New Donnay Racquets Listed on TW
- Thread starter LafayetteHitter
- Start date
Jonnyf
Hall of Fame
Sports Soccer, Their a UK firm and have really ruined Donnay/Dunlop/Slazenger. Dunlop has somehow survived.
Anton
Legend
Yes! please
Chauvalito
Hall of Fame
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
Since it's a "TW Exclusive" and made for TW only, there's no need for Donnay to spend the big bucks on marketing. Probably at least half of a racquet's cost goes towards marketing expenses.
Is this http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/viewlarge.html?PCODE=DP1INT a longer handle?
Can somebody can give me tape-measured handle length and grip size for 4 1/2 and 4 5/8 (measured with original grip without overgrip). It will be very helpful to me.
meowmix
Hall of Fame
OMG! Is that a Donnay recreation of the Wilson n5 midplus?
ericsson
Hall of Fame
VS, no info about that but i will ask around...
i passed the factory 9 years ago and it was quite big, and in big letters DONNAY, it looked very old.
classic tennis
Semi-Pro
100% China, Donnay is owned by the same company that owns Dunlop, Lonsdale etc & these Special Make Up frames are not really the same animal as the made in Belgium Donnay's. BTW the company now only produces supermarket racquets in Europe. The paintjob may be similar but that looks about to be it.
tennis_hand
Hall of Fame
95 specs look great.
I'll top that... how about springing this sweet stick two weeks after I splurged on a MG Rad OS!!
Mike Danger
Banned
FWIW, the beam is (or atleast was on the originals) 18.5mm
autumn_leaf
Hall of Fame
this was asked earlier in the thread but i couldn't find the answer.
are these racquets for limited time only?
are these racquets for limited time only?
Chauvalito
Hall of Fame
Yeah its really weird to see that...Maybe Wilson bought the technology from Donnay...otherwise it looks like a repainted wilson
I wouldn't be the least surprised if these rackets are Donnay in name only. In other words, you often see in other sports (particularly cycling) old brands re-purposed for different markets, where the original company's rights might no longer exist.
Even if that wasn't true, and these are SMU's from Lonsdale, they're still basically a TW special. It's interesting that TW elected to go with the Donnay brand instead of just branding it themselves. One would think that offering prebuilts in 95, 100, and 107 in either 16 or 18 mains with neutral grips shapes and maybe two weights (12 oz, 8 pts headlight and maybe 11.2 oz, 4-6 pts headlight) would make for easy sales.
Then again, Technifibre, and to a greater extent Vantage, are pretty much doing exactly that, and I've yet to see anyone playing either brand in the wild - so what do I know.
ericsson
Hall of Fame
I think TW did a great job here and show howmuch they respect Donnay, it was a great company with an outstanding quality control. For me these sticks are back to memory lane, if the duties werent so high here i would order a couple and stock them up, a real collector's item.
Keep up the good work TW!
Keep up the good work TW!
classic tennis
Semi-Pro
With the utmost respect intended, these are a special make up for TW & have nothing to do with the quality or technology that was produced in Couvin. The brand is in the toilet & everytime I walk past a sports world store & see Donnay socks & underpants for sale at 1.99 I'm reminded of that.
ericsson
Hall of Fame
Yea i know what you mean man, it hurts me too to see these cheap outlets with nothing but junk exept the name Donnay, what i meant is now TW brings back a little history and i'm sure it will be at the highest quality!
classic tennis
Semi-Pro
I'm not so sure it seems to me that Dunlops owner who also own the name Donnay are just slapping it on some frames, the pics dont look the same old quality but who knows !
Didn't the guy who sold sports world own the brands as well? Mike Ashley? Owns Newcastle football club now.I remember going into sports world (to our US friends it's not as big as the name sounds) in Southampton one lunchtime and buying a Donnay pro one 95 same red white and blue that Rusedski was using (before the "rusedski" frames came out) and they were being sold for £25 each(about $40 at the time) when i got to the checkout the guy said they were on offer again and in the end i got 2 for £30!!! I was obviously happy with the deal but it seemed sad as i remembered my coach being sponsored by them and loving the pro one when i was little.I kept them for about a month before selling them.The brand has been driven into the gorund and is now genrally worn by "chavs" along with adidas tracksuits and lonsdale sweatshirts......a sad end:sad:
Klatu Verata Necktie
Hall of Fame
Do you have an old Pro One? I ask because I have an old one that looks like no great shakes. The quality of the racquet is good, but it is by no means spectacular. There is no reason why the new racquets shouldn't measure up to the old model.
Regardless of whether this type of product is manufactured in China, Belgium, or the United States, the result depends on the quality of the materials rather than the quality of the craftsmen. I doubt TW would allow a product to made for them using inferior materials.
classic tennis
Semi-Pro
Yep it's the same one who produces the CHAV staples......I was in a store near nottingham & the Rusedski frame was 15.00, I guess if he makes them @ $12 bucks in his pile em high flog them cheap manner he wins !
jorel
Hall of Fame
i do not believe Vantage frames are from ANY Dunlop molds past or present (maybe future). correct me if I am wrong, but they are unique and I have never seen that exact beam design before in any Dunlop line.
jorel
Hall of Fame
it will be interesting tho... how these racquets hit.... TW playtesters are experts IMO at racquet performance
with all their experience with all the racquets they have playtested from all the previous years (especially Granville who has been with TW playtest review from the beginning i believe)... for them to actually design a racquet from scratch.. it must be one sweet stick.
with all their experience with all the racquets they have playtested from all the previous years (especially Granville who has been with TW playtest review from the beginning i believe)... for them to actually design a racquet from scratch.. it must be one sweet stick.
Sinner
Professional
wow, I've been under a rock and just found out (10 mins ago) that Donnay was still around (I thought they went outta biz a few years back) and that TW was bringing back the Pro-One... Well Done TW!
I still have my orange/grey one from back in the early 90's (when they were still made in Belgium)... and having recently played it again (I'm normally use a POG OS 4-stripe), I must say there's quite a bit of flex in the racket... now, was the flex due to the racket being old/dead or was it the intended nature of the racket when it was first conceived... anybody?
I still have my orange/grey one from back in the early 90's (when they were still made in Belgium)... and having recently played it again (I'm normally use a POG OS 4-stripe), I must say there's quite a bit of flex in the racket... now, was the flex due to the racket being old/dead or was it the intended nature of the racket when it was first conceived... anybody?
So what are the differences between the Pro One and the POG OS. Is one stiffer, more spin , more control?
Thanks
H
Hedges
Guest
TW: would you please comment on the production quality of the new Donnay International 95 racket? How does the quality compare to the ones that came out of Couvin?
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Sinner
Professional
well I was just playing around with it last month so I can't tell you that much right now, but as I said before, one thing I did notice was that it was 'flex-ier' than my POG OS... weather permitting, I'll give it another go this week to get a better idea of the differences...
question: to the old-school folks out there... but whats the story with the international edition? I remember that the only visible differences between the Ltd. Ed. and the International (which surfaced in '94 I think) back then was that the sides of the frame was more curved compaired with the Ltd. Ed that had flat sides (hope that made sense)... both were available in the orange/grey colorway... was it just a difference in material, with the Ltd. Ed. being 100% graphite? thanks...
ericsson
Hall of Fame
If you are talking about the yellow (50%graph, 50% glassfibre) pro one international and the 100% graphite limited edition, those rackets came out in 1996, i've played them both. its exactly the same mold, just different material and pj. great sticks!
Shot at 2007-08-07
Shot at 2007-08-07
Shot at 2007-08-07
Shot at 2007-08-07
Anyone order yet? I ordered an International. Hopefully this is what I've been looking for. I've been playing the nBlade for the past few months and really like it but just looking to get back to an open string pattern. Sometimes when I overhit the forehand, it seems like the tighter string pattern isn't getting enough bite on the ball to get ball down. Played the POG OS previously and made the move to the nBlade 98 because it was basically the same feeling racket but with a more manueverable head and tight string pattern. Now I'm feeling like I want to go back to an open string pattern so I'm gonna try this racket out. I still have my yellow\blue Pro One OS from the early nineties...fun racket.
Jonnyf
Hall of Fame
classic tennis
Semi-Pro
As TW has ordered these as a Special Make Up frame dont you think this question is a bit silly?
Answer is they are nothing like the Belgian racquets apart from a similar shape & Paint job.
BreakPoint
Bionic Poster
But that doesn't answer the question of whether the quality is better or worse than the originals that were made in Belgium. Almost all tennis racquets are made in China these days and most of them are of very high quality.
classic tennis
Semi-Pro
There is no chance of these racquets being the same as the Belgian ones...zero.
H
Hedges
Guest
The question is...are they of comparable production quality? We all know they are different rackets altogether...different composition of fiberglass & graphite.
And, there *is* a chance these new Donnays are of higher quality than the Belgian ones.
sunflowerhx
Rookie
I guess these rackets will come from the same Chinese factory that make Dunlop rackets. Look at the link address - gives a small clue.
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All this talk about the donnays made me take out the yellow and black international i bought last year and go the court and hit with it. the present string setup is sppp on the mains 17 and a soft babolat multi on the cross at 62 lbs. The past year i tried lower tensions but seems like the best control is to be had at 62. I use total six grams babolat lead tape equally distributed at 8,4 10 and 2. The original grip had disintegrated away while on the shop shelf and i put in a babolat leather grip.
It plays quite well. nice feel (probably because of the flex) and just slightly more pop, slightly more spin than my usual stick the pc 600 (strung at 54)
the spin "potential" was not as much as I had expected but this might be a good thing, since I did not want a racquet that too radically different to the pc 600. I could still hit out on groundies, and serves; 2nd serve improved, and my fave shot the dropshot had more underspin than i can put on with the prestige.
Being a prestige user, I had always been eager to try a 16 by 18 racket. So when i found the donnay racquet at a local store on clearance I just couldn't put it down. I fell in love with the thin beam and the weight. So out came the credit card and i lug home their last two internationals even if one was L3 and the other L4.
It did take some time before i got the string setup right and finally the leather grip and the lead tape really sweetened things up a lot. I just now can't recall if iI had put any weights at the butt. I misplaced my kitchen scale so I could not say what its final weight is. Nevertheless may I venture to say this is as close as i can imagine a 16 by 18 prestige would feel like.
The only reason I don't use it more often is thinking this was the "last of the mohicans" and I wanted to make the racquet last.
I was pleasantly surprised to see it resurrected at TW a few days ago!
regards to all
It plays quite well. nice feel (probably because of the flex) and just slightly more pop, slightly more spin than my usual stick the pc 600 (strung at 54)
the spin "potential" was not as much as I had expected but this might be a good thing, since I did not want a racquet that too radically different to the pc 600. I could still hit out on groundies, and serves; 2nd serve improved, and my fave shot the dropshot had more underspin than i can put on with the prestige.
Being a prestige user, I had always been eager to try a 16 by 18 racket. So when i found the donnay racquet at a local store on clearance I just couldn't put it down. I fell in love with the thin beam and the weight. So out came the credit card and i lug home their last two internationals even if one was L3 and the other L4.
It did take some time before i got the string setup right and finally the leather grip and the lead tape really sweetened things up a lot. I just now can't recall if iI had put any weights at the butt. I misplaced my kitchen scale so I could not say what its final weight is. Nevertheless may I venture to say this is as close as i can imagine a 16 by 18 prestige would feel like.
The only reason I don't use it more often is thinking this was the "last of the mohicans" and I wanted to make the racquet last.
I was pleasantly surprised to see it resurrected at TW a few days ago!
regards to all
vsbabolat
G.O.A.T.
The same parent company that owns Dunlop also owns Donnay. It would make sence that the same OEM in China would be used.
http://www.sports-direct-international.com/main.asp?pid=19
"Brands & Relationships
In order to complement its retail operations, in recent years the Group has acquired a number of internationally recognised sports and leisure brands, including Antigua, Carlton, Donnay, Dunlop, Kangol, Karrimor, LA Gear, Lillywhites, Lonsdale, No Fear, Slazenger and Voodoo Dolls. In respect of the Antigua and No Fear brands, the Group’s interests are held through a 65% stake in Antigua Enterprises Inc. and a 50% stake in No Fear International Limited, respectively. In respect of the Karrimor and Lonsdale brands, the Group’s interest is held through an 80% stake in Lonsdale Sports Limited. The Group also licenses-in certain brands such as Arena, Diadora and Umbro. Sports Direct has a two-pronged strategy for exploiting its brand portfolio, which consists of distributing products under the Group Brands and Licensed-In Brands through its wholesale operations, and licensing the Group Brands to third parties across a wide range of product categories and territories."
D
Downzy07
Guest
I hate sports direct
vsbabolat
G.O.A.T.
Sports Direct pretty much destroyed Donnay after they bought it in Dec. 1996.
Anyone hit with the new International yet? I just got mine yesterday. Laced it up with some FiberGEL 17 I had laying around. 60/62 which is my standard setup lately for a multi. TW website says 60# as the max but the frame says 62#. Wonder which is correct!? Dying to try it but didn't get a chance to go out last night. Anyone hit yet?
