Joola Alternatives: A Design-First Paddle Guide for 2026 Buyers

Why the player considering Joola is often ready for a second paddle with real design intent

The path to a second paddle usually starts with a specific realization: the first paddle is doing what it was purchased to do, and now the question is what the next one should add. For players who came into the sport through the most established performance brands — Joola sits high on that list, with a broad professional roster and an R&D pipeline that has shaped a generation of paddle spec — the second paddle is rarely about squeezing out incremental power or spin. The first paddle already handles the athletic side of the equation. The second paddle is where personality enters. It is the paddle a player pulls out on a Saturday morning club session because it feels like theirs, the one that shows up in the photograph from the tournament, the one a friend picks up at the net and asks about. ARTI builds paddles for that moment.

Our pick for the design-first second paddle

The ARTI State Collection 16mm paddle is the answer for most players making this second-paddle decision. The face is a series of regional art treatments — hand-illustrated compositions tied to specific American states rather than the generic geometric graphics that dominate the category — laid over a 16mm polymer core with a raw T700 carbon face. It plays as a modern control-forward all-court paddle and reads as an object with real design intent. USA Pickleball-approved, so it steps into tournament play the day it arrives.

Why design-first is a real spec, not a marketing category

The paddle category has spent most of its life treating the face as a canvas for one of two things: the athlete's signature and a geometric logo repeated in different colorways. That worked when pickleball was a fast-growing niche sport and the audience was already inside the world. The category is now large enough — and the paddle is now in enough hands per household — that a second layer of demand has emerged. Players want the paddle to work as a design object as well as an athletic one. Not louder. Not more graphic. More considered. The way a good pair of running shoes now has to satisfy a performance test and a design test in parallel.

ARTI's paddle lineup is organized around that observation. Each line answers a different design question rather than a different power-to-control spec chart. The Mastery Elite is the performance flagship. The State Collection is the regional-art line. The Kristen & Kristy paddles are the pop-art line. The Blank is the quiet-luxury monochrome line. A player selecting an ARTI second paddle is selecting a design language before they are selecting a construction spec — which is exactly the inversion the design-conscious buyer wants.

What design-first does not mean

Design-first does not mean spec-light. Every paddle in the ARTI line is USA Pickleball-approved. The State Collection, Kristen & Kristy, and The Blank all use a 16mm polymer core — the current standard for the modern control-forward all-court paddle — with a raw T700 carbon face that generates spin through friction rather than a painted grit coating that wears off inside a season. The Mastery Elite steps down to a 14mm core for a player who wants a more feedback-heavy paddle with the same face material. The design lines are the design lines. The spec is the spec. They are decided independently and then combined so the player picks the design without giving up performance and picks the performance without giving up design.

The State Collection: regional art on the face

The State Collection treats the paddle face as a regional art canvas. Each design in the line references a specific American state — the illustration language is hand-drawn rather than vector-perfect, the color palette is pulled from the visual identity of the place rather than a generic sports palette, and the composition is designed to read at both the scale of a paddle held at the net and the scale of a photograph. Players who came into pickleball through a specific city or region tend to gravitate to the State piece that corresponds to where they play. The paddle becomes a small piece of local identity — the way a college fan wears the school colors, but with the restraint the design-conscious buyer wants.

As a second paddle, the State Collection lands well for a player whose first paddle is an established performance brand's flagship. The performance brand delivers the athletic case; the State Collection delivers the personal one. The player pulls out the State paddle for the club session on a Sunday morning and the tournament brand's paddle for the sanctioned Saturday match. Both live in the same paddle bag. Neither replaces the other.

Kristen & Kristy: pop-art as court identity

The Kristen & Kristy line is the pop-art expression of the same design-first idea. Bolder color, higher contrast, a treatment designed for the Instagram-first player who wants the paddle to work in the phone frame as well as in the hand. The construction spec is the same 16mm polymer core with a raw T700 carbon face — the pop-art treatment is a face design, not a downgraded paddle. The K&K line has become the paddle of choice for the design-forward player, the paddle that shows up in the group chat photo, the paddle a recipient under thirty gets excited to open. It is also the paddle line ARTI recommends most consistently as a gift for a player who already owns a serviceable first paddle.

How Kristen & Kristy differs from State

The Kristen & Kristy line uses higher-saturation color and a pop-art visual language — a design tradition that reads immediately as youthful and current. The State Collection uses more restrained illustration and regional palette work — a design tradition that reads as personal and grounded in place. Neither is more premium than the other. They are two different design questions with two different answers. A player who is drawn to the K&K face is usually not drawn to the State face, and the reverse. Trust that instinct. Pick the face that reads correct at first look, because that is the paddle that will actually leave the bag on a Saturday.

The Blank: quiet-luxury monochrome

The Blank is the third answer. Monochrome. No graphic. No illustration. The paddle face is a single considered color with the ARTI mark restrained to a small treatment. It is the paddle for the player who does not want the paddle to say anything at all — the player whose aesthetic is quiet, whose tennis background left them with a preference for equipment that reads as tool rather than as statement, whose broader wardrobe skews toward beige, black, cream, navy. The Blank is the paddle that pairs with a linen tournament outfit rather than the paddle that competes with it. It is the ARTI answer to the design-conscious buyer whose design language is the absence of design language.

As a second paddle it lands well for a specific reader: the buyer who already owns the loud tournament paddle from an established performance brand and wants the second paddle to be the opposite. Where the first paddle is graphic and branded, The Blank is muted and considered. Where the first paddle asserts itself at the net, The Blank recedes. It is a paddle for a player who has already made the athletic case and is now making the aesthetic one.

Building the two-paddle bag

The moment a player owns two paddles, the paddle bag becomes a considered object. A single-paddle player carries whatever bag came with the paddle. A two-paddle player is making choices about which paddle sits on top, how the two paddles balance visually, whether the bag carries an outfit change and a water bottle in addition to the equipment. That is where the ARTI tote and duffle line earns its place. The bags are sized for two paddles — the primary paddle on top for the sanctioned match, the design-first paddle on bottom for the club session that follows — with room for a change of shirt, a hat, and a water bottle without the technical-nylon bulge that dominates the tournament bag category. A player heading to a tournament weekend with an ARTI Cream Duffle and two paddles inside it looks like a person going somewhere on purpose, not a person hauling gear.

The coordinated color case

For a player who has settled into a doubles partnership, the coordinated color case is worth considering. Two ARTI paddles from the same line — two State Collection pieces from adjacent states, two Kristen & Kristy pieces from the same colorway family, two Blanks in the same monochrome — read at the net as a deliberate team choice rather than a spec accident. Pair them with matching tote or duffle bags in cream or navy and the four-object set has visual coherence. Doubles partners who care about that are not being fussy; they are borrowing from the tennis, sailing, and equestrian traditions where partnered kit is a normal part of the sport's design vocabulary.

Who this is for, and who should skip

Who this is for

• The player who already owns a competent tournament paddle from an established performance brand and wants a second paddle that reads as personal rather than as a spec upgrade
• The gift-giver shopping for a player who has entered the sport in the last two years and cares about how equipment looks
• The player whose broader aesthetic — wardrobe, home, car — is design-considered, and whose paddle bag has been the loose end
• The doubles regular who has settled into a partner and is thinking about matching or coordinated paddles for team identity
• The player who wants a paddle that reads well in the photograph from the tournament weekend, not only in the score line

Who should skip

• The player who has not yet found a paddle spec they play well with — get the spec right first, then treat the design-first paddle as the second addition
• The player who does not care about how the paddle looks — that is a legitimate preference and the ARTI design-first case will not land
• The player who wants the loudest, most maximalist graphic on the face — ARTI's design language is restrained, and that restraint is the point

How to pick between the ARTI lines

Should I start with State or Kristen & Kristy?

Look at the face and trust the first impression. The State Collection reads as illustrative and grounded — the sort of paddle that pairs with a chambray shirt and a linen skort. The Kristen & Kristy paddles read as bold and current — the sort of paddle that pairs with an athletic-brand set and a pair of court-white sneakers. Neither is objectively better. The one that reads correct on the first look is the one to buy, because that is the one the player will actually pull out of the bag on a Saturday morning. If the buyer is not the player — a gift-buyer, a parent, a spouse — pick the line that matches the recipient's broader wardrobe rather than the buyer's.

When does The Blank make more sense than either?

The Blank is the right pick when the player's broader design language is muted. If the player's tournament bag is unbranded, if the wardrobe skews toward neutrals, if the paddle is going to live alongside a wristwatch that is intentionally understated, The Blank is the coherent choice. It is also the right pick for the player who wants zero visual friction on the court — the paddle that adds no signal, positive or negative, and lets the play speak.

Where does the Mastery Elite fit?

The Mastery Elite is ARTI's performance flagship in 14mm raw T700 carbon. It is the pick for the player whose second-paddle question is genuinely a performance question — a 4.0-rated player or higher who wants a more feedback-heavy paddle with more spin ceiling than a 16mm core delivers. The Mastery Elite is a design-considered paddle in its own right, but the design case is quieter than the State, K&K, or Blank lines. A player choosing the Mastery Elite is choosing performance-first and design-second, which is exactly the correct order when the second paddle is meant to raise the athletic ceiling rather than the aesthetic one.

How much does grip size matter when adding a second paddle?

Match the grip size of the first paddle as closely as possible. A player who has been playing on a 4 1/8 inch grip and switches to a 4 1/4 inch grip on the second paddle will feel the difference on the first drive, and not in a good way. Grip size is easier to build up with an overgrip than to shrink, so if in doubt on a new order, size down and add an overgrip layer to match the feel of the first paddle exactly.

How does a design-first paddle age?

The concern a first-time buyer of a design-first paddle sometimes raises is whether the illustrated face wears differently than a plain paddle face. The face art on the ARTI lines sits under a protective layer that is part of the carbon face construction rather than a decal applied on top, so the graphic does not peel, chip, or fade inside the first year of hard club-session play. The paddle ages visually the way the paddle ages structurally — slowly, evenly, with the honest patina of use that a well-made object earns rather than the tired look of a paddle that was decorated instead of designed.

Pickleball is now large enough as a sport that its equipment category has bifurcated. On one side, the performance case — the paddles built for the pro tour and the sanctioned tournament ladder, where every incremental spin RPM and swing weight gram matters. On the other side, the lifestyle case — the paddles that live in a design-considered life, that show up in the group photo, that read as objects a player is proud to own. The player who came into the sport through the first category and is now shopping for a second paddle is really shopping for the second category. For a longer read on the same territory, our companion piece on design-first alternatives to the other major performance brands covers parallel ground, and our essay on what makes a paddle designer gets into the specific choices — face illustration, mold shape, colorway — that separate a paddle designed by a design team from a paddle decorated by a marketing team. The paddles for the design-conscious player overview is the shortest path to the current ARTI line if you would rather see the options laid out side by side.