Any progress with the dePaume project? It's been a few months since I've been here, but this is one thing that has me very interested.
If it's not going anywhere, I may see about getting something together. It wouldn't be an exact replica of the IMF frames because the issues with head size, manufacturing, etc make it very difficult to put together a viable model. But, I think I've got the technology sorted out to make something that has the gross majority of IMF characteristics, but better ability to move your balance point around and tune the flex, much less expensive to produce, and no heads collapsing when they get over the 90-ish inch size.
Big question is what's the market size, and could I raise enough money to make the project viable? Figure I'd need about $75,000-100,000 to get through prototyping, make the first molds, and patent the technology. All in, I think that we'd need a good $350 to 500K to get it going. That's a lot of rackets to sell, particularly given that cost of production would be roughly double what a typical racket costs and that's assuming best-case scenarios for production pricing on small-run stuff.
Anyway, all just thoughts on a Tuesday...
