11SIX24 Spent a Year Building the Pickleball Shoe That Didn't Already Exist

After nearly a year of development, multiple redesigns and plenty of trial and error, the paddle brand is preparing to make its first move into footwear.

David Groechel has always been a shoe guy.

There’s a reason most of 11SIX24’s paddles borrow their names from sneakers. (Vapor. Pegasus. Hurache. Sound familiar?) And as the founder and CEO started thinking about where the fast-growing pickleball brand could go next, footwear felt like an obvious answer.

There was just one problem: He couldn’t find the pickleball shoe he actually wanted to wear.

“I’ve never found a true pickleball shoe,” Groechel told The Dink. “Most of them were just repurposed tennis shoes.”

So 11SIX24 decided to build its own.

The company hired a shoe engineering firm in late 2025 and began developing a model from the ground up, aiming for the same basic formula that has helped distinguish its paddles: high-end performance without a premium-brand price tag.

“How can we grow the business? How can we offer more to our customers?” Groechel said.

Finding the middle ground

Groechel doesn’t necessarily view the pickleball footwear market as crowded.

There are established tennis brands making excellent shoes that players have adopted for pickleball. There are also pickleball-specific brands entering the category. But he still saw room for something built around the particular balance he wanted on court.

The 11SIX24 shoe is designed to be relatively light and quick without sacrificing cushioning or lateral stability.

“They’re lighter, almost like a speed shoe, but they have great cushion,” Groechel said. “They have good lateral stability. They have a shank, but it’s not a full carbon-fiber shank, so they’re not super stiff.”

The target is the sweet spot between shoes that feel overly soft and heavy and those that feel fast but flimsy.

“Finding that sweet spot of comfort, durability, cushion and weight was the goal all along,” he said.

11SIX24 is also planning a six-month warranty, something Groechel said repeatedly came up as important while talking with players.

Expected pricing is roughly $120 to $140, positioning the shoe below many performance models that can climb toward $180, $200 or more.

Turns out, shoes are hard

11SIX24 initially hoped to have the shoe ready this fall.

That didn’t happen.

The biggest obstacle wasn’t aesthetics or materials. It was fit.

Unlike a paddle, where the dimensions are mostly fixed, footwear has to accommodate the endless variations of the human foot. Groechel estimates the shoe went through four or five significant revisions as the company adjusted its shape and fit.

One version pinched the big toe. Another adjustment still didn’t fix it. Widening the shoe went too far in the other direction.

Eventually, they started the shape over.

“It’s so hard,” Groechel said. “People’s feet are also different. You just try to capture 70% of what works for everyone.”

The delays nearly became enough to kill the project altogether.

“It's proven far harder than paddles,” he said.

Instead, 11SIX24 kept going.

Groechel recently approved what is expected to become the production version, clearing the way for the company to begin opening molds across its complete size range.

When can you actually wear them?

The current timeline puts the shoes in 11SIX24’s warehouse around the end of March 2027, with an expected launch in April.

Multiple colorways are planned, including black, white, teal and lavender options, along with a brighter Miami-inspired version.

Groechel is realistic about who will buy them first. The initial audience will likely be existing 11SIX24 fans, ambassadors and players willing to try something new.

From there, the goal is bigger.

Footwear gives the company another way to put the 11SIX24 name on courts while expanding beyond the paddle category that built the brand.

“I don’t expect to sell 100,000 pairs of shoes,” Groechel said. “It’s more about getting marketing out there and amplifying our brand awareness.”

And like its paddles, Groechel already views version one as a starting point rather than a finished product.

“The first one is not going to be perfect,” he said. “They're really good, but I could sit here for the next year tweaking every little detail, just trying to improve every little thing.”

For a brand that has made its name by continuing to tinker, test and iterate, that might be the most 11SIX24 approach possible.

Heads up: hundreds of thousands of pickleballers read our free newsletter. Subscribe here for cutting edge strategy, insider news, pro analysis, the latest product innovations and more.