Prince Racquet Questions/Discussions

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kabrac

kabrac

Professional
How long are you going to stick with these O hole designs? My thinking is prince is going to milk this thing as long as they can before they admit their mistake...kinda like the wmd thing in Iraq. Get your pride out of the way prince, admit you took a wrong turn and get back on the right track. You say "we make racquets for tommorrows champions". In some respects that's right. Name one player other than Maria Sharapova to win a slam with this design. You're going to be waiting a mighty long time for tommorrows champions as Maria has switched to Head as have so many others. Please remember this next time you go to make a racquet... Graphite/Titanium/Tugnsten/Carbon. Or just Graphite/Carbon
18-19 beam thickness
6 to 10pts head light
11.5 to 12.2 oz strung
95 to 100 sq. in.
27 to 27.5 in.
16x18 and 18x20

I don't know who is working behind the counter... just get some people that love tennis, that have played with alot of the older prince racquets from the past, know what works and what doesn't, what sells and doesn't sell, PEOPLE WHO DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE LASTEST THING IN THE LAB AND ALL THE MARKETING HYPE. Don't just make racquets with holes and hope you can sell them to people who buy it just because it's the new thing.
 
A

airdupont

Semi-Pro
Will there be any LongBody racquet coming out? Babolat is the only big brand I can think of who still makes them. Many of the Prince pros have a longbody...Ferrero, Ferrer,Bryans...so why not make a Rebel or a Tour in LB-version?
 
Dino Lagaffe

Dino Lagaffe

Hall of Fame
The Prince Exo3 Tour 100 comes with the PORT system installed. How much does installing the Grommet Insert alter the specs? I guess the change in specs hardly will be noticeable in actual play, but anyway, I'm curious about it.
 
UCSF2012

UCSF2012

Hall of Fame
I have to admit, I've used Wilson for 15 years. I've avoided Prince rackets for years due to the Port holes. It seemed like a gimmick. It also seemed like having holes there would weaken the racket due to decreased support. I finally decided to buy the Exo3 Graphite 93 just to try it out, since it was only $89 shipped.

It's actually good technology, but the idea of having huge holes in a racket takes getting used to. On serves, I'd occasionally hit off-centered, and I'd feel it hit off-centered immediately. What surprised me was that those off-centered serves still went in with moderate speed, instead of dumping into the net. So basically, first serves went in at 2nd serve speed, but that's better than dumping it into the net. I was also able to kick my serves higher than usual. Also, the Port holes give midsize rackets oversized sweetspot, while maintaining the manuverability of midsize frames. Clever technology. (Clever but unpopular)

The balance is quite nice. Because it's very head light, I can dictate net clearance. (most important criteria for me in a competitive racket) I can control spin production. I can control depth. I don't feel like I have as much directional control as the K90 or KPS88 thou, and I can't seem to cut as sharp angles.

The bad is that the racket is not as stable on mishits, and the frame tends to twist in my hands. I added lead at 3 and 9 o'clock to make it more stable, but I lost some spin potential somehow. (sufficient spin production, but not the extreme spin I got unleaded.) Since then, I've taken the lead off because I like the extreme kick on serves.

What I really don't like is the grip shape. Too many times, I'm unsure whether I've made a complete grip change, because it just feels too square. (Wilson has the perfect grip shape.) I've adjusted by having my non-dominant hand double check grip changes, however.

The head shape is pure beauty. Wilson K90's are too narrow (but much more stable). Head Prestige are too narrow. Prince Graphite is perfect.
 
A

airdupont

Semi-Pro
Since prince is really good in new things....Is it impossible to release special butt caps that can extend a racquet length(to 27,5)? So that a player has the choice whether extending it or leaving it as 27incher? This should be possible, what does everyone else think?
 
S

scotus

G.O.A.T.
airdupont said:
Since prince is really good in new things....Is it impossible to release special butt caps that can extend a racquet length(to 27,5)? So that a player has the choice whether extending it or leaving it as 27incher? This should be possible, what does everyone else think?
Click to expand...

Great idea!

TW used to carry a buttcap that accomplished this very function.

But it would be great if Prince could come up with something like this. If you provide the length, we can fill up the empty space inside on our own with some sort of spacer to prevent the handle from collapsing.

Or at least allow us to custom-order a few of your premium racquets (I know that you are keen on the custom-order idea on shoes) with lengths from 27 to 28 inches.
 
Last edited:
TW Staff

TW Staff

Administrator
We'd like to thank everyone for participating! The forum is now closed for further questions. Prince is currently compiling their answers and will be posting them soon.

TW Staff
 
Prince Tennis Official

Prince Tennis Official

Rookie
The Japan Thread

The Japan Thread

We’ve noticed a lot of questions about models available in Japan, so instead of posting back to each individually, we’re going to address your questions in one long post. Of course, if we miss anything, feel free to repost your question.

Point #1: Does Prince offer different racquets in other markets around the world?

Yes we do. There will always be subtle differences within the global tennis community and nowhere is this more evident than in Japan. That said, with the growth of global online retailers, the world is shrinking and some regional needs are becoming a thing of the past. While there will always be a need for some flexibility in certain markets, we are 100% committed to delivering the best global collection of tennis racquets to our tennis playing community.

Point #2: What are Japanese J-Type racquets?

Our seven J-type (short for Japanese Type) racquets are a specially designed for athletes in the Japanese market. Some are very similar to models you are already familiar with. Others are more unique, specifically requested and jointly developed with our local partners in Japan.

If you were to play with one of these racquets, the biggest difference you’d notice is what the Japanese call a "soft hitting feeling". By altering the carbon fiber lay-up (aka recipe) we allow racquet flexes at the moment of impact. By allowing the racquet to "breath" or flex more freely upon impact, we can control the way the racquet feels and the trajectory of the ball coming off the string bed. So, to answer the question from Black Knight, yes, models sold in Japan are made using a different construction and have slightly different specs.

That said, we are never satisfied and constantly pushing the boundaries with new innovations. All applicable next-gen tech designed for our J-Type racquets is, of course, added to all Prince racquets worldwide, and vice versa. In fact, the EXO3 Tour line is designed with a similar style to the J-Type racquets!

Point #3: Will these models be made available in the USA?

We’re open to it! We’d love to hear feedback from the TT community about their interest in seeing these models in the US. We can't promise anything, but the more feedback we get the better, always.

Thanks,
Prince Tennis - Who's Next.
 
Prince Tennis Official

Prince Tennis Official

Rookie
Paint Chipping Issues

Paint Chipping Issues

Racquets are not designed to be run over by cars, thrown over fences, chewed up by dogs, or survive alien invasions. But if the racquet has been treated properly by the athlete – for hitting tennis balls – the paint should not chip or flake. Defective runs are extremely rare for us, but not impossible. We stand behind our production teams and QC process, but know that we will look into this immediately.

Thanks,
Prince Tennis - Who's Next.
 
Prince Tennis Official

Prince Tennis Official

Rookie
Response to Arthuro (#14)

Response to Arthuro (#14)

Thanks for the question Arthuro, it's an excellent one!

As we mentioned above, we take Quality Control extremely seriously and have industry leading processes in place to ensure that we deliver only the highest quality tennis weaponry to the market. The white stickers you see on our racquets are manually placed there by our own internal QC staff, insuring that a racquet has passed all the steps in our QC process. The unique letters identify who inspected the racquet and when it was produced. Beyond the white sticker, we have many additional ways to track our racquets once they’ve been produced so that if we receive a defective racquet, we can quickly identify where the racquet was made and on what date and time it was produced. This allows us to solve problems quickly and immediately.

To answer your second question...

We do not have different levels of QC for our performance racquets. While no tennis brand reveals its QC process, Prince is the ONLY brand to publish the all-important swing weight of our racquets. Swing weight (aka how heavy a racquet feels while in motion) dictates the way the racquet plays and feels. As such, it is most important!

By publishing the swing weight of our racquets, we commit to taking the extra steps necessary to guarantee it! This requires tighter control over specs like weight and balance when mass producing a racquet, but it’s worth it because when you purchase 2 Prince racquets of the same model, you can be sure both racquets will play exactly the same! When you purchase a racquet without a tightly controlled swing weight… “you never know what you’re gonna get!”

Thanks again for the question Arthuro!

Prince Tennis - Who's Next.
 
Prince Tennis Official

Prince Tennis Official

Rookie
Response to Doubles (#17)

Response to Doubles (#17)

Hey Doubles, thanks for the question. You know we can't give away all of our secrets for 2012 just yet! We can tell you that we will have some new models coming out next year that will take people by surprise... Sorry we can’t say more, but we’re really excited to get these new racquets in your hands ASAP...but we promise you won't be disappointed with the Prince’s 2012 arsenal and what's Next.

Thanks,
Prince Tennis - Who's Next.
 
S

scotus

G.O.A.T.
Prince,

Would you please address the possibility of future releases of longbody racquets?

The topic has been brought up many times in this thread.
 
W

whomad15

Semi-Pro
ollinger said:
Hundreds of questions posed....and 4 responses???
Click to expand...

at least they replied to a few, give em time, I'm sure they have plenty of hoops to jump through to not "give out trade secrets"

Interesting that the japanese have a different construction. But their J-types are still exo3, so the J-exo3 must be very soft compared to what us 'mericans are used to. Plus they get better paintjobs.
 
Cindysphinx

Cindysphinx

G.O.A.T.
Well, I think it's pretty neat that TT and Prince decided to do this. I suspect it became way too many questions fired at them all at once.

Maybe next time it will work better to do the topics one at a time.
 
D

Dave M

Hall of Fame
ollinger said:
To be fair, they stopped taking questions 5 days ago. How difficult is this for them?
Click to expand...

Would you believe that they may have other tasks to do as well as researching our questions? I suspect they know that any old fob 'em off answer won't work so I would expect they are trying to get genuine answers.
 
T

tata

Hall of Fame
yea they didnt have to do it and they took the time to hear us out. even though not all quetsions were answered i think we have made some strong points and messages to them. give them benefit of the doubt.
 
E

edman9898

Professional
I agree that Prince does not NEED to do this, but on the other hand, we are what keeps them in business. I have spent several hundreds of dollars with them in the past month. While this is nothing in the grand scheme of things, the people on this forum have contributed THOUSANDS! What would it hurt for Prince to set one employee's day aside to answer the questions THEY have asked for?
 
Arthuro

Arthuro

Semi-Pro
Prince Sports said:
Response to Arthuro (#14)

Thanks for the question Arthuro, it's an excellent one!

As we mentioned above, we take Quality Control extremely seriously and have industry leading processes in place to ensure that we deliver only the highest quality tennis weaponry to the market. The white stickers you see on our racquets are manually placed there by our own internal QC staff, insuring that a racquet has passed all the steps in our QC process. The unique letters identify who inspected the racquet and when it was produced. Beyond the white sticker, we have many additional ways to track our racquets once they’ve been produced so that if we receive a defective racquet, we can quickly identify where the racquet was made and on what date and time it was produced. This allows us to solve problems quickly and immediately.

To answer your second question...

We do not have different levels of QC for our performance racquets. While no tennis brand reveals its QC process, Prince is the ONLY brand to publish the all-important swing weight of our racquets. Swing weight (aka how heavy a racquet feels while in motion) dictates the way the racquet plays and feels. As such, it is most important!

By publishing the swing weight of our racquets, we commit to taking the extra steps necessary to guarantee it! This requires tighter control over specs like weight and balance when mass producing a racquet, but it’s worth it because when you purchase 2 Prince racquets of the same model, you can be sure both racquets will play exactly the same! When you purchase a racquet without a tightly controlled swing weight… “you never know what you’re gonna get!”

Thanks again for the question Arthuro!

Prince Tennis - Who's Next.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply. However, I would like to point out that while prince publishes their swingweight, very few of your racquets conform to that number. For example, I have two Q/C (I) racquets both weigh 330 grams, but have a swingweight of 318 and 328. This was measured on a Prince PTC. Additionally, the balance on the 318 was 30 cm while the balance on the 328 was 30.4 cm. I am having a headache now trying to match these as the 10 point difference in swingweight is more difficult to match given the static weight is the same. This is also the case for 6 more I am purchasing.
 
Rabbit

Rabbit

G.O.A.T.
Prince Sports said:
Paint Chipping Issues

Racquets are not designed to be run over by cars, thrown over fences, chewed up by dogs, or survive alien invasions. But if the racquet has been treated properly by the athlete – for hitting tennis balls – the paint should not chip or flake. Defective runs are extremely rare for us, but not impossible. We stand behind our production teams and QC process, but know that we will look into this immediately.

Thanks,
Prince Tennis - Who's Next.
Click to expand...

Yes, in a perfect world we would all play on grass, never have to bend our knees, or hit a ball from a less than perfect position. Unfortunately that is not the case. Let me assure Prince that the frames in question are not abused in any way and that the problems with both the EXO Tour & EXO Tour Team and has been reported by more than just a few players.

While i appreciate the spirit of Prince's effort and applaud the thought, I find the execution sorely lacking in substance and the response to the paint chipping issue so dismissive as to be offensive.

There are also a multitude of questions left completely unanswered. My advice to Prince or at least whoever 'answered' the questions & concerns posted is please don't do it again. You've actually done more harm than good here.
 
ollinger

ollinger

G.O.A.T.
Use racquet tape if it's so troubling. There are also people who park their cars in parking lots and expect they'll never get a ding on the door. It happens. I don't imagine it's possible to make paint for a racquet that won't scratch or chip when it rubs on cement. The paint on the Exo grommets seems especially vulnerable, but painting on a smooth plastic surface isn't likely to make for great durability. If the esthetics trouble you, nail polish is available in a myriad of colors and adheres exceptionally well.
 
F

first volley

New User
Rabbit said:
Yes, in a perfect world we would all play on grass, never have to bend our knees, or hit a ball from a less than perfect position. Unfortunately that is not the case. Let me assure Prince that the frames in question are not abused in any way and that the problems with both the EXO Tour & EXO Tour Team and has been reported by more than just a few players.

While i appreciate the spirit of Prince's effort and applaud the thought, I find the execution sorely lacking in substance and the response to the paint chipping issue so dismissive as to be offensive.

There are also a multitude of questions left completely unanswered. My advice to Prince or at least whoever 'answered' the questions & concerns posted is please don't do it again. You've actually done more harm than good here.
Click to expand...

i think they have done very well. for them to come on a internet message board and answer even a few questions... get a thumbs up from me. when you play on hard courts you are going to get chips on the frame. i didn't find anything on prince's response to be offensive... things don't last forever. :)
 
Larrysümmers

Larrysümmers

Hall of Fame
When you pay $200 bucks for a tennis racket, it shouldn't get all beat up with normal play. i think it was a low blow for prince there for saying that the user is at fault.. also, if you are going to ask a message board to ask questions, you should answer them. look at all the info they got from a weeks worth of questions. they could profit big time because of us...
 
themitchmann

themitchmann

Hall of Fame
I've experienced some of the paint issues as well. They did say they would look into it...maybe we're the first large population to report the problem.
 
W

whomad15

Semi-Pro
My 20+ year old POG only has scrapes at the head from a previous user. So I'm going to go and assume that no, paint isn't supposed to chip unless you're hitting the ground/fence/wall with the racquet.
 
T

tata

Hall of Fame
the paint doesnt actually chip off. it RUBS off. ive had 2 other princes before and i never had mine rubbing off from the friction from a ball. i mean sometimes we catch the ball late and it nicks the edge of the frame and it goes out the fence. my previous frames had no prob but the exos did. for me its not the black paint, its the bronze paint on the ports that rubs off so dam easily.
 
M

mary fierce

Banned
^^^^ manufacturers in competitive industries don't like to tip their hands much on future products, so they can force competitors to need time to catch up if something sells well. I heard in one of those Steve Jobs assessments that a large number of APPLE EMPLOYEES didn't know the company was working on a phone until the day the iPhone was released.
 
C

Caesar

Banned
It would have been nice to know they were going to cherrypick a few questions to answer. Would have saved us all some time.
 
BDAZ

BDAZ

Hall of Fame
i was trying to wait for a while to comment negatively on this effort from prince to see if they actually would answer all or most of the questions posed to them. at this point, i don't think any other responses are coming. granted, a lot of people asked or commented on the same thing (paint chipping issue), so they could use a blanket response. i asked what i thought was a fair question about why they thought the exo3 graphites and ignites didn't fair as well in the sales department as the rebels, but nothing from prince. i also commented to another poster about a racquet that prince offered in japan, so i think i got lumped into the japanese frames blanket response. i think prince expected a love-fest for all things exo3 tour, and didn't necessarily get it. i think they came on to tell us about upcoming things for 2012, but were unwilling to throw us any bones whatsoever. at this point, we've all seen the the new rebel, but how about a teaser pic of the new warrior? anyhow, good idea, so so to poor execution.
 
Larrysümmers

Larrysümmers

Hall of Fame
BDAZ said:
i was trying to wait for a while to comment negatively on this effort from prince to see if they actually would answer all or most of the questions posed to them. at this point, i don't think any other responses are coming. granted, a lot of people asked or commented on the same thing (paint chipping issue), so they could use a blanket response. i asked what i thought was a fair question about why they thought the exo3 graphites and ignites didn't fair as well in the sales department as the rebels, but nothing from prince. i also commented to another poster about a racquet that prince offered in japan, so i think i got lumped into the japanese frames blanket response. i think prince expected a love-fest for all things exo3 tour, and didn't necessarily get it. i think they came on to tell us about upcoming things for 2012, but were unwilling to throw us any bones whatsoever. at this point, we've all seen the the new rebel, but how about a teaser pic of the new warrior? anyhow, good idea, so so to poor execution.
Click to expand...

PLUS there are many unanswered questions in the other threads...
 
cknobman

cknobman

Legend
Great thread TW and Prince thank you so much!!!

As for paint chipping, I have not really experienced this problem with either of my EXO3 Tour 16x18 racquets. Sure both of them have a few chips but I know that they directly came from me throwing my racquets at stuff out of frustration and not normal play.
 
themitchmann

themitchmann

Hall of Fame
BDAZ said:
i was trying to wait for a while to comment negatively on this effort from prince to see if they actually would answer all or most of the questions posed to them. at this point, i don't think any other responses are coming. granted, a lot of people asked or commented on the same thing (paint chipping issue), so they could use a blanket response. i asked what i thought was a fair question about why they thought the exo3 graphites and ignites didn't fair as well in the sales department as the rebels, but nothing from prince. i also commented to another poster about a racquet that prince offered in japan, so i think i got lumped into the japanese frames blanket response. i think prince expected a love-fest for all things exo3 tour, and didn't necessarily get it. i think they came on to tell us about upcoming things for 2012, but were unwilling to throw us any bones whatsoever. at this point, we've all seen the the new rebel, but how about a teaser pic of the new warrior? anyhow, good idea, so so to poor execution.
Click to expand...

There are pics of the new Warrior floating around. I think you can see them on Prince's Russian site???
 
C

Caesar

Banned
mary fierce said:
Caesar
you've posted here 300 times since last month. Is your time really that precious?
Click to expand...
Sure it is. Just because I choose to spend my leisure time posting here rather than (say) watching TV doesn't make my time any less valuable.

I spent a bit of time carefully considering my questions, than trawling through the follow-up waiting for answers to me and others. If they'd told us up front they'd only be choosing a couple of questions to answer I wouldn't have bothered.
 
UCSF2012

UCSF2012

Hall of Fame
No paint on earth is designed to withstand banging against concrete. When you hit a racket against the ground and paint comes off, it's the player's fault. This is a no-brainer.
 
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