(Over)Simplifying the string market

jimdontcare

Rookie
I find product differentiation really interesting, so let's play a little game. What are your favorite string companies doing differently, that make them distinct from other brands? The poly market is so crowded yet there continues to be demand for new and different.

I'll start:

Solinco: for your inner D1 forehand

Grapplesnake: one of the best comfortable polys you've ever tried but your friend won't try it because you sound crazy when you describe it

Toroline: a company that realized tennis nerds will buy reels of everything to hybrid anything with anything

Tru Pro: making your version of ol' reliable

Tourna: when all you know is you want a poly

Head: they make Lynx Tour
 

ichaseballs

Professional
i just pick one brand and go deep. too much variety otherwise.

for poly... i started with BABOLAT (cause andy roddick or nadal fan)
then went to KIRSCHBAUM (save money on similar quality strings)
and when I switched racquets, switched strings as well to YONEX (made in japan, and makes something for everyone)

studies have shown an inverse relationship between # of options and level of satisfaction (i.e. FOMO)
 
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K1Y

Professional
Yonex - 'what strings do you play with?' ' yeah its the uh.. the poly tour one, yellow 16 gauge'
 

tjanev

Rookie
Wasabi is less than $10, not sure where you got it.
their own website
wasabi.png
 

tjanev

Rookie
It shows $12 to me, and you have 20% off, it's less than $10.
wasabi.jpg
Strange. I'm in Canada so it's showing a canadian price? Address doesn't appear to indicate a canadian site. Even so, hyper g at theracquetguys is approx 16 dollars vs 17 for Wasabi before any special deals
 

ulunxtns

Semi-Pro
Strange. I'm in Canada so it's showing a canadian price? Address doesn't appear to indicate a canadian site. Even so, hyper g at theracquetguys is approx 16 dollars vs 17 for Wasabi before any special deals
You don't like Wasabi's playability or you think the one-dollar difference makes you not want to use Wasabi?
 

Roforot

Hall of Fame
hyper G is similar to Wasabi. I could go w/ either and for me they come out to similar prices. Hyper G more gauges to choose from and a soft version. Toroline more colors.
 

Fighting phoenix

Professional
Don't forget - Kirschbaum is the hipster brand. There's a reason TW still sells their logo stencil (cracks kids up when you see it on a racquet - does that cherry and stem look like anything familiar?)

Grapplesnake: new college hipster brand, Germans making inroad in the NA market
Yonex: we make high quality strings, now please pay $5 more per set than Solinco/Head
Head: let's do the opposite of what we do with racquets - just focus on two silos and make high quality spin-offs of those two (Lynx and Hawk)
 

Roforot

Hall of Fame
Toroline gets complaints about "Youtube" shills, but the most obnoxious marketing, I've seen was where a company said something like "we don't feel it's responsible to price a reel of string at $200 and we want our strings to be accessible to all, so we decided to offer a half reel at 199." I don't recall the exact price, but I was surprised to see so many critical thinkers, some in this forum, fall for that...
 

einca13

Rookie
Toroline gets complaints about "Youtube" shills, but the most obnoxious marketing, I've seen was where a company said something like "we don't feel it's responsible to price a reel of string at $200 and we want our strings to be accessible to all, so we decided to offer a half reel at 199." I don't recall the exact price, but I was surprised to see so many critical thinkers, some in this forum, fall for that...
Haha, yes I remember that. It was Grapplesnake. They didn’t want to price a reel of Paradox Pro over $200 so they offer 150m reels at $180 (or $240 based on a typical 200m reel). Made me laugh when they said that.
 
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