Most Black Friday pages are written in November, in a hurry, by people hoping you will click before you think. This one was written in September, on purpose, so that by the time the sales start you already know which product classes are worth waiting for and which are not. It is built for the same reader as the rest of this site — the player over 55, or anyone shopping around a sore joint — and for the gifter buying for one.
A promise up front: nothing on this page is a prediction. We do not know what will be discounted this year, and neither does anyone else writing about it in September. What we can do is tell you, with sources, what the major deal roundups actually listed last November, brand by brand, and what they did not list at all. That is a much better guide to how to spend the next ten weeks than a guess dressed up as a forecast.
What historically goes on sale, and what rarely does
We read four of the largest 2025 Black Friday pickleball deal roundups — The Dink’s paddle guide and its separate shoe guide, The Kitchen Pickleball’s brand list, and Pickleball.com’s post-sale recap — and Amazon’s own announcement of its event dates. Here is what they listed, by product class. Every figure below is theirs, not ours.
Paddles: the most-discounted class, by a distance
Paddle brands dominated every roundup. Pickleball.com’s recap put the range of paddle markdowns at roughly 18% to 50%, naming Selkirk at up to 40% and Paddletek at up to 50%. The Kitchen Pickleball listed Paddletek at 30% off its Bantam and Tempest lines from November 26 to December 1, JOOLA’s select Pro IV paddles cut by $50, and Franklin at 25% off sitewide from November 21 to 30. The Dink listed Selkirk’s holiday deals running November 26 to December 7, and JOOLA at up to 50% off select paddles and apparel from November 20 to December 1. A long tail of direct-to-consumer brands (Holbrook, Ronbus, CRBN, Six Zero, Vatic Pro, Engage) ran 25% to 70% off on their own sites.
Two things are worth noticing about that list for a reader of this site. First, several of the brands on our own lists appeared in it — Selkirk, JOOLA, Paddletek and Franklin all make paddles we recommend. Second, the brand we recommend most often for a sore arm, ProKennex, did not appear in any of the four roundups. What we did find, reading ProKennex’s own site in September, is a Black Ace Ovation listed as a final-sale item at well under half its original price — in September, outside any holiday window. Brands clear old models when they clear them, not necessarily on the fourth Friday of November.
Court shoes: real markdowns, smaller ones
Shoes were the second class with consistent coverage. The Dink’s shoe guide listed K-Swiss (the Supreme and the Ultrashot), ASICS (the Gel Game FF in both men’s and women’s), HEAD, Wilson, Nike and Adidas court models at markdowns of roughly $20 to $55. Pickleball.com summarized shoe discounts at about 15% to 25%, naming K-Swiss and Skechers at 20% and HEAD at up to 25%. Both K-Swiss and Skechers make the shoes we recommend first to players over 55, and ASICS makes our pick for bad knees, so if you are buying court shoes as a gift and can wait, November is a reasonable bet — a bet, not a promise.
Balls, grips and bags: some, via brand-wide sales
Accessories mostly discounted as part of sitewide sales rather than as headline deals. Franklin’s 25%-off sitewide sale covered its X-40 ball, which is the outdoor ball we recommend. Nets and ball machines got their own line items in the recaps; ordinary bags, grips and balls generally did not. These are also the cheapest things on the site, so the money at stake is small either way.
Braces, sleeves and gloves: nothing listed
This is the finding that matters most for this site’s reader. Across all four roundups we read, not one brace, knee sleeve, wrist support, elbow strap or arthritis glove brand appeared — no Bauerfeind, no FUTURO, no Mueller, no IMAK. That does not prove those products never discount; Amazon prices on them move day to day, and the buttons below may show a list-price markdown on some of them at any given moment. But it does mean that nobody covering pickleball Black Friday found a support-brand sale worth listing. If your player’s knee or elbow hurts in September, we see no case for waiting until November to buy the support.
Amazon’s own calendar
Because every link on this site goes to Amazon, Amazon’s schedule matters as much as any brand’s. In 2025 its Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday events ran from November 20 through December 1 — twelve days, not one — and its October event, Prime Big Deal Days, ran October 7 to 8. Amazon has not, as we write, announced its 2026 dates; when it does, we will update the status block at the top of this page.
Buy now or wait for November? Class by class
The honest answer depends on what the gear is for. A support for a joint that hurts today has a cost of waiting that a sale does not repay. A premium paddle for a player who already owns a decent one has almost none. Here is our call for each class, with the reasoning.
| Product class | Our call | Why |
|---|
| Braces, sleeves, gloves, straps | Buy now | No support brand appeared in last year’s deal coverage, and a joint that hurts in September has ten weeks of play between now and the sale. |
| Eye protection | Buy now | Inexpensive, not a category the roundups covered, and the injury it prevents does not wait for a sale. |
| Budget paddles | Buy now | A starter paddle costs a fraction of a premium one even after a markdown, so a sale on it saves very little in dollars. |
| Premium paddles (upgrade, not replacement) | Wait, if you can | The most-discounted class last year, and several brands we recommend were in the coverage. If the player already owns a usable paddle, the cost of waiting is nothing. |
| Premium paddles (for an arm that hurts now) | Buy now | A sore elbow accumulates load every session. The arm-comfort brand we recommend was not in last year’s coverage anyway. |
| Court shoes (currently playing in running shoes) | Buy now | Falls are the leading injury for players over 60, and a running shoe on a court is how they happen. Ten weeks is a lot of sessions. |
| Court shoes (replacing a worn pair, or a gift) | Wait, if you can | Consistent markdowns on K-Swiss, ASICS and Skechers were listed last year. Worth the wait when the current pair still grips. |
| Balls, grips, bags | Either | Small money. Buy when needed; if a sitewide brand sale lands, it is a bonus, not a plan. |
One more practical note. Every price on this site carries a struck-through list price and a percentage when Amazon reports one, and several of our picks show a markdown today, in September. A discount that already exists is worth more than one that might. Check the button before you decide to wait.
Live deals
None yet. When pickleball deals go live in November, they will be listed in this section — only products we already recommend, only with the live Amazon price from our daily check, and only while the deal is actually running. We will not list a deal we have not verified, and we will not leave an expired one up. Until then, the picks below are the same products at today’s price.
