Crocodile
G.O.A.T.
Yes
How is Prince brand doing?
- Thread starter eb_tennis_247
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- prince
That's good news for Prince I guess? I've noticed a significant drop in the quality of frames showing up in rebel. I thought perhaps people are going to proper tennis stores rather than general sport stores for their gear because the product knowledge and service is better there.
Grigore Petre
Rookie
It seems that Prince grip is larger than Wilson ? In the future I consider to try 100P
FiddlerDog
Hall of Fame
I am always surprised when I see someone with a Prince. I wonder how they ended up with that frame. Phantom seems to be a player in the Clash niche, but the others? Why not all the bigger brands?
JackSockIsTheBest
Professional
We do have a Prince only shop here in Oahu but it is really small & in a very rich gated community. And no one I know or seen uses a prince except the team in that area.
jmacdaununder2
Legend
Crocodile
G.O.A.T.
(Your face is a mess) Hot tramp.....Great, maybe now we can have a Rebel Rebel?(‘...you tore your dress,’)
sPiCoLi_1983
New User
I agree with many of the comments here. Prince has really struggled since the bankruptcy. I'd like to clarify a few points and maybe offer a different perspective.
As for the racquets themselves:
- I think the Textreme Tour line and Phantoms are fantastic. Great feel, lower to mid-level power, and great spin. Most of them offer the warm, Prince feel that defined them.
- Yes, Prince is more of a designer and does not manufacture. However, that is the case for most brands and has been for some time. It's cheaper to outsource production to third-party Asian manufacturers. As a side note, some brands, like Babolat outsource design and production. For example, the Pure Drive mold was developed by ProKennex and acquired by Babolat. Others, like Wilson design but outsource (see recent press about them contemplating the acquisition of their biggest contract manufacturer.)
- I contend that Prince racquets still perform very well vs. peers. For that matter, the market is blessed with many great options today and very few duds. It's a little like stereo speakers these days. Many great options, and lots of opinions...some based more in fact than others
As for their marketing and distribution:
- Yes, lack of a Prince logo stencil on an ATP or WTA court hurts brand awareness, big time
- Doing away with the junior sponsor programs (from age 11 through college) also sets them back
- Signing an exclusive with TennisWarehouse and Dick's did limit potential awareness as well. As a teaching pro, I'm more inclined to promote brands my club sells. However, I suspect Prince had to do this. Without TW or Dick's, Prince would have died during the restructuring. Mail order had been taking share for many years and TW is the biggest of them all. Prince leaders were likely painted into a corner.
- However, pro endorsements, advertising, and support of brick and mortar sales is very expensive. I am quite confident that when the marginal revenue and gross margin of these other activities was added up, it was not enough to justify the cost of the activity.
The sober reality is that tennis manufacturers aren't very big. They're not the juggernauts we remeber from the late seventies through mid-nineties. There just aren't many racquets sold in a year globally and with so many newer brands entering the fray (e.g., Technifibre, Solinco, Babolat...all string brands who used third-parties to enter the racquet game) in the last 20 years, budgets are now modest for manufacturers.
What would help the market the most is if we encourage more young people to take up the game and convince some players to upgrade equipment a little more often.
As for the racquets themselves:
- I think the Textreme Tour line and Phantoms are fantastic. Great feel, lower to mid-level power, and great spin. Most of them offer the warm, Prince feel that defined them.
- Yes, Prince is more of a designer and does not manufacture. However, that is the case for most brands and has been for some time. It's cheaper to outsource production to third-party Asian manufacturers. As a side note, some brands, like Babolat outsource design and production. For example, the Pure Drive mold was developed by ProKennex and acquired by Babolat. Others, like Wilson design but outsource (see recent press about them contemplating the acquisition of their biggest contract manufacturer.)
- I contend that Prince racquets still perform very well vs. peers. For that matter, the market is blessed with many great options today and very few duds. It's a little like stereo speakers these days. Many great options, and lots of opinions...some based more in fact than others
As for their marketing and distribution:
- Yes, lack of a Prince logo stencil on an ATP or WTA court hurts brand awareness, big time
- Doing away with the junior sponsor programs (from age 11 through college) also sets them back
- Signing an exclusive with TennisWarehouse and Dick's did limit potential awareness as well. As a teaching pro, I'm more inclined to promote brands my club sells. However, I suspect Prince had to do this. Without TW or Dick's, Prince would have died during the restructuring. Mail order had been taking share for many years and TW is the biggest of them all. Prince leaders were likely painted into a corner.
- However, pro endorsements, advertising, and support of brick and mortar sales is very expensive. I am quite confident that when the marginal revenue and gross margin of these other activities was added up, it was not enough to justify the cost of the activity.
The sober reality is that tennis manufacturers aren't very big. They're not the juggernauts we remeber from the late seventies through mid-nineties. There just aren't many racquets sold in a year globally and with so many newer brands entering the fray (e.g., Technifibre, Solinco, Babolat...all string brands who used third-parties to enter the racquet game) in the last 20 years, budgets are now modest for manufacturers.
What would help the market the most is if we encourage more young people to take up the game and convince some players to upgrade equipment a little more often.
Crocodile
G.O.A.T.
The big 4 ( Wilson, Babolat, Head,Yonex) and now maybe Tecnifibre (5th) have got critical mass. They have the player sponsorship and your exposure and all the prominent retailers stock their range.
The thing with brands like Prince is this - since they don’t have tour exposure these days probably due to financial constraints they have to use a different strategy and put in more of the groundwork -just displaying their product online won’t cut it.
What they need to do is have agents everywhere that service all the shops regularly and consistently, build up relationships with the local stakeholders of tennis, the coaches, the stringers, the clubs and the local retailers and then provide video, and physical promotional materials and have demo days. If you don’t have the tour exposure then you have to do all this suburb by suburb and yes it’s a hard grind.
Alternatively sometimes if you don’t have all the outgoings that that tour sponsorship takes up, you might not need to sell as much to make money if you are structured right financially. Probably some of the smaller brands do Ok if they have something special to offer or occupy a niche.
I think Prince could zero in a little more on their product line and make some improvements but I may talk about that later.
The thing with brands like Prince is this - since they don’t have tour exposure these days probably due to financial constraints they have to use a different strategy and put in more of the groundwork -just displaying their product online won’t cut it.
What they need to do is have agents everywhere that service all the shops regularly and consistently, build up relationships with the local stakeholders of tennis, the coaches, the stringers, the clubs and the local retailers and then provide video, and physical promotional materials and have demo days. If you don’t have the tour exposure then you have to do all this suburb by suburb and yes it’s a hard grind.
Alternatively sometimes if you don’t have all the outgoings that that tour sponsorship takes up, you might not need to sell as much to make money if you are structured right financially. Probably some of the smaller brands do Ok if they have something special to offer or occupy a niche.
I think Prince could zero in a little more on their product line and make some improvements but I may talk about that later.
Walt Kurtz
New User
Well, they can't blame ME if things aren't going well. I bought four new Prince racquets in 2024 and another one in 2022 (TeXtreme Tour 100 310) .
Phantoms 93P, 97P and 107G, and a Tour Diablo MidPlus in 2024.
Love 'em all!
Carry on Prince! But please don't do the quasi camo army green anymore!
Phantoms 93P, 97P and 107G, and a Tour Diablo MidPlus in 2024.
Love 'em all!
Carry on Prince! But please don't do the quasi camo army green anymore!
time_fly
Hall of Fame
I like Prince racquets and still include them in my demo list when considering racquet changes. Then again, I also drove a leased Polestar 2 for three years. Apparently I have a soft spot for companies that make good products but have atrocious business execution in the US.
Walt Kurtz
New User
Does anyone here have any experience with the Classic Graphite 100 by any chance?
Apparently it's a 'classic' playing 100 sq in 16x18 racquet, according to a 2013 review by TW (www.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/racquet_reviews/pcg100review.html).
It had been discounted for a while and so I finally bought one.
The frame came today and I'm planning on taking it to the stringer this week.
It's gonna be triple black. With Velocity MLT black and a black Head Hydrosorb Pro grip.
Curious about experiences with this racquet!
Apparently it's a 'classic' playing 100 sq in 16x18 racquet, according to a 2013 review by TW (www.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/racquet_reviews/pcg100review.html).
It had been discounted for a while and so I finally bought one.
The frame came today and I'm planning on taking it to the stringer this week.
It's gonna be triple black. With Velocity MLT black and a black Head Hydrosorb Pro grip.
Curious about experiences with this racquet!
McGradey
Hall of Fame
I have one. Very nice racquet. Looks incredible. Great spin and comfort. Low powered but certainly playable and I’m sure if you upped the swingweight it could thump! Might actually hit with it tonight, been a while.
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Walt Kurtz
New User
I've played a number of times with the 'Classic Graphite' now and I must say I like it a lot ! I expected it to be low powered as you said but it isn't! Strung with Velocity MLT (black of course) at 22 kg (48.5 lbs) it packs a pretty punch, yet control doesn't suffer. Needless to say I'm gonna stick with this setup. Excellent stick!
