What's your favorite leather grip?

Which is best?

  • Fairway

    Votes: 16 29.1%

  • Oehms (head calfskin?)

    Votes: 18 32.7%

  • TW house brand

    Votes: 10 18.2%

  • Kimony

    Votes: 11 20.0%
  • Total voters
    55
Booger

Booger

Hall of Fame
I'm sure this has been done, but this is the 2020 version.

Just picked up a blade 98 for a broke high school player and am rooting through my grip stash. Synthetic grips are hot garbage only invented to save $1 on manufacturing cost, don't @ me. Found a fairway, oehms (how do you pronounce that?), couple Kimony, and a TW house brand.

Fairway is probably my favorite even though they are a pain to install. Haven't tried the other 3. Didn't care for Wilson or Babolat leather, which I'm assuming are white labeled from another manufacturer.

nH6vy9O.png
 
2nd Serve Ace

2nd Serve Ace

Hall of Fame
The TW 22mm 1.3 is great if you don't want to add much weight or thickness to the grip. It can be pulled tight and trimmed alot. Never used Kimony but Ive heard it is similar in those regards. Would avoid that black coated one though since it might slippery.

Love the oehms pro leather! Have found some QC issues since one had adhesive backing all the way up and one had none at all. My preference would be for it to have adhesive for maybe 8" so that way there would be a good bind around the butt cap and then no junk where its not needed. Oehms is a good balance of characteristics whereas the leather grip head sells is very firm.

Never used FW. Hear it is the gold standard but I know the original company went out of business. Maybe its like the Prince calfskin, which is super velvety? That would be my choice if playing "bareback".
 
g4driver

g4driver

Legend
Fairway. Nothing else comes close.

Easily installed.. no stable gun. Just a 5" strip of XFasten Double Sided tape installed like an overgrip. This tape is the closest thing I have found to that thin sticky tape underneath most original grips on Wilson, Head, Babolat frames. If you have ever replaced an original grip on those frames, do you remember that layer of sticky thin material under the grip? Well this is as close as it gets.


XFasten Double Sided Tape Clear, Removable, 1-Inch by 20-Yards, Pack of 3 Ideal as a Gift Wrap Tape, Holding Carpets, and Woodworking https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071HHQF97/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_duMmEbNCBH6ZD
 
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T

taylor15

Hall of Fame
I just tried Oehms on my new prestige pros. I have used Wilson, Dunlop and TW in the past.

spoiler: just bought 3 more Oehms for future use. I like it that much
 
Znak

Znak

Hall of Fame
taylor15 said:
I just tried Oehms on my new prestige pros. I have used Wilson, Dunlop and TW in the past.

spoiler: just bought 3 more Oehms for future use. I like it that much
Click to expand...
Their Retro leather or or Pro leather? Anyone know the difference between the two I can't see much on their website
 
T

taylor15

Hall of Fame
Znak said:
Their Retro leather or or Pro leather? Anyone know the difference between the two I can't see much on their website
Click to expand...
I'm playing the Pro leather. It's the only one I can find in the US easily, Oehm's runs a store in the rainforest. Pic is of the whole racquet, but if you want some closer up pics let me know.

Weight was 28g untrimmed and 24g installed on a Touch Prestige Pro.

ibb.co

36-BCED8-C-E09-D-4-C19-9-E65-1-E64783-F525-B hosted at ImgBB

Image 36-BCED8-C-E09-D-4-C19-9-E65-1-E64783-F525-B hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co
 
Return_Ace

Return_Ace

Hall of Fame
I was really liking the Oehm's grips, have two on my Prestige Pro's another on my Gravity Tour and my Ezone Tour.

Bought another for my Gravity MP and was having a real struggle wrapping the grip around, the first turn wouldn't sit flush, and would keep slipping when trying to wrap up; I had thought it was just a me issue, hadn't wrapped a grip for a while, so kept persisting to no avail. I then found I had an old Angell Tennis leather grip lying around and wrapped the grip effortlessly first time round; not sure what exactly went wrong (maybe the tapered side was too short? Maybe need to sticky tape the first turn down?).
 
T

taylor15

Hall of Fame
Return_Ace said:
I was really liking the Oehm's grips, have two on my Prestige Pro's another on my Gravity Tour and my Ezone Tour.

Bought another for my Gravity MP and was having a real struggle wrapping the grip around, the first turn wouldn't sit flush, and would keep slipping when trying to wrap up; I had thought it was just a me issue, hadn't wrapped a grip for a while, so kept persisting to no avail. I then found I had an old Angell Tennis leather grip lying around and wrapped the grip effortlessly first time round; not sure what exactly went wrong (maybe the tapered side was too short? Maybe need to sticky tape the first turn down?).
Click to expand...
Interesting. I had very good experience with wrapping the grip. I did reuse the staple from the original grip bc it was sliding down but I’ve experienced this with other head buttcaps in the past bc if the shape. I actually found it to wrap smoother than the TW leather bc it’s more pliable
 
L

La Pavoni

Rookie
I've always got an overgrip on anyway. So I use Babolat leather if I want to reduce thickness and Wilson premium if I want to increase it a little. I find that I'm generally fine playing with either a 3 or 4 grip size and so I've settled on something in the middle. Either a 3 with a thicker replacement, or a 4 with a thinner one. Leaves me with about a 1mm difference in circumference.
 
FoldingChair

FoldingChair

Semi-Pro
Thanks to you all for the heads up on the pain of installing fairways. I would’ve been very unprepared
 
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kdwithketchup

kdwithketchup

New User
Are Fairways and Oehms consistently heavier than the other brands? I'm looking for something heavy to make the racquet more HL
 
J

JW10S

Hall of Fame
Back in the old days I exclusively used Fairway grips. I wrapped them without any glue or double sided tape so when they got worn and lost their feel I would turn them over and wrap them rough side up. That gave a great grip albeit a little tough on the hands which is probably why I still tape my fingers when I play decades later.
 
Tronco20

Tronco20

Rookie
La Pavoni said:
I've always got an overgrip on anyway. So I use Babolat leather if I want to reduce thickness and Wilson premium if I want to increase it a little. I find that I'm generally fine playing with either a 3 or 4 grip size and so I've settled on something in the middle. Either a 3 with a thicker replacement, or a 4 with a thinner one. Leaves me with about a 1mm difference in circumference.
Click to expand...
I'm the same - have rackets both in grip size 3 and 4, and always look for sth between (Use both Supergrap on 3s and Babolat VS on 4s). I've never used a leather grip (I like Skin Feel for reducing 1/2 a size from 4) but was thinking of trying one. The thing is: I see Babolat leather thickness listed at 1.7 mm, which is among the thickest. How come it reduces (slightly) the grip size? (I was thinking of putting Babolat on my grip 3 rackets and TW 1.3mm on my grip 4 rackets. However, haven't seen TW 1.3mm or any on tw-europe yet. Have they ever offered it for Europe or is it US only? Do you have any suggestions for a similar one available in Europe?
 
L

La Pavoni

Rookie
Tronco20 said:
I'm the same - have rackets both in grip size 3 and 4, and always look for sth between (Use both Supergrap on 3s and Babolat VS on 4s). I've never used a leather grip (I like Skin Feel for reducing 1/2 a size from 4) but was thinking of trying one. The thing is: I see Babolat leather thickness listed at 1.7 mm, which is among the thickest. How come it reduces (slightly) the grip size? (I was thinking of putting Babolat on my grip 3 rackets and TW 1.3mm on my grip 4 rackets. However, haven't seen TW 1.3mm or any on tw-europe yet. Have they ever offered it for Europe or is it US only? Do you have any suggestions for a similar one available in Europe?
Click to expand...

Reduce might all be relative, compared to original. I'm in Europe too (or at least I was until Brexit ). The Babolats that I got were 1.4mm. The Wilson premium a 1.6 or 1.7mm. You can go even thinner with the Kimony Techni.

Str*#£3r5world in the UK have a pretty decent selection. Be warned though, not everything in stock, is actually always in stock...
 
Purestriker

Purestriker

Legend
Booger said:
I'm sure this has been done, but this is the 2020 version.

Just picked up a blade 98 for a broke high school player and am rooting through my grip stash. Synthetic grips are hot garbage only invented to save $1 on manufacturing cost, don't @ me. Found a fairway, oehms (how do you pronounce that?), couple Kimony, and a TW house brand.

Fairway is probably my favorite even though they are a pain to install. Haven't tried the other 3. Didn't care for Wilson or Babolat leather, which I'm assuming are white labeled from another manufacturer.

nH6vy9O.png
Click to expand...
I like Fairway, Head and Tourna in that order (not too bad on a budget). Have not used the TW logo or Oehms.
 
WilsonPlayer101

WilsonPlayer101

Professional
I can't go by new current grips but my fave is the old leather grip on the Head Arthur Ashe leather grip in the early 80s. Now that was great.
 
A

Alex78

Hall of Fame
MSV (known for their strings) have a new leather grip in their portfolio. I've ordered a fewe and I have to say I'm very impressed.
Produces a bevel feel I have not experienced with any other leather grip before (I always wrap my grips with the same degree of overlap).
 
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