The Hustler: A Homage to Marty Reisman

There are champions in every sport. And then there are characters — the ones who bend the game around their personality and leave a mark deeper than medals ever could.

For table tennis, that person was Marty Reisman. Not the tournament-circuit Marty. The other one. The hustler in the sharp suit. The showman who played ping pong like jazz.

Reisman was a man who never separated style from skill. His game was loose, elegant, mischievous, and precise — all at once. He’d hold the bat like a cocktail glass, flick a cigarette between points, and still put more spin on a ball than seemed physically believable.

And he did it all with a hardbat. No sponge. No technological crutches. Just wood, pimples-out rubber, timing, touch, and swagger.

For us at Art of Ping Pong, that matters. Because Marty’s world wasn’t corporate or controlled, it wasn’t sterile sports halls and perfect rubbers. It was smoky rooms, public tables, side bets, charisma, rhythm, and improvisation.

He made the game look good. He made it cultural.

And that’s always been the point for us — play is bigger than the rules of the sport. 

Why Marty resonates with us.

Marty’s appeal is obvious for AoPP — the elegance, the style, the attitude, the refusal to play ping pong without personality. But there’s a more personal connection, too.

As a kid, I hated sponge bats. They felt too springy. Too much bounce for me to control. Too far from the game's raw feel. I wanted the feeling of striking a ball with something clean, so I sought out the simpler bats — rubber straight onto the wood.

Years later, I discovered the sandpaper bat communities — no rubber, just sandpaper applied straight to the blade. That back-to-basics approach that strips the game right down to feel and timing. I loved it so much I even entered the qualifying tournaments for the sandpaper bat's World Championship of Ping Pong at Alexandra Palace.

Not because I had any realistic chance of qualifying! But because without the tacky rubbers, spin was less of a weapon, it levelled out the players. Now I lost almost all of my matches, but I did occasionally win a game off some of the eventual Championship qualifiers.

The sandpaper game is a world away from the ITTF’s engineered sponge era — slower, more tactical, more rhythmic. And in many ways, it’s the closest living branch to Marty’s own approach.

Interest in Marty is rising again.

Not just in our corner of the ping pong world, but across culture — thanks to the upcoming documentary Marty Supreme. The film reframes him for a new audience as the stylish, magnetic figure who turned table tennis into performance art.

It’s a cultural moment we’re glad to see. And one we couldn’t ignore.

Our homage.

In celebration, we created The Hustler collection — our own tribute to the way Marty played and lived.

Starting with a print — an illustrated snapshot of Marty’s spirit. A reminder that play is always better when it looks great too.

And coming soon, the bat: Hardbat. No foam. Pimples-out rubber. Honest. Fast. Stylish. Elevated with our signature brass lens — a small detail of craft we like to think he’d have appreciated.

Because style matters. Personality matters. And ping pong, at its best, has room for both. Marty showed us that the game isn’t just about winning. It’s about how you play. The hustle. The rhythm. The swagger.

And that’s something we’ll always stand behind.