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:

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:

Practice Machines & Equipment

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

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.

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.

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

Food and Consumables

Technology

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

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.

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:

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!

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).