*New! Adidas Badminton

Discussion in 'Badminton Rackets / Equipment' started by derrickn, Jan 3, 2013.

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  1. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    of the 6 Adidas rackets that I have tried, here is the order, from most like to least:

    Adipower Duoforce
    Adipower Pro
    Adizero Pro
    Precision 88
    Switch Pro
    Adipower Force

    not because the Force is not a good racket, i am just no worthy of it. maybe more suitable for some strong singles player instead.
     
  2. CarbonexFan

    CarbonexFan Regular Member

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    Adidas new in badminton? Just can't stop asking myself where this racket comes from...

    P1020582.JPG

    P1020583.JPG
     
  3. arowana

    arowana Regular Member

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    Carbonexfan won the thread. Yours is definitly the racket i like most. Once got a fiberglass adidas racket, should have kept it. It had the cool original adidas logo, too.
     
  4. Sgt_Strider

    Sgt_Strider Regular Member

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    It's already April 27th and they still don't have stock available for purchase. :(

    Do you know if they'll carry any shoes?
     
  5. j4ckie

    j4ckie Regular Member

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    Fresh from the demo day Paderborn.....I'm tired as sh*t. :D
    Impressions: the rackets seem pretty nice. Sadly, most (actually all but 2) with factory grips only and strings are 11kg or lower BG65...all in all it took away from the rackets, at least for me. But of course I was able to make some comparisons ;)

    My list of rackets I tried, sorted by how much I liked them:
    adipower tour (better strings, a bit tighter)
    adipower pro (better grip than all others, strings on par with ap t - softer but thinner)
    precision 88
    adizero tour
    precision tour
    precision pro
    adizero pro

    Sadly, no other adipowers available. There were a couple prototypes floating around, but no release model of the Force or Duoforce.
    Strings were all rather sub-par for my taste, but of course these demodays are geared more towards Hobby players and the rackets should be playable for anyone, so I can't really complain or say I was surprised. Sadly, it made it hard to differentiate at times whether a particularly bad shot was caused by the racket, the strings, or just me :D

    Both adipower models were quite nice, a bit head heavy, but still very manageable in that regard. Even with the thin factory grip I had no trouble swinging and playing with them. Both offered good control and power, with the pro being noticeably head heavier than the tour. The tour wasn't as soft as I had imagined (someone said it resembles the Z-Slash, which is not true imop).

    These two rackets stood out for me, while everything else was a bit closer. The Precision 88 was definitely amongst the heaviest, if not the heaviest racket we had available, but it felt very nice on smashes and anything overhead. A bit clumsy on fast swings, but I'm sure I could adapt given time (and a decent grip :D).

    Both the adizero tour and Precision tour have a Bravesword-y frame. They're lighter and softer than their pro counterparts and really maneuverable. I liked both, but the adizero was just a tad quicker and more responsive, which made it the better racket to me. Both rackets won't overwhelm you with their sheer weight and potential power, but if you play a quick all-round game you'll probably really enjoy them.

    I was a bit surprised at how little I liked the Precision Pro, given how I rather enjoyed other supposedly similar rackets like the Arcsaber 8DX, 10 and 11. It was a bit too heavy for my liking, and a tad numb. This is where I most wished for harder strings (or even just a possibility to string a racket myself :D) - perhaps this is actually a great feature with high tensions. Anyhow, all in all a rather unspectacular racket for me (with the provided setup).
    Worst for me was the adizero pro. It wasn't particularly fast compared to the others (especially adizero and precision tour) and I really couldn't get any control using it. I guess it's another racket that was influenced rather heavily by the low tension, and I can imagine it's a lot livelier and more controlled with a decent 27-30 string, but in the provided setup it was unattractive for me. A bit surprising they didn't use the Bravesword-y frame here, but I guess all pro models are designed for maximum stability as they're supposed to hold higher tensions.

    Anyhow, all in all a pretty cool day. Very enjoyable to test out the different rackets, and meeting a few fellow fanatics - or hopeful talents scouting for a potential equipment sponsor? I played a couple games with a 16-year-old who plays on National level in his age group. I imagine he has good chances of scoring a contract as adidas seems to focus on young, still developing talents, and he was quite certainly my best opponent there. In case he doesn't beat me already he definitely will in a year :D

    I was able to film in the later stages, and I'll try to cut and upload it in the next 24 hours. Haven't viewed the material yet, so I can't say if it's any good :D
     
  6. j4ckie

    j4ckie Regular Member

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    Having skimmed over it during cutting, seems there's a couple decent rallies and at times you can even discern the racket used (or at least the line, going by color)....:D
    Cutting's done, all that's left is going to Uni after weight training tomorrow and use the insanely fast upload. No way I'm doing this from home :D

    Short summary of the demo day here: most players got there pretty punctually, but of the 25 invited, less than 16 showed. According to the adidas guy, the weakest demo day in numbers, Koeln and Langenfeld had all 25 show up.
    As we trickled in alone or in very small groups, there was no official start, we were invited to have a couple warm-up hits with whatever racket we chose, and advised to change around frequently later to get a good idea of the whole line-up.
    After roughly 15-20 minutes of warm-up, we were called by the demo day manager, and he held a little speech, encouraging us to have a few games with each other and change rackets after.
    I had 4 or 5 games after that, and asked a couple questions in-between (and got asked how I like my adidas shoes :D).
    After that, we took a couple quick pictures with everyone wearing a gifted adidas cotton shirt (pretty standard cotton shirt, nothing special but decent quality, not too heavy and breathing nicely for cotton) and got a short form where we could rate our favorite racket, having a chance to win one (not sure which) if we filled it out with name&e-mail.
    Then it was back to hitting shuttles - that's when I started filming (having asked for permission). Depending on what you still wanted or could do, that meant games or just relaxed hitting.
    Had a minor scare when one guy twisted his ankle, but it appeared to be a minor injury, not a torn ligament or worse.
    When hitting started to fade out, we quickly packed things up - all in all about 2, maybe 2.5 hours. Doesn't seem so long, but as there was no real training or serious matches, it was quite enough to get a good impression.

    Personally, I would've liked to play a bit longer and also have a decent doubles match (with one of the adidas guys included, we would've had 4 guys of roughly similar abilities, I think), but you can't have it all, can you? :D

    And because I'm mean, here's a (very small) teaser ;)
    [video=youtube;CUI--WUwfE8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUI--WUwfE8[/video]
     
  7. zionong

    zionong Regular Member

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    I would love to, but looks like my order is still under pending. I am yet to receive any confirmation on shipping. In fact, I am looking at the same stuff as yours(more of a double racket).

    Here is my theory, both of them(adipower Pro and Tour) are basically made of the same material. But as for Tour, the weight is lighter than the Pro and the balance of Tour is even. Theoretically speaking, Tour will be more likely better in double if you are comparing between Pro and Tour.
     
  8. j4ckie

    j4ckie Regular Member

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    [video=youtube;7nocdNhqR2c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nocdNhqR2c[/video]
     
  9. Mike1337

    Mike1337 Regular Member

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  10. Maklike Tier

    Maklike Tier Regular Member

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    Jackie, whatever you do, do NOT quit your day job to become a film maker. :p
     
  11. j4ckie

    j4ckie Regular Member

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    Haha, yeah, the editing program is really not so great - if you refer to the less than fluid transitions. If you're referring to the fact that I haven't really edited any further than cutting out useless parts - that's precisely because I have absolutely no ambition in the field of film making ;)
    Seriously, just forcing myself to cut this kinda stuff is actually a considerable effort on my part :D
    It was powered by my selfless desire to show you what these demo days are like, of course ;)
     
  12. adidascanada

    adidascanada Regular Member

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    I finally got my greedy hands on some adidas racquets. Had to literally go to Korea! Lol :)
    BTW MBS in HK will be an adidas retailer. The paperwork is signed. Check with them in a couple of weeks for stocks. :)
     
  13. Sgt_Strider

    Sgt_Strider Regular Member

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    Is Canada going to get stock in the near future?
     
  14. yan.v

    yan.v Regular Member

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    Distributors haven't been found yet.

    The release is planned during the summer from the last info I could get, probably mid-end summer.
     
  15. george@chongwei

    george@chongwei Regular Member

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  16. Sgt_Strider

    Sgt_Strider Regular Member

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    I thought you said you own a store? Perhaps you should consider signing up?
     
  17. mactrieuduyanh

    mactrieuduyanh Regular Member

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  18. yan.v

    yan.v Regular Member

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    To be the distributor ? I think that would involve an insane amount of money unfortunately :(
     
  19. Sgt_Strider

    Sgt_Strider Regular Member

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    Yea. I thought Adidas was planning to target the small badminton stores first? If so, I don't think they have a lot of money to begin with...
     
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