Holiday Shopping Guide For Your Pickleball-Crazed Gift Recipient

Today's the day to get big savings on your Pickleball Gear for the Holidays! Photo by Sean ... [+] Gallup/Getty Images

Happy Black Friday! It’s the start of the silly season. So here’s a helpful holiday shopping guide for your favorite Pickleball enthusiast! Family member or friend, here’s a quickie guide to items that can be gifts or stocking stuffers. We’re not quite to “Cyber Monday,” but the deals have already started. Many of these sites also have discount codes you can dig up from your favorite pro athlete or podcast for even more savings.

Paddles

The best gift you can give, of course, is one of the most expensive gifts on the list; a brand new, top of the line paddle. You may have to do some sleuthing though, to find out your gift recipient’s current paddle brand, so you buy them the right brand.

There are, according to USA Pickleball’s Approved Paddle List, more than 2,200 approved paddles in 2023, provided by literally hundreds of different manufacturers. So it would be quite impossible to make a recommendation. Even if I were to attempt to list the “popular brands” I’d likely leave one several by accident. I will say that very few of the brands that the pros play are going to be found at your sporting goods store or in Walmart. So, you may want to order direct from the vendor or from one of the pickleball specific shopping sites below.

How much should you spend? It will be hard to find a tournament-quality paddle for less than $100, and most of these common brands have options everywhere between $100 and $250. Many of these paddles are quite similar in feel and construction; in fact many of them share the same manufacturing facilities in China and just relabel them during the painting process.

Balls

An excellent stocking-stuffer would be a 3-pack of tournament-quality balls.

Both the APP and PPA use Onix Dura Fast 40 balls for tournament play. MLP uses a custom ball not available to the general public (to my knowledge). Many amateur tournaments also use a Franklin X-40 outdoor ball. You cannot go wrong with either the Franklin or Dura as a gift; both will get used. Joola has a new ball that’s comparable to Dura’s in feel but is more durable, and will be making a push into the market in 2024.

There are other balls out there of course, but the most commonly used outdoor balls are listed. If the recipient plays primarily indoors on hardwood surfaces, make sure to buy an indoor ball (which has fewer and larger holes). Keep in mind though, many indoor facilities are built to play like outdoor courts, and use “outdoor” balls, which have more, smaller holes. The indoor balls I’ve played include Head and Onix Fuse, but I don’t play indoors enough to make a proper recommendation.

Bags

Pickleball bags to hold gear are excellent gifts, especially for newer players who may only have a paddle to their name. Most major paddle companies offer bags, and you can choose between everyday backpacks and larger capacity tournament-player bags that can hold spare clothing in addition to your gear.

Here’s a couple additional options for more sophisticated pickleball bags:

• Georgie & Lou is a high-end manufacturer of Pickleball Bags and their products are high quality, leather, and fashionable. Think “Louis Vuitton” for pickleball gear bags. We have one and it is really nice, and you can get a “bundle” with a matching paddle.
• FreshPickle.com makes a nice tote-bag designed by an avid player.
• K-Swiss offers a couple of backpacks in their accessory line.
• Komodo Gear Bag; Komodo is a bit of a lesser known paddle company, but I really like their logo and their gear.

Portable Nets

I own a Classic PickleNet portable net, which came in super handy during Covid, but I’ve used it just a couple times since as we pivot to mostly permanent courts for our sport. If your fan is still chalking out lines on tennis courts, this could be a decent gift.

There are essentially three kinds of portable nets out there:

• The basic model that has no wheels and disassembles to a bag for about $125.
• A deluxe disassembler/fit-in-a-bag with wheels for about $400 (most often seen at clubs to wheel onto a lined tennis court)
• A high end net that most closely resembles a permanent net for $2500 (most often seen in use at higher-end clubs and at pro tournaments)

Practice Machines & Equipment

If you’re really looking to make a splash, get your fanatic an automated machine or some drilling equipment.

• Lobster is the standard, with models running between $1000 and $2000.
• Pickleball Tutor is newer into the Pickleball market but has some lower-end models below the Lobster price point.
• Pickleball Central’s “pickleball machine” page has a few other options, as well as accessories for the above brands.
• Lower tech but useful are the same kinds of “tubes” or “cages” that do a quick pickup of a ton of balls. My club has these Yangbaga ball rollers that are great. If your player drills, then get them a 100-pack of good balls and one of these machines.
• Enhance Pickleball sells the Dink Pad, a wall-mounted practice pad with aiming points for your net play.

Clothing and Apparel

Shirts, Shorts, Sweatpants, Sweatshirts, Sleeves, Socks, Hats. There’s plenty of directions to go for clothing, and plenty of vendors in the space. All the general shopping sites will have links to such gear, as will paddle companies, pro tours, and MLP teams. However, here’s a few sites that specialize in Pickleball-themed clothing.

• DillyLife.com: clean designs with a simple logo not unlike the Polo horse.
• LuckyInLove.com sponsors legendary pro Simone Jardim and specializes in women’s pickleball attire.
• VarsityPickle.com was started by a former co-worker in Northern Virginia and is now featured in major big-box sporting goods stores like Dicks.
• OneWallBall.com: initially started as a specialty clothing company for one-wall sports such as Racquetball, Handball, and paddleball in the NYC area, but has added Pickleball-specific clothes with great designs and sharp colors.
• LessWork.com ... and more Pickleball. This niche clothier specializes in branding slogans to match passions, and Pickleball is definitely a passion of many.
• Mister P apparel, owned by D. Hudson and an official sponsor of the PPA, has a great logo on hats, visors, and shirts.
• OneShotPickleball.com, which hosts its merch at Pklblr, which has its own line of pickleball-themed apparel.
• DropShotDistrict.com, which has an Etsy ETSY shop with all sorts of fun PB-themed clothes.
• StackAthletics.com, which is less fun t-shirt and more performance gear.
• Heritage Pickleball sells out of Pickleballcentral.com and has shirts, hats, and other gear.
• Banger Pickleball started with high-end athletic Hats but has expanded to other apparel.
• Ame & Lulu has a female-centric line of Pickleball-themed products that’s worth checking out.
• Avi Athletics: sportswear designed for pickleball players, and has a nice comprehensive line of female clothes.

Shoes

Pickleball movement is similar to tennis movement, so you can’t go wrong with tennis shoes for your pickleball enthusiast. There aren’t really “pickleball shoes” as a market yet, but there are a couple of brands who are making a big push into the sport with purportedly “pickleball-specific” shoes.

• Sketchers is a leading sponsor of top PPA players like Catherine Parenteau and Tyson McGuffin and offer a very colorful line of shoes.
• K-Swiss has a pickleball line of shoes.
• Adidas advertises that they sell “pickleball shoes” but they’re just the tennis line. These are the shoes I swear by for tennis and pickleball.
• Acacia has a new pickleball line of shoes and sponsors PPA pro Tyler Loong.

Accessories

Many of the apparel companies also sell accessories. Some of the accessories that come in handy for pickleball players, which range from stocking stuffers to stand-alone presents, might include

• Grips and Over grips (popular with tennis converts)
• Lead Tape for weighting your paddle
• Headbands and Wristbands
• Hats: you can make a better statement with a hat versus a headband.
• Towels, for when you run out of the towels you’ve nicked from your club.
• Knee and Elbow bands/braces
• Arm Sleeves: more and more pro players are using these, less for therapeutic reasons and more for sun protection.
• Water Bottles
• Eye guards: don’t sleep on eye guards, players. The game is getting faster. I personally have now gotten hit twice in the eye in competitive play and I won’t play doubles anymore without eye protection.
• Gloves; some racquetball converts feel more comfortable with gloves.
• Cold Weather Gear: ski hats and cold weather gloves. I’ve seen some custom “mittens” designed for tennis players that could work.

Food and Consumables

Technology

Is your pickleball fan also into technology gadgets? Here’s some ideas.

• Streaming equipment: everything from little clips that hold their phones to complex streaming equipment that allows them to tape or live stream their matches.
• Fitness trackers: we’ve evolved quite a bit from FitBit and Apple Watches (though those are fine choices as well). Wired released a review of fitness trackers in Sept 2023 with some great choices.
• E-Stim machines for muscle recovery. Motive recently announced an FDA-approved knee therapy machine with pickleball players in mind, and there’s more general stimulation machines available for reasonable costs from Amazon AMZN .

Miscellany

Pickleball is becoming pervasive in the culture, so you’re starting to see Pickleball-themed items pop up all over. Here’s a few examples that could make for fun gifts.

• Pickleball-playing Santa Ornament from Joy to the World, because of course Santa plays pickleball.
• Old World Christmas Pickleball-themed ornaments.

Where to Buy?

There are several pickleball gear aggregator sites out there to choose from. Generally speaking most of the stuff mentioned here can be acquired from one of these sites online:

• PickleballCentral.com: Probably the most comprehensive site out there, owned by the same group that owns the PPA tour and Pickleball Brackets.
• PickleballSuperstore.com: A comprehensive online store for all things Pickleball
• The Kitchen’s Shop: the sport’s largest online community launched its shopping site, which is mean to be less a comprehensive collection of items as it is the Kitchen’s “favorite items.”
• The Picklr Shop: The Picklr chain of indoor facilities added an online store in mid-2023 and has a solid selection of choices.
• Holabird Sports has been in the racquet space for decades and was once my go-to place for Racquetball gear. They’re based outside of Baltimore and has pivoted to Pickleball. They carry a solid variety of products.
• Fromuth Pickleball, a Pennsylvania-based racquet sports distributor who’s gone headfirst into pickleball. Is a sponsor of MLP and has a very well done blog with decent instructional tips.

Other Gift Guides

Lastly, since my post likely is not comprehensive as to the options out there, here’s some other gift guides that I have come across for your browsing pleasure!

• Pickleball Magazine’s Fall 2023 edition has “Gear Guide” with good gift ideas.
• Total Pickleball released its Holiday gift guide in early November.
• Pickleball Central released a slew of gift guides in mid-November, broken down by gender and category.

Shop our sport’s Sponsors!

Sports like Pickleball depend on sponsors. So do your best to frequent those who sponsor the sport, whether it is the PPA’s sponsors, MLP’s sponsors, APP’s sponsors, USA Pickleball’s sponsors, or individual event sponsors as you come across them locally.

Happy Holidays!

(Author disclosure: I am not sponsored by any product or website listed here. Apologies to products and sites who I failed to mention who feel they should have been included).