2017 Adidas Aeroburner
Price: BBCOR $200, Senior League (-8) $100, Senior League (-10) $70
The Adidas Aeroburner is a one-piece aluminum alloy bat. It has a balanced swing weight and has adapted TaylorMade golf club technology in order to maximize performance.
The Look
The Aeroburner has a unique look with a minimal amount of paint. The entire bat is covered in a black honeycomb pattern with the natural aluminum color visible underneath. This honeycomb gives the bat an rougher texture with a lot of friction.
The Aeroburner comes in several different colors. We tested the Aeroburner in Blue, Orange, Red, and Maroon. The colors on the end of each barrel look pretty cool, but it would have been nice if they included these colors throughout the entirety of the bat. With the exception of the Blue version, the bats look unfinished.
The Blue is also the only one with a white grip, which works better with the paint than the black on the other bats.
We thought the best looking part of the bat is the endcap, which is chrome red.
Props to Adidas for attempting a different look, but overall, it just didn’t work very well in my opinion.
Knob/Handle/Grip
The bat comes with a decent stock grip.
As mentioned before, the Blue version of the bat comes with a white grip while the others come with black. The grip itself is pretty firm with a repeating pattern of indented circles that create good traction.
The handle tapers slightly into the traditional knob. The knob felt a little wide, and it’s always rubbing uncomfortably against your bottom hand. Had Adidas switched to a more ergonomic design or even just cut it down a little bit, the knob would be a much better fit.
Feel/Swing Weight
The Aeroburner is balanced, but is on the heavier side. It has a fatter barrel than most one-piece alloys, and the added swing weight is a byproduct of this. Adidas’ Textin endcap claims to lighten the swing weight, but ultimately the large amount of alloy in the large barrel wins over. It would have been interesting for Adidas to release this bat in an end-loaded version. Currently, the swing weight is at an awkward stage where it is on the verge of not being balanced. Had Adidas taken advantage of the larger alloy barrel and simply made it end-loaded they would have created a more unique bat that could be very popular with college hitters.
Performance
The Aeroburner performed average in testing. There was no lack of pop and every ball flew off the barrel with good speed. However, everything it did well was offset by something that it didn’t. The meatier barrel is a great addition, but it gives the bat an awkward weight distribution. The one-piece construction gave it a stiff feel and offered a nice ping on impact. However, contact off the barrel resulted in some brutal hand sting. The bat is a one-piece alloy, so vibration should be expected, but the Aeroburner had the worst of any bat that we tested.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it seemed like Adidas tried to make this bat something that it wasn’t. Had they targeted a different type of hitter, they could have taken advantage of their larger barrel and might have had a great end-loaded one-piece alloy. If you’re looking for a balanced one-piece, I would recommend looking elsewhere.
