Counterfeit Yonex Strings

Discussion in 'Badminton String' started by teknix1, Mar 8, 2011.

  1. teknix1

    teknix1 Regular Member

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    Hi all,
    I'm fairly new to stringing, got my first stringing machine last christmas. To practice with it, I decided to buy some cheap strings off of eBay, from a seller named "Blackeye-pro". So I bought a 10 pack of Yonex BG65-Ti for like 30$, and started stringing with that. The first string I managed to play with lasted me about 3-4 hours of play. Thought I had done something wrong as my previous attempts resulted in warped rackets (you can search my other threads on here about that). The next couple strings didn't last me more than a half hour of play. I started having doubts about these strings. After reading reviews of the seller, I discovered he was selling counterfeit strings. By that time I had already gone through more than half of my 10 pack. Didn't bother me too much, I figured I'd practice stringing with them anyways. It just gave me more opportunities to restring my racket. As of today (8th of March 2011, I just checked), this seller is no longer a registered user on eBay, thank god!

    I tried contacting Yonex Canada about where to buy strings or how to detect counterfeit strings. Unfortunately I didn't get an answer from them. But after doing some reasearch online I decided to buy a 10 pack of BG65-Ti from "My Badminton Store", everybody says thy're safe and they sell real Yonex products. I recently got those strings and got to play with them. So far so good, I only got a few hours of play off of my first set but it hasn't snapped yet and it's already better then the fake ones that usually lasted me only 30 minutes.

    I still own two packages and a few bits of string from of the fake ones, I thought I'd make a comparison and put this online in the hopes of saving other people's time and money and so they won't be deceived like I was.

    So first off, let's start with the packaging. I took the strings out of the bags so it'd be easier to scan, you might notice a cut near the bottom because of that. There is also a cardboard sleeve that I left in because the plastic film is quite transparent and would allow us to see through.

    Front (Left: fake, Right: Yonex):
    Yonex Strings Front.jpg
    Differences I have noticed:
    1. Hologram is different, it doesn't show well here but the one on the right is much clearer
    2. Size of the packaging, 12.4cm X 17cm vs 12.4cm X 16.4cm
    3. Yellow color is sort of orangish on the fake one
    4. Green color in the Yonex logo is brighter on the fake one
    5. Softer edges where the white meets the blue and green in the Yonex logo in the fake one
    6. The registered logo near the Yonex logo is bolder in the fake one, perhaps because of item #5
    7. The letters A and G in the words "HARD FEELING" are not quite the same

    Back (Left: fake, Right: Yonex):
    Yonex Strings Back.jpg
    Differences I have noticed:
    1. Again the yellow color is off
    2. Same problem with the letters A and G in "HARD FEELING"
    There isn't too much to say about the back. I'm not going to compare the barcode too much for obvious reasons. Although I will say that both of these have stickers placed on top of the original barcode printed directly on the plastic film. Through the triangle window in the front, you can see the original barcode and the words "WHITE (011)".

    The strings (Left: fake, Right: Yonex):
    Yonex Strings.jpg
    Differences I have noticed:
    1. The folded part of cardboard sleeve is not as tall on the fake one, 2.45cm vs 3.5cm
    2. The tie wrap is thinner on the fake one

    The strings continued (Top: fake (from a piece of red I had left over from a previous string job), Bottom: Yonex)
    Yonex Strings 2.jpg
    Differences I have noticed:
    1. Text is not as clear on the fake one (might be because I had these in my toolbox for a little while)
    2. Font is not quite the same
    3. The word TITANIUM is a little bolder on the Yonex string when compared to the rest of the text on the same string, the fake one has the same "bold" level throughout the text (or almost)
    4. The A in "TITANIUM" is normal in the fake one where it ressembles more in inverted V on the Yonex string (hard to see here)
    5. Overall text is shorter on the fake one

    Other comments/thoughts:
    1. The other thing I noticed when stringing is that that Yonex Titanium had a different feel, sort of a hard teflon feel. The fake ones had a bit of that but it wasn't that much present.
    2. I did measure the tickness of each string with a digital caliper and they were both really close to the .7mm
    3. There may be some things I mentioned here that are irrelevant, it could very well be that counterfeiters copied a different Yonex packaging than the one I'm comparing it to.
    4. I'd like to stress out that this is in no way a guide to authenticate Yonex strings. Remember this: if a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is.

    Are you seeing anything that I missed? Let me know..

    Cheers
    Nic

    PS: This forum is resizing the images I have uploaded, some of the things I have mentioned are hard to notice on these smaller images. How can I upload full size ones?
     
  2. awekuda

    awekuda Regular Member

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    nice sharing teknic1, this will benefit BCer..and honestly the counterfeit are really identical and really hard to differentiate to naked eyes...
     
  3. xXazn_romeoXx

    xXazn_romeoXx Regular Member

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    one thing i can add to the list is the colour. if the colour is not what you would normally see in your region, or even know it existed, do research and check it out, before you purchase. I found really weird colours for NBG95 especially. The gold was completely off, and more of a waxy yellow than gold.
     
  4. isa woo

    isa woo Regular Member

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    Fake string changes all the time. They are getting better in their look so it is harder to distinguish. This video also highlights some differences we can pay attention to when shopping a string. The most interesting part is the gauges.
     
  5. Stealthking

    Stealthking Regular Member

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    The one thing I noticed about the fake strings as I have some customers that insist on supplying their own strings to save some money (and those strings are clearly fake)...... As soon as you pull tension on those strings, you will notice that they seem to stretch much much more than the authentic strings. Its almost like nylon fishing line. In some instances when you do a pre-stretch, the tension head actually runs out of travel distance and you have to redo a re-pull again.

    Also some Yonex strings have a rough surface, but all the fake strings regardless of the model number are all very smooth and does not feel as rigid as the Yonex strings.
     
  6. sautom88

    sautom88 Regular Member

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    There r lots of fake Yonex strings in Indonesia. So when it is too cheap, beware! Also, the rumours going around are they reuse original packagings so they r very difficult to spot. I'm staying away from Yonexes because they r wayy.. overpriced. Double or even triple other brand's prices n most strings can only be optimally used for 10-20 hrs, the pros only use them for a few hours...

    I use mainly Gosen, Toalson n sometimes Li-nings
     

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