Glad this place continue to exist and still in the family. If you play racquet sports, this is the place to go. If you want your racquet fixed, this is the place to go. The place is medium sized, but cramped with loads of things on the floor and on the wall. If you go in for the first time, it is super overwhelming. There are things everywhere and in no particular place. Customer service leaves you alone. Saying this, pretty much all the people who come into the store buys something. Why? Customer service knows their stuff and doesn't push you to buy what you don't need or upscale you to buy mor expensive. The stuff they have is really well made and you cannot find a better deal anywhere else. Love this place for tennis shoes and racket. They also have pickleball paddles and balls etc. read more

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Great customer service. Very knowledgeable staff and very helpful with getting me the right tennis racquet

Very packed little store on south Granville at 70th (across from Safeway). It appears they specialize in racket sports and have a significant selection. I was just looking for basic badminton shuttles and found them here, a 6 of nylon for $13. Prices seem reasonable, service was quick and helpful. read more

Tad's Sporting Goods - Shuttles - $13 - Sporting Goods Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Everything you need for racquet sports. Tennis balls, grips, racquets, stringing, bags, clothes. Free parking in the back and street. If they are not busy, you can maybe have your racquet strung while you wait. Yes, they don't "seem" the most friendly but they know what they are talking about, and yes it's normal to play around with a string/tension and not like it... it's not the stringers fault. read more

Came here to get my racquets restrung. The first thing you see when you walk in are a lot of racquets on the wall and a couple of employees restringing racquets & one employee cutting the old strings off customers racquets. They had a great selection of tennis, squash and badminton racquets. I wasnt sure which strings I wanted so the guy helped me choose one. He was knowledgeable and helpful but he was still doing strings as he talked to me. I had looked at some strings prior to going but they also have an assortment of strings. Eventually I chose one for more control rather than strictly power. If you want your strings redone, come here. If you're looking for customer service and lots of attention, then this isn't the place. They probably have the racquet you want but you'd have to find it. The employees spent most of their time doing strings. read more

Having had a bad run with Sport Chek a few years ago, I went looking for an alternative shop for tennis racquet restringing. A few options were offered up by fellow players - Rackets and Runners on Oak and Tad's on Granville. I soon found out that they are night and day. The former is nicely laid out, with employees eager to help and professional stringers on site. The latter, not so much. Lots of product scattered throughout the store, which is narrow and not easily navigated. Even when empty, the staff are often dismissive, unfriendly and abrupt. They would rather take a phone call or finish a stringing job than help out someone who has just walked in. Tad's is pretty easy to miss. It's a small storefront near the intersection of Granville and 70th - blink and you'll miss it. Parking can be challenging depending on the time of day you visit, but if you avoid rush-hour, you can often find one or two hour parking just around the corner on one of the residential streets. I'll admit - I like their selection and breadth of products. You can find everything from shoes to table tennis supplies, badminton, squash and tennis racquets and apparel. They have a good test program whereby you pay a nominal amount - $10 or so and they'll loan you a tennis racquet for a few days. When you return it, you can take out another and use the $10 increments as credit against the purchase of a new racquet. These loaner racquets are later sold as demos at a discount. It doesn't help that none of their merchandise has marked pricing. You have to ask the staff which for reasons detailed above I'm not inclined to do. They generally do a good job in stringing but I have had the odd job I've been unhappy with - and they've been even unhappier to correct their work. You'll pay a premium at Rackets and Runners over Tad's or Sport Chek for their products and their work, but I think it is money well spent. Good service, and a shop that stands behind their work is certainly worth paying for. 1.5 stars, rounded up generously to 2. read more

I'd been advised to check out Tad's if I wanted anything badminton related. The store came recommended from a number of people at Vancouver badminton clubs so, when I needed a new racket, I thought I'd give Tad's a go. My initial email enquiries were dealt with promptly and were informative. I'd made enquires at three other stores but Gary gave some good advice on what to purchase and also quoted the most reasonable prices. I did my research on the recommended rackets and decided I'd go with one of the recommendations. On visiting the store I was "greeted" by two guys - one was sitting at a stringing machine and one was sitting finishing his "take out". It was obvious to me at this point that they were grieving the loss of a mutual friend such was the downturned looks on their faces and the miserable atmosphere. Neither were interested that I'd walked into their store, if anything they were both obviously slightly annoyed that a customer had arrived in their midst. I said that I'd had some communication with one of their colleagues but unfortunately he wasn't at the store that day. After some shrugging of shoulders, some shuffling of feet and eventually agreeing that we were speaking the same language, I was shown to where the badminton rackets were hanging. I made my choice and was told to give it to the guy at the front of the store for stringing. I'd like to say that I had a decent conversation with the guy stringing my racket but I had to settle for some long deep sighing and low level grunting. I left the store with the intention of returning in 40 minutes to collect the racket. While sitting in the local café I seriously contemplated just walking back to my car and heading home due to my experience so far. The only reason I didn't was that it'd taken me two weeks to get the opportunity to visit the store and I was so close to having the racket of my choice. I simply gritted my teeth and under duress I ventured back to the store when my coffee was finished. My racket was strung and ready for me to collect. I asked where I should pay and after getting no reply from the guy wearing headphones I wandered into the store looking for anything resembling a checkout. I paid and left with little more said. If you like being spoken to like a second class citizen, being looked at like someone has vomited over you en-route to the store and generally being given the worst customer service experience of your life then this is the sports store for you. Regardless of their apparent quality and quantity of stock I will not be revisiting this store in the future. Seriously people, take your hard earned cash elsewhere. read more

* 300th FTR * Ok, to commemorate my 300th FTR I thought I would temporarily depart from reviewing restaurant hole in the walls and instead focus on a way to keep healthy (and keep up the ability to enjoy food!) by reviewing a sporting goods hole in the wall. Enter Tad's. This is the go-to spot in Vancouver for anything related to racket sports. Everyone I talked to kept referring to this little hole in the wall cramped store as having the best selection, most knowledgeable sales staff, and the most flexible pricing available for authentic racket goods. Yes, the shame of it all - there is an entire black market of pirated racket goods I never knew existed! It is really easy to miss this place as it just has a small sign, and when you enter you might have to step over some random items or pass rather closely to some stringing equipment that is busily being used to custom string someone's latest purchase. But what you'll find in this little jewel of a shop is the widest selection of authentic rackets in Vancouver - along with some expert advice to help you navigate your choices. Be forewarned - most items don't have a price on them so you should have a rough idea of what you want, and how much it "should" cost before heading in. If you don't know, then if you stop in to get some advice and rough ideas of what you might want, don't forget to pop out to research the items you settle on before negotiating a price. To help with this the Marpole branch of the Vancouver Public Library is just a 3 minute walk north and has free internet access for you to explore to your heart's content and then head back to negotiate. This turned out to be very useful in making me know what I "should" pay and I am happy to say Tad's was happy to give a very reasonable price for the item I wanted. I like shops like this - they feel old school. It isn't one of those spacious mall like mega sporting goods stores. But those stores don't have the selection that Tad's has. This shop had some very new rackets that are still listed on the internet as "soon to be available" and that you wouldn't find anyplace else in Vancouver as far as I could tell. And I shopped around. Yeah for hole in the walls! (And not just for restaurants!) read more

Attended a large kids basketball tournament at your complex this weekend that was horribly monitored with regard to mask wearing and social distancing. You had no one making sure that spectators were wearing masks and kids were not wearing masks when they weren't playing a game. It was like the mandate didn't exist beyond the front door. We called to complain after the first day of games and was told that the manager wasn't available and that the manager had told the employees not to confront people about not wearing masks. Why in the world would you tell your employees not to enforce a mandate? Or at least not do it yourself as a manager? Not to mention it was 90+ degrees outside and there was no air conditioning. One large fan appeared to be turned directly on one of your employees. My daughter threw up from the heat. This was an awful experience that should've been enjoyable. We paid for the complex and for admission. This was unacceptable. read more

Back in the day this old, small and kinda shabby little shop (reminded me of independent sport stores in HK) was run by presumably a father and son team. The latter was a man of few words but together they were helpful enough. Sure there wasn't a lot of space inside to move around but it's got that certain old-school charm to it, not to mention the amount of stuff they managed to cramp in there was mind-boggling to say the least. Now the place's being run by a couple of dudes with their flashy imports parked in the back. I remember going in a while back looking for a tennis racket with a modest budget. The response I got from one of the guys was simply "it's not gonna happen". End of conversation. What didn't and won't happen for sure is me getting anything from them. Ever. read more

this is a GREAT sports "hole in the wall"...it ain't fancy but it has what you need and the prices are always good...it is worth the trip to Granville and 70th read more

Service is not the best but the price is decent. They have lots of racquets in stock. I would not go back to Tad's unless I absolutely have to. read more

I play tennis and badminton. Tads offer quite a variety of racquets. The price is decent and negotiable. The crews were not friendly, though. read more

Went to get a tennis grip redone.The price was reasonable but theChinese lady at the cashier was so unfriendly. Talk about bad customer service. She even forgot to give me my change. I had to ask for it and no apology. I'd would rather pay a little more for a better service. I would not recommend to anyone!! read more

Similar to the poster above. Their selection is probably one of, if not the best in the general Vancouver area. However, I find it appalling that every time I go in their attitudes are already extremely frustrated/annoyed with me. I'm not sure if it's because I am a relatively intermediate player, so I'm not "hardcore" enough for their service, but a customer is a customer nonetheless. It pains me to think that every time I need a good racket sports store I am treated like a pariah with no alternative stores to go to. read more

I just came in here to browse. I was very impressed with their selection of tennis and badminton goods. I did find what I was looking for. I didn't need the customer service since I was just looking, however, I got the impression that they didn't care about putting their best foot forward in the CS department either. Prices aren't always competitive but it is the best selection in the city hands down. read more

They got a big selection of rackets and all you need for tennis. Price is also good and also gave Discounts. Only service was an absolute minus. (The guys on the stringing machines were cool though!) read more

This is small store but you get every thing. They are very nice people, specially Garry. Excellent in service. They are straight forward, my friend recommends me this store. read more

This is the first online review I have ever written. After a long day of work doing renovations on my home I decided I was going to drive across town to Tads to purchase a tennis racquet I had been reading up on. The minute I walked into the store I was met with an unwelcoming attitude; the Chinese lady was so unfriendly and went out of her way to make me feel uncomfortable. Really , to the point of being disrespectful , One of the tennis stringer was equally bad when I politely asked a few questions. To be fair, the second tennis stringer (with the thick rimmed glasses) was a nice and tried to help. However, he couldn't make up the brutal attitudes of his co-workers/(owners?). You won't see one red cent from me . read more

Pretty good selection of tennis rackets and shoes but one of the worst customer service experiences I've had when I've spent over $200. I would ask one person for help and they would tell me to ask the other person, they did not really seem to care about helping me. It is also absolutely filthy inside and disorganized beyond belief, probably worth showering after. If they didn't have the pair of shoes I wanted in my size, I would've never spent a penny there and I will probably never go back. Hopefully somebody decent opens up a decent tennis shop in Vancouver. read more

This place definitely lacks customer service. When you go in there looking to buy something, you have to find help. They don't come to you. But when you do ask for help, it's somewhat informative but at the same time you get the feeling they just want you to make the purchase and go. Stringing is top notch but the people that does the stringing give you the attitude like they don't want to talk to you. One time they put the wrong string on my racket and they don't even take responsibility. All I wanted was the string I requested. Their nearly non-existent customer service reminds me of ATIC on Broadway. Now NCIX has a lot of ATIC's business and I am pretty sure it's because of customer service. read more

They do a pretty good job and prices are not bad, but their attitude is just terrible. It feels like I have to apologize for even asking one question. Other stores offer the same service with 100 times better attitude, I wouldn't recommend Tad's anymore. read more

I suspect they are selling poor quality products. Brought two badminton racquets a few months ago and broke in two days. When I returned to ask and see if they can do anything about it, they turned me away and said I have to send them back to Yonex Canada by myself. I dare not to buy anything from them again. read more

Great store. Small but packed. They have a great selection and really know their stuff. Gary the owner is the man to talk to. Very competitive prices too. read more

I've been shopping at this store for the past 15 years or so. Tad's staff is very knowledgeable, and the prices are best in town by far. If you buy a new racquet, you will get the strings and stringing job for free, which is not the case at some other stores around. Often they will throw in an extra overwrap or vibration dampener for free. I am still not sure why people shop at Rackets and Runners for tennis stuff. Keep up the good work guys! read more

Tads is the best tennis sports store I've purchased from - best service, best deals, most extensive choices, best quality and super knowledgeable staff. read more