I know that the famous watch company, "Swatch", published some collection books about its watches (all of swatches). It's like a catalog of all swatches. Wondering if Yonex has done anything like this............? I'd love to see all Yonex racquets (since they started to make racquets) in a thick book with detailed pictures ........and see the revolutions of the badminton racquets.........from 70s....80s....90s......2000s..... It should be fun! PS: I searched! no topic related to this thread!
I don't think Yonex (or any badminton/tennis gear company) is a prestigious enough company to warrant something like that. I can see swatch or porsche doing something like that because watches and cars are status symbols... racquets are not.
A book on the evolution of badminton racquets in general would be interesting, but it would take a lot of work to put together and produce, and wouldn't make much money.
there was a couple of threads on old Yonex rackets. search for "dinosaur" and you will see one. perhaps if yonex doesn't do one, we can create one ourselves. surely among us, we already have a lot of resources all the way back to YoneYama rackets days to now..
And to think that Yoneyama was once a cheap substitute for Carlton for metal frame rackets and Dunlop and Silver Grey for wood frame rackets. Dunlop and Silver Grey no longer make badminton rackets and Carlton is now less expensive than Yonex. The old Yoneyama B1000 to B4000 were actually cheap rackets and the B5000 and B6000 were cheaper than Sliver Grey and Carlton. The B7000 and B8000 metal frame rackets were cheaper than most Carltons at the time. Ron
Okay, let me tap my dinosaur memory and reconstruct some history of Yoneyama models for the Yonex history book. Feel free to correct any wrong information. Yoneyama first came out with these models: 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, and 8000. Models 1000 to 6000 were wood frame with steel shaft, while models 7000 and 8000 were metal rackets (aluminum frame) with steel shaft. Model 1000 and 2000 were the cheapest while 5000 and 6000 were the most expensive for the wood frame rackets. Model 8000 was the top of the line for Yoneyama’s metal frame line. Model 8000 is light green with a chrome colored shaft. In the mid 70's (73 to 75 or so), Yoneyama came out with Blacken or model 8100. This was an aluminum head with a thin steel shaft as oppose to the fatter and hollow steel shaft of the earlier Yoneyama models. At about this time, Yoneyama changed name to Yonex. A Blacken II model (I believe model 8200) was also released. Both Blacken I and II were black. In the late 70's, Yonex came out with B9300 and B8300. B9300 was the original Cab 3, and B8300 was the original Cab 7. B9300 was a red colored, wooden frame racket with a graphite shaft and B8300 was a brown aluminum frame with a graphite shaft. In the earlier to mid 80's, the legendary Cab 8 or model B8500 was released. Cab 8 came in several colors including read and blue. The Cab 8 had a full graphite shaft compared to whatever shaft the Cab 3 and Cab 7 had. An early variant of the Cab 8 was the Cab 8 DX with a thinner graphite shaft. The golden Cab 9 followed the Cab 8 followed by several one-piece like rackets including the Cab 15 and then the Cab 20. I think that there was also a one-piece Cab 12. The original Cab 8 was the racket that made Yonex the dominant badminton racket manufacturer and it is one of Yonex biggest successes. Till today, Yonex comes out with variants of the Cab 8 as well as rackets bearing the famous Cab 8 name. Yonex also diversified from badminton rackets to all kinds of sports equipment (tennis, golf, shoes, strings, etc.). Here I am not exactly sure of the history as I stopped playing badminton for more than 10 years, but the Aerotus line was next. I have a friend who has a brand new and never used Aerotus racket. He too stopped when he and I finished grad school. After the Aerotus line, Yonex came out with the Isometric line followed by the Ti line. The current lines are the Muscle Power line and the upcoming Armotec line. Crucial events in the history of Yonex include the name change, the original Cab 7 and Cab 8, the one-piece Cab rackets, and the Ti line. Ron
WOW, your memory is amazing! maybe we should ask people here to post pictures of racquets of whatever they have, and then, I can bundle all of them together, with a nice-formatted timeline. So excited.........
There are some models that I have seem but I had no money to buy on that period, such as BX801, 802, 906 and widebody 30. I have posted in BC to find anyone heard or having BX801, 802 and 906, but no reply. I saw it in my supplier for restringing twice, but the owners refused to sell to me. Widebody 30 is just before the Aerotus 70 and 80. I think it would be a market tester. It would be great if somebody can list out the racket in 70, 80 and 90's.
yes , the widebody 30 is the forerunner of the aerotus line, i had 3 of them pretty looking too, all semi gloss black. Also, yonex introduced the string bg-470, made just for the aerotus racquet. I didnt knew there are interests in the yonex lines of the past. I got into badminton around 1989, i remembered every yonex racquet very well after that date.
I think that string was called BW470 Just a few additions/alterations to ronk's recollection: Cab8 was early 80's, Morten Frost used an orange one in 1982. Cab8 dx was around 86/87 when released. Cab15 first version was all graphite two piece. that came out 1983/84 Blacken II, I think came out in late 80's.
The 1st Yonex racquet which I can afford was BX802, and I still keep it nowadays. I remember that I liked to play with both Blacken I and II, as well as 8500 when I was in secondary school, but I just can't afford to buy one myself.
I considered those early YY metal racquets inferior to the Carlton. Their wood racquets were pretty good, but not the best.
That's great there is somebody heard the BX series. Hi Ricky, what is your comment about this racket? There are some dead stocks BW-470 in Hong Kong YY's Distributor. If you ask, you can still buy it.
Yonex widebody was actually a racquet developed by Yonex with Yang Yang. it was also the racquet used by Yang Yang at the end of his career in 1990 before he stopped playing and joined a msian manufacturer to develop the Yang Yang range.Few people had interest in the widebody afterwards. I did not play from 1990-1995 and during that time some interesting racquets like the cab 14 and boron was produced.When I took up the game again I bought some cab 21,25, 20 etc but I found they were not as powerful as the cab 14 produced in early 90's. Till today I can't understand why the boron and cab 14 were withdrawn. The canb 14 I think is the racquet used by Alan Budi Kesuma in 1991/92.
Dear Cooler, would you sold 1 of widebody 30 to me?? On the other hand, I have never seem the Cab 14 before. It would be great if Bbn can send us a picture. In fact that, I am trying to develop a homepage about my wife and I, and also my collections (such as badminton rackets, tennis rackets and SX-70 carmeras). I also want to make a history chat of Yonex's badminton racket development, but I think it would be an hard work. Anyway, I will inform everybody to collect information when I prepare making it.
I'm sorry I cant provide a picture of the cab 14 as i have it on video and not disc. If you observe Alan Budi Kesuma against Zhao in the 1991 World Championship final Alan was using the blue cab 14. What was amazing about cab 14 was that it had a very flexible but strong shaft therefore giving the racquet a lot of whip and kick but not so much on control in defence.It was more suitable for singles play.
