Cold Pressed, Thermoformed, and What Changed Between Them

Paddle construction has moved through a few clear stages. Understanding them explains most of what you see on the market today, and most of the choices in our Build Room.

Wood and early composites

The first paddles were plywood. They were heavy, loud and unforgiving, and they are still made for schools and rec programs because they are cheap and nearly indestructible. The first composite paddles replaced wood with a honeycomb core (Nomex or aluminum, later polypropylene) and fiberglass or thin graphite faces, and cut the weight roughly in half. That basic sandwich, a honeycomb core between two laminate faces, is still the starting point for every paddle made today.

Cold pressed carbon

Cold pressing bonds the two faces to a polypropylene honeycomb core under pressure at room temperature, then finishes the perimeter with an edge guard. Moving from fiberglass to carbon fiber faces, first thin graphite and then woven and unidirectional carbon in T300 and T700 grades, gave cold pressed paddles a stiffer, more controlled face and a wider sweet spot.

Cold pressed construction is proven, repeatable and economical, and it has the lowest minimum run size, which is why it is the default for branded, promotional and facility programs. A well built cold pressed paddle with a T700 face on a 16 mm core is a legitimate performance paddle, and it is how many certified paddles are still made.

Thermoformed unibody

Thermoforming changed the way the paddle is assembled. Instead of bonding faces to a core and adding an edge, the faces and edge are molded together under heat and pressure into a single shell, with the core inside. Foam is injected around the perimeter, so the edge is stiff and the shell is continuous. The result is a firmer, more consistent paddle with a stronger edge and a more uniform response across the face.

Thermoforming asks more of the tooling and the process, so it carries a higher minimum run (100 paddles on our line, against 50 for cold pressed) and a higher unit cost. It is the construction most current performance brands use for their top models.

Foam edges, foam cores and what is current

Perimeter foam, foam injected or laid along the edge inside the shell, is now standard on thermoformed paddles and is well understood. Full foam cores, which replace the honeycomb entirely, are a current development area; they change feel and durability enough that they are treated as a separate platform rather than a variation. Certification bodies are still working through how these constructions are tested, so a foam core paddle is a development project, not an off-the-shelf option.

About "generations"

You will see paddles marketed as Gen 1, Gen 2 or Gen 3. Those labels are not standardized; different brands draw the lines in different places. Loosely, Gen 1 means cold pressed, Gen 2 means thermoformed with foam edges, and Gen 3 means foam cores or other newer platforms. The labels are useful shorthand and nothing more. What actually determines how a paddle plays is the construction method, the face material, the core and the thickness, and those are the terms we use when we quote a build.

Which one to choose

For a branded, promotional or facility paddle, cold pressed carbon is the right starting point: proven, economical, and it prints beautifully. For a performance line that will compete with the current market on feel, thermoformed unibody is the platform to develop on. For anything beyond that, talk to us first.