I Tested Fake Pickleball Products

This is a $333 Selkirk Boomstick and this is a $30 knockoff from AliExpress and this is just one of the many counterfeit pickleball products I'll be testing in this video to find out the difference between them and the real thing. Before we start comparing though as a quick disclaimer I just wanted to mention that we aren't associated with any of these brands or products and we don't recommend buying counterfeit paddles. None of the counterfeit paddles in this video are approved for tournament play and they don't support the brands that are actually growing the sport. This is purely for comparison and education. When I thought of the idea for this video I knew I had to include the Boomstick because it's one of the most expensive paddles on the market and it's possibly the most popular paddle on the market at least right now. When I go to the courts I see Boomsticks literally everywhere. So in this video when we're comparing the paddles we're going to compare the appearance and the performance. So starting off with appearance from far away you might not be able to see any differences but as you look closer you'll see that there's actually a lot different between these two paddles. So the first thing that I see is actually these MOI weights. So Salt Creek came out with these MOI weights. They sort of invented these for this paddle specifically and if you look at them side by side you'll notice that the real paddle's weights versus the counterfeit paddle they're much longer. So there's probably a lot more weight I imagine that's on the real paddle versus this counterfeit. They're almost twice as long. They're a little bit less than twice as long but way way longer than the counterfeit paddle's MOI weight. Next thing that's super important to note is that this paddle has something called Infinegrate on it. So the surface texture is different than a normal carbon fiber paddle. When you look at them closely with a microscope though you'll see that obviously the Salt Creek Boomstick, the real one, has Infinegrate. It's a very unique looking texture when you look at it with a microscope and the counterfeit one has normal carbon fiber. So that's just a normal carbon fiber weave. That's what most paddle looks like. So it doesn't have the extra durable grit that you're going to be getting with the Boomstick and durability with these paddles is another thing that I'm going to sort try to test later. I'm not going to be able to test it in this video but a lot of people say counterfeit paddles generally have really poor durability of the core and on this one the surface texture is going to be a lot less durable than on normal Boomstick. The next thing though that stands out to me is the shape. So this is the elongated Boomstick and this says it's an elongated but when you put them on top of each other you'll actually notice that the Boomstick is longer. The real Boomstick is longer than the counterfeit Boomstick by almost half an inch. So this is actually probably a hybrid shape. It's not even an elongated paddle so the shape's completely different. Most of that length difference is coming from the handle. So you'll see that the handle of the real Boomstick is probably at least half an inch if not three quarters of an inch longer than the counterfeit version. So completely different shape, completely different you know features on the sides of the paddle. They actually got the graphics right but what's interesting is the graphics on the counterfeit paddle when you rub your finger over them they actually feel super smooth. So they're printing these graphics over the carbon fiber whereas with the normal Boomstick you can tell that the Infinegra is going over the graphics so there's no loss of friction when you go over the graphics. So you're going to get less spin because this is in the center of the paddle where you're hitting a lot of your shots. So a lot of brands try to keep these graphics away from the center when they're using carbon fiber because you get less spin when you have a smooth surface like this. In terms of the graphics though there's some differences in size on the sides like the print on the sides is different but overall it looks pretty much the same. If you're far away you probably wouldn't be able to tell. Now though let's get into the performance. So the first thing I want to compare in terms of performance is the sound. If you listen closely the counterfeit paddle in my left hand has a much deeper sound and sound honestly makes a very big difference in terms of feel and it translates to a lot of other properties of the paddle changing. Let's get into hitting the ball though now. Alright so hitting a few balls I'm going to start off with the counterfeit. See how it feels. Wow it has a really really hollow sound. It feels kind of weird. I don't know if this paddle would be legal if it got tested to be honest. It has a very strange feel to it. Now I'll switch to the normal boomstick. I've already used the boomstick a lot in the past. It's a really good paddle. It has a good sweet spot. Yeah it's a very different feel. I think the sweet spot's much better on the normal boomstick. I can already tell after just a few shots. But yeah they're definitely completely different paddles if anything. So they're not the same. I'm not sure what the core construction of the counterfeit is but I imagine they're doing something very differently. Yeah you can literally hear. Listen to that difference. Yeah so I think that's all the testing we need to do to figure out that these are two completely different paddles. The next paddle that I'm going to be comparing is our own the Enhance Duo. This is one of our biggest launches last year. A lot of people love this paddle and you look at the appearance of the real one versus the counterfeit they look pretty similar but there are some differences that I want to point out. The first is if you put it in the light you notice that the surface texture is kind of like a different color. I'm not sure what it is on the counterfeit. It looks like carbon fiber when I look at it in my microscope but there's something going on with the surface texture. It feels almost like glossy when I touch it with my hand and I'm honestly not sure. I've never seen that so I don't know what that is but I would imagine it probably gives you less spin. On every paddle they try really hard not to use the actual logo so if you see on the counterfeit instead of Enhance on the face it says Elite and they have some weird looking cube instead of our normal E logo. The handle is also much shorter so it seems to be a common theme with these counterfeits is that the handle on this one is about 0.5 inches shorter which is an elongated paddle. You wouldn't want that on this shape of a paddle so that's a little weird and another thing I just realized actually this says UPA certified. This paddle is not UPA certified it's USAP certified. I mean none of these counterfeit paddles are legal for tournaments but this one has a fake certification on it which I don't know why they would have even changed that. That seems sort of like a dumb thing. I should have just put USAP. I'm not sure what they're thinking there but yeah our paddle is USAP certified not UPA certified so they have the wrong certification. The graphics on the side the the little lead tape placements that we have or the weighted tape placements they're way too small you wouldn't be able to actually put any weighted tape on there and fit them within those lines so it's sort of just there for show I guess but yeah let's get into the performance. So starting off with our bounce test we got a real paddle here and the counterfeit one in this hand. So again the counterfeit paddle has a deeper sound which tells me that the core probably made in a different way. It would be hard for them to probably make it in the same way that we make the Duo. It has a specific core that we had to develop and most manufacturers probably don't have the ability to do it like that. Yeah you can hear the difference but let's hit a few balls. Alright so starting off with the counterfeit I'm actually realizing too that the handle is a completely different shape it's much larger than the Duo handle. I personally really like the Duo handle shape so let's see how it feels. Okay well I already felt some really weird off-center hits so the difference between a good paddle and a bad paddle a lot of the time is just the sweet spot so in that first rally I could already feel a really jarring effect when I hit off-center. It feels really flimsy too like it feels like really flexible in comparison to the Duo. I'm not really sure how this paddle was made. Let me switch to the Duo though. I've used the Duo a lot but let me see just to like test in real time. Yeah you could really feel the difference in the the difference in sound translates to a huge difference in feel. Duo feels a lot stiffer than this one. The sweet spot on the Duo is really good. This one feels kind of jarring when you miss off-center. Alright so just like with the Boomstick I'd say these are definitely not the same paddle. The counterfeit feels way cheaper worse and given what's going on with the service material it's probably significantly less durable and I'm sure the core is less durable too so not the same. And if you're looking for a paddle at an insane price but that's actually legal you need to check out the Turbo. The Turbo line consists of the EPP Turbo and the MPP Turbo and both are some of the top performing paddles on the market. The crazy thing is that after you use code FOAM they're only $99.99 and I know a lot of people think that at $99.99 there's no way they could be as good as paddles that are $200 plus but let me tell you with these they're not only as good but they're potentially better than most paddles in the more expensive range. So even if you're using something more expensive now the Turbo will probably still be an upgrade. I recommend swapping out paddles every three to six months depending on how much you play so if you're due for a new one I highly recommend considering the Turbo. So getting into our next paddle it is the Honolulu Pickleball Co J6CR. So this is one of the most popular paddles of 2026. I've been seeing a lot of them on the courts and getting into the aesthetics very quickly you can probably tell the real one has a distinct shape that this one does not have. So the top edges of the J6CR are pulled down that's sort of the unique feature of this shape and the bottom edges are also pulled down so the shape is very different and that translates to it being it's already a different paddle. The surface material actually looks like this counterfeit has you know probably the similar type of carbon fiber that most brands use. In terms of handle length seems to be the same but the shape of the face is completely different. So let's get into the performance. So testing the sound let's see more similar than the others but the counterfeit again is a deeper sound than the real version of the J6CR. So getting into some testing I'll start off hitting with the fake one. Yeah the sweet spot not feeling good. They all feel really flimsy for some reason. I don't know why it's like just cheaper manufacturing or what but the sweet spot feels really bad on all the counterfeits that I've tried so far. Now switching to the real J6CR. Yeah just a lot more solid of a feel. The sweet spot's way better but yeah the common theme between the counterfeits today and the real things are that the counterfeits feel really flimsy and like cheap and it feels like they're gonna fall apart if you play with them too much. The difference is just as clear with this one as the others. The sound isn't quite as different but the feel is drastically different. I'm also just realizing the real one it's USA Pickleball approved it has all the approvals. This one just says approved PB Core 0.43 which it doesn't have the actual you know organization that it was approved by so it's obviously not approved. Can't use the fake one in a tournament and you honestly shouldn't use fake paddles even in recreational play because they're not legal. So yeah just like the others these are completely different paddles. And guys real quick just wanted to mention that right now we're trying to become the first Pickleball channel in history to reach half a million subscribers. So if you want to help us make history make sure to head below the video and click subscribe. The next paddle we're going to be comparing is the YOLA Pro 5. So these just came out. YOLA obviously one of the most popular brands on the market. This is their most popular line and the only aesthetic difference I'm seeing is this just didn't put YOLA on the paddle. So there's no brand logo anywhere but everything else actually looks pretty much the same in terms of shape. They actually have the approvals on there which it's not approved this is an illegal paddle. But they they lied and put the dual certification of USAP and UPA on the paddle despite it obviously being not true. But yeah in terms of aesthetics it's the most similar but let's get into the performance. So getting into the bounce test. So you might not be able to hear in the video but the fake one actually has a higher pitch sound. So it's the first one like that and it had a really weird feel. It was almost like buzzing a little bit. You probably can't hear that either but it was really really apparent just from bouncing it. Yeah there's like a buzz when I hit the ball so that's strange. It might already be broken right when I got it. All right so starting off with the counterfeit. Whoa yeah I'm still feeling that buzz. It's hitting the ball fine but there's like a weird buzzing. Sweet spot doesn't feel very good. But yeah I already I don't need to do much testing because I already know this one's got something kind of wrong with it. I would return this if I bought this from a legit company but unfortunately I did not. And then yeah this one feels of course fine. All these paddles I'm testing is they are some of the best paddles on the market so they all feel great. But yeah this is also very different. If you're wondering too why I'm only volleying it's because these paddles have all been so different I haven't really needed to test in any other way. It feels like you know from the net I can really very obviously tell that they're not the same so I haven't needed to really hit any other sorts of shots. Switch back to the counterfeit one more time. Yeah it's got that weird buzz to it. So yeah this one's broken. The first one I think I would consider this broken. You probably can't hear it but it's there my hand it's like a buzz every time I hit the ball which I'm not sure if that's because something's loose inside the core or what but just like the others these are not the same. Thank you so much for watching guys. As I mentioned you should never buy counterfeit paddles because they're illegal and they hurt the brands that are investing into this sport. And if you want to see a video that dives deep into our paddle the turbo watch this.