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Company Info: Bond Pickleball is a New York based pickleball company whose goal is to bring creativity and talent of emerging artists to the market. Their goal is to “showcase the potential of budding artists and cater to pickleball enthusiasts who want to express their unique identities.” They offer paddles ranging from “play for fun” all the way to “play to win” style paddles. See their full line up of products and more on their story at www.bondpickleball.com.
Item: Today, we’re taking a closer look at the Pioneer Neo Raw T700 Carbon Fiber 14MM pickleball paddle.
Description: The Pioneer Neo 14 is a 14MM paddle as described above. The paddle itself is primarily black in color, with the paddle face, edge guard, and grip tape being primarily black in color. The paddle face features flowing lines of a geometric shape in a gold color (filled in on one side, and just the outline on the opposite). The “Bond Pickleball” text and logo are featured at the top of the paddle face on either side, in white color. Down the left hand side of either paddle face side, the description is listed vertically (“Raw T700 Carbon Fiber” or “Pioneer Neo 14”). The rubber grip guard is white, with the Bond logo in blue. The USA Pickleball approval logo is at the base of the paddle face, in white. The black grip tape does have both the logo and “Bond” text in white and the handle cap features the logo in white and blue, like the rubber guard. The very top of the edge guard also features the additional branding of the name and logo, in white.
The paddle itself features a Raw T700 carbon fiber surface. The core is a hyper polymer honeycomb. Additionally it is crafted using thermoforming technology, with foam injected walls.
Play Feel: The paddle grip is slightly sticky and is good with sweat absorption/being anti-slip. I was a fan of this, given the Florida heat! The paddle is lightweight and does not put any additional strain on your arm.
The paddle is on the narrow side, but with that, I thought the sweet spot was rather large and true to what you would think. I also found the sweet spot to be very consistent. The paddle face itself is not overly textured, yet you can still get a solid amount of spin on the ball with it.
It was easy to utilize control / touch shots with this paddle, given the sweet spot. I did find that the power surprised me. I don’t believe it is the most powerful paddle on the market, however, I was impressed with the “pop” off of the paddle when serving or driving the ball. This does make sense, given it is a 14MM paddle.
In fire fights and hand battles, the paddle did feel strong and sturdy and there was a good amount of shock absorption as well. The paddle has a good deal of power and “pop” off the face. I was impressed by the ability to generate power, given how light the paddle feels.
After our testing period, the paddle has shown minimal signs of wear and tear and has held up as expected.
Price Point: The paddle is available for $129.00 on their website (at the time of writing it is on sale for $102.00).
Recommendation: The paddle came with a paddle cover and also a velcro clip that goes on the paddle handle. This allows you to clip your paddle to the fence if you don’t have a bag. I actually found these add-ons to be quite nice. I have not seen the clip like that before.
The paddle comes in both a 14MM and a 16MM version, and for our testing purposes we utilized the 14MM. Although I am partial to a 16MM, I found this paddle to play very well and was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality.
From a looks and style perspective, I really love what Bond Pickleball brings to the market. All of their paddles are different and unique with their artwork and craftsmanship. I think this is a very cool selling point. I love the overall branding throughout the paddle, with the logo being present on the handle cap, rubber guard, and edge guard.
The paddle is really comfortable to play with and from a performance perspective, holds up great. It took a little time to adjust, given it is slightly more narrow than the paddle I had been playing with, but as stated, it’s really consistent and once used to, you can be very competitive with it. If you are looking to upgrade your paddle to a more competitive version, I think this comes in at a fantastic price point, at half of some of the major brands.
They also have other “fun” paddles if you are looking for more recreational play or if you’re just learning.
Be sure to give them a look and for full photographs, check out our Instagram!
Dimensions:
∘ Surface: Raw T700 Carbon Fiber Surface
∘ Core Material: Hyper Polymer Honeycomb
∘ Core (mm): 14
∘ Edge Guard: TPU
∘ Control: 94
∘ Power: 96
∘ Spin: 96
∘ USAPA Approved: Yes
∘ Average Weight: 7.8-8.3 oz
∘ Paddle Length: 16.45in
∘ Paddle Width: 7.4in
∘ Grip Type: Absorb Sweat Grip
∘ Grip Length: 5.35in
∘ Grip Circumference*: 4.125in