Tl;dr
Yonex Dry Grap is best. Solinco Heaven Grip is a very close second with availability, price, and bulk convenience superior to Yonex Dry Grap. Gamma Supreme was decent for a tacky overgrip. Dunlop U-Sweat felt similar to Yonex Dry Grap, but more velvety and less fibrous with not as good dry and wet grip performance (also not as good as Solinco Heaven Grip). Also, it wouldn't stay put on my leather grip, especially when wet.
Situation:
Yonex Supergrap has been my go to overgrip for many years. However, my sweaty hands combined with a recent move to the very humid southeast has ruined it. Despite wristbands, towels, and dry lotion/liquid chalk, supergrap ends up drenched by the end of the first set. And when I say drenched, I mean I can literally wring out a puddle of water (you dry hand folks have no idea). The grip becomes slick and the lost of confidence can really affect how you play. So, I figured I'd do a comparison of some overgrips made for these southeastern Summers.
Candidates:
The four candidates were chosen based off way too much research on the forums. Perhaps I should've included one or two more, but I felt like these were adequate and served as the best of each of the overgrip types on the market for humid conditions. Here they are:
1. Dunlop U-Sweat
2. Solinco Heaven Grip
3. Yonex Dry Grap
4. Gamma Supreme
The Test:
For each overgrip, I tested how secure they felt on the racquet when dry and when wet. The dry condition is self-explanatory; for the wet condition, I dunked each overgrip into a glass of warm water for 5 seconds to best simulate sweaty, humid conditions (yes, it really is that bad for me). To test the grip security, I simply rotated them in my hands with varying pressure. I also shadow swung quite a bit. Finally, I rallied and served with each overgrip. I did not test absorbency (differences were neglible, except for Gamma Supreme which is described below), but I did measure how quick they were to dry (which I think is the more pertinent metric). Anyway, let me know if you want more details into the testing, but let's move onto results.
Results:
Dry grip: Yonex Dry Grap tied with Solinco Heaven Grip for best dry grip performance followed by Gamma Supreme then Dunlop U-Sweat. The dry grip performance of both Yonex Dry Grap and Solinco Heaven Grip was like if you had hit for 90 mins with supergrap and the initial tackiness had just started to wear off. Gamma Supreme was surprisingly bad because it was touted as even tackier than supergrap, yet I found it quite slick. Perhaps my clammy hands always have a thin layer of perspiration? In any case, it performed below expectations here. I will say my wife has extremely dry hands and she thought it had the best dry grip. Finally, Dunlop U-Sweat had decent dry grip, but it really pissed me off. The overgrip was sliding allover my leather grip in both the dry and wet conditions. I won't write about it further because an overgrip that cannot stay in place is not worth using. Maybe it'd work better on a rubbery base grip?
Wet grip: Yonex Dry Grap performed superbly when wet. The absolute best. It really shocked me how much better it was compared to supergrap. Now, the Solinco Heaven Grip also performed beyond expectations and was really quite secure. If the Yonex Dry Grap's wet grip performance was 10/10, then the Solinco Heaven grip was an 8.5 or 9/10. Respectable. Gamma Supreme also performed surprisingly well for a tacky grip. It was weird because immediately out of the water cup it was slick, but after a few seconds the grip performance was decent and definitely much better than supergrap.
Dry time: Both the Yonex Dry Grap and Solinco Heaven Grip fully dried in about 25 minutes at ambient 75 degrees (F) with 40% humidity. Solinco Heaven grip maybe dried a hair faster, but nothing significant. Gamma Supreme dried in about 10 minutes... This result was strange at first, but it makes sense because the Gamma Supreme was never fully soaked. Here's why: the Gamma Supreme overgrip's surface is somewhat hydrophobic and repelled much of the water! Probably this is related to the slickness right out of the cup, but decent grip a few seconds later after the surface water beaded away, and also why my sweaty hands didn't like it dry.
Final Considerations:
Overall, I like Yonex Dry Grap the most. However, Solinco Heaven Grip is a very close runner-up and is certainly serviceable. Solinco Heaven Grip is also widely available, dirt cheap, and comes in a 30 pack. Unfortunately, Yonex Dry Grap is none of those things. I didn't talk much about feel because it'll vary for each individual, but Yonex Dry Grap was a velvety, fibrous texture, Solinco Heaven Grip was cotton-like with recessed dimples (I didn't like this feature as it made finding bevels more difficult by increasing the noise perceived by touch receptors in the fingers), and Gamma Supreme was tacky. I think Gamma Supreme is a decent option if you must stick with tacky. Durability of each is unknown as I've only used them for one session. Reports on the forum indicate each one to be very durable, but a direct comparison hasn't been made yet. If you're aware of the durability of each, please share, but I'll also edit my post after wearing through each one.
Yonex Dry Grap is best. Solinco Heaven Grip is a very close second with availability, price, and bulk convenience superior to Yonex Dry Grap. Gamma Supreme was decent for a tacky overgrip. Dunlop U-Sweat felt similar to Yonex Dry Grap, but more velvety and less fibrous with not as good dry and wet grip performance (also not as good as Solinco Heaven Grip). Also, it wouldn't stay put on my leather grip, especially when wet.
Situation:
Yonex Supergrap has been my go to overgrip for many years. However, my sweaty hands combined with a recent move to the very humid southeast has ruined it. Despite wristbands, towels, and dry lotion/liquid chalk, supergrap ends up drenched by the end of the first set. And when I say drenched, I mean I can literally wring out a puddle of water (you dry hand folks have no idea). The grip becomes slick and the lost of confidence can really affect how you play. So, I figured I'd do a comparison of some overgrips made for these southeastern Summers.
Candidates:
The four candidates were chosen based off way too much research on the forums. Perhaps I should've included one or two more, but I felt like these were adequate and served as the best of each of the overgrip types on the market for humid conditions. Here they are:
1. Dunlop U-Sweat
2. Solinco Heaven Grip
3. Yonex Dry Grap
4. Gamma Supreme
The Test:
For each overgrip, I tested how secure they felt on the racquet when dry and when wet. The dry condition is self-explanatory; for the wet condition, I dunked each overgrip into a glass of warm water for 5 seconds to best simulate sweaty, humid conditions (yes, it really is that bad for me). To test the grip security, I simply rotated them in my hands with varying pressure. I also shadow swung quite a bit. Finally, I rallied and served with each overgrip. I did not test absorbency (differences were neglible, except for Gamma Supreme which is described below), but I did measure how quick they were to dry (which I think is the more pertinent metric). Anyway, let me know if you want more details into the testing, but let's move onto results.
Results:
Dry grip: Yonex Dry Grap tied with Solinco Heaven Grip for best dry grip performance followed by Gamma Supreme then Dunlop U-Sweat. The dry grip performance of both Yonex Dry Grap and Solinco Heaven Grip was like if you had hit for 90 mins with supergrap and the initial tackiness had just started to wear off. Gamma Supreme was surprisingly bad because it was touted as even tackier than supergrap, yet I found it quite slick. Perhaps my clammy hands always have a thin layer of perspiration? In any case, it performed below expectations here. I will say my wife has extremely dry hands and she thought it had the best dry grip. Finally, Dunlop U-Sweat had decent dry grip, but it really pissed me off. The overgrip was sliding allover my leather grip in both the dry and wet conditions. I won't write about it further because an overgrip that cannot stay in place is not worth using. Maybe it'd work better on a rubbery base grip?
Wet grip: Yonex Dry Grap performed superbly when wet. The absolute best. It really shocked me how much better it was compared to supergrap. Now, the Solinco Heaven Grip also performed beyond expectations and was really quite secure. If the Yonex Dry Grap's wet grip performance was 10/10, then the Solinco Heaven grip was an 8.5 or 9/10. Respectable. Gamma Supreme also performed surprisingly well for a tacky grip. It was weird because immediately out of the water cup it was slick, but after a few seconds the grip performance was decent and definitely much better than supergrap.
Dry time: Both the Yonex Dry Grap and Solinco Heaven Grip fully dried in about 25 minutes at ambient 75 degrees (F) with 40% humidity. Solinco Heaven grip maybe dried a hair faster, but nothing significant. Gamma Supreme dried in about 10 minutes... This result was strange at first, but it makes sense because the Gamma Supreme was never fully soaked. Here's why: the Gamma Supreme overgrip's surface is somewhat hydrophobic and repelled much of the water! Probably this is related to the slickness right out of the cup, but decent grip a few seconds later after the surface water beaded away, and also why my sweaty hands didn't like it dry.
Final Considerations:
Overall, I like Yonex Dry Grap the most. However, Solinco Heaven Grip is a very close runner-up and is certainly serviceable. Solinco Heaven Grip is also widely available, dirt cheap, and comes in a 30 pack. Unfortunately, Yonex Dry Grap is none of those things. I didn't talk much about feel because it'll vary for each individual, but Yonex Dry Grap was a velvety, fibrous texture, Solinco Heaven Grip was cotton-like with recessed dimples (I didn't like this feature as it made finding bevels more difficult by increasing the noise perceived by touch receptors in the fingers), and Gamma Supreme was tacky. I think Gamma Supreme is a decent option if you must stick with tacky. Durability of each is unknown as I've only used them for one session. Reports on the forum indicate each one to be very durable, but a direct comparison hasn't been made yet. If you're aware of the durability of each, please share, but I'll also edit my post after wearing through each one.
