Padel. A cover story for belonging.
Padel players are up 566% in two years because Britain has a loneliness problem and padel is perfectly designed to fix it.
THE GIST ON PADEL: "Game, Set, Friends"
Why is padel booming?
Padel is the fastest growing sport in Britain. Players are up 566% in two years, because Britain has a loneliness problem, and padel is perfectly designed to fix it.
What is the problem?
Making friends as an adult is genuinely hard, and the structures that used to do it for us, the pub, the church, the social club, even the office, are ebbing away. We have more ways to communicate than ever and fewer reasons to see anyone.
Nobody talks about it, because it's not a crisis with a headline. It's just the slow slipping away of community.
How does padel solve it?
Everyone starts as a beginner, so you all struggle together. The court is enclosed, so you're close enough to talk. You see the same people every week. It recreates what's missing: a reason to show up somewhere with other people without having to ask for it.
Is that a business?
Padel is one of the first examples of what they're calling, depressingly, the loneliness economy: an entire generation of adults without the structures that used to make community. There's a gap between the story we tell about modern life and the reality. More connected than ever, and more isolated than any previous generation.
No one admits it, so we find cover stories: cafes, running clubs, dating apps, though the last two are basically the same thing now. The businesses that sell one thing on the surface and deliver belonging underneath are sitting on a whole ocean of loneliness. They'll be the enterprises of the next decade. Padel or pub, what are you picking?
Padel or pub?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How fast is padel growing?
Players are up 566% in two years, according to Huw.
Why does padel make friends easily?
Everyone starts as a beginner, the court is enclosed so you can talk, and you see the same people each week.
What is the loneliness economy?
Businesses that sell one thing on the surface, like a sport or a cafe, and deliver belonging underneath.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
The conversation
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