Gearbox: Rethinking How Pickleball Paddles Are Made

"Invention with Intention" is the Name of the Game at Gearbox!

It's not often an equipment manufacturer comes along and completely rethinks how a paddle could be made. Rafael Filippini is one such visionary. After 25 years in the composites industry, and leaning on his experience as a professional racquetball player he decided to embark upon his dream of launching a leading equipment brand developed by an athlete, for athletes. So, in 2007, he founded Gearbox and set upon improving racquetball racquets. Experiencing quick success Gearbox expanded into other sports, including pickleball. Beyond edgy apparel and high-quality accessories, Gearbox has become known for rethinking pickleball paddles by using what they call Solid Span Technology (or SST)...and builds them from the core, out.

SST is a patented technique which uses high-strength, unidirectional carbon fiber chambers laid at specific angles and organized section by section to create the core of the paddle (not polypropylene honeycomb, as in most pickleball paddles). Once assembled, the entire structure including the frame, face, and handle are set into a mold to heat, pressurize, and cure. Once cooled the resulting structure is a one-piece, unibody paddle comprised of the solid span core, front and back faces, and the handle. Through this process Gearbox adheres to precise specifications for their Solid Span paddles in terms of control, power, weight distribution, vibration, paddle thickness, durability, and much more. Finally, this process solves some lingering issues with other manufacturing techniques such as paddles snapping at the neck, and face/core delamination.

Gearbox SST paddles also incorporate a carbon fiber edgeless frame and "hyper bite" spin technology. The edgeless frame serves to expand the sweet spot, minimize mis-hits, and improve the durability of their paddles. Traditional rubber edge guards, on the other hand, can come unglued affecting the performance of a paddle. And hyper-bite is a surface texturing technique which imparts a better ball/paddle bite upon contact, providing the player an ability to spin pickleballs on demand.

Paddles in the Gearbox line which are constructed using this patented Solid Span Technology include the elongated Gearbox CX14E and CX14E Ultimate Power models, the more traditionally-shaped CX14H and CX14H Ultimate Power models. To round out their line Gearbox also produces superior-quality paddles with a polypropylene honeycomb core. These models feature a 14mm (0.55") thick core, a comfortable molded urethane foam handle, and the same hyper-bite spin technology included on their higher-end models. The elongated CP7 paddle features a face material comprised of a blend of carbon fiber and fiberglass, while the more traditionally-shaped GH7+ paddle receives a 6-ply fiberglass hitting surface.