Badminton Lovers Gift Guide

Do you have a special someone in your life who loves badminton and are you looking for that perfect gift? Local department stores have nothing suitable? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Let Badminton Becky sort you out!

 

Racket and Shoes – Don’t do it!

The obvious choice is a racket or badminton shoes as they are the tools everyone needs. But I say don’t do it! There are a million rackets and everyone uses different kinds based on different purposes. You can’t just buy “the best” racket as there is no such thing. So unless you are their long-time playing partner, or coach, it is best to leave them to pick out their own racket. The same with shoes. Fit is so individual. If you really want to go this route, just buy them a gift certificate for a shoe/racket store and let them chose it themselves.

Shuttlecocks

This is very useful, yet a very boring gift. It’s basically the socks and underwear of the badminton world. Everyone needs shuttles, everyone uses shuttles, yet they aren’t fun or exciting. So if you want a very utilitarian gift, by all means buy some shuttles. You can spy around and see what brand your friend prefers, or you can just buy Yonex Aerosena birdies (everyone will be happy to play with those.)

Toys

The badminton market isn’t very playful, so there aren’t a lot of cute tchotcke’s like other sports. But Yonex has made some adorable little dolls of the original Legends (Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, Peter Gade, Taufik Hidayat). I bought two for myself and two for my coach as a gift once.

These are limited edition and I couldn’t find them on amazon. (Perhaps they are on ebay?) If you can find it, this will be an awesome Christmas gift for a badminton lover.

Jewelry

Online you can find all sorts of little necklaces suitable for guys and girls. Most are shuttle necklaces, or maybe rackets with sparkly jewels in them. I have a cool bracelet someone made for me with a shuttlecock on it, but I still want to get my hands on a necklace that will proclaim my love for badminton. Here is a page with several badminton necklaces at amazon.

Keychain

If the badminton lover in your life doesn’t like jewelry, you could always get them a keychain. Admittedly badminton keychains, which are usually birdies, are a big bulky for the pocket. But you can also turn them into zipper pulls by attaching them to any bag…perhaps even your badminton bag. My first year playing badminton I gave everyone in my group a little plastic key chain. It was cheap, but everyone liked them and I still see them on people’s bags.

Sports Stuff

I said rackets and shoes aren’t a good gift, but there are many sports accessories that are suitable. Compression sleeves for the calves are very good for badminton, and everyone can use another sweat towel. Depending on their health regimen you can some protein powder, or BCAA powder (though it would be good to find out what brand they prefer), or some sporty snacks like chocolate covered almonds (decathlon has a delicious one) or some trail mix.

Novelty T-shirt

There are some funny shirts online (here is a sampling at pinterest) but I think they are just those print-when-you-order shirts and not very good quality. Still, could be a cute gift. Who can resist a good cock joke?

Tournament Shirts

You can also buy your badminton friend some official badminton swag. You can buy team shirts, or some commemorative shirts from the various tournaments (The All-England Badminton competition is one everyone likes). If your friends dresses like Lin Dan, maybe he’ll start playing like him too.

Buying badminton gifts isn’t as easy or convenient as say, basketball or baseball stuff. But with a little advanced planning, and shipping time, you can find the perfect gift. Happy holidays everyone!