Babolat’s best-selling tennis shoe model launches in a fourth version on Jan. 22. The Babolat Jet Mach 4, the brand’s focus on a lightweight speed, offers a fresh perspective with a redeveloped forefoot for an even quicker first step.
“At Babolat, all of our footwear innovation is built around explosiveness on the court,” Wanda Beguelin, a soft products manager at Babolat, tells me. “Every movement a tennis player makes starts with a split step—a jump from the forefoot. That’s why we decided to focus our development efforts on the forefoot area, integrating a true starting block under the foot.”
The Jet Mach 4 features a new rigid plate inside the midsole, inspired by track and field starting blocks, “ensuring optimal foot positioning for explosive starts toward the ball.”
Beguelin says the design helps players generate faster, more efficient first steps while maintaining stability and control. New reinforced sidewalls are designed to enhance stability, allowing players to fully engage their power while maintaining complete control during lateral movements.
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Assisting that first-step movement is a new EVA foam mixed with Pebax. Babolat says the foam creation efficiently absorbs and returns energy, delivering rebound properties that are 55% superior to standard EVA. The brand says testing shows the shoe 3% faster than the previous model, thanks to that first-step quickness.
Under the new midfoot, Babolat continues its partnership with Michelin on the outsole. The two French brands have collaborated on footwear rubber and traction patterns since 2002.
The upper provides a fresh perspective on the brands Matryx textile weave. Beguelin says the new generation of Matryx enables Babolat to build a textile upper with maximum support and durability functions. “A new double-layer Matryx construction enhances lateral support and provides exceptional lockdown while retaining a lightweight textile upper,” she says.
The Babolat Jet Mach silhouette fits within the brand’s footwear lineup as the lightweight agility shoe, next to the Propulse durability and stability line and the SFX line focused on comfort.
The new Jet Mach 4 comes with a fresh aesthetic meant to accentuate the new elements of the silhouette. “We really wanted to highlight the forefoot and visually recreate the idea of a starting block,” Beguelin says. “That’s why, across all colorways of the Jet Mach 4, this new technology is always emphasized. The forefoot design draws attention to the performance core of the shoe: an EVA foam combined with Pebax and a rigid plate for lateral support. This visual signature makes the technology immediately identifiable and reinforces what the shoe is built for—explosive starts, stability and control.”
The women’s shoe launches in a cream and lavender version and a lavender and white colorway. The men’s shoe launches in red with black, white with blue and black with yellow.