Head 'Designed In Austria' ???

brickvolley · Aug 28, 2009

I have a Head Pro Tour 280 and Head Classic MP that says Designed in Austria. The PT 280 is on the outside of the throat, and the Classic is above the hadle. But no where on the frame does it show country of origin. Are these frames made in China, or could they be from Czech Rep.? I thought it's illegal to sell a product without country of origin label.

MichaelChang · Aug 28, 2009

I believe the Classic MP are all made in Austria and some finished in Czech(should have a "Made in Czech" sticker on the buttcap).

The PT280 is harder to tell. Does yours have "Head Barcode label Inside" on the side and hologram buttcap?

brickvolley · Aug 28, 2009

Thanks for your response. Yes, both have the sliver hollogram on the butt cap, and barcode label inside message. No sticker though... Both have removable grip pallets.

zspyderman · Aug 28, 2009

I started using the HEAD Pro Tour around 1996. I got all my racquets straight from HEAD Austria. They all had the "Made In Austria" insignia on them. I don't know the exact number, but I must have gotten through a ton of those racquets. They all felt identical in every which way. Except one! Every time I used it I just wanted to smash it after 20 minutes, and after about 40 minutes of play I always lost every bit of feel for the ball, especially on the backhand side. Like I never hit a backhand before in my life! And it's my best shot.... Anyhow. The racquet always escaped execution, and I kept it as a back up racquet, just in case I ran out of all other strung racquets, so it kept infuriating me for years. In 2001, after a practice session, a friend of mine borrowed it, and as he looked at it for about 5 seconds, he told me; "...did you know this racquet is DESIGED IN AUSTRIA, as opposed to Made in Austria...?" I grabbed the racquet and and to my horror I see it. What the f@%&!!!! Finally it got what it deserved on the net pole at Indian Wells.
I don't know how that got through the cracks and what it was doing amongst all the others in Kennelbach.
That's my experience with the "Designed in Austria" Pro Tours. They are farmed out rackets, and basically authorized fakes. Otherwise, I can't explain how they made it back to the factory in Austria.

furyoku_tennis · Aug 28, 2009

weren't the later pt280's designed in austria and made in china?

Cruzer · Aug 28, 2009

There are very few racquets that are not made in China. Yonex still makes racquets in Japan and they are the only racquets in current production that I know of that are not made in China. My Pure Drives say "Engineered in France" but are made in China. Up until a couple of years ago racquets would only have a sticker saying "Made in China" which of course could be removed. Now all the racquets I see have "Made in China" in very small print on the racquet along with "Engineered in France", "German Designed", etc. in much larger print somewhere else on the frame.

furyoku_tennis · Aug 28, 2009

Cruzer said:
There are very few racquets that are not made in China. Yonex still makes racquets in Japan and they are the only racquets in current production that I know of that are not made in China. My Pure Drives say "Engineered in France" but are made in China. Up until a couple of years ago racquets would only have a sticker saying "Made in China" which of course could be removed. Now all the racquets I see have "Made in China" in very small print on the racquet along with "Engineered in France", "German Designed", etc. in much larger print somewhere else on the frame.

Nowadays most of them are made in China. But some of the older racquets were made in Austria or the Czech Republic. Only some of Yonex's racquets are made in Japan, the rest are made in China as well.

MichaelChang · Aug 28, 2009

evantsung said:
Thanks for your response. Yes, both have the sliver hollogram on the butt cap, and barcode label inside message. No sticker though... Both have removable grip pallets.

Your PT280 is made in Austria. The hologram buttcap and the "Head Barcode Label Inside" confirms it. There are also PT280s with "Designed in Austria" that are made in China, but they do not have the hologram or "Barcode Label Inside".

some HEAD experts like vsbabolat could confirm or correct me.

brickvolley · Aug 29, 2009

Thanks for everyone's input on this. I think Head should at least put a sticker with the country of origin so the consumers will not be confused. Maybe the ones made in China has a sticker that states that.

furyoku_tennis · Aug 30, 2009

most of them have stickers, but they fall off over time, or people just take them off.

Don S · Aug 30, 2009

zspyderman said:
I started using the HEAD Pro Tour around 1996. I got all my racquets straight from HEAD Austria. They all had the "Made In Austria" insignia on them. I don't know the exact number, but I must have gotten through a ton of those racquets. They all felt identical in every which way. Except one! Every time I used it I just wanted to smash it after 20 minutes, and after about 40 minutes of play I always lost every bit of feel for the ball, especially on the backhand side. Like I never hit a backhand before in my life! And it's my best shot.... Anyhow. The racquet always escaped execution, and I kept it as a back up racquet, just in case I ran out of all other strung racquets, so it kept infuriating me for years. In 2001, after a practice session, a friend of mine borrowed it, and as he looked at it for about 5 seconds, he told me; "...did you know this racquet is DESIGED IN AUSTRIA, as opposed to Made in Austria...?" I grabbed the racquet and and to my horror I see it. What the f@%&!!!! Finally it got what it deserved on the net pole at Indian Wells.
I don't know how that got through the cracks and what it was doing amongst all the others in Kennelbach.
That's my experience with the "Designed in Austria" Pro Tours. They are farmed out rackets, and basically authorized fakes. Otherwise, I can't explain how they made it back to the factory in Austria.

So basically, it took your friend 5 seconds to find out something you couldn't figure out in all the time you owned it? I would think that if you had a frame that doesn't feel or perform like any of your other PT 280's and you hated it that much, you'd be looking that thing over pretty closely.

Your story reminds me a lot of a similar scenario I had with my pt280's. I had one that I loved, played great with, had the feel and plowthrough I liked. It was perfect. The other one was an absolute POS. I hated everything about that racquet. The first one was a chinese PT 280 and I still have it, played it this morning. The other one was an Austrian pt280 and it got what it deserved on a court in Largo, FL. I took off the grommets, bumper guard and pallets. They were the only things worth saving. Maybe I just got a rare great Chinese 280 but it absolutely slays the one Austrian 280 that I still have. Maybe the fact that I hit extremely flat is a major reason for the difference in how they perform.

Head 'Designed In Austria' ???

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