Tucked away in one obscure corner on the ground floor of the Istora Senayan Stadium was a tiny museum of the Yonex Racquet History. As such I don't think many have visited it during the TC/UC 2008 competitions. It was in 1947 that Mr Minoru Yoneyama started the Yoneyama Company Ltd. It took the company almost 15 years later to manufacture and distribute the first YY racket locally and introduced it internationally 2 years later. In 1974 the company's name was changed to Yonex and now its rackets are used by about 80% of competitive players worldwide. This museum gave an account of the first heavy wooden frame racket and how it has evolved into today's light weight, yet sturdy and powerful tool for the players. It also showed pictures of famous players who were associated with certain Yonex brands over the years.
Yonex Racket History . Loh ... Thank you for taking photos and posting them for us here@BC. Hope that this thread would continue to monitor how our Badminton rackets could evolve in years to come. .
very nice Loh and thanks for sharing! it seems like there is a big gap between 1984 and 1992 in the display. Aerotus, Isometric as well as Ti series should be the highlight there.
Some of the better known brands and players: 1962 - B-2000 King Dia (Wood frame, steel shaft) 1968 - B-6000 Five-Ace Deluxe (Wood frame, steel shaft, 140-150g, popular for more than 15 years - Svend Pri (Denmark) 1975 All England winner. It seems this racket is a favourite with Rudy Hartono (Indonesia), AE Champion 8 times. 1969 - B-8000 Alumina Power (Aluminum frame and shaft) Emiko Ueno (Japan) 1977 Doubles World Championship in Sweden. 1974 - B-8100 Blacky (Aluminum frame, steel shaft) Machiko Aizawa (Japan) 1972, 1973 and 1975 AE Doubles winner. 1978 - Carbonex 8 (CAB-8) (speciality aluminum alloy frame/full carbon long shaft) Fleming Delfs (Denmark) 1977 World Championship winner. 1982 - Carbonex 15 (CAB-15) (All carbon frame & shaft) Liem Swie King 's jumping smashes. 1984 - Carbonex 20 (CAB-20) (All carbon with a built-in T joint) suitable for both offensive and defensive plays. 1992 - Isometric 500 (Titanium Graphite frame, carbon shaft) 2000 - Muscle Power 100 (MP-100) (H.M. Graphite frame + Ti Mesh/H.M. Graphite shaft + Ultimum Ti/Built-in T-Joint. 2004 - Nanospeed 7000 (NS7000) 2006 - Nanospeed 9000 (NS9000) 2007 - Armortec 900 (AT 900) 2008 - ARCSABER 10 (ARC 10)
Thanks for taking the time out to take pictures and post. Really interesting, previous threads have been guessing when rackets were introduced this should settle it!
This thread... ..very cool, Loh!!...Lots of information there!!..Should be interesting to see and follow how rackets will evolve, say 15-20 in the future??.. ..maybe Yonex had an abundance of carbon material???...hmm.. ..hmm, should this thread be stickied???.. (yes, i remember there is another thread which also discusses about this topic)..
yes, thanks for sharing these great pix! what i wouldn't give for a big yonex power like the ones on display LOL...
They actually had Rudy Hartono's racket signed by him there in a display, but I guess they removed it. It was under the B-9100 board.
thanks for sharing that and taking the time to take pictures and post, thats really cool that they have one like that. I actually didnt know they had that so seeing it is pretty cool as well as reading the stuff that they have written.
Oh I'm so glad that you've all liked this thread, so my efforts have been rewarded. I chanced upon this museum space almost by accident and I was as surprised as you are that they put up something so special like this although I don't think many would have appreciated. I was there early and had some time to walk around before I settled into my very special VIP seat close to the courts with some of my fellow BCers.
yup, great find, thanks for the pics. now i need to surf and find pdfs of the whole history to kept as a momento.
Actually I tried to spend as much time as possible here had it not been for the semi finals about to take place inside the stadium. Due to the time pressure, I think I managed only less than half an hour to gloss over the displays. Thankfully my Nikon D70 was on hand and I tried to take the pictures quickly without a tripod and hoping that the images would not be blurred. The result was satisfactory under those tight conditions. And my fellow BC members could enjoy this piece of Yonex history with me after I've edited the pics and enlarged the words for all to see.
I went to the venue also, but how I could miss this museum of yonex racket. Next time I should pay more attention to this racket things, rather than the girls
When I visited the Aviva Open Singapore 2008 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised to see this identical racket history exhibit being more prominently located at the entrance area here. I will find time for a more thorough visit.
^^The more important question is..^^ ...is Rudy Hartono's racket also traveling with the exhibit?? any sightings of it??..