Ahh, tennis equipment. Who doesn’t like a new racket, new shoes, new clothes? Posts in this category will talk all things equipment and hopefully help you to make the best, informed decisions. But first, let’s talk about where to buy tennis equipment. There are 3 primary places to get tennis equipment.
1) Tennis club pro shops
2) Sporting goods stores (includes any store that carries sporting goods, so Target and Walmart count)
3) Online – See our Equipment page. Or try Tennis-Point, Tennis Express, Tennis Warehouse, Holabird Sports
So where do you buy? Let’s break it down. If you’e looking for expertise to help you in your selection, then you can’t beat the club pro shops. There, you’ll find teaching pros who have been playing and teaching tennis for most of their life. They follow tennis, talk about tennis, and are hands down the best resources on new rackets and strings. Clothing and shoes, probably not much of an advantage here, although may be educated in shoe features.
What if you don’t need expertise? Sporting goods stores and online are your best bet. Why? Price. Tennis club pro shops are typically the highest price. You pay for that expertise, plus they don’t usually deal in high enough volumes to compete with the bigger outlets.
Ok, you don’t need expertise and you want a good price, so what else to consider? Quality. Your sporting goods stores, especially the ones that don’t specialize in tennis (Target, Walmart) typically carry inexpensive general use equipment. An all-purpose sporting goods store (Dick’s) will have more and may carry both high end and inexpensive, but will still emphasize popular models with mass appeal. This holds true for shoes and clothes. Typically, these stores carry very few pairs of tennis specific shoes vs basketball, cross-train, or running. Clothing is so hard to tell. What’s a tennis shirt nowadays? Women’s may be more defined and clear cut. So, where do you go for tennis specific? Online.
Ok, so you don’t need expertise, you want a good price, you want “real” specific to tennis equipment, so you’re heading online, but where online? That’s where our new tennis equipment page can help. We’ve listed 4 popular online stores sure to have everything you need. But, what’s the difference? Are they all the same? Well, yes and no. The best way to shop is to identify what you want, then check the other sites for the best price. What I think you’ll find is that the new equipment, this season’s models, from my experiences are the same price. All seem to discount at the same time and down to the same amount (don’t get me started on how that is possible). So, yes, they are all the same on new, late model equipment. Where you’ll find differences will be in clearance and new, previous year’s equipment. That’s when you’ll see variability. You also have to watch for the shipping and free shipping specifically. Each sets a threshold to achieve free shipping. I’ve seen that vary although as-of this writing 3 of 4 were the same. So, no, when it comes to clearance and previous year models, and shipping, they are not always all the same.
So, is that it? Are we done? Well, there’s one last piece to cover. I recommend having a look at Amazon before making your final purchase. These online shops will also sell on Amazon. They can’t have a minimum threshold for free shipping on Amazon, so they’ll either charge a smaller shipping, or compete and offer free shipping (price may be higher, but still worth it). They also run into competition from small tennis outlets that all seem to specialize in tennis, which gets you a view of the best price out there.
So finally, that’s it. Hope this was helpful. Happy shopping!! Share your experiences.