Calderano Signs with Joola (#139)

[Matt Hetherington]

As always, no one is interested in setting the premise. Same for ESN rubbers. A futile exercise.

I'm sorry but what exactly is your goal here?

 

[Tyce]

I'm sorry but what exactly is your goal here?

Trolling, achieving perceived dominance through obfuscation and wearing out people until there's nothing left but zeio.

 

[latej]

@Matt Hetherington @zeio @Tyce @NextLevel <= required to participate in the TTD meeting!!! ;-)

I book Matt first, and I've already booked @Der_Echte ;-)

 

[zeio]

TTD member Arkady had this to say about recommending Joola robot based on his experience with, ahem, Infinity...

Check out the comments on the Indiegogo site.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/table-tennis-robot-joola-shorty.34023/post-460625

 

[mamedium]

I have a feeling zeio is super salty because hugo is not choosing dhs or any other chinese brand 😂

nah. he is missing Tony…

 

[NextLevel]

I am going to drop the Joola mismanagement talking points since clearly nobody here wants to seriously discuss it. Pretty much everyone in this place has an annoying way of messaging, myself probably included lol. I could find plenty of disparaging comments to the information that I tried to introduce towards this thread, plenty of which you endorsed, I wouldn't need to look far. Comments that one might say would "attack my integrity". Comments that one might say would not "connect the table tennis community".

I don't think anyone is uninterested in discussing it. It's really to what end and its relevance to attacking Matt's integrity that is what makes no sense. Maybe I am being biased by knowing Matt but I don't think it is that. It's partly because he is putting his name next to what he is saying and most of us are not. Should anonymity give someone the right to be rude and act like you have no social filter? Would zeio be posting the way he did if he wasn't anonymous?

But maybe I am over thinking it. It's good that you see it differently.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

TTD member Arkady had this to say about recommending Joola robot based on his experience with, ahem, Infinity...

Check out the comments on the Indiegogo site.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/table-tennis-robot-joola-shorty.34023/post-460625

Can you please reference what relevance this has to Hugo signing with Joola?

 

[Matt Hetherington]

zeio made the claim that Joola has to do more than signing Hugo to regain the trust of consumers, people asked for evidence that Joola is seen in a worse light than other TT brands, and now there has been about 5 pages of useless back and forth with no discussion about that actual topic

Signing Hugo is not a publicity stunt to somehow magically fix anything that maybe could or should have been done better in the past, it's a recommitment to table tennis. People can perceive it however they want, but it's very early days and I don't see why previous misgivings people have with the brand need to be aired like dirty laundry on this thread. At the end of the day Hugo signed with Joola, he came here to our office, he met with the people working in the company - people with backgrounds from places like Under Armor, Nike, Lulu Lemon etc and he spoke with each different department of the company to see what they were capable of doing - and what they have done in pickleball. Those resources, with the signing of Calderano, are now being pooled back onto table tennis projects.

Give it time and see what happens, I'm also in part on the sideline and waiting to see what is developed out of it. But I will say this, I have been waiting for a long time for this turning point and for JOOLA to be ready to push back into table tennis, and I for one am glad that day is here - and I hope it is full of positives in the near and far future.

If people want to form opinions later down the line that's fine, they can have opinions when and based on whatever they like. So far Hugo has played one match, his equipment hasn't been released publicly and he is still in an adjustment phase, so it's pretty early days.

If Zeio wants to spend his time digging up old quotes, comments and threads to rag on Joola he can do so to his heart's content, I'm not going to try and win him over and I don't see the point in discussing it on a thread that is meant to be focused on Hugo's signing.

 

[NextLevel]

Asking the same in regards to the numerous sarcastic, disparaging comments that have come my way on this thread?

My apologies but you don't post as a public or quasi-public person on this forum and you give as good as you get. Now if you posted as MyFirstName MyLastName and had a picture of yourself on your profile and said you worked for so-so-and-so, my attitude to anyone posting about your credibility would be very different because you have put yourself out there.

 

[Novarac23]

Signing Hugo is not a publicity stunt to somehow magically fix anything that maybe could or should have been done better in the past, it's a recommitment to table tennis. People can perceive it however they want, but it's very early days and I don't see why previous misgivings people have with the brand need to be aired like dirty laundry on this thread. At the end of the day Hugo signed with Joola, he came here to our office, he met with the people working in the company - people with backgrounds from places like Under Armor, Nike, Lulu Lemon etc and he spoke with each different department of the company to see what they were capable of doing - and what they have done in pickleball. Those resources, with the signing of Calderano, are now being pooled back onto table tennis projects.

Give it time and see what happens, I'm also in part on the sideline and waiting to see what is developed out of it. But I will say this, I have been waiting for a long time for this turning point and for JOOLA to be ready to push back into table tennis, and I for one am glad that day is here - and I hope it is full of positives in the near and far future.

If people want to form opinions later down the line that's fine, they can have opinions when and based on whatever they like. So far Hugo has played one match, his equipment hasn't been released publicly and he is still in an adjustment phase, so it's pretty early days.

If Zeio wants to spend his time digging up old quotes, comments and threads to rag on Joola he can do so to his heart's content, I'm not going to try and win him over and I don't see the point in discussing it on a thread that is meant to be focused on Hugo's signing.

TBH I stopped following the thread after things started getting wild and people started digging up old news. For what its worth (opinion of one amateur TT player and a big TT enthusiast who wants to see the sport grow) Calderano signing with JOOLA is a great move for TT as a whole & JOOLA as a company.

 

[songdavid98]

 

[NextLevel]

zeio made the claim that Joola has to do more than signing Hugo to regain the trust of consumers, people asked for evidence that Joola is seen in a worse light than other TT brands, and now there has been about 5 pages of useless back and forth with no discussion about that actual topic

I did a straw poll on WhatsApp about Joola using the following question:

"Straw poll/question: any thoughts on Joola as a TT brand/pickleball brand/company? Positive and negative are welcome."

Sent it to 4 large WhatsApp groups of TT players that I am active in, mostly Africans, Indians, Koreans and Chinese. A couple of individuals as well:

Got the following responses which hopefully show how scandalously Joola is viewed amongst the TT people I interact with:

"I think Joola is a pretty good brand. They have very decent equipment. Blades are of high quality. Rubbers can use some work but they do a pretty good job. Shoes are awful but apparel is very good."

"

"
"I think Joola Is pretty much the Nike for pickle ball."


"
:I like Joola tables. Played on them and own one. Haven't used their blades but have heard they're good. Not a fan of Joola rubbers.
But they're pretty well known brand for Pickleball"

"I have a Joola Ben Johns. Its great!"


"Joola’s Zhou Qihao blade was really nice, they discontinued it though"

"like the rubbers, used to use rhyzm p and currently use dynaryz zgr, never tried the blades, balls are okay,

"Yeah I had dynaryz too and it was good"

 

[zeio]

I don't think anyone is uninterested in discussing it. It's really to what end and its relevance to attacking Matt's integrity that is what makes no sense. Maybe I am being biased by knowing Matt but I don't think it is that. It's partly because he is putting his name next to what he is saying and most of us are not. Should anonymity give someone the right to be rude and act like you have no social filter? Would zeio be posting the way he did if he wasn't anonymous?

But maybe I am over thinking it. It's good that you see it differently.

Read ThePongCommenter's previous post again. The question you should be asking yourself is what the heck was I thinking to ask for more details, knowing that zeio has a history of backing with verifiable sources and is serious about being truthful and even warned about "(perhaps not) following up with a discussion on integrity" in his previous post way before all this happened.

FWIW, I've been fair to Joola, defending it at times in this thread. You asked for the ugly side, I gave you the ugly side.

 

[NextLevel]

Got it. Being rude and acting like you have no social filter is permissible if person is not a public or quasipublic person.

"Permissible" I would change to "traditionally tolerated unless it rises to community insult". Btu that is a whole discussion for another time.

 

[NextLevel]

Read ThePongCommenter's previous post again. The question you should be asking yourself is what the heck was I thinking to ask for more details, knowing that zeio has a history of backing with verifiable sources and is serious about being truthful and even warned about "(perhaps not) following up with a discussion on integrity" in his previous post way before all this happened.

FWIW, I've been fair to Joola, defending it at times in this thread. You asked for the ugly side, I gave you the ugly side.

The ugly side is hardly a problem by itself. The purpose of this as well as the ugly side? :And the statements about holding Joola accountable?

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/calderano-signs-with-joola-139.38480/post-559981

 

[zeio]

Can you please reference what relevance this has to Hugo signing with Joola?

Please refer to Nextlevel for more details.

I didn't start this thread to have a Joola representative in mind. Joola wasn't even in consideration by many here. The original thread title was only changed to the current one upon member request.

 

[zeio]

The ugly side is hardly a problem by itself. The purpose of this as well as the ugly side? :

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/calderano-signs-with-joola-139.38480/post-559981

Now pushing the blame on to others? Why don't you link the posts where I defended Joola?

 

[zeio]

Another question is why did Matt feel the need to follow the first 2 posts (with a rather firm tone) with another one (with a softened stance) 2 days later that somewhat backpedals on them?

 

[mamedium]

I did a straw poll on WhatsApp about Joola using the following question:

"Straw poll/question: any thoughts on Joola as a TT brand/pickleball brand/company? Positive and negative are welcome."

Sent it to 4 large WhatsApp groups of TT players that I am active in, mostly Africans, Indians, Koreans and Chinese. A couple of individuals as well:

Got the following responses which hopefully show how scandalously Joola is viewed amongst the TT people I interact with:

"I think Joola is a pretty good brand. They have very decent equipment. Blades are of high quality. Rubbers can use some work but they do a pretty good job. Shoes are awful but apparel is very good."

"View attachment 39901


"
"I think Joola Is pretty much the Nike for pickle ball."


"
:I like Joola tables. Played on them and own one. Haven't used their blades but have heard they're good. Not a fan of Joola rubbers.
But they're pretty well known brand for Pickleball"

"I have a Joola Ben Johns. Its great!"


"Joola’s Zhou Qihao blade was really nice, they discontinued it though"

"like the rubbers, used to use rhyzm p and currently use dynaryz zgr, never tried the blades, balls are okay,

"Yeah I had dynaryz too and it was good"

Joola tables are not my favorites
their bounce is inconsistent and the color is, to be honest, quite unpleasant

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Another question is why did Matt feel the need to follow the first 2 posts (with a rather firm tone) with another one (with a softened stance) 2 days later that somewhat backpedals on them?

Because I’m done lol