350 million tennis balls are sold each year globally.
125 million are sold in the US.
Amazing thing on this though.
17.8 million American’s reported playing tennis last year, but of those 17.8 million, only 9.6 million reported playing the game over 10x.
2-9 days is how long a tennis ball last before going bad.
2-4 hours of playing until deemed no longer good enough for a pro match.
Using those numbers, it could be expected 9.6 million tennis regulars could consume 125 million tennis balls, but I don’t think these people are using over 12 new balls a year.
I’ve been a pretty active tennis player since age five, where I play 1-8x a month.
Tennis balls after losing pressure are still good for casual play, with it expected they can last 1-2 years before being completely dead.
The standard 3 ball bottle retails anywhere from $5-10. I don’t realistically think the casual or even semi active player are buying balls that often, spending $60-120 a year, when a six month old ball does an okay job.
So big question, how many of these are used for dogs?
76.8 million dogs live in US households.
48.2 million households have at least one dog.
The amusing thing about tennis balls is they are actually highly advised not to be a chew toy by the majority of vet blogs.
The reason is the materials fall apart and can be a choking hazard, but as a ball, larger dogs prefer them, due to size, some texture to the ball itself and color. Also humans like them, due to the bounce factor, making them fun to play with for dogs.
If a company tried directly selling tennis balls repackaged with a name such as “doggy ball”, they’d likely be pulled off shelves for safety concerns. However as tennis balls, which people buy and use for dogs has no consequence on manufacturers or retailers.
Big comparison on this is Q-Tips.
Q-Tips sold over 200 million dollars in US sales in 2018.
Generic or competitor brand versions sold over 500 million dollars.
According to the packaging, Q-Tips aren’t supposed to be used for cleaning ears and there’s a warning mandated by the government on that.
People still obviously use Q-Tips for that, where over 95% of American’s use Q-Tips or similar products for cleaning ears.
With tennis balls, it’s this strange way to sell a product that’s technically bad for dogs, but not face any judgement and where the majority of tennis balls sold are going.
Which as a tennis player pains me to know the main part of the sport is more likely to go in golden retrievers mouth over a racquet.