Interview with Guillaume Esclapez, who will open a brand new padel club in Lacanau in mid-November – Twins Padel Lacanau – with his twin brother Thomas.

Padel quickly became an obsession

We have been passionate about racket sports since we were little, and about sports in general! We always wanted to start a sports business between brothers, but before that, each of us evolved professionally on our own, gained experience, and we found ourselves in Bordeaux on padel courts, a sport that very quickly became an obsession for us. 

The hardest part of padel is finding your pair, we found it quickly, to the point of wanting to set up our own structure together.

Opening a padel club: it takes time!

The hardest part is finding premises, and you have to be (very) patient. We have a region rich in padel players, and the clubs are very concentrated in Bordeaux. So we adopted a different approach: creating a structure in a place where there is no full-fledged padel club and where the demand is there. 

The banking procedures were long, although padel is booming in France. Some clubs are closing down and this does not reassure financial institutions, most of which are not familiar with this sport. 

Nothing is easy... but we will say that there are still nice aspects to work on, like the identity of the club and the image that we want to project.

High-end services

By playing in numerous clubs all over France, we were able little by little to build a universe that resembles us. We also based ourselves on the Nordic countries, which offer “high-end” services.

So we imagined our club first of all as customers, seeing what we like when we go to play padel in clubs: the quality of the courts but also the after-sport, with a real space to have a drink with friends, chat, work... and enjoy sports evenings.

We want to create a real place to live, a sport interlude with work. And Twins Padel is in Lacanau, city of surfing, sun, beach and ocean. We want to reflect this universe within the club.

Four indoor tracks, tournaments every week, evenings…

The club opens its doors in the first half of November. Despite the work not progressing as expected, we still plan to welcome padel players with a “pop-up” bar area while waiting for the work to be completed in December. In return, we will offer exceptional rates until the end of the year.

Twins Padel has four indoor padel courts with a height of almost nine meters, and a pickleball court. 

Every week friendly tournaments in the form of up-downs and approved tournaments from P25 to P500 will be organized (women, men, and mixed). 

We have the particularity of being a club which will have a peak in attendance in the summer. We are expecting players from the four corners of France during the summer period from June to September. We will then offer summer courses and tournaments.

And all year round, afterworks, match broadcasts (all sports), corporate evenings, etc.

Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!

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