I'll add 'squashing rumors....for now' to my list of other great American doublespeak such as 'no offense, but...' and '...just sayin''
In this regard, badminton is a bit different from tennis IMO. It is common that top badminton players use a prototype racquet painted in the same paint as a commercially available one before the new model is put on market. When the racquet is finalised and released on market, that will be it. The sponsored players will get racquets with a more stringently controlled range of of weight and BP, but not much beyond that. The amount supplied for the sponsored players is relatively minor compared with a full commercial, mass production batch, and I don't believe this justifies making a special small batch. What would customers feel if they know the racquets they spend premium price on only had the same paint as the ones used by world champions? Badminton racquets looks easy to produce but there are a lot of know-hows involved. The quality of carbon fibre used, the formulation of resin, the woven technique, the t-joint and how the frame is shaped all play important roles in the making of a successful racquet. I have heard of people who actually own the KP version of MX80, a tad stiffer than commercial MX80 but not much more difference. Professionals are more adaptive than us mortals. If memory serves, when Cai Yun was still sponsored by Yonex, he has used both AT900T and NS9000S, those are very different racquets with different BPs and shaft stiffness. When the Korean team was sponsored by Yonex, LYD back then used an AT800DE, again a very different racquet compared with braveswords. IMO, BS LYD is a stiffer and headheavier version of BS09. I believe the transition would not be hard for a player of LYD's quality
