For a formal tournament, I recommend Red or Chester. For a small club level ones, Blue might be a choice, if budget is tight. Anything lower than blue, don't even bother, unless you want the matches to be interrupt every 3 mintues, and provide 5+ shuttles per match.
Yes, I second LB's suggestion. However, I want to add that HiQua blue used to be good for it's price. After bird flue scare, the price went up and quality went down. I am getting Sosan black for $1 over HiQua blue price. Also, HiQua will not give me good deal even on large order. The worse part is (from 2 years ago) HiQua red and Chester do not have IBF logo and some people thought they are not as good and I have to convence them the red is better than blue...
HIQUA blue is good enough. A lot pl here play HiQUA purple as well, which is acceptable both flight and durability. But the price is going up too much. For the same price, you may look for something else, such as RSL NO1 or Chaopai Purple
Hi Qua Shuttles I have a can of the Hi Qua blue feather shuttles. I bought them because they come in yellow. We don't use them very often but keep them on hand for the cry baby that won't play unless he has a feathered shuttle. They seem to be well made and last a little longer than most shuttles in that price range. The ones I have are a few grains heavier than the average feather shuttle. The real surprise from Hi Qua Is their nylon (slow speed)Hummingbird shuttle. Several of our players now use them exclusively. I believe they are the most like feathers having large vanes for quick stabilization. They are uniformily light and the players using 26-28 lbs. string tension have no problems with them. They last five to ten times longer than feathers depending on the amount of smashing and if used only by beginners and intermediates a single shuttle will last through several days of hard play. As mentioned previously the price has gone up but at least in the case of the nylon shuttles they last so long that that is not an issue.
Hi Qua The Yonex 350 nylon shuttle is well made and very durable, it is also more expensive. Our club used them for a couple of years. Yonex markets the 350 and 500 shuttles as the most like feathers. We have not found it to be the case. Now if we use the 350 it is like hitting a rock. Even the slow and medium speed 350's are too heavy and too fast compared to feathers. We have tried the following nylon shuttles; Yonex Mavis 7, 300, 350, 500, Carlton C100,T800,T900, Victor cork and rubber base, Wilson match point, Black Night, Kawasaki, CY, Yamaha, HL, Bees, Energy, Etonic, Yamatso, Jet, Atomic, Spaulding, and about a dozen other brand that I can't remember or had no labels on them. The Hi Qua Hummingbird(slow) is the most like feathers. The Yonex is too fast by comparison and travels like a bullet and drops a lot faster than feathers. Young fast players like the 350 Yonex because it doesn't have the braking action of the natural feather. Older, slower. and beginning players often like the slower and smaller shuttle such as the Black Knight and HL. These shuttles allow them time to reach the shuttle and maintain the rally, having more fun and getting more exercise. I played with a lady yesterday. She wouldn't play with a brand new nylon shuttle, so she pulled out a beat up feather shuttle from the junk box and played with shuttle that should have been thrown away. Sometimes people have a mindset that defies logic.
