Finding your new padel racket is tough!

Just in the last couple of years, Oxdog, Alkemia, and Slazenger, have entered an already crowded market.

With so many brands to choose from, how do you decide which racket to get?

Here at Padel.FYI, we collect and summarize professional padel racket reviews from YouTube channels and blog to create an always up-to-date list of the most performant padel rackets.

Below you can see an overview of the top rackets from one of the most innovative brands, Starvie. Scroll down further to see the Ultimate Guide to Starvie Padel Rackets, where we go through the company's history, manufacturing process, and the technology they use.

What is Starvie

As one of the leading brands in the padel industry, Starvie produces high-quality rackets that are designed to help players take their game to the next level. In this guide, we'll take a closer look at Starvie and their best padel rackets, including their history, manufacturing process, and the technology they use.

History and Background of the Company

StarVie was founded in 2002 in Barcelona by Jorge Gómez de la Vega and Javier de la Chica, who were both passionate about padel. Gómez de la Vega was a banker and was excited to turn his passion of padel into a career. Starvie was acquired by the the Oteador group in 2009 and opened its factory in 2013 about 50 kilometers northeast of Madrid in Azuqueca de Henares in Guadalajara, just across the border into Castilla y La Mancha, Spain. This is where all Starvie rackets are produced today.

Business Estimations, Market Penetration, Partnerships

In recent years, Starvie has experienced significant growth in terms of both rackets sold and revenue generated. It is estimated that they produce roughly 30,000 rackets per year.

The company has also established partnerships with top professional padel players, as well as with other leading brands in the industry. This has helped to increase awareness of the brand and build its reputation for producing high-quality products. Some of the notable players who are partnered with Starvie include Bea González, Carolina Navarro, Coki Nieto, Javi Garrido, and Lucas Bergamini. View more.

More recently, Starvie signed a partnership with ASICS, which seems to basically mean that Starvie's players will now wear Asics clothing. This seems like a valuable deal for Asics.

Padel Racket Manufacturing Process

Starvie's padel rackets are designed and manufactured in Spain, where the company has its headquarters. The manufacturing process starts with the design of the racket, which is done using computer software.

The main phases of the manufacturing process are:

1. Prepping and cutting the materials
2. Casting: placing frame, foam core, and surface layers together with epoxy resin into the racket mold, and baking at high temperature
3. Painting and decaling
4. Drilling the holes in the face
5. Finishing: wrist strap, end cap, grip installation

Starvie’s rackets are artisinal products as each phase is done by hand, except for the drilling of the holes in the racket face. The whole process requires two to three weeks.

Being a premium product, Starvie only uses the highest quality of materials, such as Toray and Teijin Carbon Tenax carbon fiber. They also have pioneered innovations, such as the use of basalt and colored carbon fiber in racket surfaces.

Starvie has also attained the following ISO quality certifications: Environmental Management of the Factory (ISO 14001:2015) and its Control System (ISO 9001:2015).

Racket Naming

Unsurprisingly, the artisanal products that they are, Starvie’s racket also have beautiful names, most of which originate in or relate to celestial bodies in some way.

• The Titania Kepler is named after Titania, the queen of the fairies in William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania was then the name given to the largest of the Uranus’s moons. Kepler refers to the German astronomer and philosopher, Johannes Kepler.
• The Eris of Astrum Eris refers to the Greek goddess of strife and discord and is also a celestial body in our solar system.
• Metheora of the Metheora Warrior, refers to Aristotle's treatise, a text which discusses what he believed to have been all the affections common to all elements.

Seriously, if you're bored one day, just start plugging the names of Starvie's rackets into Wikipedia. You'll be at it for hours.

Racket Suffixes

Starvie’s racket suffixes refer to the rubber foam used in the core of the racket:

• Dual - outer layers of low density rubber and inner layer being high density (new in 2023 models)
• Pro - refers to the use of a hard, high density rubber core, roughly 50kg/m^3
• Soft - refers to the use of a soft, low density rubber core, roughly 30kg/m^3

Starvie often manufactures the same model with different rubber foam cores in order to offer the benefits of a model to players with different preferences regarding the hardness of the touch they like to play with. Deciding on your desired touch is one of the most important parts of deciding on the racket you would like, learn more about How to Choose a Padel Racket.

Racket Weights

As Starvie’s rackets are handmade products, their weight range is wider than usual - normally 350 - 385 grams, where most other brands are in 15 gram weight bands.

Some reviewers mention that they received heavier rackets than expected. This weight will have a significant effect on the racket's maneuverability. This is certainly one consideration when evaluating a company with such an artisanal racket manufacturing process.

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Racket Shapes

Starvie only makes Round and Teardrop shaped rackets. They produce no Diamond-shaped rackets, but this doesn't not mean their lineup lacks powerful, high-balance rackets. Their most powerful high balance racket, for reference, is the Triton Pro.

The Full Plane Effect System

The Full Plane Effect Starvie’s name for their process of molding two millimeter high Starvie logo-shaped reliefs into some racket faces to provide a rough surface, which helps the player to generate spin. This roughness is much stronger at delivering spin than the sandpaper style of roughness used by many padel racket manufacturers. One reviewer laughed as he said, “it will remove your calluses.” Hopefully that’s good enough to help players hit the ball out “for three.”

The Star Balance System

The Star Balance System is a technology used in Starvie rackets that helps to reduce vibrations with the Starvie logo shape in the center of the bridge of the racket, between the handle and the racket face. This brings more comfort to players, especially those with tennis elbow or other arm sensitivities.

Starvie Racket Surface Materials

Most of Starvie's rackets use 2 layers of 3K carbon. However, Starvie has pioneered the use of interesting materials, such as basalt in their Basalto Osiris racket.

Starvie Rackets Summary

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If you're looking for a high-quality, artisanal Made in Spain padel racket, you can't go wrong with Starvie. This brand has a reputation for producing some of the best rackets in the industry, with a wide range of models to suit different playing styles. Our reviews of Starvie rackets are conducted according to our standard methodology in order to score their strengths and weaknesses on the court, so you can tell if they suit your playing style. This scorecard is below. More on our About page.

Why trust us?

Padel FYI is the Metacritic for padel rackets. To help you find the best padel racket, I have cataloged 360 reviews of 106 of the most popular padel rackets to create the most comprehensive padel racket database.

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