A first badminton kit: the racket, the shuttle and the Laws behind them.

Lessons come before kit

We suggest a first badminton season starts with lessons from a qualified coach, and this guide recommends no club, coach or shop. The BWF's coach education pathway (summary updated March 2025) runs from Level 1, a course of at least four days run nationally or regionally, to Level 3, run globally by the BWF; the levels are set out on how people learn, and the game itself on badminton.

Which Laws this guide reads

The Laws of Badminton are Section 4.1 of the BWF Statutes. The BWF's own site could not be opened for this site, so the equipment Laws below come from a BWF-issued copy in force from 29 May 2023 (version 2.1). The 2025 Laws, in force until 4 January 2027, were not read directly; the equipment wording and figures in the 2023 copy match a third-party reproduction of the text the BWF adopted on 25 April 2026, which takes effect on 4 January 2027.

The racket: Law 4

Under Law 5 the BWF rules on whether a racket complies, on its own initiative or when a player, technical official, maker or member association asks. No BWF approval programme for rackets or strings was found. Any racket can be compared with these limits in the racket size checker. Racket weight and balance descriptions are makers' claims, and fitting is not described here.

Strings. The Laws regulate only the stringed area's shape and size, not the string material, and no governing-body or standards-body source on badminton string materials was found. This site gives no tension or stringing advice.

Shuttles: Law 2, feathered and not

Law 2 allows shuttles of natural or synthetic materials, or both, as long as the flight is generally like that of a feathered shuttle with a cork base covered in a thin layer of leather.

• Feathered: 16 feathers, each 62 to 70 mm long, their tips on a circle 58 to 68 mm across; base 25 to 28 mm across and rounded on the bottom; weight 4.74 to 5.50 g.
• Non-feathered: a synthetic skirt or simulated feathers in place of feathers, with the same base, measurements and weight, but a variation of up to 10 percent allowed because synthetic materials behave differently.
• Altitude and climate: where the standard shuttle is unsuitable, the member association concerned may approve modified specifications, provided the general design, speed and flight do not change. Law 3 sets a speed test.

Makers sell feather shuttles graded by speed, but the numbering schemes found came only from retailers and disagreed with one another, so none is given here.

Synthetic feather shuttles at BWF events

In January 2020 the BWF approved synthetic feather shuttles for use at any BWF international sanctioned tournament from the start of 2021, after trials at three sanctioned tournaments in 2019, with hosts and approved brands deciding where they are used; the BWF said its testing found them more durable with very similar flight. On 8 April 2026 the BWF approved two synthetic shuttles for a trial at Grade 3 and Junior International tournaments (a search extract of the BWF page, corroborated by news reports). According to a PTI report of August 2026, the BWF set no fixed timeline for elite use and described synthetics as an alternative to feathers, not a replacement. Search extracts of BWF pages describe an Equipment Approval Scheme, dating to 1988, under which approved shuttles, nets and posts may carry the words "Approved by the BWF for International Play"; those pages could not be opened, and they give different approval periods, so the details are unconfirmed.

The net: Law 1

For a home or hall net, Law 1 sets the posts at 1.55 m high, on the doubles sidelines for singles and doubles alike, and the net at 1.524 m high at the centre and 1.55 m over the doubles sidelines. The net is of dark, even cord with a 15 to 20 mm mesh, 760 mm deep and at least 6.1 m wide, with a 75 mm white tape along the top.

Shoes, eyes and para badminton

The Laws read contain no shoe rule, and no governing-body or standards-body source on badminton shoes was found; no shoe is presented here as preventing injury. The Laws read also contain no eyewear requirement, and ASTM F3164-24's title names racquetball, squash, tennis and pickleball, not badminton. Yu and colleagues (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2020) described 85 badminton eye-injury cases, 73 of them in doubles and 52 caused by the injured player's own partner; eyewear rules once reported in Ontario and British Columbia are unconfirmed. The detail is on eye injuries and eyewear rules, and an eye injury needs medical care. Law 5 allows a wheelchair or a crutch in para badminton; see wheelchair and para play.

One regulator alert found involves badminton kit: a 2018 EU alert, reported by the German magazine OKO-TEST, over a phthalate in a badminton set's handles, not confirmed against the Safety Gate database. See recalls.

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