Raquex has launched Evion, a range of five padel racquets built around a head geometry the company calls Vector Shape. The British brand says the shape is the result of almost a year of engineering and development, and positions it as an alternative to the three shapes padel racquets have been built to since the sport standardised: diamond, round and teardrop.
The premise rests on a trade-off every player will recognise. A diamond frame carries its mass high in the head, which gives power but a small, unforgiving sweet spot. A round frame brings the sweet spot down towards the centre of the face, kinder on a mishit but giving away the drive a high balance provides. The teardrop sits between the two.
Every padel player is handed the same trade-off the moment they pick up a racquet: power or forgiveness, and you cannot have both. The teardrop is the sport’s answer to that, but it is still a compromise. We spent the best part of a year researching and engineering new ways of approaching it, and Vector Shape is what we landed on.
Olly Rose, Founder of Raquex
According to Raquex, mass is redistributed around the head rather than moved up or down it. The claim is that this keeps the drive of a high-balance diamond while offering a hitting area closer to that of a round.
The range is priced from £199 to £239. Evion Strike is the attacking racquet, Evion Precision is built for control, and Evion Match sits between the two. Precision comes in Navy, Champagne and a limited edition Rose of 200 individually numbered racquets. All five are handmade, and all five are designed and engineered in the United Kingdom.
The launch order is worth noting as much as the shape. Partner clubs and retailers were given the Evion range to sell, on court and in their pro shops, before it appeared on raquex.com. Raquex describes this as a deliberate reversal of the usual sequence, and says it intends to repeat it. The range went on general sale at 09:00 BST on Friday 18 September through raquex.com, selected stockists and partner clubs, and reaches Amazon UK on Friday 25 September.
The full Evion range is available at raquex.com.
