Companies other than Wilson, Head, and Babolat make it hard to find racquet?

[robok9]

It might just be me, but I feel like I struggle with giving companies other than Wilson, Head, and Babolat a chance when it comes to looking for a racquet. I feel like those big three companies do a good job of labeling their products with names as appose to numbers. For example, Wilson has the Blade, Prostaff, Juice, Steam, etc. Head has the Speed, Radical, Prestige, etc. Babolat just has 3 main racquets the Aeropro Drive, Pure Drive, and Pure Storm with just differenciations off of that such as the gt line and the + sizes.

It may just be me, but whenever I look at racquets from other companies such as Volkl, Yonex, or Prince, I don't really know what to look at. I feel like it's just bunches of numbers that mean nothing to me. Also, to be honest it's not like I'm not good with keeping up on equipment brands and products, but I never really felt like those brands cross my mind whenever I recommend racquets to people. Can someone shed some light on this subject. And, am I right, or do Wilson, Head, and Babolat just have good marketing and pro's that use their racquets?

 

[MikeHitsHard93]

Prince has the rebel, warrior, tour, hornet, shark, red, blue...not sure where you're getting numbers from.

Sure volkl and yonex do have weird names...but who cares? That's my point of view.

 

[BHBeguile]

I find Wilson and Babolat to be confusing. "BLX," "Blade," "K-Factor," PS, PD, PDR, APD, etc. BTW, currently demo-ing the "Six.One Team BLX." Oy.

As for non "Big 3" racquets, I use a Pacific X Force and find Pac's racquet labelling very easy to understand -- X Force, X Force Pro, X Force Pro 18/20 (gee wonder what that means), X Feel Tour.

 

[robok9]

Prince has the rebel, warrior, tour, hornet, shark, red, blue...not sure where you're getting numbers from.

Sure volkl and yonex do have weird names...but who cares? That's my point of view.

I guess the Prince thing is just lack of familiarity. I was kind of referring to the exo3 and the o3. Like I said though, I'm not very familiar with Prince racquets.

 

[Overdrive]

^ Eventually, they will run out of ideas.

Prince and Dunlop are major racquet companies as well.

 

[robok9]

I find Wilson and Babolat to be confusing. "BLX," "Blade," "K-Factor," PS, PD, PDR, APD, etc. BTW, currently demo-ing the "Six.One Team BLX." Oy.

As for non "Big 3" racquets, I use a Pacific X Force and find Pac's racquet labelling very easy to understand -- X Force, X Force Pro, X Force Pro 18/20 (gee wonder what that means), X Feel Tour.

Yeah, Babolat kind of has way too much differentiation of their racquets. Wilson, however I find very simple. Maybe it's because I've kind of become a Wilson fan-boy, but I just prefer the overall feel of their racquets (mainly just the Prostaff, the Blade, and some of the older K-factors)

 

[robok9]

^ Eventually, they will run out of ideas.

Prince and Dunlop are major racquet companies as well.

Dunlop is one that kinda confuses me, though. Also, ever since the Aerogel 4d 300, Dunlop has lost my interest.

 

[struggle]

Head seems to be the only company that continues to keep making the same rackets, essentially.

Wilson does to a lesser extent also i guess.

Babolat rackets seem like spaceships to me.

 

[Sander001]

I like Dunlop's naming scheme the best: The lower the number, the more of a player's frame it is. Or so I gather.

 

[darklore009]

though dunlop had to change the names of their rackets. i used to hit with the 200 tour. then when the 2.0 tour came out, i thought it was a updated version of that, but it's a 18x20 rather than the 16x18 pattern that it had before.

 

[goran_ace]

Head seems to be the only company that continues to keep making the same rackets, essentially.

I think Head has the most confusing naming convention of all manufacturers now. It used to be that you had a model name like Prestige or Radical and below that different versions within that line were somewhat similar except for head size (Mid vs MP, MP vs OS). Now you have so many versions like Pro, Mid, MP, OS, S, PWR, and REV that span the entire spectrum. The Prestige PWR is a 9.7 oz game improvement racket and is pretty much the opposite of a Prestige Mid in every way, or compare the Speed PWR and the Speed REV to a Speed Pro or Speed MP.

At my club they only carry 2-3 variants of each racket (the middle of the range; no mids/pros and no granny sticks) tp minimize the confusion but people still have no idea what they demo. So for example, someone will say 'oh I really like the Speed, can you order me one of those?' and the pro shop has to explain there are all these different versions and that the pro brought out 3 different ones down to the courts to demo that day. The person has no idea which one they used so it requires another demo session (e.g. next week's lesson) before you can actually close the sale.

Tip to those who work in a pro shop: when you mark your demos with head tape or electrical tape, use a different color for each version and keep that system consistent between lines (e.g. all 'S' rackets have yellow tape).

 

[Overdrive]

^ Yeah, Head contains models that can confuse people easily.

 

[RetroSpin]

This has been discussed before.

I think Babolat's approach makes the most sense. Three basic lines that appeal to three different types of players. Minor changes from year to year.

Head and Dunlop had a fairly similar approach, now have overcomplicated it. Wilson has so many different models, you need a spreadsheet to keep them straight. If anyone understand's Prince's marketing strategy, please advise me.

 

[BLX_Andy]

How is Prince not counted? They dominated the market (my academy was sponsored by them before Babolat) some years ago.

 

[Overdrive]

How is Prince not counted? They dominated the market (my academy was sponsored by them before Babolat) some years ago.

I call the major racquet companies Popular 5 (Babolat, Wilson, Head, Dunlop, and Prince). Völkl can be considered a major racquet company as well.

 

[Lukhas]

This has been discussed before.

I think Babolat's approach makes the most sense. Four basic lines that appeal to four different types of players. Minor changes from year to year.

Head and Dunlop had a fairly similar approach, now have overcomplicated it. Wilson has so many different models, you need a spreadsheet to keep them straight. If anyone understand's Prince's marketing strategy, please advise me.

Fixed. The loss of the AS is unfortunate, but we'll have the Pure Stryke to compensate. Babolat's strategy is the simplest. I can't get to remember what I wrote the day I tried to break down Wilson's lines in this forum. I needed Aspirin after that...

 

[Overdrive]

^ What is your opinion on Völkl?

 

[Lukhas]

^ What is your opinion on Völkl?

I didn't get to try their frames. I heard they were really fine racquets, but can't say much. That's the kind of question you should ask to Chris, he likes Völkl.

 

[Overdrive]

I didn't get to try their frames. I heard they were really fine racquets, but can't say much. That's the kind of question you should ask to Chris, he likes Völkl.

You could demo their frames. Their line doesn't look confusing..

 

[Steve Huff]

Having names for rackets does sound good, but the number system is usually more informative. Head had numbers like "TiS2, S4, S6, etc". You knew that the higher the number, the stiffer and larger the frame was (lower numbers were more player-oriented frames). Volkl was the opposite where the higher the number, the more player-oriented it was. Pro Kennex--the lower the number, the more player-oriented it was. Even Wilson had numbers that indicated their stiffness. So, numbers ain't all that bad.

 

[GoudX]

Never found it too bad with any of them other than Yonex and Technifibre. Anyway, the name usually gives it away.

Hard to use with Low power: Pro Staff, Prestige, Redondo, 100

Reasonable to use Medium power: Blade, Speed, Radical, Rebel, Pure Storm, Black ace, 200, 300

Tweeners with high Power: Steam, Juice Pro, Instinct, Aeropro Drive, Pure Drive, 400, 500, 600, Warrior

Racquets with Insane Power: Extreme, Juice, Pure Drive Roddick Plus, Big Bubba, 700, 800, 900

Beginners racquets - anything with REV, S, Lite, Light or Team in the name.

 

[Ramon]

The racquet you have with a big company's name on it may not be made by that company. I know someone who used to work for a big racquet company. He told me that when they needed more production, they contracted it out to companies like Pro Kennex who had extra capacity. How else do you think a company deals with products that sell better than forecasted?

 

[robok9]

IMO I think here's how they stack up with their naming:

Wilson- Simplest to understand right off the bat, but very vague about the overall performance of the racquet.

Head- Simple to understand the line of racquets, but anything beyond that is very confusing for most.

Babolat: Efficient in naming the line of racquets, efficient in naming extensions of those lines.

Prince: I don't really know. For some reason I just don't know much about Prince.

Dunlop: Efficient in naming according to type of racquet, but confusing for someone who doesn't know their naming system.

Does that sound about right? Any thoughts?

 

[spinovic]

I don't think any of them are that confusing.

Wilson and Prince may be the toughest to sort through because they have so many, but it isn't hard to figure out what is what, IMO.