News

Slinger Bag, a sports brand focused on innovating game improvement equipment for all ball sports with an initial focus on the global tennis market, has announced a landmark 5-year distribution agreement with Australia’s premier tennis specialty retailer, Tennis Only.

The partnership names Tennis Only as the exclusive distributor of the new, game-changing Slinger Bag in Australia. The two parties plan to launch the product within the Australian market from October 2020.

Tennis Industry data reveals there are two million active tennis players in the country, of which around half are avid players playing at least once a month. Both Slinger and Tennis Only believe that all avid players across the market will be interested in Slinger Bag and as such Slinger can play a significant role in enhancing play frequency in general across the market, as well as honing the skills and fitness of players of all ages and abilities.

The deal will see Tennis Only retail Slinger Bag through its four retail outlets in Perth and Melbourne as well as its leading online store – Australia’s most visited tennis ecommerce website – and in doing so spread the reach and visibility of the Slinger brand. This aligns with Slinger Bag’s core go to market strategy to activate its global brand plan as an online direct-to-consumer business.

The announcement follows recent strategic distribution agreements in other key global tennis markets including Japan, UK, Ireland, Switzerland and all four Scandinavian markets.

Slinger Bag is widely recognised as the hot new tennis product since launching in Spring 2020, receiving widespread critical acclaim in the process. The product has surpassed order forecasts in all global markets with the US, UK and japan markets regularly seeing their inventories selling-out since launching in May and July respectively.

Slinger Bag enables tennis enthusiasts to get out on court to play at any time without the need to find a playing partner – whether that be at their club, local park, on their driveways or in any other available open space. Slinger is designed to be lightweight, wheeled as a trolley bag, and easily transported in the trunk of the smallest saloon or sedan car.

This proprietary design empowers players to set up and start launching balls within minutes, to control both the launch speed and the frequency of the balls using two customizable dials and vary the angle of elevation to suit groundstrokes, lobs or even in the Ball Boy mode to practice serves. Slinger Bag is lightweight at 15kg/33 lbs. versatile and multi-functional, holding racquets and other gear, 72 tennis balls, and has pockets for storing wallets, keys, towel and a water bottle and is impressively affordable.

“I’m thrilled that Tennis Only and Slinger have partnered to provide Australia tennis consumers with this innovative new tennis product.” said Tennis Only Founder and Managing Director Hayden Gibson “Never has a ball launcher landed in this country with such anticipation. We have been testing the launcher the past four months and feel the Australian tennis public will love the Slinger Bag.”

“Tennis Only’s reputation and standing within the Australian tennis community makes them the perfect distribution partner to launch Slinger Bag into this key international market,” said Mike Ballardie, CEO of Slinger Bag. “We arrive in Australia with a growing anticipation and reputation around the Slinger Bag, which we are experiencing as a result of our success in the US and other international territories. We can’t wait to add the Aussie tennis players’ feedback to our global success, which has come not in small part through the support of the over 100 Australian backers during our crowdfunding campaign. We are excited about the long-term growth potential of our partnership with Tennis Only and importantly, about getting Slinger products into the marketplace in this tennis obsessed nation.”

The Slinger Bag is available to order now – to find out more about Slinger Bag, visit https://slingerbag.com.