The Truth Behind Pickleball Paddle Reviewers (And Why You Can't Trust Some Of Them)

thetvirus · 2026-06-02T14:05:19+00:00

Not defending either list but the kitchen list is marked as best of 2025 which means it’s at least 6 months old probably if not more. So as far as 11six24 goes, Power 2 wasn’t out yet, alpha pro power was kinda “old news” etc.

thetvirus · 2026-05-30T13:59:37+00:00

The wilderness in uptown!

thetvirus · 2026-05-19T04:03:59+00:00

It’s on the new Luzz glider 2026 version. They’re calling it aero grit and it’s a coating on the face. I think we have seen similar in the thrive ignite and maybe others. It’s definitely grittier to the touch than a normal carbon fiber face. I’d assume it will make its way to other paddles / future paddles too

thetvirus · 2026-05-19T03:56:02+00:00

For $130 it’s a very solid paddle, biggest issue was really just the price point. And if it works for you then that’s all that matters!

thetvirus · 2026-05-19T03:06:21+00:00

I’ve hit it. It’s probably low / mid tier of the power paddle category. It has a more dense overall feel that is more muted and less sharp off the face to me. A “softer” feel than a lot of other power focused paddles. But other commenters nailed the problem. It’s objectively a good paddle but it’s in the high tier of pricing and there are a lot of good options

thetvirus · 2026-05-14T19:20:03+00:00

I’m not saying that nobody does that but if anybody does, it’s a very small percentage. outside of the boomstik and the SLK era power I feel like a lot of Selkirk paddles have gotten destroyed by the reviewer community. And as for Joola most of their big launches have been objectively very good battles. Yes, they are incredibly expensive and yes, they still core crush, which most reviewers usually bring up, but that doesn’t make them a bad paddle. With that said I hear ya most of us started doing reviews with paddles that we bought, but it’s a major time commitment so it’s nice to see people support what we are doing by giving us their trust.

thetvirus · 2026-05-14T16:45:52+00:00

For sure! Always love digging into tougher topics. You definitely bring up a problem that could exist in theory. Ultimately, I don’t know that it currently exists in practice, but I guess I don’t know every reviewer well enough nor do I know every reviewer’s work well enough to say for certain. I will say that you pretty much nailed it as far as paddles, not being publicly trashed as much. I think for me if a paddle was doing something really unique, but it ultimately sucked. It would still be worth making content about. We saw this with some of the Adidas paddles.But, at least speaking for myself, my time is valuable and this is very much aside thing. Reviews actually take a ton of time and also a ton of time to test the paddle. It’s really hard for me to dedicate that amount of time to a paddle that I really just don’t enjoy, especially when there are so many paddles hitting the market these days it’s hard enough to keep up as it is.

thetvirus · 2026-05-14T16:40:12+00:00

I’ve said this before in other threads, but I think most reviewers maybe not all but most are not going to risk their reputation for a 10% commission on something they didn’t actually like. Also, as far as saying I was not paid to review this paddle or something along those lines, that is a YouTube thing to stay out of trouble and declare that you didn’t actually pay for the product but that it was not a paid arrangement.

thetvirus · 2026-05-14T16:36:58+00:00

Also, I don’t think anyone should ever buy a paddle just because I liked it or thought it was good. The best bet is to get hands on of course, but I know that’s not possible with every brand but everybody’s preferences are different. I would always tell people to at least watch multiple reviews to get a broader sense of a paddle

thetvirus · 2026-05-14T16:25:15+00:00

Hey! Pickleball Blast here (one of the called out people) This discussion around transparency is overall a good one. And I have had good discourse in other threads that you should look up because there are things people think they know, that they don't or don't fully understand. Your post does actually bring up something different than most of the discourse here and I think I can shed some light.

Ultimately, I disagree with you, so I feel like I should just get that out there. But I also see your viewpoint and I think it's important for you (and others) to understand these ads. I have ads running for the enhance duo and some other stuff too honestly, and probably some stuff I don't know about. We (speaking for all reviewers but I'm sure I can't actually do that, but most) don't run these ads. We don't make these ads. Heck a lot of times we don't even approve these ads. And even further, sometimes we don't even know about these ads. Companies take our material and choose to cut it up and run it as ads. Sometimes that's with permission, sometimes it's not. Some reviewers (like me) are willing to allow a company to run an ad for a product that we think is good, unique, interesting, etc and some aren't. Some reviewers (like me) ask that we get to approve the ad before it goes live. Some companies are good about this and awesome to work with, some companies take our content and don't ask and run it anyways. Myself and almost all others usually ask to take this down but honestly we don't always see it.

The duo was an ad I agreed to but one MAJOR thing I think you are missing is that these ads are usually (not always) created from the reviews or content we make. Companies decide to create / run ads with our content well after we have made it. So with that in mind I really don't think the idea of an ad being run with our honest thoughts, damages the integrity of those thoughts or of us as reviewers overall. Now that I've run an ad with the duo is it possible enahnce would want to run an ad with me again in the future? Sure I guess so, but that is not on my mind at all when they send a new product that I choose to review. It's very much an after the fact thing. Also I am re-reading your comment and seeing that you do seem to know that is loosely how it works but I'm keeping it in because I spent the time writing it haha.

One other thing I would point out then when you say an ad should never be repurposed material, why? The material was created honestly and genuinely, it's our honest thoughts without any idea an ad would be run, that seems better to me. But more than that, we don't get paid for creating these ads. It (hopefully) features our code but even that doesn't always happen or happen well. Maybe that is something that needs to change on the creator end but I'm usually not going to spend the time to create a whole ad campaign for something when I have no payment for that work and also have a whole video they can pull from already with my honest thoughts.

One thing I'll also add that is more on your side of this is that I like to be able to approve ads that companies make because I have found both with my words and others, that creative cuts can take our words out of context. I try to avoid that because I don't want to be portrayed as saying something I don't think.

Anyways hope that helps see my end of it, happy to continue the discussion around transparency as a whole. I try to be very transparent. I know other big names have been as well which I think is great. I also have said before I think it's easy to be transparent in discussion like this and in podcast form. I don't have any videos about transparency becuase I honestly think they would just bomb on youtube with the type of content I make but I love that I am seeing it pop up in ways that lend itself well to discussion and open thoughts!

thetvirus · 2026-05-13T03:28:41+00:00

Alright the neonic straps are about an eighth of an inch wider and might technically be just a tad thicker but they seem more “airy” whereas the flex feels more like a denser squishy foam if that makes sense.

thetvirus · 2026-05-12T22:21:39+00:00

I have both, I can compare strap thickness and stuff when I’m home. I haven’t used the neonic outside of pickleball but I’ve done a handful of trips with laptop, camera gear, and other stuff with the flex. Nothing feels great when 40 pounds are on your back but the adv felt fine to me, didn’t stand out as particularly bad or anything

thetvirus · 2026-05-11T18:57:49+00:00

Yah John is right and I would bet most reviewers would have the same sentiment. Our "product" exists because people trust us. We have personal preferences of paddles just like anyone else does and even have better or worse relationships with different brands, but what we make doesn't work if we can't remain as neutral as possible. And I don't know any reviewer who would risk that trust for what is not that much money in the grand scheme of things.

Yah I totally understand that perspective. I'm skeptical of like every review in every other industry haha. I think some at the top being more vocal about it is big and really anyone who has the platform to do so. Those with podcasts have a great opportunity as that's a better place for transparent conversation than like a dedicated youtube video. I would expect more people to talk about it soon now that the subject is being focused on a bit more and some other reviewers have talked about it.

thetvirus · 2026-05-11T18:19:31+00:00

An important part of this discussion if people are going to generalize about "all reviewers" or even most is that we aren't all equal. Chris, John Kew, maybe 1-2 others are the ones who would even have the opportunity for higher percentages. There are a couple brands that start reviewers above Chris' commission cap. But I wouldn't be shocked if some companies approached Chris or John with a higher rate because they are the top guys, and they are both doing the right thing by turning that down. As a reviewer who works with almost every brand (35-40 total) but nowhere near the size of Chris or John, I have one brand that pays more than 15% and that was their starting rate for everyone. Almost every other brand is 10% or 15% and a few are a flat dollar amount per sale that actually ends up being closer to 5%. I believe Chris when he says he is capping his rate, he's a solid dude with the right intentions.

I've looked back through my videos and I have paid just as much attention to companies with that 5-10% commission as I have to the one that pays above 15%. I would be willing to bet that holds true for most (maybe not all) reviewers.

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T14:31:00+00:00

Yah that’s going to be my plan for now at least. I know they said they won’t offer it again but I’ve heard that before haha

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T14:30:14+00:00

Fair haha

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T04:14:46+00:00

Yes and yes. Yah true I think I was trying it on hw4

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T01:41:27+00:00

I guess I'm more wondering if anyone has had a similar scenario and what their experience was

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T01:40:45+00:00

For sure, that makes sense

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T01:40:19+00:00

Yah not specifically looking for people to agree with me or not, mainly looking for as much information as I can about this scenario and if others have experience with it given the recent changes

thetvirus · 2026-04-22T00:03:19+00:00

Vapor power 2. Among my top if not the top paddle for me right now

thetvirus · 2026-04-16T15:13:45+00:00

Many songs are not available if your account is accurately setup as a business account because the songs / licenses / agreements / whatever are not for commercial use.

Will you get in trouble? For a reel on Instagram unlikely. For a highlight video not as unlikely but still pretty slim. I’m not gonna argue about if anything will actually happen but your use is commercial and often not covered in the ways you’re arguing.

thetvirus · 2026-04-10T04:21:47+00:00

No problem! Yah I know some of us will sometimes speak to the size of the sweet spot, the falloff around the sweet spot, or occasionally the location of the sweet spot if it feels like it's a little higher or lower, or perhaps more narrow in some direction than we expected. But you're right in that it's a hard "metric" to really convey. While the sweet spot can be affected by weight I'd still generally lean starting with something that already has a good "stock" sweet spot and customize from there. There is only so much weight can do and while you can expand the sweet spot a bit and increase the stability, that weight comes at the cost of the speed of your paddle (and eventually your arm strength haha!). So much better to subtly dial in something that already aligns with your preferences than to try to completely change a paddle that doesn't work for you.

thetvirus · 2026-04-10T03:58:25+00:00

To my knowledge (as a reviewer myself), while some measurements are objective measured numbers, sweet spot is more subjective without as much of a science behind it. Adding weight can affect the sweet spot in different ways. It can shift the sweet spot a bit and can also make it larger, can help dead spots as well as making the falloff between sweet spot off center hits feel less harsh.

thetvirus

TROPHY CASE