Is this year's racket worth it, or should you buy last season's?

Most padel brands refresh their range once a year. The new range arrives, the old one gets marked down hard, and the question is whether you are buying last year's technology or last year's colourway.

Usually it is the colourway.

What actually changes between generations

In a typical year-on-year update you will see some combination of a tweaked hole pattern, a different surface texture, a new frame graphic, and a core described with a new trade name that may or may not be a new material. Every few years something genuinely changes: a shift from fibreglass to carbon in a model line, a real change in balance, a new core density.

The problem is that brands describe both kinds of change in identical language, so the press release does not help you tell them apart. Reviewers who have hit with both generations are the only reliable source, and even they frequently say the two feel very close.

When the new model is worth it

• The shape or balance actually moved, which you can check on a spec sheet rather than take on trust
• The old version had a known durability problem that the new one addresses
• You want a specific racket and the discount on the old one is small, under about 15 per cent
• The previous generation has sold out in your preferred weight

When it is not

• The specs are within a few grams and millimetres of each other
• The discount on last season is 30 per cent or more, which is common by mid-season
• You are still improving quickly, in which case the racket you buy now is not the racket you will want in eighteen months anyway

When the discounts arrive

Most brands launch in the first quarter of the year, so previous season stock starts moving in spring and is heavily discounted by summer. Black Friday is the other reliable point, though the deepest cuts tend to be on models that are two seasons old rather than one.

The catch is size and availability. By the time a racket is 40 per cent off, the popular weights have gone. If you want a specific model at a specific weight, waiting for the very bottom of the price is a good way to miss it entirely.

The genuinely awkward bit

A previous season racket with no remaining stock at any UK shop is worth nothing to you, however good the review was. We mark rackets as current or previous season and only show prices from shops that actually have them, which is the whole reason the site exists.

See what has dropped most this week

One caveat about "RRP"

Discount percentages are calculated against a recommended price that the brand sets and that shops routinely ignore. A racket advertised at 45 per cent off an RRP nobody ever charged is not a 45 per cent saving. We show the price you actually pay including delivery, and where we quote a drop it is against the higher of RRP or the price the shop itself was charging.