Skechers Enters the Pickleball Paddle Market

Other major shoe brands like adidas and Mizuno have gone the same route — can Skechers gain a foothold in the cutthroat paddle market?

Skechers just became the latest major shoe brand to enter the pickleball paddle market.

But is that a good thing?

Adidas made headlines in January 2025 when the billion-dollar sports conglomerate signed Federico Staksrud as their marquee pro.

His shoes and apparel looked great, but they never quite nailed his paddle. He eventually went back to JOOLA, but adidas has since figured it out, at least at the pro level, sponsoring the likes of CJ Klinger, Rafa Hewitt, and Mari Humberg.

Still, their paddles are not commercially popular. The same can be said, we’re presuming, for Mizuno’s debut paddle drop — a $300 edgeless Gen-3 design with an integrated weight system in the sidewalls. They’ve got other models, but it’s hard to see them outshining the hundreds of more established options already flooding the market from more established brands.

So when Skechers just hit the USAP Approved Paddle List, it had some in the industry wondering if it was a wise move. Like Zane Navratil, who just posted a video about it.

“Their premier sponsored athlete, Catherine Parenteau, is a free agent for paddles,” he noted. “If they make a genuinely good paddle, I think they’d easily be able to sign some [PPA] Tour players.”

That’s a big “if,” however.

Skechers has one of the most popular court shoes in all of pickleball, favored among top pros and rec players everywhere. So could their paddle cut through the noise and gain some market share?

Time will tell. But it’s worth keeping an eye on.

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