1986 US Racquet & Shoes Advert

Grafil Injection

Grafil Injection

Legend
From Tennis World July 1986. A good selection of makes and models:

Rackets-advert-July-1986.jpg


Zoom in on racquets:

Rackets-advert-July-1986-zoom.jpg
 
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Wow! This brings back a lot of memories of me trying to save on a "real" racquet and finally ordering the "pro" kennex silver ace. lol
 
Was this advert from the back of an issue of Tennis Magazine, or World Tennis Magazine?

At the time, I thought World Tennis was the better publication—they published data-based racquet reviews (Tennis’ were subjective).
 
For the youngsters in the group, these ads were referred to as "mail order" . Oddly, one had to CALL the company and talk to a HUMAN to place an order.
My largest account was "Sportline of Hilton Head", interestingly headquartered in Greensboro, NC...not particularly close to Hilton Head at all . It wasn't uncommon for the phone operators there to hear something like, "Send me whatever racket HE is playing with!!!"...or in the case of Martina, SHE...as I repped for Yonex when she went on her year-long run with the YY R-22. They sold a boatload of those!!! No demo, no specs(other than gripsize) and they flew out of there!!! They had a half-dozen(or more) stringing machines running full-speed many days to keep up with orders!!
 
coachrick said:
For the youngsters in the group, these ads were referred to as "mail order" . Oddly, one had to CALL the company and talk to a HUMAN to place an order.
My largest account was "Sportline of Hilton Head", interestingly headquartered in Greensboro, NC...not particularly close to Hilton Head at all . It wasn't uncommon for the phone operators there to hear something like, "Send me whatever racket HE is playing with!!!"...or in the case of Martina, SHE...as I repped for Yonex when she went on her year-long run with the YY R-22. They sold a boatload of those!!! No demo, no specs(other than gripsize) and they flew out of there!!! They had a half-dozen(or more) stringing machines running full-speed many days to keep up with orders!!
Click to expand...

Yeah there was a time when tennis was so popular in the US that owning a tennis racquet was like owning a smart phone.. everyone had one. US Open and Wimbledon were on network TV when there were only 3 major channels, NBC, CBS & ABC.
 
I am always on the hunt for the cleanest rip of the 2 NBC wimbledon themes. I’ve found some complete, but with audible hiss versions on YouTube that I downloaded, but a great Christmas gift to me would be for someone on planet earth to post the master tapes of those iconic themes. They were in use all the way until 2012.
 
kevin qmto said:
I am always on the hunt for the cleanest rip of the 2 NBC wimbledon themes. I’ve found some complete, but with audible hiss versions on YouTube that I downloaded, but a great Christmas gift to me would be for someone on planet earth to post the master tapes of those iconic themes. They were in use all the way until 2012.
Click to expand...
Quality of the audio is not great on YouTube. For our non-American friends here’s the 2 themes that NBC would play. The first one was the theme at the top of the broadcast and the second was for the closing credits. It was a real event growing up in the states with NBC dropping its normal broadcast to bring you live tennis from Wimbledon with Bud Collins and Dick Enberg.

this was the closing credits music
 
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vsbabolat said:
Quality of the audio is great on YouTube. For our non-American friends here’s the 2 themes that NBC would play. The first one was the theme at the top of the broadcast and the second was for the closing credits. It was a real event growing up in the states with NBC dropping its normal broadcast to bring you live tennis from Wimbledon with Bud Collins and Dick Enberg.

this was the closing credits music
Click to expand...
Actually already have a better quality version of the top theme.
 
Ultra 2 said:
Yeah there was a time when tennis was so popular in the US that owning a tennis racquet was like owning a smart phone.. everyone had one. US Open and Wimbledon were on network TV when there were only 3 major channels, NBC, CBS & ABC.
Click to expand...

I think it is making a bit of a comeback considering the amount of Bumble profiles that mention it
 
LOBALOT said:
I still have my Yamaha Ceramic Bronze which I believe my dad bought in the winter of 1982. I used a YFG-20 prior to that and I see the YFG 10 as well.

Neat Post!
Click to expand...
Always looking for peoples stories and opinions on Yamaha frames. I think that 90 series including the Bronze was a huge step forward in tech for their lineup. How’d you feel about it then and over time? Have you tried hitting with it more recently?
 
LOBALOT said:
I still have my Yamaha Ceramic Bronze which I believe my dad bought in the winter of 1982. I used a YFG-20 prior to that and I see the YFG 10 as well.

Neat Post!
Click to expand...
Ceramic was a thing in the tennis for the mid 80’s starting in 1986.
 
Was just getting into tennis and used to love looking through the ad to figure out what I should get.

I used that magazine several months earlier to order my first racquet - a Kneissel Aero.
 
kevin qmto said:
Always looking for peoples stories and opinions on Yamaha frames. I think that 90 series including the Bronze was a huge step forward in tech for their lineup. How’d you feel about it then and over time? Have you tried hitting with it more recently?
Click to expand...
I originally bought a White Ceramic Gold 100 in 1989 when in college. The thought of having every material known to man was so alluring! Plus, that thing had a borderline flawless rating in the tennis magazine.

I was used to 85” frames and it always seemed rather odd looking when I played. Was in a really intense USTA match (aren’t they all????) and finally whipped it down. Yes, the dreaded crack horrified me, but I had my Wilson Ceramic and won.

Around 1991, a local sporting goods store had these crappy “graphite-painted” Rossignol wood frames for $20 with 30% off sale. Whoever was doing the pricing stickers just did anything that was black and gold and happened to label two Gold 90s. I quickly took them up to the register and the clerk was like “I don’t think these are $20.” Was all set to be disappointed but then he said “they’re supposed to be another 30% off.” YES! If they would have had more, I would have bought them all.

I thought they hit ok but a bit light at first with some cheap Prince Endurance string. My only experience back then was some expensive Technifibre that quickly blew apart in a big match again leaving me to win with the Wilson Ceramic (there’s a theme somewhere!). One night, did a massive lead tape job on the sides and the things became beasts. Really solid even with cheap strings and maybe my most beloved frame ever. Great head shape and string pattern.
Ended up buying a Silver 90 from the same store as a third frame for over double what I paid for the two Gold. It was nowhere near as nice. I think it had at least one less type of material than the gold, so that had to be it. ;) IIRC, that model was positioned as more of a net player’s frame and actually thought I saw one of the tennis magazines say it was the best of the three. It wasn’t.
 
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vsdtrek said:
I originally bought a White Ceramic Gold 100 in 1989 when in college. The thought of having every material known to man was so alluring! Plus, that thing had a borderline flawless rating in the tennis magazine.

I was used to 85” frames and it always seemed rather odd looking when I played. Was in a really intense USTA match (aren’t they all????) and finally whipped it down. Yes, the dreaded crack horrified me, but I had my Wilson Ceramic and won.

Around 1991, a local sporting goods store had these crappy “graphite-painted” Rossignol wood frames for $20 with 30% off sale. Whoever was doing the pricing stickers just did anything that was black and gold and happened to label two Gold 90s. I quickly took them up to the register and the clerk was like “I don’t think these are $20.” Was all set to be disappointed but then he said “they’re supposed to be another 30% off.” YES! If they would have had more, I would have bought them all.

I thought they hit ok but a bit light at first with some cheap Prince Endurance string. My only experience back then was some expensive Technifibre that quickly blew apart in a big match again leaving me to win with the Wilson Ceramic (there’s a theme somewhere!). One night, did a massive lead tape job on the sides and the things became beasts. Really solid even with cheap strings and maybe my most beloved frame ever. Great head shape and string pattern.
Ended up buying a Silver 90 from the same store as a third frame for over double what I paid for the two Gold. It was nowhere near as nice. I think it had at least one less type of material than the gold, so that had to be it. ;) IIRC, that model was positioned as more of a net player’s frame and actually thought I saw one of the tennis magazines say it was the best of the three. It wasn’t.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing that insight! In this era of computer controlled store prices, finding a mislabeled gem is a joy one seldom gets to feel anymore. Lead can’t fix every frames issues but it can sure turn some into beasts. You thought the 100 looked more odd shaped than the 90s? I thought it was the other way around, the 90s look very oval shaped to me.
 
kevin qmto said:
Thanks for sharing that insight! In this era of computer controlled store prices, finding a mislabeled gem is a joy one seldom gets to feel anymore. Lead can’t fix every frames issues but it can sure turn some into beasts. You thought the 100 looked more odd shaped than the 90s? I thought it was the other way around, the 90s look very oval shaped to me.
Click to expand...
Happy to hear you enjoyed the read and it really was an awesome find!
The 100 was also oval-shaped. Don’t recall if it was one of the first marketed 100s (Prince Woodie apparently that same size) but just looked really different compared to my Wilson Ceramic 85 and eventual Prince Spectrum 90. I assumed it was clumsy. Clearly mental on my part back then and had I not cracked it, probably would have played just fine.

Later on, I decided I disliked totally light colored frames. Just stood out too much. Mostly black, navy blue or a beautiful matte red like the HPS 6.0 95 were my favorites. And now, frames in the 95 - 100 range are perfectly fine.
 
stapletonj said:
my brother did, and well, but boy was that thing stiff!

also, check out the wood rackets being sold new!!!
Click to expand...
Yes, I probably should have named the thread 'early eighties' as this discounter clearly had many frames 2-6 years old. The MaxPlys and JKAs were less than half price at this point.
 
vsdtrek said:
Was just getting into tennis and used to love looking through the ad to figure out what I should get.

I used that magazine several months earlier to order my first racquet - a Kneissel Aero.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised the Aeros weren't more popular. My Aero 30C is very nice to hit, once you remove the plastic grommet cover, save 8g in the hoop and get the specs down to 360g, 6pt HL. The very square head that is about 95sqi, has a diameter similar to most 100sqi rackets today, so a relatively huge spin window.
 
Back in the day, I actually hat a kneissel aero 20 that I hit with for sh*ts and giggles.

Snapped it on a serve one evening. (flex arm muscle pose over the internet - dont know how to insert emojis - barely know what they are. AND GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU KIDS!!!!!!)

It was a pretty cool stick.
 
Grafil Injection said:
I'm surprised the Aeros weren't more popular. My Aero 30C is very nice to hit, once you remove the plastic grommet cover, save 8g in the hoop and get the specs down to 360g, 6pt HL. The very square head that is about 95sqi, has a diameter similar to most 100sqi rackets today, so a relatively huge spin window.
Click to expand...
I think they went to 20 and 30 designations at some point after the initial release. I only recall mine just saying “Aero,” so it must have been the smaller head.

I hated that grommet strip as it wanted to pop up on the edges. I kept it in there just because I thought it was something integral to the aerodynamics and didn’t realize it would impact balance. Duh.

I eventually gave it to my Dad and he bought me another Dunlop Black Max. I originally started playing a Black Max he had and decided this was a more all-court frame as I didn’t care for that narrow tip on the Kneissel. He used it for a few years and we ended up selling it to one of my college teammates who eventually trashed it.
Still, it was a really cool looking frame. RIP Aero.
 
vsdtrek said:
I think they went to 20 and 30 designations at some point after the initial release. I only recall mine just saying “Aero,” so it must have been the smaller head.

I hated that grommet strip as it wanted to pop up on the edges. I kept it in there just because I thought it was something integral to the aerodynamics and didn’t realize it would impact balance. Duh.

I eventually gave it to my Dad and he bought me another Dunlop Black Max. I originally started playing a Black Max he had and decided this was a more all-court frame as I didn’t care for that narrow tip on the Kneissel. He used it for a few years and we ended up selling it to one of my college teammates who eventually trashed it.
Still, it was a really cool looking frame. RIP Aero.
Click to expand...
Aero 30 vs Black Max in 1986 = Pure Aero vs Dunlop Cx200 Tour today!
 
vsdtrek said:
I think they went to 20 and 30 designations at some point after the initial release. I only recall mine just saying “Aero,” so it must have been the smaller head.

I hated that grommet strip as it wanted to pop up on the edges. I kept it in there just because I thought it was something integral to the aerodynamics and didn’t realize it would impact balance. Duh.

I eventually gave it to my Dad and he bought me another Dunlop Black Max. I originally started playing a Black Max he had and decided this was a more all-court frame as I didn’t care for that narrow tip on the Kneissel. He used it for a few years and we ended up selling it to one of my college teammates who eventually trashed it.
Still, it was a really cool looking frame. RIP Aero.
Click to expand...
When Kneissl introduced the Aero in 1985, it was the “20” mold, and was indeed simply called the Aero—not Aero 20. In 1986, they introduced a second mold in the +30% head size, and offered four different Aero models: the original Aero, now called Aero 20, Aero 30, and the more flexible Aero 20C and Aero 30C (the “C” stood for “Club;” evidently these pastel-colored frames were aimed at stylish rec players).
 
kevin qmto said:
Thanks for sharing that insight! In this era of computer controlled store prices, finding a mislabeled gem is a joy one seldom gets to feel anymore. Lead can’t fix every frames issues but it can sure turn some into beasts. You thought the 100 looked more odd shaped than the 90s? I thought it was the other way around, the 90s look very oval shaped to me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the 90 series was an egg!!! Goofy string pattern, too.
We sold dozens and dozens of the White Gold 100...what a marshmallow!!!
 
coachrick said:
For the youngsters in the group, these ads were referred to as "mail order" . Oddly, one had to CALL the company and talk to a HUMAN to place an order.
My largest account was "Sportline of Hilton Head", interestingly headquartered in Greensboro, NC...not particularly close to Hilton Head at all . It wasn't uncommon for the phone operators there to hear something like, "Send me whatever racket HE is playing with!!!"...or in the case of Martina, SHE...as I repped for Yonex when she went on her year-long run with the YY R-22. They sold a boatload of those!!! No demo, no specs(other than gripsize) and they flew out of there!!! They had a half-dozen(or more) stringing machines running full-speed many days to keep up with orders!!
Click to expand...

Ha. I was one of those stingers in the early 80s. As I recall we had 6 Eketlon machines. Usually populated by 3 or 4 stringers or so during operation hours and then 5 or 6 until late in the evening--we strung a ton of racquets and had a ton of fun while talking smack. Also, used to play indoor nearby (Piedmont Indoor Club) sometimes before and sometimes after (very late--we had some after-hours access there too). Strung a ton of R-22s, F200s, 200gs, Wilson Pro Staffs, quite a few ProKennex Silver Aces, and our favorite to string--the Prince Graphite Mid! Not too many wood frames by then--mainly Prince Woodies, Kennex Golden Aces and an occasional Dunlop A-Player. Made some pretty good cash there for a youngster.
 
retrowagen said:
When Kneissl introduced the Aero in 1985, it was the “20” mold, and was indeed simply called the Aero—not Aero 20. In 1986, they introduced a second mold in the +30% head size, and offered four different Aero models: the original Aero, now called Aero 20, Aero 30, and the more flexible Aero 20C and Aero 30C (the “C” stood for “Club;” evidently these pastel-colored frames were aimed at stylish rec players).
Click to expand...
I have an Aero 30 NOS
 
vsbabolat said:
I have an Aero 30 NOS
Click to expand...
Do you hear the same high-pitched screach when you swing it without strings and having taken the grommet cover off? A quite unique sound, which makes me think the grommet cover was more of a fix than an original design concept.

Here's my 30C next to a Bio M2.0 (95sqi), showing the size. The hoop is about 1cm shorter, but 0.5cm wider each side at 4 and 8 o'clock:

Kneissl-and-Dunlop-95.jpg
 
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In reading this leaflet again, I do wonder why there's so few different Prince models in their store? 1986 was a major revamp year for them and they introduced a lot of new models and revisions, and very few of them are for sale here.
 
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