Inside the Padel Racket Structure: Carbon Layers, EVA Core & Performance Explained

Series 1: Build Your Own Padel Brand

Part 4 : “Inside the Padel Racket Structure — Carbon Layers, EVA, and Why Specs Matter.”

When client ask me:

“How do I choose a good padel racket? What should I care about most — the frame, EVA hardness, carbon type, face material…?”

My honest answer is:
👉 everything matters — and it all works together.

As an OEM padel/pickleball supplier, I don’t just stay in the factory. I’m often on court, testing prototypes and comparing them on the court. Over time, some patterns become very clear.

I’ll break down three key layers inside the racket:

Frame shape & structure
EVA core (soft / medium / hard)
Fiber lamination & face materials (carbon / glass / hybrid)

…and explain how they create power, control, stiffness and comfort — and where new brands often get confused.

1. Frame Shape — Your First Filter

If I can only look at one thing first also what is the new brand first care due to marketing strategy, I always start with:

👉 Frame shape & geometry.

The frame is the “skeleton” that decides how impact forces spread through the racket. It affects:

Where the sweet spot really is
How forgiving mishits feel
How stable the racket is on off-center hits

From my experience in both padel and pickleball projects, testing the same construction (same EVA + same fiber layup) with different shapes, I see a very clear trend:

Round & larger shapes with a simple yoke area usually give
More even energy distribution
A larger, more forgiving sweet spot
Better control and consistency

We don’t yet have a perfect machine test on the field that translates all of this into one simple number. So in real development, we do it the “old school” way:

Same EVA, same fiber stack. Only change the frame shape…
Then compare: sweet spot size, control, forgiveness, player feedback.

👉 Result : With everything else controlled, larger and rounder frames really do give a more stable, “easy” feeling.

But…
If frame shape alone could decide everything, the market wouldn’t have such a huge variety of rackets with different personalities. 😄

So:

Yes, frame shape is the first filter.
No, it’s not enough to tell you which racket will be “the best” for you.

To go deeper, we need to open the racket and look at the EVA core.

2. EVA Core — Soft, Medium, Hard (And What That Actually Means)

The EVA core is the heart of the racket.
Most brands communicate it in simple language:

Soft EVA
Medium EVA
Hard EVA

From a player’s point of view, the differences are almost black-and-white:

Soft EVA

Better shock absorption
Slightly longer dwell time (the ball stays on the face a bit longer)
More forgiveness and comfort
Good for control, especially in defense and touch shots

Medium EVA

Balance between control and power
Versatile for all-round players
Often the safest choice for a new brand’s first model

Hard EVA

Less compression, more instant rebound
Great for aggressive players, especially for smashes
Requires good technique and timing, or it might feel harsh

Behind the marketing words: actual hardness numbers

Inside the factory field, “soft / medium / hard” don’t exist.
We work with measured EVA hardness using standard test methods.

In general, for padel:

Most EVA cores fall into a specific hardness window
Too soft → not enough rebound, racket feels “dead”
Too hard → ball shoots off, but players’ elbow suffer over time

In many projects I’ve done, padel EVA tends to sit in a range where it can still give enough rebound without destroying the player’s elbow.
Go harder, and you’re entering the territory more typical for:

Beach tennis rackets
Pickleball paddles

These sports use flatter rackets, so the core setup is different.

Common misunderstanding for new brands

New brands often think:

“If my target player wants more power, I’ll just choose the hardest EVA available.”

This is dangerous, because:

Hard EVA + stiff fiber layup + small/diamond shape
→ You create a rocket launcher that only high-level players can enjoy.

For most players, it may cause

Poor control
Wrist/elbow discomfort
Faster fatigue

A smarter way:

Define your target player (level, style, physical condition).
Pick an EVA range that suits their comfort & needs.
Fine-tune power with frame geometry and fiber lamination (next section), instead of only pushing EVA harder and harder.

3. Fiber Lamination — How Carbon & Glass Really Tune the Feel

Now we come to the part most marketing loves to shout about:

“12K carbon!”
“3K carbon!”
“Hybrid face!”
“Full carbon frame!”

But what really matters technically is:
👉 How the fibers are laminated around the EVA core.

We mainly look at two areas:

Frame lamination (the outer ring and throat/yoke)
Face material (the layers directly under the surface)

3.1 Frame lamination

Around the frame, we wrap layers of:

Carbon fiber
Glass fiber
Foam
Or a combination

These layers define:

Structural stiffness of the racket
How much it twists on off-center hits
Long-term durability and resistance to cracks

Just from changing frame lamination (same EVA, same face), you can feel big differences in:

Stability on volleys
Control on blocks and defensive shots
How “solid” the racket feels at impact
Durability of the racket (sometimes it will easily break if the frame lamination is too strong.)

3.2 Face material & layup

On the faces, we usually use:

Full carbon face
Full glass face
Hybrid face (carbon + glass)

And we can change:

Fiber type (3K, 12K, 18K carbon, etc.)
Fiber orientation (0/90°, 30°,45°, multiaxial)
Number of layers and stacking order

Together with the EVA underneath, this affects:

Stiffness at impact
How quickly the ball comes off the racket
The “crisp vs dull” feeling
How easy it is to generate spin and speed

From a real-world player feedback view, here’s the key point:

There is no single magic layup that equals “perfect feel”.

Give 100 players the same racket, and you might get 200 different opinions — because the same player can prefer different feelings depending on their current style, mood, or physical condition.

So instead of chasing a “perfect formula”, we:

Use experience to design a promising layup on paper.
Build samples.
Go to the court and test, test, test.
Iterate until we find the best compromise for the target player

4. Why Spec Sheets Alone Don’t Tell the Truth

This is where many new brands get lost.

They see a competitor’s spec:

Round shape
Soft EVA
12K carbon face
38 mm thickness
365 g

…and think:

“If I copy these numbers, I’ll copy the feeling.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

A few reasons why copy specs doesn’t work:

“Soft EVA” in Brand A ≠ “Soft EVA” in Brand B
The actual hardness values may be different.
The fiber layup can make a soft core feel surprisingly firm.
Same EVA hardness, different lamination = totally different racket
Add more stiff carbon in the frame → more power, less comfort.
Add more glass or change fiber orientation → softer, more dwell time.

Small changes in shape or drilling pattern can shift

Sweet spot range and position
Balance
Vibration behavior

So yes, specs are useful.
But they are more like a map, not the destination.

5. How New Brands Should Think About Structure

If you’re building your own padel brand (maybe that’s whay you reading this 👀), here’s a better way to approach racket structure:

Start from the player, not from the catalog.

Who is your target? Beginner / intermediate / advanced / pro?
Do they mainly defend, counter, or aggressively attack?

2. Choose a frame shape that matches the goal.

Round for control & forgiveness
Teardrop or diamond for more offensive profiles

3. Select an EVA window that protects the player.

Softer for comfort & control
Medium for all-round
Hard only when you know your player can handle it

4. Use fiber lamination to fine-tune personality.

More/stiffer carbon → more power, more demand on the elbow
More glass or hybrid → more comfort, better dwell time

5. Prototype and test on court.
On paper, many rackets look similar.
On court, the truth shows up in the first 10 minutes.

Conclusion

A padel racket isn’t just:

“Soft EVA + 12K carbon + round frame.”

It’s a system where:

Frame geometry
EVA hardness
Fiber lamination
Drilling pattern

all interact to create the final power / control / stiffness / comfort feeling.

As an OEM padel racket suplier, my job is to translate:

“I want a comfortable but powerful racket for intermediate players”

into:

A specific shape
A target EVA range
A tuned lamination recipe
And finally, samples that we test and refine together.

If you’re building (or dreaming of building) your own padel brand or even just customize for your club member and feel lost between all the specs, that’s normal. The key is not to copy one famous model, but to design a structure that matches your player.

✍️ By SHIH-NUNG (Snow Hsu)
OEM padel racket developer & bilingual project manager at Greenbird Sport
— Supporting brands and clubs with custom padel racket development in China.

If you’re building a Padel brand or evaluating OEM/ODM partners,
Greenbird Sport works with clubs, startups, and brands to develop custom padel rackets with reliable partner factories in China.

For project discussions or OEM inquiries,
📩 snow@greenbirdsport.com

⚡ Coming Next
Next in the series:Part 5 : “How to Brief Your OEM Factory — Turning Player Profiles into Real Racket Specs.”

→ I’ll share how to talk with factories in a language they understand (shapes, EVA ranges, layups), so you don’t just get a “random sample” that doesn’t match your brand story.

#Padel #PadelOEM #PadelRacket #PadelBrand #SportsEquipment #OEM #ChinaManufacturing