Athletes require the proper gear to stay safe, such as helmets and shoulder pads for lacrosse games or thimbles for heated chess matches. Shield your pinkies from burly pawns with today's Groupon: for $25, you get $50 worth of sporting goods at Sports Extra in Bethesda, Maryland.

Specializing in lacrosse equipment, Sports Extra equips athletes with an arsenal of high-quality performance apparel and band-name sporting goods. The Cascade PolyPro women's goggles ($24.99) guard peepers from errant lacrosse balls and robot goalies’ laser beams, and the STX AV8 lacrosse stick ($33.99) assists players with easier catches due to its open-face design. Along with lacrosse gear, Sports Extra carries apparel for all sports, such as shorts decked with cartoon crabs and mesh tank tops with reversible colors ($12) for quickly switching between impromptu basketball games and business meetings.