On February 12, first-year students Arthur Wormser and Morgane Hazard opened RacketLines, a tennis racket stringing service, in the lobby of UBC’s Sauder building. The business aims to reduce the environmental impact of the tennis industry while providing a closer and more affordable option for UBC students looking to get a racket strung.
Anyone who’d like to use the service can leave their tennis racket and contact information at RacketLines’s table in the Sauder lobby. While customers can provide their own strings, RacketLines offers Luxilon Eco Strings.
“They're made with recycled plastic water bottles,” said Wormser. “So that means that normally we are like a cradle to grave business and we don't have any waste.”
Players can inform RacketLines of their preferences or ask for advice on features such as racket tension. The business can also customize rackets by spraying images or logos onto the strings — a service they will be providing for UBC’s women’s tennis sports club.
Turnaround for stringing is about two days, according to Wormser. If a customer lives on, or near, campus, they can ask for their racket to be delivered. Otherwise, rackets can be picked up in the Sauder lobby.
At RacketLines, stringing costs $20 for UBC students and faculty and $23 for the general public, with strings being sold separately for $10–22.
Comparatively, Rackets & Runners, which is a 30-minute bus ride from UBC, advertises stringing services between $35 and $80, strings included. Rackets & Runners does offer quicker turnaround, at about 30 minutes. However, RacketLines’s two-day turnaround may be temporary. Wormser hopes to get a room in the UBC Tennis Centre, which would allow him to string rackets on-location.
Originally from France, both Wormser and Hazard are avid tennis players; Hazard picked up the sport when they began dating three years ago.
Whether with his girlfriend or with his family, who he played with growing up, tennis and sport have always been close to Wormser’s heart.
“Sports is something that helped me in life in many ways,” Wormser said.
His main focus is on minimizing the environmental impact of stringing, and tennis in general.
“The environment is so important, and I find it so sad that sports, which is supposed to be just a great thing, pollutes as much,” he said. “It’s not much for me to bring my part, but I found this problem is very important so, the more I can do about it, the more we do about it.”
Opening hours for RacketLines are available on their Instagram page (@racketlines).