15 Creative Ways to Reuse Old Sports Equipment
Updated on March 28, 2018
We’re not sure what it is, but there’s just something about spring that makes us want to upcycle stuff. Usually we try to stick to things that we already own so that they’re really being upcycled and we’re clearing something out or using it in a new way, but we’ll admit that sometimes we find ourselves so taken with a project that we’ll purchase something new as cheap as we can find it just to make a cool craft. Recently, however, we found a genre of repurposed craft that we have a huge supply of because our kids and other family members are such avid athletes; we recently discovered that there are tons of cool DIY projects you can make out of repurposed sports equipment!
Just in case you like the idea of making things out of old sports equipment just as much as we did when we first heard it, here are 15 of the coolest upcycling projects we’ve come across in our search so far.
1. Biking gears candle holder
Have you ever looked at the gears on a bicycle and thought about how cool they look, and then wondered whether something in that shape might look cool elsewhere too? It might sound weird to wonder how you can get creative with a bike gear, but there’s just something cool about how they look when they spin! Imagine how excited we were, then, when we saw this fantastic looking bike gear candle holder featured on DIY Network! Their tutorial shows you how it was made.
2. Baseball bat nightstand
Do you have some big, strong baseball players in your family? Then you probably have more than one discarded or damaged baseball bat lying around just waiting to upcycled into something new! We love the way this night stand featured on Love of Family and Home looks not only because it would get one of the bats out of our garage, but also because it would make a neat themed piece in a little boy’s room or as a side table in a sports themed recreation room.
3. Golf club head wine rack
Besides being awash in discarded baseball bats, do you have a pretty big supply of unused golf clubs lying around because your husband is an avid golfer who can’t help treating himself to new clubs at every opportunity? Well, this particular project won’t help you reuse the whole club, but at least it’ll stop them from laying around! Check out this tutorial on creating an awesome hanging angled wine rack from golf club heads on Dog House Woods n’ Vines.
4. Water ski chair
Have you and your family always been lovers of summertime water sports? Well, we can definitely feel you on that because we love things like water skiing too but we also know that sometimes things break, including the skis themselves. Having broken water skis lying around is how we started searching for ways to reuse them, which in turn is how we found this awesome water ski chair project from DIY Network! We love the way the colours of the water skis contrast with the wood of the rest of the chair.
5. Tennis racket mirrors
Do you actually come from a long line of sports lovers who you’ve inherited old pieces and equipment from, so you’ve actually got some things lying around that are borderline vintage? Well, they might be too old or worn to use for a game now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t turn them into something else! These fantastic DIY vintage tennis racket wall mirrors featured on Mrs. W’s Life on A Budget are the perfect example of what we mean! Their tutorial walks you through the process of making them.
6. Hockey stick coat rack
Every time we see one of our sporty relatives holding their hockey stick upside down while they lean on it listening to their coach, we think about how the top (which is usually the bottom) looks like you could hang something on it. Well, one day when we started looking for ways to upcycle the older hockey sticks in our garage that now longer get used, we came across an idea that centres around precisely that idea! We were so intrigued by the idea of making our own version of this awesome hockey stick coat rack that we actually made one for our front hallway in real life. Find out how to make one of your very own on Cottage Life.
7. Tennis racket chairs
Were you pretty intrigued by the idea of upcycling vintage tennis rackets into something you might actually use more often, but you’re just not sure that you need any more hall mirrors? Then perhaps these cool racket chairs will strike your fancy a little more! We really like the idea of putting these in a kids’ recreation room so that, even when they’re sitting down, there are fun, active themes centred around their favourite sports around them. Check out how they’re made on DIY Network.
8. Upcycled ski bench
We already talked about water skis, which are a little wider than most other kinds of skis, making a single ski the perfect back of a chair, but what if your family are more of a snow and winter sport clan? Well, never fear, your dreams of making your own sports themed seating aren’t dashed just yet! Instead, start stashing away old cross country or downhill skis so you can make a bench just like the one in the photo! Find out how it was made on Scrap Hacker.
9. Skateboard wall bar
More than any other sport anyone in our family has ever done, our kids going wild over skateboarding has yielded the most spare equipment by far. They’re always breaking the wooden decks or deciding they want a new style or a new design, saving their allowances until they can afford whatever skateboard they’ve set their eye on next. That’s why we went searching for ways to transform one of their old boards into something more useful and we were awarded with these awesome wall mounted bar! Get the full details for making your own skateboard bar on Recyclart.
10. Zippered basketball bag
Okay, we lied when we said the skateboards were the number one thing we had leftover from our family’s sports obsessions in our garage. We completely forgot about the basketballs that are all over the backyard, constantly rolling down the driveway, or popped and laying discarded and deflated under the bushes. Luckily for us, this tutorial from Recyclart outlines how to give an old basketball a new lease on life as an awesome zippered bag! We like the cool pointed shape the finished product takes.
11. Baseball stitching bracelet
If you ask us, the coolest part of the baseball has always been the awesome bright red stitching. You can probably tell from that comment that we are not the real sports enthusiasts in the family, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make cool crafty things for the people in our lives who do love sports! For example, our niece is a massive baseball enthusiast, so we followed this tutorial on Ladybird Baseball to make her this awesome leather bracelet that is actually the cut out embroidery of an old baseball.
12. DIY softball succulent planter
Let’s say you used one part of a baseball or softball to make the bracelet we just showed you above but you still have the rest of the ball left and it’s mostly untouched? Well, being able to make two things out of one upcycled piece might just be one of our very favourite things in the whole world! That’s why we used the rest of the ball that we made our niece’s bracelet out of to make this awesome succulent planter outlined on Oh Rubbish. Ours was made from a baseball rather than a softball, since our niece is a baseball player, but this is still the tutorial we used to make it happen!
13. Golf club head coat rack
Did we really catch your attention when we started talking about projects that help you upcycle golf club heads but you’re not a big wine enthusiast so you’re just not sure you need a golf themed wine rack? In that case, perhaps this wall mounted coat rack alternative that’s also made of golf club heads might be a little more up your alley. Check out how this one was made on The Fletcher Studios.
14. PVC pipe and tennis ball golf game
There are plenty of awesome and creative things that you can create with tennis balls, both old and new, but our favourite kind of project along that vein is the kind that helps us get our youngest kids enthusiastic about sports even before we’ve enrolled them in organized sports teams because they’re a little bit too young. That’s why we decided to make them this awesome PVC and tennis ball game featured on Mom Endeavours! Technically this is actually a game that practices their gold or hockey swing, but it still uses tennis balls and that’s good enough for us.
15. Bowling ball ladybug
We know we said that we certainly aren’t the sports enthusiasts in the family but that doesn’t mean we’ve never actually participated in sports like things! In fact, not that long ago we were on a bowling team. We aren’t anymore, but what counts is that we were! The balls we bought around that time, however, have gone unused since then and we’re tired of having them underfoot around the house. That’s why we thought this adorable little ladybug garden ball was such a good idea! Little Vintage Cottage shows you how to paint and embellish your own old bowling ball in the same cute way.
Do you know someone whose family members play a lot of sports, so they always have old sports equipment lying around? Share this post with them to inspire them to do something creative with it all rather than just getting rid of it!