i own a PRINCE RESONSE badminton racket. I haven't played badminton for 4 years now but i was wondering what happened to the PRINCE rackets. It seems they don't sell them anymore. Can anyone please tell me the story of what happened to prince, and why they stopped making badminton rackets??????????
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac I THINK THEY SHUT DOWN THE LINE RYT??? damn the caps.
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac Prince ceased manufacturing badminton in the year of 1998. It seems that their engineering was bad and they didn't know what they were doing. I'll give it up, they DID make good badminton rackets...but the US just didn't hype it up and couldn't keep up with Yonex and Carlton. But they do have other rackets in the UK and I've seen them. The top part of the head is more isometric but it still has the Axis part on the bottom half. Many retailiers like Asby still carry such rackets as the Prince Axis 65, 68, and the 70. Many of them are really inexpensive and beginnners buy their rackets just to start out. I myself considered buying a Prince but it's Yonex all the way for me.
Prince's demise in North America... This was a fairly good company/manufacturer... However due to poor sales, of their badminton equipment, and declining sales overall in Tennis here in North America, they had to pull their business out. It just wasn't a viable solution to have the company sell products to a market that wasn't willing to buy them. Very sad actually, the Response, and the Thunder, and even the old Axis 90 were very good racquets to play with. My opinion only. Anywho... from what I know, they still produce tennis products for the European market. So if you're lucky, perhaps one of our fellow players here, can give you more info? I hope this helps a little to clarify what happened to the company.
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac Prince never stopped producing badminton racquets. They just don't distribute to the US anymore. I think their badminton racquets deserve a better reputation. They have excellent quality, playability, pricing and innovation. As to their tennis products, they're a market leader, at least here in Europe. If you have a Prince Response then hold on to it. It is a great racquet. In fact I recently saw new versions of the Response, so apparently they've kept it in their product line. Their new top models are the Thunder UltraLite Ti, Triple Threat Bolt, Triple Threat Rip and the ThunderStrike Ti. All are strikingly attractive... as to performance I don't know as I haven't tried them, but I've seen some Swedish elite players use the Triple Threat Rip and the Thunder UltraLite so they can't be all bad!
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac Kelvin, Prince never stopped production or marketing of tennis racquets in the US. In fact, they are probably pretty close to Wilson in their market share, if they have not already surpassed that company to become the number one seller in America. Prince has lost a lot of name recognition among tennis pros in the last five years and while they still sponsor a fair number of players, the only big names I can recall using Prince racquets lately are Patrick Rafter and Michael Chang, who are both arguably over the hill and facing retirement shortly.
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac If any of you guys are looking for some Prince Axis rackets, talk to me. I know where to get some.
You're right... I forgot about the "older" awesome guys. Prince Tennis is still here, but the badminton scene just got demolished by Yonex, and Carlton. I wonder how Karakal will fair?
ot: tennis i'm a bit behind on tennis racket development. What's hot these days? do wilson and prince use titanium to market their tennis rackets? i see yonex does.
Re: ot: tennis Head, Yonex and Dunlop market titanium in their higher level racquets. Wilson, and I believe Prince, feature Ti in their lower end racquets. Wilson's better racquets have HyperCarbon, which I believe is some form of high modulus graphite. Prince markets their better (or at least more expensive), "Triple Threat" racquets as having titanium, copper and tungsten mesh inserts, visible in the 10 and 2 o'clock positions, although some of their older, pro level racquets are still available and feature only graphite. Prince also makes some badminton racquets for the European market that feature the Triple Threat system, which looks quite interesting. I confess that I bought a Ti tennis racquet last year, a Dunlop Revelation Lite Superlong Ti 1.5 (damn longest name for a sports product I've ever heard). However, I have a justification. I needed a new racquet to replace my 1983 Schnauwert 80sq.in., 16 oz aluminum racquet (probably the best aluminum frame ever made) and I spotted the Dunlop on super clearance. I demoed about six other racquets and liked this one a lot better than the others which were on sale from $99 to $159. Plus, for some unknown reason, this $200 retail price racquet, which currently is discounted to about $90, was on sale for $30, brand new, strung with a reasonable Head string. One of the best purchases I've ever made.
Re: TONY! You can get an Axis 65 and an Axis 70 at asby.com. They sell them at SUPER low prices! They HAD an Axis 68..don't know what happened though..
Prince Tennis Kelvin, I spotted another pro using Prince racquets over the weekend. Jan Michael Gambill was using what appeared to be one of the Triple Threat racquets yesterday playing Agassi in the finals of the Ericcson Open.
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac How about Jennifer Capriati? Is she pro enough for you guys?
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac I watched some of Capriati's match on Saturday, but forgot to look at her racquet. Didn't she play with Wilson racquets at one point in her career?
Re: What EVER happened to the PRINCE badminton Rac Dunno, but these days she's a Prince girl. At least that's what Prince thinks if you visit their web site (www.princetennis.com)...
i believe the prince racket collection was stopped cuz its illegal to use in competition for its large head shape. the 65 used to cost 150 bucks b4 it was banned from competition, its now like 20 bucks if u can fiind sum1 to sell it to u.
