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You need a racket, balls and court shoes. Everything else is optional. That is the honest answer, and it is not the answer the shops give. Below is the full kit with real British prices, a minimum total and a comfortable total, and a column saying plainly what you can skip on day one.
Prices were captured from Amazon UK on 16 August 2026. They move; treat them as bands.
The whole kit, with prices
| Item | UK price | Essential? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Racket | £45–95 | Yes | Or rent from the club for the first two or three sessions |
| Balls | £4–6 per tube of 3 | Yes | Some clubs include them; ask when you book |
| Court shoes | £42–70 | Yes | The one item where cheaping out causes injuries |
| Overgrip | £5–9 for a 3-pack | Nearly | £5 that transforms a slippery stock grip |
| Racket cover or bag | £6–35 | No | A £6 cover does 90% of what a £35 bag does |
| Clothing | Whatever you own | No | No dress code at club level in Britain |
Minimum to walk on court: about £95 — a £45 racket, a £4 tube of balls and £42 shoes.
Comfortable kit: about £160 — a £70 racket, balls, £55 shoes, an overgrip and a cover.
Rent the racket for your first session and it is about £50, most of which is the shoes.
1. The racket
The only item where the choice genuinely matters, and the one people overspend on first. A beginner wants a round shape, 350–365 g and a soft core: large sweet spot, low balance, forgiving on mishits. £45 to £75 buys all of that in Britain.
What you are paying for above £100 is carbon layup and stiffness, which make the racket less forgiving — the wrong direction until your contact point stops moving. The reasoning in full is in how to choose a padel racket.
- Starting out: best padel rackets for beginners — eight frames with UK prices and owner sample sizes.
- Ready to upgrade: best padel rackets — every frame we have graded, ranked by score.
- By brand: Bullpadel, Nox, Adidas and Babolat.
2. Balls
Padel balls look like tennis balls, are slightly smaller and carry less pressure. That lower pressure is deliberate: it keeps the ball alive off the glass and makes rallies long.
They are cheap and they wear out. A tube of three from a recognised brand costs £4 to £6 — the Dunlop Pro Padel sits at £3.99 with 704 owner ratings averaging 4.3, and Wilson’s Padel Rush 100 at £4.99 with a sample of 1,500. Buying a carton of 24 tubes drops the per-tube price by roughly a third if you play weekly.
The full comparison is in best padel balls, and how long they actually last before they go dead is in how long padel balls last.
3. Court shoes
The item that matters most and gets the least attention. Padel is played on artificial turf with sand, and the movement is lateral: pushing off sideways, stopping, turning back. A running shoe has no lateral support and a smooth sole, and the result is rolled ankles.
What you want is a herringbone or “clay” sole and a reinforced toe. In Britain that starts at about £42 — Asics’s VL Court 3.0 sits there with a 9,300-rating sample averaging 4.6, which is by far the largest verified sample in this category — and a padel-specific shoe such as the Adidas Courtquick runs £56 to £70.
Detail and the full shortlist: best padel shoes.
4. Overgrip
The cheapest upgrade in the sport. Stock grips on rackets under £100 are thin and go slippery as soon as your hands sweat, and a slipping racket is both worse to play with and a hazard to the person next to you.
A three-pack costs £5 to £9. The Head Padel Pro Overgrip is £4.99 with 566 ratings at 4.6 and is Amazon UK’s own category pick; Palbea’s multipack carries a 3,000-rating sample at 4.4. Both are fine. Buy one, wrap it, and re-wrap every ten to fifteen sessions.
More: best padel grips and overgrips.
5. Bag or cover
Genuinely optional, and the category where the gap between need and spend is widest. A £6 Head full-size cover — 835 ratings at 4.4 — protects the frame from scuffs in a rucksack, which is the only thing a bag actually does for one racket.
A proper padel bag makes sense when you carry two rackets, shoes and a change of clothes, and starts around £28. Anything above £60 is buying capacity for rackets you do not own yet.
The comparison: best padel bags.
6. Clothing
There is no dress code at British club level. Normal sports clothing is fine, and padel-branded clothing is a preference, not a requirement. If you play outdoors through a British winter, the useful purchases are a wind layer and a spare grip, in that order.
What the shops will tell you that you don’t need
- A racket protector. Sold as essential; in practice it adds weight at the top of the frame and changes the balance you chose. Worth it only if you routinely hit the glass on your follow-through.
- A ball pressuriser. Real technology and it does work — but it costs more than a year’s worth of balls unless you play several times a week. The maths is in how long padel balls last.
- A £200 racket as your first. Stiffer, head-heavier and less forgiving. It will make you worse for six months.
- Padel-specific socks. Any thick sports sock does the job.
Frequently asked questions
What equipment do you need to play padel?
A racket, padel balls and court shoes with a herringbone sole. Everything else — bag, overgrip, clothing — is optional. Most British clubs rent rackets, so your first session needs only the shoes.
How much does padel equipment cost in the UK?
About £95 for a workable minimum: a £45 racket, a £4 tube of balls and £42 shoes. A comfortable kit with a better racket, an overgrip and a cover runs to roughly £160.
Can you use tennis shoes for padel?
Clay-court tennis shoes, yes — they use the same herringbone sole padel needs. Hard-court tennis shoes are acceptable; running shoes are not, because they have no lateral support on a sanded turf surface.
Can you use a tennis ball for padel?
You can hit one, but it is the wrong ball. Padel balls are slightly smaller and less pressurised, which is what keeps rallies alive off the glass. A tennis ball bounces too high off the back wall.
Do you need a padel bag?
No. A £6 racket cover protects the frame in a rucksack, which is all a bag does for a single racket. Buy one when you are carrying two rackets and a change of clothes.
Sources and data. Prices, average ratings and rating counts: Amazon UK product pages, captured 16 August 2026. Equipment specifications: Rules of Padel, International Padel Federation (FIP), consulted 30/08/2026. Method: how we grade.