Victor Carbonsonic - Synthetic Feathers by Victor

Finally, some interesting innovation on the shuttle area. First impression - that concept looks promising. I hope to read some reviews in here soon.

 

It is good news that one of the major companies is putting big money behind this.
If all the precocious 6 year-olds are wanting to change shuttles every two rallies, just like their professional heroes, there are not enough geese in the world to sustain that. So synthetic options are good.

(In that linked video of former greats rallying with the new shuttle, it is somehow reassuring to see Morten Frosst looking and moving about the same as an average middle-aged guy at any local club -- excluding the racket arm motion, of course).

 

Any idea when these are coming to the market ?

(Sorry, couldn´t read the information in the link ....)

 

Since the press conference is from the 2016 Victor Q3 Ordering Fare I would assume they are coming out in 3rd quarter of 2016.

I like the idea. It will be interesting to see how they perform and how much they cost.

 

If these have a flight path close to goose feathers, I'm definitely going to invest in these for training as an intermediary step. For when my students will benefit from using feathers, but still not consistent enough not to murder feathers on the first hit.

 

Hitting sound is kinda crisp. And if flight is almost like feathers, ultimately the street price will determine how well it'll be received.

 

I read from the Chinese blogs that the new product will be on sale in June. I am curious, however, that there is no relevant English news for the new shuttle.

 

The article associated with that video: http://m.aiyuke.com/news/2016/03/4388.html?1458907809.html

I'm summarizing the article, I highlighted the important bits.

World's first man-made carbon fiber shuttlecock - Carbonsonic

According to reports, this artificial shuttlecock is made of carbon fiber shaft and artificial vane/hair. A result of 5 years of research and development. Victor badminton R&D department manager Chen Lei says, the Carbonsonic shuttlecock is completely different from previous attempts at artificial feather shuttlecocks. One of the new artificial shuttlecocks will last as long as 3 traditional shuttlecocks. (!) And has also said the price will be lower than similar natural shuttlecocks, but the specific price will not be announced until June.

At a live press conference broadcast, a new Carbonsonic shuttlecock was hit 562 times over a duration of 13 minutes and 26 seconds., and only one of the "artificial feathers" was broken off.

Jiangsu team coach Sun Jun was involved in the testing of the new shuttlecock last year, but at the time the shuttlecock was very heavy and hard to control, but after three months of testing, Sun Jun believes that the new shuttlecock is very close to a traditional one in terms of play and flight.

The author of the article was able to test the shuttlecock for 3 minutes. The sound is pleasantly loud when hit, but the overall feel of the shuttlecock is around 80% of a natural shuttlecock and is slightly fast. There was no apparent damage, deformation, or softening of the shuttlecock. But the test wasn't really stressful so it's best to wait for a real verdict.

 

@kwun, since there are two types, they probably aim for sub $20 and sub $30 price points.

 

Mizuno has had a synthetic shuttle for years now. I bought a tube while in HK 2-3 years ago. Although the Mizuino ones were less complex (plastic quill and foam feathers)

 

Would GPG, SS, & SSP tournaments be using this new carbon shuttlecock? Think of them saving million of goose for every tournament held. Lining once came up with replaceable feather shuttlecock, but never heard of it again (i guess it's as useless and wasting time/money to buy a single piece shuttlecock in a nice packaging with few replacement feathers as oppose to buy a conventional dozen of them at once)

 

They'll never replace natural shuttlecocks with synthetic, at least not for the foreseeable future. But if it's at least better than Mavis 2000, I can see it being used in junior tournaments (under 13) where Mavis 2000 is sometimes used due to cost concerns.

 

if is as good as natural shuttle and cost a little bit cheaper, I would definitely try out when it launches. Hopefully because of this innovation, they can bring down the natural shuttle price abit.