Legacy Pro Pickleball Paddle Review

The Legacy Pro was undoubtedly my most anticipated pickleball paddle coming into the year 2023. The hype was unreal, it sold out quickly, and it was meant to be the first high-end paddle in my pickleball journey as interest in raw carbon fiber thermoformed paddles grew exponentially.

Unfortunately, Legacy Pickleball faced a lot of hurdles as a new company with products in high demand, so I was stuck waiting nearly three months for my paddle. After a couple of delays on my preorder shipment I decided to give the Selkirk Vanguard Power Air a go in the meantime, but I did eventually receive my Legacy Pro.

So what do I think of the Legacy Pro after nearly six months of usage? Let’s find out.

Pros

Pop and Power

I have to start by making this clear — I have never experienced any manufacturing issues with the Legacy Pro, including delamination, core crushing, disbonding, or anything negative associated with thermoforming when lots of players were running into these problems. It appears that Legacy and brands like CRBN may still have a frequency of these issues, but my Legacy has held up fine since April.

That being said, the pop and power of the Legacy Pro have not left me with much to desire. Since there were no deflection defects with my paddle, I found it to be powerful without struggling to keep things under control. I maintained comfort keeping drives and big serves in bounds and found the pop to be decent. In non-defective form, the Legacy Pro performs exactly how you would expect a thermoformed paddle to perform.

Sweet Spot, Touch

The Legacy Pro possesses a pretty good hitting surface with a respectable amount of forgiveness. Furthermore, the Legacy Pro feels a bit on the plusher side of thermoformed paddles, which I believe is a good thing even if it is not the most plush.

Much of the sweet spot performance and coverage is due to the often-practiced foam injection along the edges that come along with thermoformed (and some non-heat molded) paddles. It’s much more balanced of a paddle than it’s given credit for. The control is pretty nice especially if you are already familiar with this type of construction or take the proper time to dial it in.

Spin

This is a quick one, but the Legacy Pro undoubtedly provides a high amount of spin. While it is far from the highest in spin generation on the market, there was a point the Legacy Pro set the bar. Honestly, the average player who doesn’t pay close attention to numbers may not even notice a difference between this and the highest-spin paddles on the market. With the Legacy Pro, what matters most is that it enables you to rip with a great amount of topspin to keep the ball inbounds as needed.

Cons

Durability

Though I have had no personal issues with my Legacy Pro 16mm, the elephant in the room is that there have been a lot of complaints and dissatisfaction with the paddle.

No, it’s not likely that the paddle will snap in half on you at any point, but there are internal breakdown issues for this paddle (along with other of the brand’s paddles) that are still being reported. While I haven’t played exclusively with the Legacy Pro for the last half-year, I’ve definitely played more than the equivalent of 2-4 weeks straight when some of these issues of delamination and disbonding have occurred for others.

Fortunately, Legacy Pickleball is still offering somewhere around a 3-4 month warranty for these types of issues and should have you covered in the event of these types of defects. From what I know about the production hurdles the brand has faced from a consumer perspective, this is still a great coverage period for manufacturing defects/issues.

Legacy Pro Paddle Overall

I’ve been satisfied with my Legacy Pro 16mm experience when it comes to performance. For a few months, it was my go-to paddle when not testing other paddles for review. In a vacuum, the Legacy Pro is a stable paddle with a good sweet spot due to its 16mm core thermoformed construction with foam injection, and blends a good amount of power with softness due to the raw carbon fiber hitting surface we’ve (mostly) all come to love.

I have moved on to similar playing go-to paddles like the Maverix Havik-16 Power that meet my preferences a little more than the Legacy Pro, but it’s hard to compare durability with less time and a perceived lower volume among the masses.

If you’re already interested in the Legacy Pro, I wouldn’t discourage you from at least trying it out if possible. If you happen to just be looking for one of the many thermoformed raw carbon fiber paddles on the market, then I would honestly say you may be better suited browsing the market and checking other reviews for similar (or in some cases, even lower) priced options. While my experience has been mostly positive, there are some that may be able to detail a different experience. Nevertheless, I hope I was able to help those who were awaiting my thoughts on the Legacy Pro.