Interesting observation on My Uni team A-team consists of county & top league players B-team consists of lower league players A-team uses discount brands - victor, fleet, karakal, ashaway B-team uses Yonex - MP99,100, Ti-10
How many players within each team? If just fairly small numbers, I don't think it really mean too much, as the "survey" can not reflect the fact in general. Also, Victor, Fleet, Karakal, etc are not no names. Each one of them do have good models available in the market. Using less $$$ to get equally (or even better) performance further proved the A team members are "better" (as in equipment knowledge).
6 players per team. Maybe other people have similar or dissimilar observations? Would be interesting to find out.
A team are probably sponsored players, so use product signed for? And becuase not Internationals, maybe no Yonex sponsorship. Also maybe Yonex sponsorship not that high in UK, more Carlton etc? While B team are probably not sponsored so purchase racquets?
Re: Re: Observation on Uni racket usage None of us in the A-team are sponsored but we get discounts off all rackets including Yonex brand.
What about the race and ethnic mix? different groups and peers impart different influence and opinions. Looks to me the A-team are very sensible players . These alternative brands offer comparable performance to Yonex, but at lower prices. All very good quality brands in their own right. Maybe they were sick of replacing the over priced Yone$ racquets from clashes Or maybe just to be different from the crowd
The discount is there because the team coach happens to be well connected to several racket companies. Also to answer Wizbits question, ethnitity and culture is not a factor in this instance. Wouldn't it be great though to know whether certain categories of players use certain types of racket
I think maybe the members of team A like light rackets and it is more hard to get 3U version of yonex rackets in UK!
People may just buy Yonex when they dont really know what to buy, as it is a safe bet. They also may like to "pose" with a yonex racket to look good. People who know more about badminton, (and therefore MAYBE better skilled) may know what type of racket they want, and choose their racket on characteristics, rather than the most expensive, or "a yonex one"
Good point James. So the team coach gets discounts. I wonder if all the A team replaced their racquets with racquets sold by the team coach. If the B team didn't replace racquets, then the A team may have spent the equivalent amount on racquets (but have many more racquets per individual).
