Eyes on the Ball
- Lydia Hirt
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
Why protective eyewear belongs on every pickleball court.
Pickleball is one of my biggest passions, and I talk about it to anyone who will listen. I’m a believer that pickleball can make the world a better place by bringing people together and spreading joy. But every time I step onto the court, something else takes over. It’s not my two-handed backhand or my serve. It’s my eyes.
My pregame ritual is non-negotiable: I don’t step onto the court without eye protection. In fact, I can’t imagine playing without glasses. They’ve become as essential to my game as a paddle. What started as a practical decision has grown into something I care deeply about—not just for myself, but for every player who steps onto a pickleball court.
My first “pickleball glasses” were a humble pair of safety glasses from Amazon. I made the purchase after seeing a post on social media sharing a horrific eye injury—a story that spread quickly through the pickleball community.
These eye injury retellings seem to strike a nerve because the experience always seems to be one degree removed: you don’t know the players personally and they’re not at your courts, but you know someone who knows them. In pickleball, that’s close enough.
The risk of eye injury hit especially close to home when my good friend and frequent pickleball partner Emily Visnic went viral on Instagram for taking a pickleball to the face. She still suffers from recurring nosebleeds years later and now swears by protective eyewear on the court, noting, “My face has had a complicated relationship with pickleballs. Since converting to Kitchen Blockers, I’ve managed to keep the court drama injury-free.”
Engineered specifically for pickleball players, Kitchen Blockers’ latest campaign (“Your Eyes are the Prize”) focuses on the benefits of protective eyewear, since no game is worth the risk of losing your sight.
Brad Robins, co-founder and CEO of Kitchen Blockers, was inspired to develop the product after getting hit in the face himself during a tournament. The data shows that this kind of experience is happening more frequently, with a 2025 JAMA Ophthalmology study reporting that eye injuries from pickleball cost $250-$500 million to treat in 2023 alone—and participation in the sport has only increased in the years since.
Kitchen Blockers focuses on organic relationships, and Robins swears he has never had to make a sale—there’s genuine word of mouth that begins with a single player on the court that expands to partners or opponents, continuing outward. Kitchen Blockers are available in many facilities nationwide, as well as on the website, Pickleball Central, and sold in almost 50 countries.
A recent player in the performance eyewear space is Vantage Labs. It emerged on the scene in late 2025 and is making a splash with players at all levels. In speaking with the founder and CEO, JT Conover, I started to understand the hype.
“The No. 1 thing players and coaches suggest to win more at the kitchen line is to lean into the point. Glasses help you be more confident and stay safe, even when you’re locked in a firefight and only 14 feet away from your opponents launching balls directly at you,” says Conover.
The Vantage Labs sponsored pro player and coach Michael Loyd echoes this, explaining that “being able to stand in there with confidence when things get fast because you know you’re protected is a performance advantage. They don’t fog up and the lens makes the ball pop.”
Conover considers the core demographic to be players who are passionate about the game, play multiple times a week, and are working to improve their skills. Vantage promises a performance advantage, with lenses geared toward improved ball tracking and visibility for better reaction times. The No. 1 selling point for its ColorVue glasses is that they help you see the ball through various conditions, dawn through dusk, as well as in the lighting offered at different facilities.
Both Kitchen Blockers and Vantage Labs share a focus on the female player. Kitchen Blockers developed a slim-fit style, specifically created to be more comfortable for women. Vantage has a new style in the pipeline, dropping later this year, with a design customized for women from the beginning.
If you follow professional pickleball, you may have noticed two scary eye incidents in the first two Major League Pickleball events of the year. At the inaugural tournament, St. Louis Shock player Kate Fahey had her Pilla glasses knocked cleanly off her face.
She recalled, “It was very scary getting hit in the face in Dallas. I was lucky enough to be wearing protective eyewear. Had I not been wearing anything, it would have been a line drive straight to the eye.”
At the second MLP competition, Phoenix Flames player Daria Walczyk took a direct hit to her glasses while at the kitchen line. As Walczyk clearly needed a moment to gather her bearings after the blast, the announcers noted that having the glasses proved to be crucial.
Currently there is no consistent regulation on eye protection in pickleball at any level of play, including the professional level, even though balls travel at high speeds on a court only 44 feet at its longest span.
While eyewear is not (yet) required, the performance brand Pilla has recently made a surge into the professional pickleball stratosphere, sponsoring several top players including world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters, the second top female Anna Bright, the No. 1 ranked male singles player Chis Haworth, and the always-popular Will Howells, among others.
Howells touts his Pilla glasses for their technology, and stresses the focus on performance, not just protection, saying that they help him see better. Originally created for highly skilled shooting sports professionals, Pilla eyewear comes at a premium price point, with different lenses to swap into the frame based on preference and situation.
It’s not only the pro players who need to worry about getting hit. Spinwave Pickleball reports that almost half of pickleball players are “hit in the eye or face during play,” and often the ball can come at you as it ricochets off your partner’s paddle (which makes the Vantage Labs peripheral protection more relevant).
New York City rec player Taylor Fields equates wearing glasses on court with wearing a seat belt in a car: “You may not need it for 1,000 trips, but it only takes one time to do some serious damage. If I got an eye injury and was out of the game or couldn’t see my wife or baby, I’d be devastated.”
Pickleball has a way of converting skeptics. What I didn’t expect was how quickly glasses became automatic for me, and now I won’t play without them. Whether you’re a social player or grinding toward a 5.0 DUPR, your eyes are one thing you cannot upgrade or replace. •
Lydia Hirt is a New York City-based marketing executive, pickleball player and community organizer who believes that the sport’s greatest power is in the people it brings together. Connect with Lydia on Instagram @lydia.pickleball and via her newsletter at loveatfirstdink.substack.com.
 Here are just some of the options for protective eyewear on the pickleball court.JOOLA: A brand often known for innovation, it offers a performance-based eyewear line to go with the latest paddles. You can find the COLORBOOST technology in glasses for indoor and outdoor play. RIA Eyewear: Ria was an early option for protective eyewear on court, offering HD+ technology in an array of frames for indoor and outdoor play. Wilson: An iconic racket sports brand offering pickleball glasses at a great price. Kitchen Blockers: The original lens-free design, custom-engineered for pickleball. Vantage Labs: Glasses designed specifically for pickleball and performance enhancement. Pilla: Glasses created for elite athletes with a focus on performance. Bolle Safety: An under-$20 entry point available on Amazon for safety glasses you can wear on court. Tifosi: Offers pickleball eye protection in an array of frames and colors, including a prescription option, at a reasonable price point. Dink Eyewear: Engineered for pickleball with colorboosting technology, promising both “protection and confidence.” |
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