DALLAS, TX – Whenever I make my weekly Target run, I always have to fight the store’s deliberate attempts to pull me down more alluring aisles and walk out with 10 new items in my cart that were not on my list. 

Lately, I’ve been stellar at avoiding that temptation... until they introduced a pickleball product line. 

My list of boring household necessities got crumpled up and tossed in my basket the second I stepped through the automatic sliding doors and locked eyes with the dollar section right at the entrance where pretty pickleball paddles and pink pickleballs sat right on the end cap, asking me to investigate.

Curses Target, you got me again!

After a closer look, the paddles are so cute. There’s one in a pink checkered pattern, another in an eye-catching sky blue striped pattern, and a third paddle that’s all black with the word “pickleball” printed in quite a nice font. 

The cost is $5 per paddle, which is almost incomprehensible when the paddles the pros play with start at over $200. I think we can assume that the quality of these dollar section paddles isn't out of this world. If anything, they’re an homage to pickleball’s history with wooden paddles. 

They might be good for kids and beginners, but I think my gameplay is a little bit too advanced for equipment like this, which is a shame because the aesthetic of the paddles is lovely.

The dollar section also has a pack of pickleballs available for $5. Though none of this gear is remotely USAP certified, it’s not a bad price if your kid has been begging you to play pickleball and you don’t want to hand your JOOLA paddle over to them when they’ve got a history of throwing temper tantrums. 

I passed up adding the affordable goods to my cart. But, there’s some pickleball accessories that need further investigation.

Scrunchies, fanny packs, visors, and water bottles all have the same patterns and colors as the paddles, so if the blue striped paddle spoke to me, I could also get a matching striped blue water bottle, fanny pack, and visor to have a completely cohesive pickleball look. While it might not be the highest quality at just $5, I’ll still look cute on the court. 

Though I decided to pass on the pickleball dollar section products, I’m wonderfully optimistic about the future of pickleball at Target. If it’s already this cute, imagine when the visual appeal matches the quality. That would cause a frenzy that rivals Target’s limited-edition pink Stanley cup fiasco.