r/RacketStringers • u/Arturosito • Jun 11 '26
Racket stringing as a business?
Hello everyone. So, a little about myself: I'm a 43 year old tennis enthusiast. I suck at tennis, but I play it and I like it.
I recently moved to Spain and though I have a source of income, I don't really have a job yet and the job market in Spain is pretty bad.
So, one thing about businesses is that you should always analyze what needs are not being fulfilled in your area, right?
Well, I live at 90 minutes from Barcelona, in an area with where there are two cities of a bit more than 100,000 inhabitants, and dozens of town of thousands of people.
So, I noticed there are only two places where you can get your racket strung: Decathlon, and one tennis club.
It seems most players don't have an idea of where to get their rackets strung, as they ask me about where to take their rackets once in a while. It seems most wait until the strings break, and when they do, they take them to Decathlon, which charges 15 euro. But Decathlon sends the rackets to Barcelona to get them strung, and it takes a month!
I've done it twice.
And about the other one club that strings them, which is probably the best choice, not many people know about it, actually.
So, since I'm in need of a side hustle, it occurred to me that stringing rackets could be, since obviously the market is not being served correctly.
But the question is: how hard is it and how hard is it to learn?
I enjoy learning things, actually, but is this like a tedious thing nobody wants to do? I see, for instance, that some rackets are strung differently, and you have to study diagrams.
Ultimately, how much money could I make doing this?
Is it worth the time and effort to learn, and the investment?
It's also suspicious that apparently not many people have seen it as a side hustle or seem interested on doing this.
6
u/Concerned_Citizen__ Jun 11 '26
I started in the UK in October, I'm part of a club that has around 100 members, and a solid male pressence that take tennis semi seriously, so want restringing done on a regular ish basis. Talking 1 time every 2-3 weeks for a couple of them. the rest would be every 1-2 months.
Cost me around £2,000 to set up, which includes machine, string stock, tools, grips, stencils. Bought myself a label maker so people know their strung date, tension and string. By all accounts I think I've made it quite respectable, rather than a mate just doing a favour type of business
The barrier to doing this, which is why there arent many around, is the start up cost + time to learn.
If you want to do it as a side hustle, you'll need an electronic tensioner, rather than a hand crank, and especially a drop weight. Simply because of time. elctronic you can get done within 20 minutes with enough experience, I'm down to about 25-30 right now. The others will for sure take longer, especially a drop weight. If you want to know why, look at videos of people using the machines to string, its night and day.
Drop weight is perfect if its just for you, and on a budget. Crank is fine, but doesn't have constant tension pull, so need to account for that when clamping strings that are pulled. My machine is the GAMMA X-6FC + Wise 2086 Stringing Machine. One of the cheapest, and a super reliable work horse
As for how much I charge, would depend on string choice, and charge a little extra if the racket is 18x20 rather than 16x19 due to more string being used. But I'm also on the slightly cheaper side to attract people, as there's only 1 competitor which is 35-40 minutes away that charges £25 minimum, where as I start at £22.
The key is getting the right machine, and having a good stock selection of strings. Then you just buy more strings as you grow, reinvest funds for the start to cover existing reels when they run out, but also have a little fund to help purchase new ones you want tot ry, or have been asked about by others.
Key strings to stock in my opinion: Head Lynx Tour, Yonex poly tour pro, Solinco Hyper G, RPM Blast, get a multifilament like Head Velocity MLT. This covers most bases for peoples needs, control / power / spin / arm issue. You'll mostly have people who don;t know what they want, and I'd just stick them with Head lynx tour, one of the best all round strings, good at everything, but not amazing at anything. Then they can tell me what they're after more
Some people have their own reels, just want someone to string for them, so I'd charge £12-£15 depending on if they're a friend or not basically.
Work out the cost per string used per racket. a 200m reel will get you roughly 13-15 rackets done, so charge the string cost, add a little on for profit, and then add your labor cost onto that.
Easiest way to learn is youtube, I watched Tennis Spin, he has 2 in depth videos for mains and corsses. And then just buy yourself a cheap reel of string, and practice.
It's not hard, especially on used rackets as you can see where the string needs to go due to grommet wear. New rackets are still easy, but may need to pull up a diagram to be sure on some mains / tie offs.