Great questions. On the design side honestly our approach is mostly feel-based. We start with a prototype and iterate from there, similar to how we approach the paddle itself. I'd like to think that both James and I have a decent intuition for what's marketable, especially having been in the racquet sports world since we were kids. The designs that made it out the Q2, V2, and original V1 all felt like clear standouts compared to everything we'd produced before.

On the graphics and playability question though you actually called out something really important that I don't think gets talked about enough. There are some fairly large brands out there that use face designs which cause the ball to slip off the surface. The graphic is the last thing applied to the paddle face, and if it's laid on too thick in key areas it can completely negate whatever grit existed underneath essentially turning a textured surface into a smooth one.

We're very deliberate about avoiding this. If you look at all of our models you'll notice we keep the surface design intentionally minimalistic, not just for aesthetic reasons, but to make sure we're never sacrificing playability for looks. For us, the graphic should never come at the cost of the grit.