has anyone used these rackets? and how are they? ive seen these rackets but never used any, and the prices are ridiculous high! so i wonder how they are. thanx
Trust me, the Forza racquets are made in China. The cost to purchase a container load at most is 15 to 20 USD per racquet. So yes, the markup is very high. I think Hi-Qua makes Forza racquets. So you should expect similar quality and QC (maybe better QC).
Making racquets is just a business. Most racquet makers will make and private label for other racquet vendors as well. Some racquet companies may not even own their own factory, everything is out-sourced. There are generic racquet manufacturers in Asia that will private label any racquet you want (shuttles too). It is a matter of selecting style, material composition, paint job. Or you can go them with your own design, pay to make the mode and they tool up for it. Then you have to come up the cash for whatever minimum production run (test model, limited 100 pcs test, 10K, 50K 100K production run etc). Pete has the money pegged down. I had looked into private label several years ago and the prices were around $27-$30 CAD landed for an ISO800 (at that time) knock-off. They nickeled and dimed me with cost for everything - grip wood material ($0.25 difference), screw (no screw - $0.05 less), wrap ($0.30 difference), covers, graphite composition... (Boron was a favorite at that time). What you are paying for may boil down to simply profits. Anyways hope you get the picture.
Forza is a real badminton brand I use the Ti Tech 1600, and have played with a lot of the other models. Here in Sweden Forza are actually cheaper than Yonex, but the reason I chose Forza was that they have several models with the characteristics I was looking for: stiff, long, light (around 86-89 g) and isometric frames. Yonex very few such models, in fact here we only get 2U models (apart from the Iso Ti SPs of course). Forza is a REAL badminton brand, in the meaning that their products are developed by their design department in Denmark. Their products are produced in Asia after these specs. Forza is NOT a brand of "ready-mades with a logo" as some have suggested. Anyway, if the price of Forza is high in your part of the world, then get something else. They make really good racquets, definitely comparable to Yonex or Carlton. The deciding factor for me was that they have models that neither of those can provide.
Re: Forza is a real badminton brand justified comment, Mag. I don't understand why yonex don't have much choice in light stiff models
