When brothers Rich Goldstein and Dave Goldstein started playing pickleball a few years ago, they tried a bunch of different shoes from a handful of big brands in the sport.

Whether they were tennis shoes or shoes marketed for pickleball, they couldn’t find anything that hit the sweet spot between performance, comfort and style.

As fourth-generation shoe makers who had been around the shoe business since they were kids, the brothers were pretty sure they could do better.

So the Goldsteins and longtime friend Keith Goldberg set out on a mission: Make the best performing shoe on the market, and make it look good.

After years of design work and play testing more than 10 versions, this month they released their first two pickleball shoes under the newest brand in pickleball footwear: DAPS.

How COVID-19 fueled the creation of a shoe brand

The Goldstein brothers spent many summers during their childhood in Spain, where their father had manufactured shoes for years. They were in the factories in their early teens learning about how all the different materials – from the sole to the laces – combined to make a product that could withstand years of use (and abuse) and still look good.

After going through college and dabbling in different industries after graduation, Rich and Dave ultimately teamed up with their father to make footwear for many of the big box stores and department stores in the United States. They’ve been doing it for decades at this point, with most of the production coming out of Italy and Brazil.

But over the past 10-15 years, general customer habits have trended away from the department store model. That shift was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is also around the time Rich, Dave and Keith discovered pickleball.

“As the retail business kept going down and down, we started thinking about what other areas we could get into,” Rich said. “After playing pickleball for a couple years and going through all the sneakers that were out there, we came up with the idea: Why don’t we make a pickleball sneaker that’s better than everything else that’s out there?”

So they scaled back their other operations and started making the prototype for the DAPS Desi low and Desi mid shoes (named after Keith’s son Desmond). They’ve had the shoes on the feet of a broad range of players – from touring pros like Zane Ford to instructors to 3.5s – for the past 6-8 months and have incorporated feedback along the way to make small tweaks.

“We haven’t had one bad review yet, so we’re really excited about it,” Rich said. “When we came up with this idea, there really weren’t any original pickleball shoes out there and everybody was just repurposing tennis shoes. So we could have beat a lot of these other brands to market with a pickleball shoe, but we wanted to make sure that the shoe was right. We stopped production on two separate occasions that cost us money because we wanted to adjust something. But we did that to make sure that what we put out there was the best quality and gave our customers the best experience possible.”

The perfect shoe for doubles pickleball

There’s been a pretty obvious trend over the past few years as pickleball has exploded in popularity: Brands that traditionally made tennis shoes have been marketing toward pickleball players. But they’re not really making pickleball shoes. Instead, they’re just putting a pickleball logo on their existing tennis shoes and calling it good.

The DAPS team took a different approach, building a pickleball shoe from the ground up that was focused on performance for the doubles game, because that’s what the majority of pickleball players want and need.

Shop the DAPS
DESI LOW - Men's Pickleball Shoe
DESI MID - Men's Pickleball Shoe
DESI LOW - Women's Pickleball Shoe
DESI MID - Women's Pickleball Shoe

“We play pickleball like normal people, so we wanted a shoe that was for people like us,” Goldberg said. “Having pro players sign off on the shoe is great, but if we made a shoe that was only focused on the top level guys like Zane Ford, the people like Tommy Ford who is a 3.5 are not going to have the same experience. So we wanted to find that balance that could be high performing for the really good players, but still makes sense for the majority of pickleball players.”

That’s where placing a premium on comfort was important. In their original testing of other brands, they noticed their feet, knees and backs were getting sore because the shoes weren’t designed for the movements of doubles, nor were they designed for the several-hour play sessions that pickleball players are known for.

“There’s more cushioning in our shoe than what is standard, and we know that a pickleball player does not move like a tennis player,” Goldberg said. “So to build a pickleball shoe like a tennis shoe didn’t make sense. There’s a few aspects that are similar, like traction and efficiency and being able to move quickly – those were paramount, rather than making something that was good for long strides and sliding like the tennis shoes are designed for.

“Over 90% of people are playing the kind of pickleball that we designed these shoes for.”

Attention to detail was important for DAPS team

Goldberg said they wanted everything that went into the shoe to have a purpose, and he believes they succeeded in that sense. The shoes have four key elements that combine to enhance comfort and performance.

Traction-tuned rubber sole: The high-durability rubber outsole hits the sweet spot — tough enough to last, soft enough to grip. The CNC-cut tread gives the DAPS sharper edges than stamped molds, which means ultimate traction when it counts: quick stops, hard pushes and fast footwork.

Carbon fiber shank stabilizer: No plastic. No shortcuts. The carbon shank is made from the top material in the game for stability and energy transfer — lightweight, strong and trusted by elite athletes. Most brands skip it. DAPS made it standard.

Top performance midsole foam: The ETPU midsole (high-quality foam) delivers great energy return, serious durability and comfort. More bounce. Less burnout.

Blumaka NonSlip insole: Blumaka's NonSlip insoles are a game-changer for athletes seeking maximum control, speed and support. Slip less. Win more.

“We want people to think about these as not only shoes, but as gear,” Goldberg said. “There’s two important pieces of gear when you play pickleball: Your paddle and your shoes. If you’ve ever gone skiing before, you might know that if you don’t have a boot that fits right, you’re going to be miserable. We feel the same way about the shoe. We want it to fit great so it can provide the ultimate performance.”

To ensure that they could provide that comfort while delivering top-tier performance, DAPS sent the shoes to the Heeluxe Performance Lab to be tested against four other top-selling pickleball and tennis shoes. The DAPS outperformed the competition in several key metrics: faster starts, quicker stops, better energy return and more energy efficiency.

Translation: You move sharper, burn less juice and stay in the game longer.

More than a pickleball shoe

The appeal of the DAPS shoes extends beyond the pickleball court, as the Goldstein brothers and Goldberg also wanted to focus on style with their first shoe. They’ve released three color combos – green/white, cream/white and baby blue/white – with more on the way.

They wouldn’t look out of place in the club or out to a nice dinner, and the team has heard from many players who have made them their go-to shoe whenever they leave the house.

“The community aspect is a huge part of this, and it’s a sport that’s built on fun,” Goldberg said. “So we wanted a shoe that is as good for on the court as it is off the court, and we want people to rock their DAPS in the real world. I don’t see a lot of these other shoes being worn off the court, so we thought that was an opportunity. We want to be a lifestyle brand that also beats the big brands in terms of performance, and I think we’ve achieved that with this shoe.”