Nationally Speaking...The Black or the Blue?

USA Racquetball & Gearbox Sports

We as Racquetball people have thoughts and opinions and preferences on just about everything that affects our beloved sport.

Let’s talk racquetballs!

USA Racquetball’s Board and Staff know that our members possess widely varying opinions regarding ball choice for amateur tournaments. Our agreement with our Premier Partner, Gearbox, provides the option of using the Gearbox Electric Blue or the Gearbox Sleek Black ball for national events.

We took the opportunity at our 2025 National Indoor Championships to offer a survey to all participants regarding their Gearbox Indoor ball preference.

Here’s how they responded...

We received 48 responses to our survey with 72.9% of respondents preferring the Gearbox Electric Blue. The narrative comments, as well as opinions expressed at the tournament desk at the event, were positive regarding the Electric Blue’s performance.

The Board of Directors would like to thank the respondents of the May survey for allowing us to include our members’ voice in our deliberations. Based on the feedback received, USA Racquetball will use the Gearbox Electric Blue ball for our amateur events going forward, nearly* without exception.

* Nearly? What do we mean by that?

Gearbox Sleek Black is the Official Ball of the International Racquetball Federation (IRF). It makes sense that USA Racquetball competitions connected with international events will use the Sleek Black, i.e., U.S. Team Qualifying divisions at the USA Racquetball National Indoor Championships as well as at the USA Racquetball Junior National Championships. This is because the teams that will emerge from the qualifying divisions, i.e. the U.S. Adult and Junior National Teams, will compete at international events. Consistency is a virtue!

Point of interest: The Gearbox Sleek Black is also the IRT (Men’s Professional Tour) Official Ball.

For a closer look at Gearbox’s ball collection, visit https://gearboxsports.com/collections/balls.