anyone know the detail of his sponsorship? he uses a Wilson racket but all his apparels are Yonex including his bag.
Sho Sasaki always find difficulties when facing Simon Santoso. If the game didn't go to rubber, Sho cannot handle Simon. But due to weak mentality of Simon, if anything goes to rubber, Sho usually took it.
Nice pic Kwun. I'm somewhat confused by Sho's current sponsorship set-up also. I suspect there may be some conflicting clause in his sponsorship contract as I have never seen him sport the Wilson logo on any of his rackets - he tends to play with a bare stringbed. Fellow compatriot Kenichi Tago also plays without a stencil / logo on his rackets, although I find that confusing since he uses both Yonex rackets and apparel. Similarly, I've seen Hirose play with her Nanospeed 7700 without the 'YY' logo on her strings either - most notably during this year's AE final. Then again, it may just be down to personal preference. Judging by the colour of his strings I suspect Sho is either using the Nanogy 95 or 98.
He looks like a member of Japan's Special Forces Group. He just might cause an upset at next month's World Championship. Either way he is a damn fine badminton player.
..if not mistaken, Shintaro Ikeda is also sponsored by Wilson (uses Wilson rackets and has a Wilson logo on his stringbed~don't think he borrows the rackets from Sasaki)..
..i believe besides Sho and Shintaro I., Misaki Matsutomo and also Kenta Kazuno might also be sponsored by Wilson..hmm, curious..
His victory at the US Open has certainly helped his World Ranking. He is now officially 12th in the world, one place behind Bao Chunlai. Well done Sho.
Some have been asking about Sasaki's sponsorship, As far as I know. The JPN team are sponsored by YY for clothing, therefore all players in the A and B teams have the YY logo on the back of their shirts. I believe that the JPN players are allowed to source other sponsorship deals to wear other brands shoes and rackets (although I believe they are "encouraged" to be fully sponsored for rackets and shoes) therefore you may see many JPN players with YY clothing, however many wear Mizuno shoes and some use Mizuno/Gosen/Wilson rackets. This sponsorship agreement between Yonex and the Japan team, is different to the one in place between YY and Netherlands, where all players have to wear YY when representing the country in team events (hence Pang Palayama etc don't play) while I am at it, the writing on the front of the JPN players shirts, are in fact the clubs they represent, hence they have different writing on each shirt (e.g Sasaki has Tonami as his club, Tago club is NTT East) others clubs represented by many international players include JR (Japan Railways) Sanyo and Panasonic.
if the players can get better sponsorship via other manufacturers, that's good for them. badminton players certainly need as much sponsors as it is tough making a living being a badminton player.
a bit off topic: thanks for the input..any source(s) for the infos? Also, regarding JPN players being allowed to wear other brands during a tournament, does that apply to every tourney they participate in? or only certain tourney which is approved by the JPN badminton association? Because, I was also told from another source (this is unconfirmed), JPN players are required to wear/use YY brands (incl. non-attires) at tourneys (within the calendar yr) which are approved by the JPN badminton association. ..waiting for madbad's report..
a video of Sho talking about his Wilson racket: [video=youtube;yKp_plq1TvI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKp_plq1TvI&feature=player_embedded#at=72[/video]