Winters X Pickleball. Best of the Best combo. But chuckles… Those “blisters”! Never mind, here’re some best pickleball gloves to fill up your grips on the paddle with the highest strength and tackiness!
Pickleball revolves around trends and there’s no surprise at seeing more and more players with gloves these days, specifically, racquetball gloves. Technically, it’s because Pickleball is a sport that requires a lot of hand action. You’ve to hold the paddle throughout the game, make movements accordingly with the ball, and apply pressure to hit the perfect shot. All of this might be a little too harsh on your hands and make them sweat, or worst-case scenario cause blisters.
And to avoid these things, you must have protective gear on your hands and that’s where USAPA announced “Players, get your gloves on!!!”
As mentioned previously, adhering to legacy is our thing and as much as we brag about it, we’d love going extra mile to have accessories, apparel, and gears purely made for pickleball than backing up with some other sports stuff. By doing so, we’re the only website on the internet to bring you the 5 best original pickleball gloves that work exactly as advertised.
Franklin Sports, in this regard, stays on the top providing the best quality gloves, and having Pickleball X in their lineup that we’ve reviewed in detail below. We still have two sturdy pairs of them despite using them for straight 5 years, and that’s the longest any sports glove could last.
Before we dive into reviews, let us clear this myth. Pickleball brands are not failing to deliver quality, as you might have seen people talking about this in the courts, forums, and even on several websites. They use racquetball gloves because that’s similar to pickleball, and as we know, pickleball has millions of players from other backgrounds.
Also, we don’t hate racquetball gloves, but at a reduced price, you’ll get the product that complements you the best, and keeps up the tradition. Then why not? And speaking of experience, you’re definitely not going to get better quality at a reasonable price than these.
9.8/10 – Our Score
Important things to notice:
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Features a cutaway fingers design
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Secure wrist strap
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Uses leather for palm
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Extra padding for thumb and fingers
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Lightweight
Franklin Sports is famous for its batting gloves in baseball, which made it one of the top-rated brands for making sports gloves in the world. It deals with the entire world of racquet sports, including racquetball, badminton, tennis, etc., besides baseball, basketball, and cricket, as well.
In fact, Franklin was the first brand to introduce pickleball gloves by launching “Pickleball-X” in the market. It was the “Official Glove of the US Open Pickleball Championship, 2017”.
You may wonder why? Well…
- Featuring a cutaway fingers design, these gloves allow air to pass through your hands so that they don’t burn from all the heat and sweat.
- It uses a secure wrist strap so that the glove is firmly locked in one position and doesn’t loosen up during tougher gameplay.
- To cover your palm, the glove uses sheepskin leather that not only provides a steady grip but also works as a breathable material to help your palm deal with all the extra moisture and sweat during the game.
- To avoid blisters and discomfort in the thumb and the fingers, the gloves use some extra padding.
- Even with all of these things, this glove is one of the most lightweight gloves that maintains the feel of the paddle.
The Cutaway design is a breakthrough, though. Many players don’t wear gloves for the same reason that the glove heats up the hand, but now, you can wear them as long as you want. The grip stays tackier and your hand sweat-free, which we think is a perfect win-win situation, right?
2. Selkirk Attaktix Women’s Pickleball Glove
9.8/10 – Our Score
Important things to notice:
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Specially designed for female pickleball players
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Uses FLEXX-Fit technology
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No extra weight
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Premium leather on the palm
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Provides perfect fit for a woman’s hand
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Instantly sets on your hand
Despite the increasing participation of women in the game, there are only a few brands that work to make the best pickleball gloves for female players. But this brand called Selkirk did a really good job and successfully made the best ladies’ pickleball gloves that any woman could get. We’re talking about the Selkirk Attaktix Women’s Pickleball Glove that’s the sole women’s pickleball glove in the market that lines up with the expected quality, protection, and maintains the feel.
- Behind the quality is the FLEXX-Fit Technology that makes it feel like a second skin on your palm to enhance your control and feel on the paddle.
- This Tricot Perforated Coolskin fabric upper makes this glove breathable so that you’re able to fight the sweat.
- Its flat seam in the palm increases the feel, besides reducing the heaviness. It’s among 1 in the 10 gloves, having this design.
- durable so that you don’t have to worry about ruining it just after a few games.
- It provides the perfect fit for a woman’s hand and the premium leather on the palm gives the best grip on the paddle. Plus, it doesn’t get wet in the summer because of moisture.
- Unlike other gloves, this one instantly sets on your hand, which means you can play right after wearing it for the first time without waiting for it to set in.
Though this one’s for women only, the same quality is available in the men’s version of Attaktix with thicker leather and specified sizes.
All in all, we must say Selkirk has done a pretty good thing making this glove, especially for women. There’re a few other brands you’ll find in the market that make women’s pickleball gloves, but trust us, none of them provide the satisfaction a woman needs except for this one. We can bet that as a female, you cannot find a better set that fits your hand as perfectly as this one does!
3. ProKennex Pure One Pickleball Gloves
9.7/10 – Our Score
Important things to notice:
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Made with boxed sheepskin leather with micro-channel lycra
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Customizes the fit according to your hand
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Premium Pittard’s Quartz Leather is used on the palm side
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Neoprene Knuckle pads for your thumb and fingers
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Lightweight
ProKennex, a brand we could not resist ourselves mentioning because of the best quality pickleball gears it makes. Being one of the youngest successful makers in the market, ProKonnex knows what it’s doing and never gives even the slightest chance to question its products.
Initially made for racquetball, these ProKennex Pure One gloves make the perfect gloves for pickleball as well. It’s comfortable, highly durable, and is made from a combination of the highest quality sheepskin, Pittard’s Quartz Cabretta Leather, and neoprene. All of these materials make them durable and comfortable on the hand. And you’d love to know that this is lightweight as well.
- Specially engineered boxed sheepskin leather with micro-channel lycra is used to make this glove. It has 768 reviews of players saying that this glove doesn’t feel anything as it acts as the second skin on your hand.
- The lycra is responsible for customizing the fit of the glove according to the size of your hand. Though, its size gets stretched with time.
- On the palm side of the glove, it uses a premium Pittard’s Quartz Cabretta Leather, providing the best grip when holding the paddle.
- It also provides protection to your hands from any sort of injuries or blisters, whether it’s summer or winter.
- Lastly, for your thumb and fingers, the glove uses Neoprene Knuckle pads, which provide protection as well as comfort.
- Despite having combination of materials, it stays super lightweight. However, all this high-end material comes at a price, which is a reasonable amount, but you might find it a little higher than others on our list.
If you think that the money is higher than others, we agree with that, but you also must notice that the quality this one provides is unbeatable. It uses all the high-end materials and provides you with a highly durable and very comfortable product. We’ll not force you to buy it, of course, it’s your choice, but we’ll say that you won’t regret it!
4. Tourna Hot Glove Mitt – Best for Winter
9.6/10 – Our Score
Important things to notice:
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100% fleece
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Zero weight
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Provides warmth and comfort
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Gives you full control of the paddle
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Highly breathable
Unlike the top 3, the sole purpose of this one is to keep your hands warm and dry during the game. The Tourna Hot Glove Mitt is everything its name says.
- It’s a mitten glove made up of 100% fleece material, which provides you comfort and warmth during the game.
- It allows you to hold the paddle in any way you want, allowing you full control of the movements it makes.
- The material is highly breathable hence, your hands don’t have to face the problem of sweating throughout.
- The narrow opening keeps it fit, besides providing ease to take on and off. You can instantly take it off in hardly just a second.
- The idea of this glove is to help players who get chilly hands during the games to keep them warm and working.
These gloves are perfect if you’re playing casual games, but we suggest you not wear them at a professional level. You gotta have real gloves for that! Since it’s only fabric, it’s literally zero weight!
For your casual pickleball games and professional warmups and practices, we think this one is a must-have because it provides you warmth and comfort side by side with an excellent feel and fit. Many professional pickleball players start off their practices with this one and then shift to the big padded ones!
5. Quality Sports Flex Pickleball Glove
9.8/10 – Our Score
Important things to notice:
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Highly flexible
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Uses ultra-durable leather on the palm
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Four-way stretch material
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Elastic wrist wrap
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Lightweight
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Specially designed for pickleball
Last on our list is this amazing Flex Pickleball Glove by Quality Sports. This set of gloves is specially designed for pickleball and is ready to fight all situations and fulfill all the needs a hand might have during a game of Pickleball.
- It uses ultra-durable leather on the palm that results in providing the best grip, great comfort, and amazing protection.
- We found them to be the most flexible glove made for pickleball, for their four-way stretch material, allowing you to stretch your hand movements while sliding and diving for the ball.
- It also increases the strength of your hand, allowing greater chances for a perfect power shot.
- The elastic wrist wrap makes sure that it doesn’t slide off your hand during the game and doesn’t even loosen up, making it uncomfortable for you in the long run.
- It’s very light, you won’t feel any extra weight on your hand.
Though it’s a unisex glove, as useful for women as it’s for men. Therefore, you can stick back to the Selkirk Attaktix or get a Selkirk Boost to have a better experience.
Being one of the few gloves that have been specially designed for pickleball, this one offers a great deal. It brings the quality a pickleball player needs by adding no extra weight to the hand. Something we all wish for! And this is your chance to get it, so don’t wait up!
Don’t miss out on these 5 key factors before buying Pickleball Gloves
Pickleball Gloves are a relatively new thing, which is why every brand has just started to make them. However, you can’t try all of them, which is why the following buying guide will help you select the best option for you. Consider the following things before buying, and we’re sure you’ll get the best pickleball gloves you’ve been looking for;
Material:
The material decides the flexibility, quality, durability, and performance of your glove. Leather, in this regard, is highly preferred, and for the right reason, though. But you must know that leather gets wet, if you sweat a lot, and might not perform well under high UV rays.
That’s where sheepskin comes in. 75% of gloves we suggested are made of this material and the best thing about them is that they keep your hands dry and cool as most people complain their hands get sweaty while wearing gloves.
Grip:
One of the major purposes of these pickleball gloves is to provide the players with a firm and steady grip on the paddle while playing tougher games. And if a glove fails to provide that, then there’s no point in it. So make sure to check what the glove provides in terms of grip and if it satisfies you, only then go ahead with the purchase otherwise, you’ll be wasting your money!
Weight:
By wearing heavy gloves, all you’ll be doing is adding extra weight to your hands, resulting in reducing their strength and speed, which, of course, you don’t want. Hence, an ideal pickleball glove must be extremely light and must not add any extra weight to your hand. Go for the lightest option in terms of weight. Don’t get fooled by fancy materials used in any gloves because we can bet you that they’ll be pretty heavy. Try to keep it simple and light!
Breathable:
You need to understand that these gloves will be covering up most of your hands in order to provide you best grip, but your hands will still be sweating. So make sure you find one which is breathable so that the sweat keeps ventilating and your hands do not burn because of the heat. This is the reason why we prefer the cutaway fingers designed gloves because they provide more ventilation than others.
Fit:
The fitting of the gloves is as important as the grip they provide, you have to have a perfect fit on your hand. Otherwise, you will be adjusting your gloves throughout the game and will end up getting distracted from the game. Also, it will make your hands very uncomfortable and it might risk your performance. Which you would never want. Hence, order your size correctly, and choose a glove that provides the perfect fit for your hands.
Final Verdict
Pickleball Gloves have started to become one of the most important must-haves of the game because the game requires a lot of handwork. You gotta have something to protect them from any harm. In the above information, we have gathered the information about and reviewed the top 5 best pickleball gloves you could find in the market. All of them use different designs and belong to different brands but they have one thing in common, all of them provide high quality. Now, the dice is on your side of the table; you have to make the decision about what you want to get for yourself by weighing in your requirements along with the buying guide we provided.
We hope that we were able to provide you with the answers you needed and clear your confusion. Let us know which one you liked the best and decide to get for yourself. If we had to choose one among these five, we would have to pick the Franklin Sports Pickleball X-Performance gloves, there is a reason why it is on top of our list, and we are sure we pretty much explained that reason very well! Let us know if you agree with us or not!
Harry is a freak who often argues that O in his name may well stand for “Obsessed with Pickleball.”
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