I thought you mainly wanted to know about those using rackets that aren't Yonex. If you wanted Yonex sponsored top players, then you could easily find the info here.
It's a fact that pros doesnt have alot of option to choose which racket they wanna play with.If they r contracted by yonex,then they must choose yonex rackets..not others.So does players that r contracted by any other brands..unlike us,lots to choose..though they got it for free n we gotta pay it.So,most pros can only choose the racket within the brand..n doesnt mean that a racket that is more pros r using is the best.Within the brand,maybe..but not in the whole market.. For addition, Chen hong-Victor Most of chinese junior n some chinese pro players-Kason
yeah, i know that. i just wanted to know what model exactly are the pros using now. like chen hong, what model of victor racket is he using. and the other pros that are not sponsored by yonex, what are they using.
i know but usually it is a thread on one particular player or doubles partner. i thought one thread to bind them all would be good. i was thinking this would be a good place to see what ALL the pros are using. sorry if it is considered redundant.
after searching, i found some but not sure if all is correct. Gail Emms - Carlton Airblade Rasmussen Superlite Nathan Robertson - Carlton Powerblade Tour Boonsak Ponsana - Gosen Roots Aermet 6900 Daniel Shirley - Babolat Satelite Pulsar Pi Hon Yan - Babolat Satelite Nitro Donna Kellogg - Babolat Satelite Pulsar Jaochim Persson - Babolat Satelite Pulsar
gail emms - carlton powerblade superlite (notice the iso head, airblades are ovals) cai yun - AT900T (?) in singapore open flandy limpele - AT900T (?) in singapore open sudket prapakamol - victor (dunno what model. anyone?) looks like victor is making a push at improving its international recognizion & sales by sponsoring top level pros. nice move. will give consumers more options & badminton addicts more equipment to drool at.
It was created a long time ago. For your benefit, I merged your thread an the relevant thread that contains most of the information you need
cool. thanks. i am still trying to find out what racket chen hong is using. victor information kinda hard to find. he eh he. i know wang chen uses SOTX. and carlton and forza info are tricky too.
I know this is an old quote, and correction of the 2 above statements. Lin Dan did previously use MP100, before his time @ world ranking #1 status. The year Chen Hong took the title @ All England, after losing the previous year to Gopichand of India. Lin Dan was infact using MP100 versus Simon Santosa (forgot the last name, correct me if I'm wrong). And lost to Mr Simon of Indonesia. Infact, if memory serves me correctly, LD used MP100 for his first few years, after his Junior days, up until MP99 was released. As for weight, it was more than likely 2U. grip size, no clue. Most pros (not all) seem to use towel grips, wrapped over tiny grip sizes, because of the towel grip thickness.
Is it me, or are there some big sponsorship wars going on in UK & European countries right now? I remember a time, that Forza was making a big push, and was taking up market share... Now it seems Carlton has a slightly higher profile with the sponsorships of Emms/Robertson Meanwhile their countrymates are HEAD team sponsored? Yet it wasn't a few months ago, that some of those same team mates were Babolat sponsored? Not that it matters a whole lot, but I just find it interesting to see where the money to support pro players is now coming from, and how it changes so quickly. Now what I see, Babolat & HEAD/Penn going to war in the Pro arenas. Whereas in the recreational courts, you'll see every sort of brand being toted about by all players now, not just YY. Interesting indeed.
yeah, looks like babolat is pretty famous for european contenders. like pi hong yan and xu huai wen (if i am not mistaken). would it be fair to say that aside from YY, babolat is the next big equipment sponsor? or is it other brands like gosen and victor?
That's a good question... You just opened a can of worms LOL *** WARNING THIS IS AN UBER LONG POST/SCHPEEL *** From what I remember, Gosen had previously sponsored the entire Malaysian team, but as we see now... a lot of players eg. LCW, LWW/CTF, and a whole bunch of other players have since been sponsored by Yonex. I have certainly seen a lot of youngsters & European players sponsored by Victor, along with some of the top pros all getting their own racquet named after them by Victor. However, it seems right now, that a lot of players have been sponsored by Babolat. Judging by the list on the Babolat website... http://www.babolat.com/english/badminton/tour/index.php?src=badminton It's fairly extensive. From HEAD's website, although they have not officially launched globally... they have contracts with the Danish Badminton Association. http://www.head.com/corporate/news.php?id=242 Seems to be spreading throughout the UK & into the European block countries too. I've played with Gosen products before... they are definitely a very good product, but with little exposure outside of Japan for badminton products. I think they're more well known for some of their tennis strings. When Anna Kournikova used to be under contract sponsorship. Victor makes some fantastic products as well, but again without sponsoring more pros neither company will get the recognition they deserve on the world stage. I see Babolat & HEAD, having better chances at this at the moment, as they can easily leverage their Tennis brand recognition into this sport. To a lesser extent Wilson... their female sponsored players are certainly talented, however the males seemed to have dropped off the face of the map. You can be sure that if big names like Babolat & HEAD are going to sponsor a tournament, they are going to turn a few heads from both marketing & television sponsors, which in our hopes again brings more coverage to badminton. Without this extra competition for Yonex, it will be very tough for the players to get paid the earnings they deserve, and it will be very tough for our sport to continue expanding, mostly due to lack of funding. We can only hope that other sponsors take note of this sport as a new source of revenues for their products & services. There are a lot of viewers, and many many thousands of participants of this sport globally. If they take YY earnings & market domination as an index indicator of their earning potential... they'll learn there is still a lot of room to expand. But it takes time, to develop the talent & grow the market from the ground up. I am a self admitted fan of Yonex products. I like the quality product they've always produced. However, I also like the fact that there are other manufacturers around now. I like the fact that I see pro players being sponsored by non YY companies, and I like to see what they use. I am currently & will be continuing to test out products offered by other manufacturers as a lot of you are currently doing. If in the hopes of helping better educate myself, as well as other players on the products available on the market, and what they can expect from a non-pro level point of view. Yes, I preach in other threads, the racquet does not matter, but that is only once you've reached a high enough skill level that it does not play a major factor (unless you're Chen Hong I think he misses the Nanospeed 8000 ). However, it is important when you start out to at least find something comfortable to suit your style. And our support of the various brands helps out the pros & the equipment manufacturers. To answer your question... Yes. I believe Babolat & HEAD (hopefully Wilson... once they get their act together again) are key to expanding the profile of badminton in UK & all around Europe. As well as the US. People whine Babolat has nothing new... this is true, but Babolat has a reason for sticking to their company principles. http://e-rackets.com/store/Brownlee.html This article outlines something off topic, but it also explains why Babolat is not a company to flood the market with new products every year confusing its buyers with marketing jive. Or if you want it in laymens terms... "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" I don't know about you, but as soon as I saw some of the European & UK pro's carrying HEAD & Babolat products, I could immediately recognize the logo's on their racquets, because I've already seen a lot of their tennis pros toting around the company logo. In a similar manner YY grew the badminton market to the mass proportions it has built today. It's obviously a vastly successful sporting goods empire... HEAD & Babolat, will hopefully help continue the expansion & also grow their own sporting goods empires too. I think I've more than made a few points now, so I will end this posting LOL May have raised a few questions... I definitely welcome anyone interested to give their input, whether they like the new sponsors or not. Cheers everyone!!
first of all, i am a yonex lover too. i grew up with it. before i was a member in this forum, i never even considered getting a different brand racket. even when gosen was sponsoring the malaysian team. now it is a different story. there has been a lot of prove that other brands can make good rackets too. and i am glad the professionals are now being sponsored by a wide range of brands. i am kinda intrigued with babolat and it's quiet present in the badminton arena. haven't noticed HEAD yet. maybe i was not looking hard enough. but for now, until i get my hands on other rackets, i guess yonex still my top choice, more so when the majority of pros are using yonex. maybe when there'a a big change in the badminton equipment market will other brands emerge as equal contenders to yonex. i hope they will. the more the merrier. and competition brings out the best. a little off topic, sorry.
KKK/TBH and FHF (hardest smasher on the world) used Ti 10. Just want to know if anybody can give information about their string/how much lbs they put it? TQ
Is Lee Chong Wei using AT900P in Indonesia open...? and which model of shoes he is wearing during that tournament?
how come VICTOR haven't gone all out to promote their rackets? the fact that most of us dont even know what rackets are the players sponsored by victor are using, means that the marketing side of victor is very weak. they should take this opportunity to promote their rackets. especially online where millions of people all over the world are within reach.
