Padel Racket Bags and Backpacks

Padel bag, backpack or racket cover?

It depends on what fits inside and how you carry it. A racket cover is just for the racket: it's the basic option, for those who already have a regular backpack. A padel bag is elongated, racket-shaped, and has the most compartments: several rackets plus clothes, shoes, and accessories. A backpack holds one or two rackets and your essentials for the day, and is for going to the court from work.

And there is a fourth type: the travel bag or suitcase. adidas organizes its bags into four categories: padel bags, backpacks, bags, and suitcases, not three. That fourth one is for tournaments and travel, not for Tuesday's match.

What does not separate a padel bag from a backpack is the protection of the racket. At adidas, the padel bag and the backpack of the same range and the same season describe the racket compartment with the same words: semi-rigid and thermally insulated. At Wilson it is exactly the opposite, and there the insulation is indeed a feature of padel bags. So there is no rule that applies to all: check it in the product page of the model you like.

A note on assortment: adidas does not manufacture an individual racket cover. If you are looking for a cover, you will find it in other brands.

What is the thermal compartment for?

So that the racket does not end up baking in the car trunk. Heat degrades the rubber: above 50 °C, EVA loses its mechanical properties of resistance, hardness, and bounce, and that is what the factory director of StarVie says. A car trunk in summer reaches 60 °C. And Babolat, the only brand that publishes a threshold, leaves the racket out of warranty above that same figure.

That is what is behind the insulated compartment. adidas describes it as semi-rigid and thermally insulated, "designed to protect it from temperature changes and preserve its performance".

Now the honest part: no one publishes how much it insulates. Neither degrees maintained, nor hours, nor a test. None of the four major brands gives a figure. So the compartment helps, and how much no one knows. What is in your hand is not to leave the racket in the sun or inside the car.

Only two brands give it a proper name: Head calls it CCT+ and Wilson, Thermoguard. adidas and Bullpadel describe it without naming it. And a detail of the CCT+ that is worth knowing: Head puts it in one of the two exterior racket compartments, not in both. What you put in the other goes without insulation.

Women's and men's padel bags and backpacks

What changes is the design, not the bag. The proof is in the adidas catalog itself: the Pro Tour Pink and the Pro Tour Blue are the same bag from the same range in a different color. The same thing happens at Bullpadel, and with its own field in the product page: the Vertex W and the Vertex share the same measurements and the same racket capacity. The signature changes and the color changes.

No manufacturer declares a structural difference between a men's bag and a women's bag: neither in capacity, nor in compartments, nor in protection. So the label tells you less than it seems.

Choose by what you are going to put inside and how you are going to carry it. The color, in the end.

Two-racket or one-racket backpack?

It depends on how many rackets you carry: Bullpadel makes two types of padel backpack, a two-racket one and a one-racket day-pack. The two-racket one has a reinforced thermal compartment, a padded pocket for the laptop or tablet, and an adjustable chest strap. The one-racket one is a day-pack, with elastic side pockets and side straps to adjust the volume according to what you carry.

And if you are going by car with equipment for the whole match, partner, spare, and shoes, a backpack is not for you: it's a padel bag.

What size do I need?

It depends on how many rackets you carry, and the bad news is that there is no figure you can compare between brands. Each one declares the capacity in a different unit: adidas in liters, Wilson and Bullpadel in the number of rackets, and Head in both depending on the format, rackets in padel bags, liters in backpacks, and there they even go with the model name itself. There is no honest conversion between liters and rackets, so do not try to cross them.

The orders of magnitude, according to the manufacturer's word: at adidas it goes from about 35 liters in the entry-level range to about 70 in the high-end. Head declares up to seven rackets in the large racket bag of its Tour range, which is the largest published capacity in the category. Wilson reaches six. And Bullpadel publishes a field with three values: one, two, or four rackets.

Translated to what you do on Sunday: to play yourself, a two-racket backpack is more than enough. The large padel bag is for those who carry complete equipment, or equipment for more than one.

And when you go up in size, not only the volume changes: the compartments change. The ventilation for damp clothes is described by the four brands, and it is what prevents the whole bag from smelling. The top pocket with velvet lining, for glasses and mobile phones without scratching them, is a thing of the high-end ranges of adidas, just like the base with inverted TPE, so you can leave it on wet ground, and the U-shaped opening with double slider, which opens the bag like a suitcase and lets you see everything at once.

The shoe compartment, on the other hand, is not a category: it is a model. Head names it in its Pro X Duffle and Bullpadel in its Tech backpack. If you want it, look for it in the product page; do not take it for granted by the size.

Brands: adidas, Head, Wilson and Bullpadel

The four organize their bags in a ladder, and the step is not marked by size: it is marked by racket protection. All four have exactly one step where the insulation disappears, and it is their entry-level range.

At adidas it is the Control range, which also drops in fabric and is left without a rain cover. At Head it is the Base range, the only one without CCT+. At Wilson it is Team, the only line that the brand takes out of its Performance category and puts into Recreational, and that goes from six rackets to four. And at Bullpadel it is Tour, whose product page speaks of "a padded compartment with space for two rackets": padded, not thermal.

No brand tells it like that, and it is no secret: it is what comes from reading their product pages one by one.

A money-saving tip: do not take for granted that the most expensive one protects better. In two of these four brands there are models that cost the same with a different level of finish, and padel bags with identical measurements and capacity separated only by the equipment, laptop sleeve, ventilated pocket, zippers with lock. See if the product page mentions insulation before looking at the price.

And three nomenclature keys that prevent buying what is not:

• Bullpadel: Vertex, Hack or Pearl are not ranges, they are models that take the name of the racket they accompany. The range is in another field of the product page.
• Head: the L and the M of a padel bag are sizes, and the "25L" of a backpack are real liters. It is the only one of the four that puts the liters in the name.
• adidas: the size never goes in the name. Neither L, nor XL, nor Compact. It goes in liters, inside the product page.

One last note about Head that explains many coincidences: Head does not have a padel bag system, it has a racket sports one. A good part of its padel bags are literally the same product it sells in tennis, and it says so itself in the product page of its Pro X Duffle: "part of our tennis range".

Complete your equipment

If you are coming for the bag, also look at the padel rackets, the padel overgrips, the padel balls, the protectors and the padel shoes.

Doubts between a padel bag and a backpack? Write to us and we will tell you which one fits how you get to the court.

Guide updated in September 2026.