Holbrook Fuze Review: Is This Paddle Overlooked?

Holbrook was a more premium brand a year or two ago, but they seemingly fell off when the Pro IVs came out.

The ARMA was a good paddle but was severely overshadowed by the Joolas.

They just came out with the Fuze — their gen 4 paddle. It's been out for a little bit and didn't get much popularity. Let's see if it's actually a good paddle or not.

Intro

My name is Pickle Li. I'm a 5.0 pickleball player and I've reviewed over 50 paddles on this channel. I created MyPickleList, which does community-driven paddle ratings, and there are currently over 1,000 ratings.

Caveats & Disclosures

Reminder: This is a first impressions review, not a full review.

I only played with this paddle for a few days, so I can't speak to long-term durability.

I'll be rating this paddle on MyPickleList at the end of this write-up, so stay tuned for that.

Shout out to Premier Racquet Sports for letting me borrow this paddle. Check them out if you're in the Atlanta area.

Quick Specs Overview

The Holbrook Fuze is a gen 4 paddle with a bit of a different foam setup than other options on the market — foam around the edge, high-density foam on top and low-density foam on the bottom.

• Shapes: elongated, hybrid, widebody
• Thickness: 16mm on hybrid/widebody; elongated also comes in 14mm and 16mm

I tested elongated 14mm and 16mm:

• 16mm weight: 7.92 oz
• 14mm weight: 7.94 oz
• Setup: Stock the whole time

On-Court First Impressions

Pop

Above average — enough for good counters, but nothing crazy where you pop up everything.

Control & Feel

Pretty intuitive and controllable from the start.

I've been on a cut recently so performance varies more. I was coming off a bad Q2 day and tried these the following day — albeit easier games, but I could switch between 14mm and 16mm and still play pretty good right off the bat.

I might have preferred the 14mm at first due to extra ball feel. Towards the end I played some 5.0–5.5 games — that's when I realized I really preferred the 16mm. The 16 just felt a bit more stable.

For drops, sweet spots felt close enough — but for resets, the 16mm was better.

Sweet spot on both is above average for elongated; the 16mm was even better.

Feel: More solid and firm than Boomstiks, RPM Q2s, Infernos, and Locos — poppier, just more solid. Best comparison: Gherkin Draco, maybe OG CRBN Trufoam and J2NF, but maybe more responsive than those.

Didn't do anything special with grit that I noticed — spin felt slightly above average.

Played stock the whole time with solid results. After all the testing, 16mm is better in my opinion — a bit more stability at the cost of some extra ball feel.

Power

Mid-tier power — all the power you really need for serves, returns, and putaways. Drives hit hard too, just not crazy power like top-tier power paddles.

Verdict & MyPickleList

MyPickleList is a site I built for community-driven paddle ratings — a quick way to see how a paddle stacks up without reading long reviews. We have 300+ members and 1,000+ ratings; more ratings make it better, so please join if you haven't.

If you're in the Atlanta area, Premier Racquet Sports in Dunwoody is running $20 gift cards when you rate and comment on 5 paddles on the site.

Back to the review.

Overall, the Holbrook Fuze is a good paddle. When I first played with it I was a bit higher on it, but as I played better competition that feeling normalized.

Rating: 8/10 (14mm and 16mm elongated — 16mm preferred)

The 16mm had a bit more stability, especially against better players.

Good fit if you like poppier, more solid-feeling paddles. Boomstik, RPM Q2, and Inferno are more hollow by comparison — the Fuze has a more traditional feel some people may like.

As a widebody/hybrid main, I felt like they played good for elongated paddles. Would have loved to try widebody and hybrid — felt like they very possibly would have performed better for me.

Overall good paddle from Holbrook as they join the gen 4 club. Doesn't provide anything too new, but a solid gen 4 power paddle that may feel more familiar than other gen 4 options out there.

Thanks for reading. Join the MyPickleList community on site and Discord — we talk paddles, gear, and pickleball tips daily. If you caught this as a video too, like and subscribe there; it helps a lot. See you next time.

Demoed at Premier Racquet Sports (Atlanta). No Holbrook affiliate link — check Holbrook or Premier if you want to buy or demo.