First Fake Paddles, Now Fake Pickleballs?

Ed Ju’s warning about suspected fake Life Time balls raises a familiar concern: Are players getting the equipment they paid for?

Pickleball’s counterfeit problem might be finding its way into another pocket of your gear bag.

Ed Ju just captured what some of us have experienced firsthand, warning players about suspected fake Life Time pickleballs after a mid-session ball swap raised some immediate red flags.

In an Instagram post, Ju says he switched to a second ball for his second game — and it “flew off my paddle.”

“I didn’t wanna be THAT guy,” he writes, but something looked off. The ball almost resembled an indoor ball. Ju says follow-up tests revealed a “huge difference” compared with a regular Life Time ball.

His warning: Be careful what you’re buying, especially in bulk.

“These balls ain’t cheap,” Ju writes, citing a price of $6.50 per ball.

That’s a steep price for the real thing. For a suspected imitation? Even tougher to swallow.

We’ve seen this movie before.

We've covered pickleball’s counterfeit paddle market, where convincing copies borrow established brands’ names and designs without delivering the product buyers expect.

And this isn’t confined to obscure shopping sites. UPA-A President Jason Aspes previously purchased a convincing counterfeit JOOLA paddle from a third-party seller on Walmart.com. The organization has also organized an industry response to help brands combat counterfeiting.

Ju’s post raises the same buyer-beware concern about balls. While his account alone doesn’t confirm the ball’s origin or establish how widespread suspected fake balls might be throughout the market, it gives players another reason to pay attention to the seller behind the listing.

Buy directly from the brand or a verified authorized retailer, and flag suspicious products before placing a bulk order.