Selkirk Pickleball and Tesla are back with another paddle collab, following up on the success of the Tesla Plaid paddle that was launched in 2025.

The new Tesla Aurum Pickleball Paddle by Selkirk was released Thursday exclusively on Tesla’s website in extremely limited quantities. It features the same tech as the original launch, but with a new colorway that is inspired by the exterior color of Tesla’s Cybercab. It retails for $295 or $350 if you include the sleek carrying case.

Tesla Aurum Pickleball Paddle by Selkirk with carrying case.

Tesla’s contribution to the design of the paddle focused on airflow behavior — studying drag coefficients, turbulent wake patterns, and how slight geometry shifts affected acceleration during different swing paths. Those findings directly influenced the paddle’s aerodynamic aesthetic. Other features include:

  • PureFoam full-foam core
  • TPU Power Ring, created specifically for this paddle to stabilize the face and dampen vibration
  • MOI Tuning System used in other Selkirk paddles for a cleaner, more forgiving sweet spot
  • Two-ply carbon fiber face for control and feedback
  • InfiniGrit Surface for enhanced, longer-lasting spin

According to Selkirk, the Power Ring’s lightweight perimeter structure was tested to “dampen vibration and stabilize the paddle face, working to prevent the long-term crushing common in polymer honeycomb cores.”

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How the Selkirk x Tesla collab became a reality

The origin story traces back to the 2023 USAP National Championships, where Selkirk’s Director of R&D, Tom Barnes, first connected with Tesla’s engineering team. That meeting stuck. Barnes later built a batch of custom black-and-white Tesla paddles and sent them to Tesla employees just for fun.

By March 2024, things escalated. Barnes and several Tesla designers — including Tesla’s Director of Product Design, Javier Verdura — started kicking around a bigger idea: Could Tesla’s aerodynamic principles translate into a faster, more efficient pickleball paddle?

That led to co-design sessions, early prototypes built inside Selkirk’s Idaho lab, and multiple rounds of joint performance testing until both teams were convinced they had something real.

Read next: The Kitchen’s Top 13 paddles on the market right now + in-depth reviews for each one.

“This project is personal to me,” Barnes said. “I’ve always admired Tesla’s approach to engineering. What started as a fun idea between friends evolved into a full collaboration with their design and aerodynamics teams.”