfulness. The padel it is played at 4 on a small field, we can more easily discuss. Whereas tennis, when you are 24 meters apart, it is immediately more complicated.
CM: So, at my small level of representative, not even if we can see the departmental councilors 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.
CM: They put the resources into the infrastructure specific to the padel but after that there are all the extras of the type of reception agent, teacher of padel etc… which are super important because the practice is quite low as the rate of equipment so there is always a need to have someone to lend or rent snowshoes. It is important not to overlook this fundamental step in the development of padel in clubs. It is not only a matter of having infrastructures, but also of having people to develop practice and learning and also people to welcome people.
CM: Honestly, I don't think so. The Spanish market has always had very few licensees from the Spanish Tennis Federation. It has always been like that in tennis, it's quite cultural. In France, there are just over 4 million tennis practitioners (1 million licensees), I have doubts that there is the same enthusiasm in our country. Today, if we have 100 practitioners of padel, it's already huge so good there is still a great development to be done to be able to tickle tennis.
CM: Honestly no, I never really cared about it.
CM: Yes, I am convinced that tennis clubs are becoming centers for the practice of racquet sports: tennis, padel, badminton where the practice is very easy. And once again, bringing in a different audience can lead to tennis practice for later.
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.
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.
CM: It would be more complicated straight away. There are more than 7 tennis clubs which form 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 discover the padel. But otherwise, I think that indeed, it would be very complicated if we simply had a federation of padel in France.
CM: I don't have much to add, but as the world number one in racket sports, we have to be present in the padel. Once again, in France, we are a little behind for the moment but we have a certain number of products and technologies which are very quickly adaptable. And then, we know that today, the equipment of padel is relatively weak and still facing discovery so practitioners are not necessarily ready yet to invest large sums in padel unlike Spain or even Argentina.