NYC Racquet Sports Pays It Forward with NYC Racquet Donation Program
Learn about the NYC racquet donation program brought to you by NYC Racquet Sports and Sutton East Tennis Club. Woody and Paul Fontana discuss how you can pay it forward by donating tennis racquets to help local young players.
By Marnie Kunz
Not everyone can afford to play tennis, and our NYC racquet donation program came about as a way to help get young people on the court who want to play. Tennis can become an expensive sport, and there are many young tennis players who don’t have the high-quality tennis racquets they need to enjoy the game. Our tennis racquet donation program aims to help those aspiring junior tennis players in the NYC community. Through our partnership with Sutton East Tennis Club and New York Junior Tennis & Learning’s Cary Leeds Tennis Center in the Bronx, we are helping to collect and refurbish used racquets to repurpose them and distribute them to junior players in need in our community.
How It Started
It all began when Paul Fontana from Sutton East Tennis Club approached Woody, co-owner of NYC Racquet Sports, about the concept of asking people to donate their older racquets that they no longer use to be repurposed for junior tennis players in need of tennis equipment. As a part of the NYC tennis community and racquet stringing experts, we were happy to donate our store as a drop-off site and provide tennis racquet restringing and refurbishing services to help get more young players on the court.
How the NYC Racquet Donation Program Works
You can participate in the racquet donation program by visiting our flagship NYC tennis store in the heart of Herald Square in Manhattan to drop off your old racquets.
Drop-Off Location: NYC Racquet Sports
157A W 35th Street (between Broadway and 7th Ave)
In the heart of Herald Square, Manhattan
Once you drop off your gear, our professional stringing team goes to work right here on 35th Street. We inspect the frame, put on fresh grips, restring them to optimal tension, and ensure they are in peak playing condition. Through our partnership with NYJTL’s Cary Leeds Tennis Center, we then deliver these polished, high-performance racquets directly to local junior programs, placing them right into the hands of eager young players who are ready to play.
👉 Watch our full donation story in action on Instagram!
Before you clear out your gear, see how your old racquet can change a local player’s game.
Other Pay-It Forward Initiatives at NYC Racquet Sports
We recycle strings to be reused as tennis clothing in partnership with LET Tennis.
Our commitment to sustainability and community doesn't stop at the baseline. We want to make sure every piece of tennis gear - from the shoes on your feet to the strings in your frame - finds a purposeful second life.
Tennis Shoe Donation Program
We participate in the Soles4Souls shoe donation program, which repurposes used shoes for people in need of footwear around the world. We collect used tennis shoes in our Herald Square store with a shoe donation drop box. Instead of letting your gently used tennis shoes sit unused or end up in a landfill, you can donate them to our Soles4Souls drop box right inside our Herald Square store.
Tennis String Recycling
LET Tennis creates tennis apparel from used strings.
Every year, millions of miles of synthetic tennis string are cut out of racquets and thrown into landfills, contributing to massive plastic pollution. Because we restring thousands of racquets a year in Midtown Manhattan, we knew we had to find a better way to handle this waste.
That is why we have partnered with LET, a pioneering tennis brand founded by former Division 1 collegiate players.
We collect all discarded polyester and synthetic gut strings right here at our 35th Street stringing machines. Instead of going into the trash, these materials are sent to LET, where they are transformed through advanced, closed-loop recycling into virgin-quality polyester. That recycled material is then woven into high-performance, sustainable tennis apparel. Next time we cut the strings out of your frame, you can rest easy knowing they are on their way to becoming your next favorite on-court performance shirt.
Give Your Tennis Gear a Second Life
Don't let your old tennis shoes and racquets go to waste. At NYC Racquet Sports, we believe every New Yorker deserves a chance to fall in love with tennis, regardless of their circumstances.
When you do your next seasonal closet clean-out, bring your used racquets and court shoes down to 35th Street, and let’s help the next generation of NYC athletes conquer the court together.
Related Posts:Tennis Shoes vs: Running Shoes: Best Options for Tennis Players, Racquet Restringing Guide, Our Soles4Souls Shoe Donation Program
Marnie Kunz is a writer and marketing manager based in Brooklyn, NY. She heads Runstreet and creates content for wellness brands.
