Friday Original Review: A $69 Thermoformed Paddle, Judged Fairly

Updated October 7, 2026

Buy the Friday Original if you are a 3.0–3.5 player who wants a thermoformed carbon paddle with a 16mm core and does not want to spend more than a court fee on it. At $69 alone, or $99 for two, it is the cheapest paddle we know of that is built the way $150 paddles were built two years ago. Skip it if you are a true beginner who needs a big, forgiving sweet spot, if you are a 4.0+ player who will notice a heavy swing weight in hand battles, or if you want spin that still bites after a season. Every independent tester who has written about this paddle lands on the same tradeoff: the price is remarkable, the sweet spot is not.

We have not played this paddle. What follows synthesizes testing published by Pickleheads, Racket Royalty and The Pickleball Gang, plus Friday’s own published measurements, which we label as the brand’s numbers wherever we use them. Our method is set out on how we evaluate gear.

What you are buying for $69

Friday sells the Original at $69 for a single paddle and $99 for a pair on its own site at time of writing, with free shipping over $140, a 99-day return window and a six-month warranty against defects including delamination and handle breaks. That two-for-$99 deal is the real story here. Fifty dollars a paddle for a thermoformed carbon build is not a price that existed before Friday, and it is the reason this paddle shows up in so many “what should my partner and I buy” threads.

The spec sheet reads like a 2023 mid-range paddle. It is a 16.5 by 7.5 inch elongated shape with a 5.5 inch handle and a 4.25 inch grip, a 16mm polypropylene honeycomb core with 8mm cells, and what Friday calls an “abrasive carbon fiber” face. Friday lists average weight at 8.2 oz plus or minus 0.18 oz; Pickleheads and Racket Royalty both weighed their samples at 8.3 oz, the top of that range.

One thing the marketing glosses over, and The Pickleball Gang’s March 2026 guide spells out: the Original’s face is a printed layer under a grit coating, not raw carbon like Friday’s pricier Aura line. That matters for how long the spin lasts, which we get to below.

Construction and where it sits in the Gen 1–4 lineage

Friday describes the Original as a “Gen 2 thermoformed structure” with “foam-injected walls.” A quick translation, because Gen 1 through Gen 4 is an informal industry convention rather than anything a certifying body defines, and brands apply it loosely. Gen 1 is the old cold-pressed sandwich, a honeycomb core glued between two face sheets. Gen 2 is a thermoformed unibody, the core fully encased in carbon with no adhesive seam. Gen 3 adds injected foam at the perimeter to create a floating core. Gen 4 removes the honeycomb altogether in favour of full foam.

By that convention the Original is a thermoformed honeycomb paddle with foam in the edge walls, which is a Gen 2 build that borrows the one Gen 3 idea that costs almost nothing to add. It is the same recipe as the original 11SIX24 Jelly Bean and the Vatic Pro Prism line. It is not a foam-core paddle, and it does not feel like one: thermoformed honeycomb paddles are firmer and poppier than the plush EPP builds that now dominate the $150–$200 bracket. If you have only ever hit with a foam paddle, expect a crisper, louder contact.

The practical consequence of thermoforming at this price is a specific one. Thermoformed paddles are stiffer and more powerful than cold-pressed ones, but the process also tends to concentrate the sweet spot toward the centre, and that is exactly what every tester reports.

Specs

A note on the swing weight and twist weight. Those are Friday’s own figures, and no independent bench we could find has published its own numbers for the Original. Pickleball Studio has measured the sibling Friday Fever at 110 swing weight and 5.84 twist weight on a 7.64 oz sample, which tells you the Fever is a much lighter, less stable paddle, and it does not tell you anything certain about the Original. If Friday’s 116 is accurate, the Original sits in the middle of the market for an elongated 16mm paddle; the 6.29 twist weight is on the low side, which is consistent with the sweet-spot complaints. We explain what those two numbers do to a paddle in swing weight vs twist weight vs static weight.

What independent testers found

Pickleheads: the best $50 paddle, with a caveat that keeps coming up

Brandon Mackie at Pickleheads gave the Original 4.0 stars and called it “easily the best paddle I’ve tested for $50,” describing it as a solid thermoformed carbon paddle at a bargain price that rivals more expensive models. His scores are the most useful shorthand for the paddle: power 7.5, control 8.5, spin 8.5, forgiveness 7.0. He liked the tennis-style grip and the curved top, which he credits for the paddle feeling quicker through the air than its shape suggests.

The complaint is specific and repeated: “the sweet spot isn’t always reliable.” He reports mishits on serves and volleys in particular, an adjustment period before the paddle felt predictable, and a durability ceiling below premium paddles. His conclusion is that this is a paddle for early intermediates stepping up from beginner gear, and explicitly not for beginners or for anyone who needs a large sweet spot.

Racket Royalty: same numbers, same weakness

Racket Royalty’s review, updated in April 2025, arrives at almost the same scorecard independently: power 8, spin 8.5, control 7.5, forgiveness 7, value 9. They weighed it at 8.3 oz, praised the grit and the tennis-style handle, and flagged two problems: a small sweet spot with little forgiveness on mishits, and spin that degrades as the grit wears.

That is two testers, a year apart, with forgiveness at 7 out of 10 and spin at 8.5. When independent reviewers converge that tightly, the scores are worth trusting more than either review alone.

The Pickleball Gang: the grit wears early

The Pickleball Gang’s 2026 guide is the least flattering on durability and the most specific about why. Because the Original’s texture is a coating over a printed layer rather than raw carbon, they report that “smooth spots” can appear in three to four months of regular play, compared with the longer life of Friday’s raw-carbon Aura models. They still call the two-for-$99 bundle the best entry-level option for 2.0–3.0 players, which is a broader recommendation than Pickleheads makes.

Reconciling them

The testers agree on nearly everything. Value, power and fresh-paddle spin are strong; forgiveness is average at best; the grit fades faster than raw carbon. The one place they diverge is who it is for. Pickleheads says not beginners, because the sweet spot punishes off-centre contact; The Pickleball Gang says it is the beginner bundle to buy, because nothing else at $50 is built this well. Both are right about their own premise. If you are a beginner who wants to be forgiven, a 7.0 forgiveness score should worry you. If you are a beginner who will play twice a week and does not want to spend $200 before knowing if the sport sticks, $50 for a thermoformed carbon paddle is a low-risk way to start, and you will outgrow the sweet spot at about the time you outgrow the paddle.

On spin wear, note that no lab has published a controlled abrasion test on the Original. We ran through the surfaces that have been tested in does your paddle’s spin actually last; coated faces like this one are not in that group, and the three-to-four-month figure is from owner reports rather than a rig.

Certification

Friday states the Original is USA Pickleball approved, and Racket Royalty repeats that it is approved for tournament play. We could not query the USAP database directly for this article, so before you enter a sanctioned event, search “Friday” on the official approved paddle list and check the model line matches the paddle in your bag. It is not UPA-A certified as far as any source we found states, which only matters if you plan to play PPA or MLP pro events. Our 2026 certification guide covers why the two lists are separate.

Two alternatives worth pricing against it

11SIX24 Hurache-X Jelly Bean (original), around $80. Same recipe, thermoformed 16mm honeycomb with foam-reinforced edges, but with a triple-layer face of two raw Toray T700 carbon sheets over fiberglass instead of a coated print. Pickleball Effect measures it at 122 swing weight and 6.36 twist weight with 2,040 RPM on its rig, and calls its feel soft and dense. The tradeoff: it swings noticeably heavier than Friday’s claimed 116, and it costs about $11 more for one paddle or $60 more for two. You are paying for raw carbon that holds its texture longer and a softer feel. We cover it in our 11SIX24 Jelly Bean review.

Vatic Pro Prism Flash 16mm, $99.99. The paddle Pickleball Effect currently names “Best Pure Control” on its hot list, at 8.1 oz, 114 swing weight and 6.4 twist weight on its bench. It is the softer, calmer paddle of the two, and it is the one to buy if resets and dinks are where you lose points. The tradeoff is $31 more for one paddle, and a hybrid shape with a bit less reach than the Original’s 16.5 inch elongated frame. It is also listed as discontinued at JustPaddles, so stock is a question.

If you want the broader field at this price, our paddles under $100 roundup covers the rest. Most of what is “under $100” in this market is really $99–$120 with a code; the Friday is one of the few that is under $100 without one.

Verdict

The Friday Original is the right paddle for a specific buyer: a 3.0–3.5 player, or a pair of them, who wants a thermoformed carbon paddle with real pop and good fresh spin and would rather spend $50 a head than $150. The independent scores back that up, and the two-for-$99 bundle is the best deal in the category by a wide margin.

Don’t buy this if forgiveness is the thing you need most. Two testers score it 7 out of 10 on forgiveness and both describe mishits on serves and volleys; a low twist weight is the likely reason, and no amount of savings fixes a paddle that punishes you for being late. Don’t buy it either if you expect the grit to still be sharp next summer; owner reports put smooth spots at three to four months, and the coated face is the reason. And if you are already a 4.0 who cares about hand speed, Friday’s own 116 swing weight is fine but not light, and the Fever at 110 is the Friday built for you.

For everyone else, it is hard to argue with. Spend the money you saved on shoes.

Check Friday Original pricing on Amazon · Friday’s own store (two for $99)

How we review gear — including how we get the paddles we test and what the money never touches — is documented in our review methodology.