Quick Answer: Adidas’s 2026 Metalbone ($455) and Nox’s 2026 AT10 Genius 18K ($455) are priced identically — a coincidence that undercuts the usual “global brand vs padel specialist” framing, since Adidas’s padel line is actually manufactured under license by All For Padel, a dedicated padel builder, not Adidas’s own factories. The real differences are catalog structure (Adidas splits its top tier into two different shapes; Nox sells one mold in two builds) and the sport’s current rivalry: per Padel Addict’s 2026 reporting, Adidas’s Ale Galán (now partnered with Fede Chingotto) holds a 4-1 head-to-head record this season against Nox’s Agustín Tapia (partnered with Head’s Arturo Coello), even though Tapia/Coello sit at world No. 1.
Adidas and Nox look like the starkest possible brand-heritage mismatch — a 76-year-old German sportswear conglomerate against a Barcelona padel specialist less than a fifth its age. But that framing falls apart once you look at who actually builds the rackets: Adidas’s entire padel catalog is produced under license by All For Padel (AFP), a padel-only manufacturer, which means the brand with the famous three stripes is leaning on dedicated padel engineering just like Nox does. Here’s how the two catalogs actually compare, tier by tier.
By the numbers
- Adidas didn’t enter padel until 2013, with its first rackets launching in 2014 — per All For Padel’s own program history — only about 4-5 years after Nox was founded padel-native in Barcelona in 2009 by former competitive swimmer Jesús Ballvé. That’s the narrowest padel-specific age gap of any brand pairing reviewed on this site (Babolat vs Nox is 134 years; Head vs Nox is 59 years).
- Adidas’s 2026 Metalbone and Nox’s 2026 AT10 Genius 18K both list at exactly $455 through their respective official US retailers (Padel USA for Adidas, Nox’s own US store) — an exact price match between two brands with completely different origin stories.
- Per Padel Addict’s 2026 season coverage, Ale Galán (Adidas) and his current partner Fede Chingotto hold a 4-1 head-to-head record this season against Agustín Tapia (Nox) and Arturo Coello, even though Tapia/Coello remain the FIP’s world No. 1-ranked pair on overall points — a real split between season-long ranking and this specific rivalry.
- Padel passed 1 million players in the United States in the 2026 SFIA Topline Participation Report, up roughly 250% since 2022, with 1,000+ courts across 31 states as of April 2026 — the same growth pulling both a licensed sportswear brand and a padel-native specialist into dedicated US storefronts.
A note on sourcing: the Galán/Chingotto 4-1 head-to-head figure comes from a single outlet (Padel Addict), not cross-confirmed elsewhere, so treat the exact record as directionally reliable rather than fully independently verified — the same discipline applied to the Málaga/Milan results in our Babolat vs Nox comparison.
Adidas vs Nox at a glance
| Adidas | Nox | |
|---|---|---|
| Parent company founded | 1949, Herzogenaurach, Germany | 2009, Barcelona (padel-native, no parent company) |
| Entered padel | 2013-2014, licensed to All For Padel (AFP) | 2009, in-house from day one |
| Lineup structure | Two flagship shapes (diamond Metalbone, round Metalbone CTRL), plus a value tier (RX Series, Cross It) | A few core molds (AT10/ML10), each sold in a stiff flagship build and a softer accessible build |
| Signature tech | 16K Aluminized Carbon face, EVA Soft Performance core | 18K carbon face, HR3 core, AVS anti-vibration system |
| Flagship | Metalbone, $455 (Ale Galán signature) | AT10 Genius 18K, $455 (Agustín Tapia signature) |
| Accessible version of the flagship | Metalbone 3.3 (prior generation), ~$300 — not the current Galán mold | AT10 Pro Cup, $245 (same shape/balance as the Genius, softer build) |
| Control/all-around racket | Adipower Multiweight 3.3, ~$260 | ML10 Ventus Control 3K, $345 |
| Beginner racket | RX Series, ~$120-140 | X-One Evo, ~$65 |
| Headline pro | Alejandro (Ale) Galán | Agustín Tapia |
Where the two brands come from
Adidas’s padel story is really a licensing story. All For Padel was founded in 2013 specifically to bring Adidas into the sport, and the first Adidas-branded rackets shipped in 2014 — the company’s own padel pedigree only runs about a dozen years deep, no matter how long the three stripes have existed elsewhere. Crucially, Adidas doesn’t build those rackets itself: AFP is a padel-only manufacturer operating under license, which means the engineering behind a Metalbone is dedicated padel R&D, not a tennis factory’s leftover tooling repurposed for a new sport.
Nox’s path looks superficially similar — padel-only focus, no cross-sport baggage — but it started four years earlier and never licensed anything out. Jesús Ballvé founded Nox in Barcelona in 2009 to build padel rackets directly, and the company picked up its first major tour visibility in 2010 when Miguel Lamperti started playing its frames. The practical gap between the two brands isn’t heritage depth, which is narrow either way; it’s that Nox owns its own padel engineering end to end, while Adidas’s padel identity is a licensing partnership layered on top of a sportswear brand that was already 64 years old when padel started.
Head to head: flagship racket
Adidas Metalbone
- Diamond shape, 16K Aluminized Carbon face — built for maximum smash power, not forgiveness.
- High, head-heavy 268mm balance point rewards committed, technical attacking swings.
- The prior-generation Metalbone 3.3 still sells for around $300 — a real $155 saving, but not the mold Galán currently plays.
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Nox AT10 Genius 18K
- Teardrop shape, 18K carbon face, HR3 core — Nox's stiffest, most attack-focused build.
- AVS anti-vibration system, built around Tapia's own explosive playing style.
- Also sold in a softer, cheaper build of the identical mold: the AT10 Pro Cup at $245.
At $455 apiece, these two flagships are priced identically — a genuine coincidence given how differently the brands got here. The bigger practical difference is structure: Nox doubles its exact Tapia mold into a cheaper Pro Cup build, while Adidas’s “cheaper Metalbone” option is really a different generation (the 3.3), not a parallel build of the current frame. On court, the storyline has flipped from what the rankings suggest: Galán’s new partnership with Fede Chingotto has gone 4-1 against Tapia’s partnership with Arturo Coello this season, per Padel Addict, even with Tapia/Coello still holding the world No. 1 ranking on cumulative points. For the full spec breakdown on each, see our dedicated Adidas Metalbone review and best Nox padel racket roundup.
Head to head: control racket
| Adidas Adipower Multiweight 3.3 | Nox ML10 Ventus Control 3K | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ~$260 | $345 (sale from $400) |
| Shape | Diamond (attack-leaning, tunable) | Round |
| Adjustability | Removable Weight & Balance System weights shift balance toward control | Fixed build, no in-frame tuning |
| Best for | Attacking players who want one racket to nudge toward control as technique develops | Players who want padel's most forgiving shape for blocks, lobs, and resets |
These aren’t really the same category of “control” racket. The Adipower Multiweight is still a diamond, head-heavy attack frame at its core — its removable weights let a player dial back toward control, but it never becomes a genuinely forgiving shape. The ML10 Ventus Control 3K goes the other way entirely: a round shape puts the sweet spot low and centered, padel’s most forgiving layout, with no tuning system because it doesn’t need one. At $260 versus $345, Adidas is the cheaper buy, but a player who actually wants a defensive, block-and-reset racket gets more of what they’re asking for from the Nox.
Head to head: beginner racket
| Adidas RX Series | Nox X-One Evo | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ~$120-140 | ~$65 |
| Replaces | Discontinued RX 200 (formerly ~$55) | N/A (long-running entry racket) |
| Best for | First-season players willing to pay more for Adidas's current round, forgiving entry shape | First-season players who want the lowest entry price from a flagship-grade brand |
This is the tier where the two brands diverge most in price, and it’s a recent change on Adidas’s side: the old RX 200 undercut almost everything in padel at around $55, but Adidas retired that number and repriced the RX Series at $120-140 for 2026 — nearly double, and now well above Nox’s X-One Evo at roughly $65. Both are still round, forgiving shapes built to survive a first season of mis-hits rather than chase tournament pace, so a beginner on a tight budget gets the better deal from Nox; a beginner who wants to start on the same brand as their eventual flagship upgrade may still lean Adidas.
Which brand should you buy?
- Want dedicated padel engineering without picking a padel-only startup: Adidas — its rackets are built by All For Padel, a padel specialist, under a familiar sportswear name.
- Want one proven mold at two honest price points instead of two different shapes: Nox — the AT10 Genius and Pro Cup are the identical mold, just a stiffer or softer build, about $210 apart.
- Best value at the flagship tier: Nox’s AT10 Pro Cup ($245) — the real Tapia mold, for about $210 less than the $455 flagship tier both brands now share.
- Best value for a genuinely forgiving control shape: Nox’s ML10 Ventus Control 3K ($345) — a round, low-balance build Adidas’s tunable-but-still-diamond Adipower doesn’t fully replicate.
- Cheapest honest entry point: Nox’s X-One Evo (~$65) — roughly half the price of Adidas’s current RX Series.
The bottom line
Adidas and Nox look like a mismatch on paper — a global sportswear brand against a padel-only specialist less than a fifth its parent company’s age — but padel-specific history narrows that gap to about four or five years, and Adidas doesn’t even build its own rackets: All For Padel does, under license, with the same dedicated padel focus Nox has owned from day one. Their current flagships land at an identical $455, and on court the rivalry has flipped from what the overall rankings suggest, with Galán’s new partnership out-dueling Tapia’s this season even as Tapia/Coello hold the No. 1 spot. Shop by catalog structure and budget, not by brand age. For how both stack up against Babolat and Head, see our full best padel racket brands hub, or check our Babolat vs Nox and Head vs Nox comparisons for two more angles on this same rivalry.