Discontinued Racket molds and tool

[teachingprotx]

always wanted to know what happens to old discontinued racket molds ?
For instance . My all time fave mold of a racket is the puma / estusa Becker molds of yesteryear .
I guess it's a patent on the mold ? So know one can use it?
Whats more intriguing is where is that mold ? Do they or does one man have that mold in a factory or is it in someone's garage ?
Like for arguments sake . If I was a multi billionaire / super wealthy . Can I have my own rackets made with that mold ? Or is it locked away ? Or destroyed ? In a vault ?
What's weird too is that there seemed to be several manufactures that made that almost exact same mold over the years. At least 3 of which I now know ..
pro kennex made a prototype of it.
And I think Finn or was it Winn , made one ,
And there was a Spanish one too I think ,, Sergio Cassale or something like that ..
In any event . Where is that mold ya think ??

 

[1010]

If you're a billionaire:
- Buy the Estusa assets right now & restart the factory
If you're a better billionarie:
- License the mold from them at cheap cost, build a factory in your billionaire estate, produce it
If you're a hacker billionaire:
- Forget the real thing, hack their engineers' computers, the Autocad-or-else MOLD file is better than any dusty mold in these days. You can produce billions of molds now
If you're a Silicon Valley billionaire
- Hire/steal their engineers, they usually bring in various USBpens & HDDs from previous jobs.
If you're a lazy billionaire
- Just send one spare racket to those Chinese guys, have them copy it like they masterfully do, get a lot of them at low cost & varying specs

 

[teachingprotx]

I like the lazy billionaire idea
I wonder how someone like a warren bosworth was and may still be able to do . Make prototypes of rackets ?
What got me going on all of this is a topic on another post about . Puma RACKETS . And a poster told us that tw sold a pro kennex bosworth prototype of this frame . And sure enough it was true . 1.How did he get the rights to have it molded ?
2. I understand he had or has access to a factory that can build frames but how did he get the mold ? Can you borrow a mold ?
As long as it's tweaked just a hair ?

 

[Tennisist]

I do not think you can patent a mold (unless it is an extremely weird one ). It's getting a patent on a shoe. The, even if you manage to get a patent on a mold in the US (via some mighty creative lawyers), there is no chance you can get the same patent in Europe, least of all in China. Racquets are just not unique enough. Layup is a different thing. You can easily prove that yours is unique ( say contains feds hairs that make it super flexible on impact ). I can see that that may be patentable.

 

[teachingprotx]

Ahh ok I can see that makes total sense . Thank you for the input ..
I wonder where the discontinued molds go ? Are they sold ? Stored ? Thrown in the trash .. mold heaven ?

I do not think you can patent a mold (unless it is an extremely weird one ). It's getting a patent on a shoe. The, even if you manage to get a patent on a mold in the US (via some mighty creative lawyers), there is no chance you can get the same patent in Europe, least of all in China. Racquets are just not unique enough. Layup is a different thing. You can easily prove that yours is unique ( say contains feds hairs that make it super flexible on impact ). I can see that that may be patentable.

 

[Tommy Haas]

US patent protection has a 20 year maximum. The legendary PT57A mold has long expired if it was ever patented, but it was the layup that made it such a wonderful racquet. If anyone has a PT280/630, do you see any patent numbers printed on the frame?

I doubt Head is going to give anyone their old molds or even bother selling. They keep them in case a pro wants a custom frame made from it. Often times manufacturers destroy their molds to avoid it getting into the wrong hands or just to save space.

Recreating a racquet mold should be easy with 3D laser scanners and a CNC mold making machine. The mold can also be made the old fashioned way using sand casting, but the drill pattern will be more difficult requiring creating a jig.

 

[Kalin]

Some molds have been re-sold, no? Or at least rented out...

Puma/Estusa is one for sure. The legendary Yamaha Secret 04's mold was sold to Gosen which released two versions named Secret Carbon. I wish they'd re-release them, especially the Light version... talk about a platform frame. There was a company, forget the name now, that made clones of the original PS 6.1 Classic. The models were like M1 and M2 depending on the weight.

I apologise for not really answering the OP's question

 

[DNShade]

always wanted to know what happens to old discontinued racket molds ?
For instance . My all time fave mold of a racket is the puma / estusa Becker molds of yesteryear .
I guess it's a patent on the mold ? So know one can use it?
Whats more intriguing is where is that mold ?

Supposedly Boris himself has or owns the molds for the old Puma/Estusa frames. That was the word a while ago. Gave hope that maybe one day he would re-release them. Thought that might happen when he was really involved with Volkl and had his Becker line etc.

 

[Irvin]

No need to be a billionaire. They would do a run for you if you buy a min of ~500 rackets. Probable cost would be about $40K. You could keep a few and sell the rest to make your money back. IF you sell them for $200 each you'll make a small fortune. LOL IF you sell them for $200 each. Heck maybe you could buy 1,000 instead if 500 and double you profit.

EDIT: You could do like Pacific who bought out the whole Fisher line and make a fortune like Pacific is. Why stop at just one racket?

 

[1010]

There was a company, forget the name now, that made clones of the original PS 6.1 Classic. The models were like M1 and M2 depending on the weight.

Avery M1 & M2.
But the best clone was made by the great Slazenger.
In either case, psc 6.1 wasn't licensed. The psc was outsourced to China by mama Wilson, the clones appeared, figure it out.

 

[127 mph]

Supposedly Boris himself has or owns the molds for the old Puma/Estusa frames. That was the word a while ago. Gave hope that maybe one day he would re-release them. Thought that might happen when he was really involved with Volkl and had his Becker line etc.

Correct on Boris Becker at least up to either 2012 or 2013. Not sure if anyhting has been done after

 

[mctennis]

As soon as I get those millions of dollars from that nice Nigerian foreign lady that I am helping get all those millions over to this country I will buy those racquet molds. She promised me in the email all she needed was my bank routing numbers and my account information. That was a couple of weeks ago. I am sure it will show up in my account and day now. In fact the bank called me today and left a message on my answering machine. They stated they needed to talk with me about my accounts. They said it was urgent. It is probably about all the money coming into my checking account. * fingers crossed*

 

[Shroud]

Supposedly Boris himself has or owns the molds for the old Puma/Estusa frames. That was the word a while ago. Gave hope that maybe one day he would re-release them. Thought that might happen when he was really involved with Volkl and had his Becker line etc.

Bet he would cut a good deal. Doesnt he need the dough ??

 

[rony67]

Last I heard, the Becker mold is still in Kennelbach. Along with the molds of all the old Head classic racquets. Technically, they can probably bake a bunch tomorrow. If they, and Boris, really wanted to. But lets face it, there is really no general interest or economic justification in this... We just have to make do with the old, second hand, stock or just move on in life.

 

[skhong248]

What was the most popular generic mold? I remember back in the late 80s - early 90s - Lobster Citation Widebody and, I think the name was Rossignol Expert were exactly the same racket shape, width, weight, balance. Only difference was the pj. I think some Pro Kennex (not the Asymmetric models) used the same mold as well.

 

[127 mph]

What was the most popular generic mold? I remember back in the late 80s - early 90s - Lobster Citation Widebody and, I think the name was Rossignol Expert were exactly the same racket shape, width, weight, balance. Only difference was the pj. I think some Pro Kennex (not the Asymmetric models) used the same mold as well.

I would think wilson with the pro staff or maybe pro kennex as they had many different _____ ace rackets in their line.

 

[BDAZ]

ere was a company, forget the name now, that made clones of the original PS 6.1 Classic. The models were like M1 and M2 depending on the weight.

Avery M1 & M2.

It was Mega Age, I believe. The Avery racquets used Prince molds.

 

[vsbabolat]

Supposedly Boris himself has or owns the molds for the old Puma/Estusa frames. That was the word a while ago. Gave hope that maybe one day he would re-release them. Thought that might happen when he was really involved with Volkl and had his Becker line etc.

I think Boris does own the mold. He had HEAD back in the 90’s manufacturing racquets for him when HEAD was a great racquet manufacturer in Austria. He even sold a limited number of racquets in 1996

 

[DNShade]

I think Boris does own the mold. He had HEAD back in the 90’s manufacturing racquets for him when HEAD was a great racquet manufacturer in Austria. He even sold a limited number of racquets in 1996

Yeah I remember something about that. Kept hearing for a while that Boris - maybe in connection with TW - might do it again. That would be cool.