Apollo Paddles Now at Bob's Racquet Works, Goderich's Racquet Shop Since 1986
Some shops you find on a main street. This one you find down a country road east of Goderich, and once you do, you keep going back. Bob Riehl has been stringing racquets and outfitting players out of Bob's Racquet Works since 1986. Forty years later, the Apollo MK47 Signature Pro is on his wall. We could not be prouder of where it ended up.
Forty years on Cherrydale Road
In 1986, Bob Riehl started stringing racquets. Tennis mostly, then badminton, then squash. Word got around Huron County the way it does in small towns, which is to say slowly at first and then permanently. If your strings went, you took the racquet to Bob. That was just the answer.
Four decades later, the answer has not changed. What changed is everything around it. Wood gave way to graphite. Tennis gave some ground to badminton. And then, sometime in the last ten years, pickleball arrived in Ontario and did not leave. Bob did what he has always done. He learned it, he played it, and he started stocking it properly.
Walk in and the first thing you notice is that nothing is there by accident. The paddle wall is deep. The shoe boxes are stacked five high because Bob actually carries sizes instead of ordering them in. There are bags, grips, nets, balls, hats, visors. There are handmade crokinole boards, because this is rural Ontario and some traditions are worth keeping on the shelf. There are trophies and engraving for the local leagues and tournaments, because somebody has to do that too.
It is a serious inventory in a building most people would drive past. That is sort of the point.
There is a small detail Bob mentioned that says something about how long he has been at this. Over the years he has lived in three different homes on Cherrydale Road. Same road, four decades, other families in the old houses now. The pro shop moved when he did, and it sits today at 81111 Cherrydale Road. Forty years in one business on one road in one county. That is not a location. That is a life.
Why we wanted Apollo on Bob's wall
Apollo Pickleball is a Canadian brand. Designed and engineered in Edmonton, Alberta, sold only to Canadians, priced in Canadian dollars. No cross-border shipping, no duties, no surprise fee from the courier at the door. That is our whole reason for existing.
Bob's Racquet Works has been living a version of that idea since before most of us picked up a paddle. An independent Canadian shop, owned by one guy, serving one county, competing against every big-box retailer and every American website by simply being better at the job. When Bob agreed to carry Apollo, it felt less like a retail deal and more like being vouched for.
🏓 Playing in Huron County? The Apollo MK47 Signature Pro is now stocked at Bob's Racquet Works. It is our best selling paddle, co-designed with Maria Klokotzky, Canada's top ranked women's pro, and every one ships with our Payload 4 edge weight clips included. Canadian pricing, no import fees, no duties.
Buying a paddle online is a leap of faith. Weight, balance, grip size and face texture all matter, and none of them come through on a product page. At Bob's you can hold it. You can ask a question and get a real answer from somebody who has been fitting racquet sports equipment since the eighties. For a lot of players, that is worth the drive.
We started him with the MK47 on purpose. It is the paddle we would hand a stranger who asked us to pick one, and it is the one that has to earn its place on a wall that already carries every major brand in the sport. If it does that in Goderich, more of the lineup follows.
What you will find at Bob's
The original trade, still running. Tennis, badminton and squash racquets strung properly, at the tension you actually asked for, by hand.
Our best selling paddle, now stocked at Bob's. Designed and engineered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canadian priced, no duties or import fees on the tag.
Court shoes in real sizes on the shelf, paddle bags, hats, visors, grips and everything else that ends up in a player's bag.
Portable nets, indoor and outdoor balls, and the gear clubs and community groups need to get a session running.
Built by hand, sold out of the same shop. A small-town Ontario tradition that has been part of Bob's offering for years.
Local leagues, club championships and community tournaments. If Huron County handed out hardware, chances are it came through here.
A shop that gives back to its own courts
There is one detail about Bob's Racquet Works that says more than any inventory list. When Goderich players were fundraising for dedicated pickleball courts, Bob pledged a portion of his own sales to the project. Not a sponsorship banner. Not a logo on a fence. Money out of his own till, into courts his customers would play on.
That is the kind of business we want Apollo paddles sitting in. Pickleball in this country did not grow because of big brands or big budgets. It grew because of people like Bob, in towns like Goderich, who cared enough to stock the gear, string the racquets, and chip in for the courts before anybody was watching.
📍 Goderich has been called the prettiest town in Canada. It also has a forty-year-old racquet shop out on Cherrydale Road that will string your racquet, fit your paddle and remember your name the second time you come in. Both are worth the drive.
Find Bob's Racquet Works
Bob's is out in the country between Goderich and Benmiller, so give him a call before you head out. He will tell you when he is around.
Stop by Bob's Racquet Works on Cherrydale Road to hold the MK47 Signature Pro in person, or browse the full Apollo lineup online with free Canada-wide shipping over $50. Canadian pricing, always.
Buying a paddle online is a leap of faith. Weight, balance, grip size and face texture all matter, and none of them come through on a product page. At Bob's you can hold it. You can ask a question and get a real answer from somebody who has been fitting racquet sports equipment since the eighties. For a lot of players, that is worth the drive.
We started him with the MK47 on purpose. It is the paddle we would hand a stranger who asked us to pick one, and it is the one that has to earn its place on a wall that already carries every major brand in the sport. If it does that in Goderich, more of the lineup follows.
What you will find at Bob's
The original trade, still running. Tennis, badminton and squash racquets strung properly, at the tension you actually asked for, by hand.
Our best selling paddle, now stocked at Bob's. Designed and engineered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canadian priced, no duties or import fees on the tag.
Court shoes in real sizes on the shelf, paddle bags, hats, visors, grips and everything else that ends up in a player's bag.
Portable nets, indoor and outdoor balls, and the gear clubs and community groups need to get a session running.
Built by hand, sold out of the same shop. A small-town Ontario tradition that has been part of Bob's offering for years.
Local leagues, club championships and community tournaments. If Huron County handed out hardware, chances are it came through here.
A shop that gives back to its own courts
There is one detail about Bob's Racquet Works that says more than any inventory list. When Goderich players were fundraising for dedicated pickleball courts, Bob pledged a portion of his own sales to the project. Not a sponsorship banner. Not a logo on a fence. Money out of his own till, into courts his customers would play on.
That is the kind of business we want Apollo paddles sitting in. Pickleball in this country did not grow because of big brands or big budgets. It grew because of people like Bob, in towns like Goderich, who cared enough to stock the gear, string the racquets, and chip in for the courts before anybody was watching.
📍 Goderich has been called the prettiest town in Canada. It also has a forty-year-old racquet shop out on Cherrydale Road that will string your racquet, fit your paddle and remember your name the second time you come in. Both are worth the drive.
Find Bob's Racquet Works
Bob's is out in the country between Goderich and Benmiller, so give him a call before you head out. He will tell you when he is around.
Stop by Bob's Racquet Works on Cherrydale Road to hold the MK47 Signature Pro in person, or browse the full Apollo lineup online with free Canada-wide shipping over $50. Canadian pricing, always.
