Is there a lower paying job than stringer?

Booger

Booger

Hall of Fame
Where I live, no one will roll out of bed for less than $100/hr, especially since covid. Want your house cleaned, your trees trimmed, gutters cleaned, new brake pads, garage painted, whatever. Minimum $100/hr. Need skilled labor like a general contractor, doctor, plumber, or electrician? Oh lawd, you better pepper that angus.

Somehow stringers have been making $15/hr since 1980. It's about time the price goes up to $100/racquet. Who's in?
 
E

eah123

Professional
From what I’ve heard about prices, a stringer makes about the same on an hourly basis as a men’s barber. It’s probably pretty close in terms of skills. No college degree needed, just a few hours of apprenticeship.
 
S

Soundbyte

Hall of Fame
Yea even when I was a teenager 20 years ago I was making $75/hr assuming I had enough clients. It's not a steady 9 to 5 of $75/hour. But about $25 a frame, 3 frames an hour sounds about right.
 
B

Bambooman

Hall of Fame
The way people go on about string type and tension makes it sound way more than just a flipping burger type of job.

Seems more like it's one of those jobs that is simultaneously like building a space shuttle and cutting grass.
 
Booger

Booger

Hall of Fame
Bambooman said:
The way people go on about string type and tension makes it sound way more than just a flipping burger type of job.

Seems more like it's one of those jobs that is simultaneously like building a space shuttle and cutting grass.
Click to expand...


There are plenty of low to medium skill jobs that you have to pay through the roof for. Imagine being a realtor. List a property, maybe show it once or twice, bam pay me $10k.
 
Irvin

Irvin

Talk Tennis Guru
There are millions of lower paying jobs. McDonalds, Amazon, etc … I hear all the time restaurants can open because no one will work. Some restaurants take 15% of a meal out of a waiter‘s salary. If the tip You leave for a meal is less than 15% the waiter ends up in the hole. Then everyone complains nothing is open. Dah, I wonder why?
 
S

Slicehand

Guest
Where are you from? If you get 100/h and work 8 hours a day you get 800€ or $, i dont know a lot of people that get that per day
 
esgee48

esgee48

G.O.A.T.
Slicehand said:
Where are you from? If you get 100/h and work 8 hours a day you get 800€ or $, i dont know a lot of people that get that per day
Click to expand...
The standard number of work hours per year is about 2000 hours give or take. $100 hourly wage is $200,000 annually before taxes etc. The going rate for contractors in my area of expertise was over 3x more 10 years ago. Even I was costing my company close to $70/hour back then. At least 10 years later and I suspect cost have gone up at least 50%.
 
S

Slicehand

Guest
esgee48 said:
The standard number of work hours per year is about 2000 hours give or take. $100 hourly wage is $200,000 annually before taxes etc. The going rate for contractors in my area of expertise was over 3x more 10 years ago. Even I was costing my company close to $70/hour back then. At least 10 years later and I suspect cost have gone up at least 50%.
Click to expand...
Great for you, i never got paid that much, but im from spain, here if you make 200.000 a year you must have a very good job, not a doctor, not an architect, but a tv celebrity or a football player
 
Curtennis

Curtennis

Hall of Fame
Soundbyte said:
Yea even when I was a teenager 20 years ago I was making $75/hr assuming I had enough clients. It's not a steady 9 to 5 of $75/hour. But about $25 a frame, 3 frames an hour sounds about right.
Click to expand...
1 every 20 minutes, full start to finish seems really really good. Is that realistic?
 
J

jim e

Legend
Takes me a little longer than 20 minutes.
With some, I have a detailed conversation on strings and tension after discussion of their game style and abilities, and going over cost of different strings, so I get the string and tension what is best for player. Inspection of racquet for cracks and or abuse, and check grommets before starting to string. Then call player if grommets cracking and options.Then cutting out strings, and inevitably many string sections goes over the floor, time to pick up those scraps. Time to look up pattern of unfamiliar frame, cut the string lengths needed. String racquet, straight up strings when done. Time to record job date strings tension used with racquet serial number in log. Write up racquet label and apply, and place racquet in plastic bag. Call and leave message racquet done. All that I must admit takes me longer than 20 minutes.
It all takes time, and that's all part of stringing.
 
Last edited:
CosmosMpower

CosmosMpower

Hall of Fame
Plenty of lower paying jobs but mostly manual labor and working fast food. I charge 20 a frame it takes me 30 mins and I only do it for friends since I’m losing about 50 an hour at that rate compared to my day job
 
S

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
I can't imagine stringing was ever meant to be a full-time job. From what I've seen, it's usually pro's doing it when they aren't giving lessons, store employees when they are slow, etc. I have seen a few clubs that employ a full-time stringer, but I'd say that's the exception, not the rule.
 
brownbearfalling

brownbearfalling

Hall of Fame
Low financial compensation and little social recognition for tennis equipment technicians (stringing, grommets, grips, customization) is not exclusive to tennis but ALL sport equipment maintenance. I have experience in golf equipment repair and snowboarding tuning. The cost of golf club repairing such as shaft changing, loft lie bending and grip replacement is minimal. Usually it’s the materials that are the bulk of the cost. The labor cost is insignificant. Same for snowboarding maintenance. Waxing, base repair etc.
 
Last edited:
E

eah123

Professional
People complain to me that they can’t find a stringer near by, that when they drop off their racquet with the club stringer it takes too long to get their racquet back. I offered to string on my drop weight for a case of good beer like an IPA, turn around within 24 hours, usually same day. I don’t need the money, but will enjoy the beer. That’s tooo much!!! OK, well, then I don’t need to string your racquet, my friend.
 
USMC-615

USMC-615

Hall of Fame
Here I am thinking my investment in my signature several weeks back was going to net me $50K stringing this year alone, and there’s just shy of two months left. What the hell was I thinking…or maybe even better, what the hell was I drinking? :-D
 
Ronaldo

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
USMC-615 said:
Here I am thinking my investment in my signature several weeks back was going to net me $50K stringing this year alone, and there’s just shy of two months left. What the hell was I thinking…or maybe even better, what the hell was I drinking? :-D
Click to expand...
m16104288893_1.jpg
 
R

Rob2D

Rookie
I just do it for myself and beer money. In my club it'd be a miracle if I get ten rackets a year to do.
 
SavvyStringer

SavvyStringer

Professional
Rabbit said:
That may be the exception, but it is definitely not the norm.
Click to expand...
The only tournament I'm aware of where players don't pay is the Australian. It was part of the deal between Yonex and Tennis Australia. The first 5 frames for each player are free to the player each round (may even be daily). This leads to a marginal increase in volume for some players who would otherwise do less if they were paying. But the norm is absolutely for players to pay for their rackets to be strung. Most tournaments pull out of prize money so the players don't actually hand over the money but they are in fact paying for it out of their winnings. From the tournaments I've done 25k to Grand slams, stringing cost varies from about $20 USD to $36 USD per frame.
 
uk_skippy

uk_skippy

Hall of Fame
Pumpkin said:
They don't pay I believe.
Click to expand...

They do

mmk said:
Right, those people in the stringing room do it for fun.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Who wouldn't
Pumpkin said:
They get paid by someone but not the players
Click to expand...

Depends on the tournament
Rabbit said:
This is 100% incorrect. The players are charged. @uk_skippy ?
Click to expand...

They are
Pumpkin said:
I met a pro tournament stringer and he told me the players don't pay for stringing, accommodation or airfares
Click to expand...

Depends on the tournament.

So for futures level, the players are likely to pay the stringer directly. There wouldn't be anything in the tournament budget to had out free stringing. The players will also pay for travel & accommodation.

As the player moves up the rankings and therefore level of tournament, certain things are supplied free while other have to be paid for by the player. At a tournament where hospitality is include in the entrance; food & accommodation is given up to the day of or day after that player loses. Flights won't be included; and stringer is paid for. Sure, it may be removed directly from players prize money, but theyre still paying for it.

At the highest level, GS, 1000 players will get a per diem;a daily allowance that will cover their food & accommodation. This can also be used for stringing. At the end of the day, whatever their stringing bill is, it comes from them either directly or indirectly.

As for the Aus Open, the players dont pay for them as mentioned above; but the stringers are paid by Yonex. I'll be there for 2022 tournament, and will let you know more details when I',m back
 
am1899

am1899

Legend
uk_skippy said:
Nothing to do with that. More health & safety issue. The player wouldnt be covered under any liability insurance for the person/company supplying the stringing service
Click to expand...

Similarly, I’ve had players/coaches come into our facility for a tournament or a collegiate match and ask to use our machine. While I sympathize, it’s a no go. Primarily it’s for liability reasons.

A few years ago, there was a mens collegiate match at the club. One team brought a stand up crank machine into the club (man, that must have been heavy to carry in!) so they could string racquets during the match on site. Personally, I had no problem with it, provided they were only stringing racquets for themselves. (I will concede that others in management might have felt differently - about a stringing machine being brought onto our premises. But it was a weekend, and most of them were not around to object).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top