Tennis and pickleball bags are similar; in fact, looking at them side by side, you'd probably think the pickleball bag was just a mini tennis bag.

They're constructed with separate compartments designed to house different parts of your equipment. First, there are the main compartments for paddles and rackets, and in tennis, the size of your bag is denoted by the number of rackets it can carry.

The largest tennis bags are usually 12 or 15 packs like the Babolat Pure Racket Holder 12 Pack or RF 01 15 Pack Tournament Racket Bag. These capacity numbers may seem extreme — who carries 15 rackets in their bag, after all — so consider the number more as a size indicator than a suggestion for how many rackets you should carry.

12 and 15 packs are large, 6 and 9 packs are medium, and bags that carry 3 rackets or less are small. The racket-specific compartments are usually thermal-lined to protect your racket from moisture and excessively hot or cold temperatures, and this is particularly important if you use natural gut.

Pickleball doesn't use the same number system to denote the size of their bags, and it isn't quite as easy to figure out which size you're actually getting. You have to dig a little deeper and read product descriptions, but once you've familiarized yourself with what's available, you can tell pretty quickly.

Larger bags tend to have two different paddle compartments, like the SixZero Pro Pickleball Tour Bag and Carbon Pro Team Tour Bag, and like with the tennis bags, these compartments are also thermal-lined, at least the top-end bags.

Another important feature of a pickleball and tennis bag is the shoe compartment. As you can imagine, court shoes can get pretty smelly, so throwing them in a separate compartment is the best way to keep the rest of your equipment fresh. These shoe compartments also have ventilation so that your shoes can aerate if you decide to leave them in there between sessions. Most bags come with shoe compartments. Yonex makes some great ones for tennis, like the Pro 9 and Pro 6 bags, and the Gearbox Core Collection Ally Bag is a good option for pickleball.

 

What's great about these full-sized tennis or pickleball bags is the sheer amount of "extra" stuff you can carry. Usually, two or three side pockets can house whatever gear you accumulate over time. I've always got wristbands, tape, dampeners, an extra pair of socks, some balls, and probably several other things I can think of right now.

These full-length bags are also ideal for travel because you can safely store your racket or paddle without leaving the handle uncovered in a backpack or even carrying it on and storing it alone in an overhead bin. Despite their slightly longer design, most airline companies now allow you to check tennis bags as standard checked bags. Pickleball bags are short enough to carry on or use as personal items, so they are even more convenient for travel.

Now, maybe you're thinking, I don't need a full-on tennis or pickleball bag; I've only got one racket/paddle, and a backpack is more than enough. The good news is there are also plenty of tennis and pickleball specific backpacks. These are certainly easier to lug around than full-length bags, but, at least on the tennis side, they don't provide the same protection for your racket's handle. Some bags do come with a sleeve that zips around the handle to protect it from the elements, like the Babolat Pure Strike backpack, and then you've got the Pure Aero Backpack that takes it to the next level and has a foldable flap that can cover more than one racket. Most tennis backpacks also have shoe compartments, so don't worry; you won't be stinking up the rest of your gear with one of these.

For pickleball, backpacks are actually more popular than  paddle-shaped bags because they can have a slightly higher capacity. Instead of separate paddle compartments, you get one big pocket with enough space to fit a whole quiver of paddles; the downside is there's less protection for the individual paddle. The Selkirk Core Series of backpacks has been a staple amongst the pickleball community for years now, and the Vatic Pro Backpack is a little more "no nonsense," but it certainly does the job.

Now that you know all the details of tennis and pickleball bags, it will be easy to pick the perfect bag for your needs.

To shop our full lineup of bags, view our tennis bags and pickleball bags.

Of course, you can always come to check them out in-store for yourself, and one of our specialists will be happy to help!