How Scott London Became Obsessed With Padel
And why padel may be the new Burning Man...
Editor’s note: The following (lightly edited) feature article is the fourth installment of a new “How I Became Obsessed With Padel” series we’re rolling out from regular guest contributor, Scott Matulis, a former PR Director for the Worldwide Senior Tennis Tour who discovered padel in Vegas two years ago and can now hit balls off of the glass occasionally. He is the author of the LinkedIn and Substack serial novel The Applicant.
For the sake of transparency, please note that GLDN PNT is a Premier Partner of Padel Nation — and, as always, we’re very grateful for their support in allowing us to keep this publication rolling.
Scott London is a longtime entrepreneur who has helped build and commercialize legendary apparel brands including Wu-Wear, Zoo York and Baby Phat. His latest venture, GLDN PNT, is a clothing and lifestyle brand created specifically for padel.
London is also every bit as obsessed with the sport as the people he designs for — and, like many tennis converts, he still sometimes hits an overhead when he should be hitting a bandeja.
I recently sat down with him to talk about how he became obsessed with padel and why he thinks padel is the new Burning Man.
How did you first discover padel and how did it become more than just something you do for fun?
It’s interesting because my padel story is very similar to the progression of padel in Miami itself.
A lot of people were introduced to padel by Wayne Boich, who owns Reserve now. He had a padel court at his home. And there were a couple of small clubs with padel. There was Real Padel Miami and Wynwood Padel Club, which is really where I first started playing padel on a regular basis. It was right before the pandemic — or just as the pandemic was starting.
I was still playing tennis every day, and then I started playing padel. And padel, as everybody knows, is super addictive. So I decided I’m only going to play tennis on Tuesdays and Thursdays and play padel the other days.
I remember on the days I wouldn’t play padel, if I saw those guys that night or the day after, and they’re talking about their match, I would be so mad that I wasn’t playing just those two days. So I gave up tennis completely, and started playing padel all the time.
I went from playing at Wynwood to playing at Ultra Padel, with someone who, unfortunately, just passed away (Fernando Alarcón). He had the first indoor courts [in Miami], and I started playing there whenever it would rain.
Then there was a place in Miramar, which is about an hour away. And I remember the first time driving out to Miramar with a bunch of guys and thinking to myself, ‘This is obviously a real addiction.’ I would never have driven an hour to go play tennis. I’ve played tennis my whole life. But I would never have driven an hour just just for a regular game.
Eventually I ended up at Reserve Seaplane, and then last year, I joined Sunset Padel, which is very close to me. And so, like I said, my progression in padel has [largely mirrored] padel’s progression in Miami. And now I’m sort of playing all over the place. If I drop my son at school, I’m playing at Ultra because it’s nearby.
I went to Burning Man for years, and I always say that padel is the new Burning Man. It’s the new obsession. Years ago you were always talking about Burning Man and who was going and whose camp were you in and how many days you were going for.
But now you’re out to dinner, and everybody is talking about padel, the game they had yesterday, the game they’re going to have tomorrow, the game they had today, and who beat who. There’s so much trash talking and everything. It’s so fun.
There’s a lot of stuff being written about the padel community and that the sense of belonging is different than it is in tennis and other sports. Do you agree that tennis and padel are different in that context?
Look, the number one thing about padel is the community, which is why I decided to start GLDN PNT. The community is just so strong.
The thing about tennis is it’s a very heady game. It’s a very individual, mentally gritty game. Especially at a high level. And you’re out there on your own. Even to the point where in a fun game, you’re having fun, but you’re still an individual. Just to make a point, I would go as far to say that there is no community in tennis.
I think about this all the time: ‘Why is there such a sense of community in padel?’ I think it’s proximity. First of all, it’s a doubles game. The teammates are very close together, so you’re talking much more than in tennis. It’s a communication game, where you’re hitting the ball, you’re constantly talking, your opponents are constantly talking. All four people are talking.
People say that padel is the ‘new golf.’ You could never say that about tennis, right? I think it’s because of the walls. It’s very intimate because of the walls. It’s four people doing something together. Not an individual, not two people, but four people doing something together.
So, whether you are trash talking each other, you know, across the net, or whether you’re just communicating, just having fun, or just saying, ‘What are you and your wife doing for dinner tonight?’ in between points, whatever the thing is, you’re actually talking. There’s something about those four walls, I think, that make it more intimate.
People get addicted to tennis, but to me it seems like the addiction to padel is more aggressive, more all-consuming, if you get what I mean. What’s behind that in your opinion?
First of all, padel is a thinking-man’s game. And then of course it’s very dynamic. Also, even if you’re not good, even if you don’t have the perfect form, with padel, you’re still going to have a lot of fun out there. Where in tennis, you’ve gotta really learn the top spin. You’ve got to learn the strokes, you know?
A novice tennis player could not play against a very good tennis player and both of them have fun. But a novice padel player can have fun with a good padel player. The beginner can play with the expert, and it happens all the time in pro ams and things like that. In tennis, that could never happen. You’d just be picking up balls all over the place, right?
I think the other thing that’s really interesting about padel is that every now and then you can do something that a pro does. You know what I mean? Whether it’s a trick shot or you get it off the wall or whatever happens, you’re like, "‘oh my God!’
In tennis, you’re never doing that. You’re never hitting the ball like Federer no matter what you do. But in padel, you’re going to be able to hit the ball out of the court. And eventually you’re going to learn how to run out of the court and hit it back.
Okay, so how did it go from, “Well this is super fun, I’m not playing any more tennis” to “this is a business?” What was the need that wasn’t being met and how did you decide to step in?
So, I’m sure many people have thought, ‘Oh, it would be a great idea to have a padel clothing line.’ But they have no idea how to actually make that happen. Because of the nature of my background, fortunately (or unfortunately), I actually knew how to make that happen.
When I talk about this, I’m not sure that I always get the point across: It’s not that I looked at the padel community and thought, ‘Oh, I want to have a brand and sell to the padel community.’
The importance of the community for any clothing brand — or any brand that we can think of in the world — is that the brand starts from a certain community, and then people want to be associated with that community.
I say that padel is to tennis what snowboarding is to skiing. It goes back to your question about community and tennis. There is that community there, but it’s different. Same thing with skiing. It’s just different. It’s more individualized than snowboarding. And now you see the big ski companies emulating the snowboard companies. All the skiers want to dress like their cooler cousin. You know, they want to dress like the snowboarders dress.
So, it’s not that I wanted to build a brand and just sell it, because, let’s face it, the padel community is relatively small. But, at the end of the day, I think that people are going to want to be associated with what padel players stand for.
If Tom Brady picks up a golf club or a tennis racquet, nobody actually cares. If he picks up a padel racket, it’s in the paper, right? Same with Alcarez. Same with Nadal, etc. They pick up a padel racquet, everyone’s like wow, look at them, they’re so into padel!
So what’s the difference between padel clothes and tennis clothes?
There isn’t one.
So, it’s funny… when I first started, I told a very good friend of mine, ‘I’m gonna start a padel collection.’ And he’s actually an ex-pro athlete, and he said, ‘Oh, that’s great, because there’s nothing to wear.’
And I said, ‘Ronnie, you know there’s a world of tennis clothes out there. I’m not gonna actually do anything different. It’s basically the same.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, but you know, I’d still rather wear padel clothes.’
I think we’re still trying to figure out the vocabulary of what sets us apart from tennis. I think that our new collection kind of heads in the direction where we can get away with colors that are not necessarily tennis colors.
It’s easier to talk about it with the skiing and snowboarding analogy. In the beginning of snowboarding days, the kids were wearing grunge instead of ski clothes.
In padel, you see people wearing their favorite t-shirt, that they would probably never wear to tennis. In tennis, I feel like you put a tennis outfit on, more than you put a padel outfit on. In padel, you kind of bring your own personality to the court.
Clothing is clothing at the end of the day. But when we go to the store, we’re thinking about who we want to be. We’re playing. It’s a costume. It’s dress up. And when we pick it out of our closet, it’s the same thing. We’re thinking, ‘Who do I want to be and who do I want the world to know that I am?’
You can view GLDN PNT’s entire collection online here and get news and updates by following them on Instagram here.
If you enjoyed this article, please be sure to subscribe to Padel Nation (for free!) to get exciting updates and important insights on the rapidly emerging U.S. padel scene like this one delivered directly to your inbox 2X weekly — or share it with a padel-playing friend.
Finally, as always, a big thank you to the friends and preferred partners of Padel Nation who help make posts like this possible, including:
Interested in becoming a friend or preferred partner of Padel Nation? Drop us a line here and let’s talk!
Oh, and one other thing… my brand-new 352-page padel book was just released last week. So, if you enjoy the work I’m doing in the U.S. padel space, you can support me by ordering a copy (or two!) online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Or if you’re a club owner and you’d want to carry a handful of copies in your pro shop for “padel curious” people who are interested in trying the sport out but don’t know quite where to start, let me know and I can connect you with my publisher’s wholesale department.
Many thanks in advance!