Quick Answer: Babolat has designed its own rackets in-house since 1875 across three families — the stiff Viper JL 3.0 (about $300) for maximum power, the more forgiving Veron JL 3.0 (about $270), and the fiberglass-faced Air Vertuo (about $200) — plus the Alkes ($99) for beginners. Adidas instead licenses its entire padel lineup to All For Padel (AFP), a dedicated padel manufacturer, building two attack-first diamond families: the Metalbone ($455, Ale Galán’s current racket) and the Adipower Multiweight 3.0 (about $260). The sharpest real-world proof these brands run on different tracks: Ale Galán (Adidas) and Juan Lebrón (Babolat) were doubles partners until splitting in 2025, and now headline these exact two rival brands.
Adidas and Babolat both sell padel rackets built on tennis-brand name recognition — but only one of them has ever actually made a racket before padel. Babolat invented racket strings in 1875 and has designed its own frames in-house ever since, including its padel line. Adidas, a sportswear company with no racket-manufacturing history of any kind, entered padel around 2013 by licensing its brand to All For Padel, which designs and builds every Adidas padel racket under that agreement. Here’s how the two catalogs compare, tier by tier.
By the numbers
- Babolat was founded in 1875 in Lyon, France, as the world’s first racket-string maker, per the company’s own history, and designs its own padel rackets in-house — 150 years of racket-specific engineering with zero manufacturing handoff.
- Adidas had never made a racket of any kind before padel. Per All For Padel’s own account of the partnership, Adidas entered padel around 2013 by licensing its name to AFP, a padel-only specialist, which designed and built Adidas’s first racket line in 2014 — the opposite starting point from Babolat’s in-house heritage.
- Adidas’s Metalbone flagship lists at $455 on Tennis Warehouse, about $155 more than Babolat’s Viper JL 3.0 flagship at roughly $300 — the widest flagship price gap of any brand pairing tested on this site so far.
- Ale Galán and Juan Lebrón were doubles partners before splitting in 2025 — Galán now plays Adidas’s Metalbone alongside Fede Chingotto, and Lebrón plays Babolat’s Viper JL 3.0 alongside Leandro Augsburger, making this the one brand comparison on this site built around two players who used to share a side of the court.
Adidas vs Babolat at a glance
| Adidas | Babolat | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1949, Germany (sportswear/footwear; never made a racket before padel) | 1875, Lyon (racket-string maker, racket-native from day one) |
| Who builds the rackets | All For Padel (AFP), under license | Babolat, in-house |
| Lineup structure | 2 attack-first diamond families (Metalbone/Adipower) | 3 families (Viper/Veron/Vertuo), attack to control |
| Signature tech | Weight & Balance System (removable weights, Adipower only) | 3K carbon / CarbonFlex faces, Vibrabsorb System² |
| Flagship | Metalbone, $455 (Ale Galán signature) | Viper JL 3.0, ~$300 (Juan Lebrón signature) |
| Control / mid-tier | Adipower Multiweight 3.0, ~$260 | Veron JL 3.0, ~$270 |
| Beginner racket | RX Series 2026, $120-140 | Alkes, $99 |
| Headline pro | Alejandro Galán | Juan Lebrón |
Where the two brands come from
Babolat has no detour in its history — it started in 1875 in Lyon making natural-gut racket strings, which makes it the oldest racket-sports company in the world, and it has stayed in rackets and strings, designed and engineered in-house, ever since. That century-and-a-half of racket-specific R&D is why Babolat’s padel frames lean so heavily on tennis-derived materials science, down to the Vibrabsorb System² damping.
Adidas’s path has no racket chapter at all before padel. Founded in 1949 in Germany as a sportswear and footwear company, Adidas built its global reputation on shoes and apparel — not equipment of any kind for a sport played with a solid-paddle racket. Per All For Padel’s own account of the partnership, Adidas entered padel around 2013 by licensing its name to AFP, a padel-specialist manufacturer, which then designed and built Adidas’s first racket line for its 2014 debut. Everything Adidas sells in padel today — Metalbone, Adipower, Cross It, Essnova, RX — is still engineered and produced by AFP under that same license, not by Adidas’s own product teams.
Head to head: flagship racket
Adidas Metalbone
- Diamond shape, the harder-faced of Adidas's two flagship families — built for maximum power.
- Designed and built by All For Padel under Adidas's license, not by Adidas's own engineers.
- One of the most demanding rackets on this site; best suited to advanced attackers already hitting clean overheads.
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Babolat Viper JL 3.0
- Diamond shape, stiff 3K carbon face — designed in-house by Babolat, not licensed out.
- Dynamic Stability System keeps the head square through full, committed swings.
- Built around Lebrón's explosive overhead game, not club-level mis-hits.
At $455 versus $300, Adidas’s Metalbone costs about $155 more than Babolat’s Viper JL 3.0 — the widest flagship price gap tested on this site so far. Part of that gap is the manufacturing story itself: Babolat designs and builds its own flagship in-house, while Adidas’s price also carries AFP’s licensed engineering and Adidas’s own brand premium on top. The other part is personal — Galán and Lebrón partnered together for years before splitting in 2025, and now each heads one side of this exact comparison. For the full spec breakdown on each, see our dedicated Adidas Metalbone and Babolat Technical Viper reviews.
Head to head: mid-tier racket
| Adidas Adipower Multiweight 3.0 | Babolat Veron JL 3.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ~$260 | ~$270 |
| Shape | Diamond (head-heavy) | Diamond (softened) |
| Face | Diamond, with removable Weight & Balance System weights | CarbonFlex (carbon + fiberglass) |
| Best for | Attackers who want to tune balance toward control as their technique improves | Attackers who want Lebrón's mold with more forgiveness, no tuning hardware |
These two land within $10 of each other and solve “tune the attack down a notch” differently. The Adipower Multiweight ships with clip-in weights, per Adidas’s product specs, so you physically shift the balance toward control without buying a second racket. The Veron JL 3.0 keeps Babolat’s attacking diamond identity but swaps in a CarbonFlex face that forgives off-center contact — a fixed build, no hardware to adjust, but Babolat’s own in-house tuning of the layup instead. At roughly $260 versus $270, price shouldn’t decide this one — whether you want adjustable hardware or a fixed forgiving layup should.
Head to head: beginner racket
| Adidas RX Series 2026 | Babolat Alkes | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $120-140 | $99 |
| Shape | Round | Diamond (softened for beginners) |
| Replaces | The old sub-$60 RX 200 | Discontinued Reflex |
| Best for | First-season players who want AFP's padel-specialist round shape under the Adidas name | First-season players who want real Babolat engineering at the lowest price on this comparison |
At the entry tier the price story flips. Babolat’s Alkes undercuts Adidas’s own beginner racket by $21-41, the one tier on this comparison where Babolat is flatly the cheaper option, not just the closer-priced one. Adidas’s RX Series also got more expensive in 2026 — it replaced the old RX 200, which sold for under $60 — so it no longer has the clear price edge a beginner racket usually needs. Both are forgiving builds meant to survive a first season of mis-hits, so unless the extra cost buys something you specifically want from AFP’s round-shape engineering, the Alkes is the simpler budget pick.
Which brand should you buy?
- Want a racket designed in-house by the people who’ve made nothing but rackets since 1875: Babolat — three families (Viper/Veron/Vertuo), zero manufacturing handoff.
- Want adjustable hardware you can tune yourself as your game develops: Adidas — the Adipower Multiweight’s removable weights are a feature Babolat’s catalog doesn’t offer.
- Best value at the flagship tier: Babolat’s Viper JL 3.0 (~$300) — about $155 under Adidas’s Metalbone, from the brand that engineers its own flagship rather than licensing it out.
- Best value at the beginner tier: Babolat’s Alkes ($99) — $21-41 cheaper than Adidas’s RX Series 2026, the widest price edge on this comparison.
- Want the globally recognized three-stripe name even though AFP builds the racket: Adidas — the brand trust is real, even if the engineering is licensed rather than in-house.
The bottom line
Adidas and Babolat both sell padel rackets riding on name recognition built outside padel — but from opposite directions. Babolat has made nothing but rackets and strings, in-house, since 1875. Adidas had never made a racket of any kind before entering padel around 2013 through a license with All For Padel, which still designs and builds every Adidas padel racket today. That gap shows up at every price tier except one: Babolat is cheaper at both the flagship ($300 vs $455) and the beginner tier ($99 vs $120-140), while the mid-tier Adipower/Veron pair lands within $10 of each other. It also shows up off the court — Ale Galán and Juan Lebrón partnered together for years before splitting in 2025, and now each fronts one side of this exact brand rivalry. For how both stack up against Nox, Bullpadel, Head, and Wilson, see our full best padel racket brands hub, or check our Babolat vs Head comparison for a second angle on Babolat’s own Viper JL 3.0.