Never say never. As the DJ of BBC World News has mentioned, there are 300 million Chinese in China learning English. If BBC World News failed to influence them in the way they speak, the China Chinese will eventually change the way English is spoken. Similarly, consider the number of players in China playing badminton and using Li-Ning. If Li-Ning get the quality and price variables of the racket right on track, Yonex will start to sweat....
I think that the Li Ning rackets (which as I understand it, are nothing more than Kason) with a super high price, would be out of the reach of the vast majority of Chinese... I know they are out of our market range here in Vietnam... I like the competition with Yonex but am afraid they are the same as Yonex in that they spend all this money on players sponsorship and little of it on the development of rackets... How much profit from how many thousands of rackets sales does it take to sponsor just one player in the top 10....??? I think the sponsorship should be limited and the prize money increased...this would level the sponsorship field and players would choose their sponsorship based on the racket rather than on the money incentive... If all manufactures paid in to a central fund for prize money for Tournaments it might promote badminton better... I dont like the way it is being done now because I can not sponsor even the young players in HCM because they are tied up with Yonex...incentives galore are paid to tie this up... I know that in the real world things are not equal and that my level playing field will not happen...such is life... All we can do is try to promote badminton the best way we can and hope for the best...
Will be going tp HK next month. im so tempted to try li ning, but am worried that its hype. Anyone know if HK have a shop selling li ning products?
If you guys read the reviews of LN rackets, their high end rackets seems to be better than Yonex but than, is it worth it to spend X amount to gain Y amount of performance one has to ask... I prefer my N70 over my ARC10 but the N70 cost more than the ARC10... Actually there are many rich Chinese ppl in China, while the % might be small, one has to also factor in the large population...
Agreed. ... China has 7 million abortions each year... ... China produces 1 million Master Degree holders each year... ... Scarely if you pursue further...
What new technology is Li Ning using??? None that I know of....There is only so much you can do making rackets...the quality of the carbon is the main thing...plus the design of the frame and shaft...What do they have that is different...?? I am curious....Did they change the frames of the Kason...Not that I can see...At least with a Lambo you can see the difference...
You just need to try the racket... I took a chance and ordered it and love it... Thinking of ordering a N90 or N55 to try now... But I'm going on vacation to HK at the end of the year so maybe I should wait and buy it later to save on shipping
Yonex is the major sponsor in badminton. I use to play in the 70's and 80's. Yonex is the brand that made badminton possible. In Portugal there is no Li-Ning stuff. But we have to see about that. All brands only copy and paste Yonex.
i think we are now starting to see...that this is no longer the case. With Yonex no longer sponsoring the strongest national team in the world (China), it would be safe to say that this could be the turning point of something great. aside from Li Ning stepping in as such a powerhouse, you also have brands that were once completely monopolized by yonex now starting to pick up a bigger market share, such as Victor. and the beauty of it is that these brands are NOT imitation yonexes.
I agree....I love the added competition of Li Ning but think they are just trying to BUY their way into the big time without doing the real work... There is NOTHING different with their rackets except graphics.... Sotx on the other hand has developed 2 new frames designs and they are using new ideas on a number of their models.... The SSW is one of the most advanced rackets I have seen...and the CP series is Patented.... All of us owe a lot to Yonex for their work in the past....but they have been rewarded already and it is time for others to step up... In the world of sponsorship there is no loyalty...just who has the most money...:crying:
I hope that the future of Yonex is not the same as ProKennex (1980's was a USA brand made in japan). In the early 80's this brand create the racquet of «one piece» graphite. Producing for all major brands. But today - nothing.
YY will remain strong for many yrs to come. It has a vast die hard fan base world wide, some even consider it as "the" badminton racket. So it wont be so easy for any competitor to just walk in and take over the market share majority. Having said that, I believe YY heyday has ended or at least towards the end. The arrival of many very good companies (Li-Ning and Victor) and old competitors producing good stuffs (Carlton, RSL, Gosen, Mizuno and Wilson) as well as many2 local brands (Astec, Apacs, Flypower, etc) that produce very good products at marginal price, all eating YY big pies. Not to mention, tons of fake YY flooding Ebay which potentially costing YY a fortune. In the context of this thread, even though my fav racket is NS9900, IMO LN rackets are generally better than YY (personally I tried both N90 and N90II). I would disagree with the sentiment that LN has no extra edge (at first i was skeptical too), in fact there are many improvements (technologically based on R&D) that LN has introduced to their high end rackets and the result is great accurate precise feeling that YY sometimes lacks. Im sure for those who tried N series would know what i mean. In regards to LN marketing efforts, i have absolutely no objection to that whatsoever. Thats the only way for them to take on a giant like YY. A traditional marketing effort alone by going from local to local area just simply wont work in this situation. Imagine a sales person goes to you and say "hey this is a new racket better than YY and its cheap but no one is using it yet" I would bet 9 out of 10 people wont buy. LN is not alone on this, Victor and Flypower as well as Carlton and Forza are all doing the same road by sponsoring players and national teams. By doing this they can penetrate the market more effectively (cost and time). In regards to price money, it will increase overtime as more and more competition from manufacturers to host/sponsor big events. Its really important that badminton organizers (from BWF to the national/local associations) get their act to get the maximum benefit from the current competitions. Price money issue must be separated from sponsorship money, at all across other sports there is no major constraint about how much a sportsman can received. Its a free market, in fact i would argue that our current top players receive less than they deserve, and if they have to get it from sponsorship then so be it. At least for a start it will encourage many other youngsters to look at badminton as a career option. The main thing here is the promotion of badminton as whole, then we will naturally see the spread of popularity and public attention towards the sports which will lead to more sponsors from wide range of global companies (not just badminton related companies). If badminton can reach this level, we will be talking about a few million dollars price money on SS.
I assume you have not tried the rackets yourself . The LN rackets are great, if they are "worth" their price is of course always up to the buyer to decide.. Li-Ning took over Kason, but all LN rackets are developed (I think they made 3000+ prototypes just for national-team to try).. LN has some pretty unique tech (that Kason didnt have) Like the smart woven-tjoint to get rounbd YY-patented T-joint etc.. They are coming out with the hollow frame, the N-series use ligtweigth ype filling in the frame to reduce vibrations and lot of other stuff.. I am not sure if you really have a clue about the technology L use? it seems you are just basing your views on "guessing" Besides Kason did some really great rackets (and still produces their own models of rackets as far as i know), you make it sounds like Kason should be any "less" advanced than Karakal, WIlson, Dunlop, Tactic, Forza, Cqarlton etc ?!?! /Twobeer
Aherm, may I? LOL, but only companeis that starts at the second half of the alphabet ultimately be the winner(s) slicing the pie. Notice the letter Z is already occupied by zelm?
