Hey guys,
I suppose this post could have gone several places but this seemed the best.
I got a part-time job a couple months back at one of the local tennis complexes. It's possibly the most well respected in the area as they have camps, academies, great pros, etc. However they made a pretty shocking move about a month ago. They did away with all of their endorsements/sponsors/etc. and are now solely in conjunction with Prince!
Before they used to have a good mix of all companies but was most likely mainly Wilson with the accessories and such. But it is now 110% Prince technologies. I'm talking racquets (each teaching pro and college help has to use one), grips, balls, ball machines, strings, hoppers, carts, clothing, and so on. EVERYTHING Prince! Prince is a great company, don't get me wrong, but I was very shocked (as were most of the customers and players) when every other brand virtually disappeared in a matter of 24 hours. The management at the complex said they struck a great contract with Prince and blah blah blah.
So one day I made the observation that all racquets available are of the new line of Prince - the entire 03 line, ozones, speedports, hybrids, ect. Some of the advanced players and especially college players that train there have expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with this fact as there are virtually no "players" racquets or comparable levels of comfort. Prince still does make players racquets (such as the diablo) but these are not available through the contract or are just seemingly left out. I've seen other facilities, first hand, where the same is true. The new technologies of Prince are being shoved down peoples' throats.
Some of these players have actually made the switch or have at least bought one racquet (if they weren't initially "sold" on the new stuff) to mess around with. I have heard many of them after a period of a few months start to complain about shoulder pain or actual injuries. I remember reading some threads on here about the same thing happening to other people. Can one actually conclude that these new technologies are promoting injuries (even seen on the professional level), or is is pure happenstance? What are your thoughts on this specific issue as well as companies (such as Prince) "whoring" their new technologies out to such extremes?
Happy Gossiping
I suppose this post could have gone several places but this seemed the best.
I got a part-time job a couple months back at one of the local tennis complexes. It's possibly the most well respected in the area as they have camps, academies, great pros, etc. However they made a pretty shocking move about a month ago. They did away with all of their endorsements/sponsors/etc. and are now solely in conjunction with Prince!
Before they used to have a good mix of all companies but was most likely mainly Wilson with the accessories and such. But it is now 110% Prince technologies. I'm talking racquets (each teaching pro and college help has to use one), grips, balls, ball machines, strings, hoppers, carts, clothing, and so on. EVERYTHING Prince! Prince is a great company, don't get me wrong, but I was very shocked (as were most of the customers and players) when every other brand virtually disappeared in a matter of 24 hours. The management at the complex said they struck a great contract with Prince and blah blah blah.
So one day I made the observation that all racquets available are of the new line of Prince - the entire 03 line, ozones, speedports, hybrids, ect. Some of the advanced players and especially college players that train there have expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with this fact as there are virtually no "players" racquets or comparable levels of comfort. Prince still does make players racquets (such as the diablo) but these are not available through the contract or are just seemingly left out. I've seen other facilities, first hand, where the same is true. The new technologies of Prince are being shoved down peoples' throats.
Some of these players have actually made the switch or have at least bought one racquet (if they weren't initially "sold" on the new stuff) to mess around with. I have heard many of them after a period of a few months start to complain about shoulder pain or actual injuries. I remember reading some threads on here about the same thing happening to other people. Can one actually conclude that these new technologies are promoting injuries (even seen on the professional level), or is is pure happenstance? What are your thoughts on this specific issue as well as companies (such as Prince) "whoring" their new technologies out to such extremes?
Happy Gossiping