JOOLA x Steve Aoki: the Perseus Pro V goes HiROQUEST with a $349.95 collectible paddle
Short answer: JOOLA's limited-edition HiROQUEST collection pairs two Perseus Pro V 16mm paddles with table tennis rackets, randomized character cards and numbered chase cards, sold exclusively at JOOLA.com.
A $349.95 pickleball paddle now comes with a trading card, and the rarest one in the run is a single gold 1-of-1. That is the JOOLA x Steve Aoki HiROQUEST collection, a four-piece limited edition that went on sale October 6, 2026, exclusively at JOOLA.com. It pairs two of the brand's Perseus Pro V 16mm paddles with two Infinity Carbon table tennis rackets, all wrapped in artwork from Aoki's HiROQUEST universe, and it is the clearest sign yet that paddle companies now compete for collectors as hard as they compete for players.
What is actually in the collection
The pickleball half is two colorways of the Perseus Pro V 16mm at $349.95 each. Hiro Red pairs a yellow handle with a red edge guard; Hyro Red pairs a purple handle with the same red edge. Both faces carry HiROQUEST artwork and graffiti-style Steve Aoki lettering. The table tennis half is two Infinity Carbon rackets at $199.95 each, in the same character scheme.
Hiro and Hyro are the two sides of Aoki's HiROQUEST saga, the protagonist and his arch-nemesis. What started as the album HiROQUEST: Genesis has grown into graphic novels, manga and trading cards, and the paddles extend that world onto court equipment. JOOLA's own launch line puts the choice to buyers in one sentence: it is time to choose Team Hiro or Team Hyro.
The card in the box is doing real work in this release. Every paddle and racket ships with a Mystery Pack containing one randomized JOOLA x HiROQUEST character card, matched to the product's colorway. JOOLA's product page lists five tiers: a base Blue card, Yellow numbered to 77, Orange numbered to 25, Red numbered to 5, and a Gold 1-of-1 chase card. A paddle you buy for a Saturday round robin can, in theory, arrive with a one-of-a-kind collectible in the packaging.
Not a random celebrity pairing
Aoki is not a rented face here. He is a two-time Grammy-nominated DJ and producer who plays pickleball and table tennis himself, and JOOLA describes him as a longtime friend of the brand. The two previously worked together through the Aoki Foundation, which funds research into brain health and active aging. JOOLA President and CEO Richard Lee has framed the collection as an extension of that relationship, pulling Aoki's creative work directly into the equipment lineup rather than licensing a name for a box.
That matters for how the product is built. The base paddle is the Perseus Pro V 16mm, a current competition model, not a cosmetic-only novelty. A buyer is getting a playable frame with collectible skin, which is exactly the formula sneaker and streetwear drops have run for years.
The fine print collectors should read
Two details on the product page are easy to miss. First, the warranty note: because these colorways are limited, future warranty claims may be honored with a standard Perseus Pro V 16mm rather than a matching replacement. If you crack a Hiro Red paddle in a year, you may get a plain one back. Second, the cards are randomized within tiers, so buying multiple paddles does not guarantee a rare pull, and the numbered cards make the secondary market part of the product whether JOOLA says so or not.
Availability is direct-to-consumer only through JOOLA's website, with no retail partners listed for the drop.
Why paddle brands keep doing this
The business logic is the interesting part. Racquet sports equipment has historically been sold on specs: core thickness, face material, swing weight. Limited crossovers sell something else: identity, scarcity and a reason to buy a second paddle when your first one works fine. By bolting Aoki's intellectual property onto a proven performance platform, JOOLA is pitching to music fans and card collectors alongside players, and the numbered-card mechanic gives the release a trading-card drop's suspense at a paddle's price point.
It also fits a pattern across the sport. Signature pro paddles, anniversary editions and artist collaborations have all multiplied over the past two years as the player base has grown past 10 million in the United States alone. Each one tests how far the equipment market can stretch toward lifestyle goods before serious players push back on price. At $349.95, this one is firmly in premium territory, roughly double the street price of many flagship paddles.
What to watch
The tell will be the secondary market. If numbered Yellow and Orange cards start trading at meaningful prices, expect every major paddle brand to have a card-in-box mechanic within a year. If the collection sits, it becomes a lesson in how much crossover appetite pickleball actually has. Either way, the Perseus Pro V underneath is a known quantity, so the experiment is being run on the packaging, not the performance. For players who just want a paddle, the standard Perseus Pro V 16mm remains available without the artwork, the cards or the markup.
Sources
Sources checked 20 Oct 2026. Header image is illustrative, not a photo of the events described.
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