One of the most recognisable names in Irish sporting craftsmanship is stepping beyond the hurling field as Torpey launches a new range of padel rackets designed and engineered in Ireland.
Torpey Pádel represents an interesting extension for the family-owned Clare business, applying knowledge accumulated through generations of hurley making to one of the world’s fastest-growing sports.
The first two rackets in the range, FÍOR and SAOR, were developed through Torpey’s StikLab research and testing facility, with the company looking at areas including ball rebound, swing weight and sweet spot as it sought to translate familiar principles of balance, striking and feel into a very different sporting environment.
It is an ambitious move, but one that makes sense when viewed through the prism of where Torpey has taken the traditional hurley.
Rather than simply producing equipment as it always has, the company has increasingly positioned itself around research, material development and performance, challenging established assumptions about how a hurley should feel and perform.
Padel offers an opportunity to take that approach into a sport whose commercial trajectory is rising sharply.
The International Padel Federation’s latest World Padel Report says there are now more than 40 million active players globally, with more than 91,000 courts worldwide, a rise of over 20 per cent in a year. The sport is now played across 191 countries and territories.
Ireland remains a comparatively young padel market but is developing quickly, creating a natural home territory from which Torpey can test both its products and its proposition before looking further afield.
“We changed the conversation in hurling by asking what the future of the hurley could look like. We are bringing that same ambition to padel,” said Torpey Managing Director Seán Torpey.
“We have 100 years of knowledge behind us about how a striking implement should feel and perform when it hits a ball. We want to put that knowledge to work for one of the fastest-growing sports in the world.”
The Torpey padel project dates back to November 2023, and the development process involved material research, competitor benchmarking, prototyping, and player feedback.
That work has produced two different propositions.
FÍOR, meaning “true”, has a diamond-shaped profile aimed at players seeking greater power and precision, while SAOR, meaning “free”, uses a teardrop shape and a lower swing weight, with an emphasis on control, quicker handling, and a more forgiving feel.
The Irish-language names, along with a distinctive bamboo-inspired visual treatment, give Torpey a recognisable identity as it moves onto the court.
For now, the rackets use carbon construction and EVA cores, but another strand of the project could become important over time.
Research is already under way in StikLab into alternative natural materials, potentially allowing Torpey to bring some of the knowledge and sustainability thinking developed around hurley manufacture into its padel range.
Commercially, the move shows how an Irish sports company with a strong domestic heritage can look beyond the sport that built its reputation without abandoning the characteristics that created it.
An existing community around the Torpey name, particularly within Gaelic Games, gives the company an unusually strong starting point as padel participation grows in Ireland.
“We already have a community across Ireland that understands what Torpey stands for,” said Seán Torpey.
“We want them to be part of this journey. Ireland is our foundation, and our ambition over the coming years is to take Torpey Pádel into the UK and the US. My father John built this business around the player. That is the principle we will bring to every court.”
Founded by John Torpey in 1981, the business has its roots in a much longer family tradition of hurley craftsmanship.
Its latest move is less an abandonment of that heritage than an attempt to make it travel.
The intriguing part will be whether the qualities that helped Torpey build authority around one of Ireland’s most traditional pieces of sporting equipment can now give it a distinctive position in one of global sport’s newest growth markets.
If it can, the journey from the ash workshop to the padel court could become a particularly interesting Irish sports-business story.
Torpey and the Padel Federation of Ireland are full members of the Sport for Business community of sporting, business, and state organisations.
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Image Credit: Torpey
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