I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER PLAY WITH THESE SHUTTLES. AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU. Why? Okay. Currently, we have feather shuttles, made from feathers (duh), jute and cork. Here's Victor now, wanting to replace that with....Styrene foam and carbon fiber? And their reason? "It will last longer". This is correct. The Feather shuttle will biodegrade, whereas the Carbosonics WILL STAY IN LANDFILL FOREVER. This is progress??? This is such a retrogressive step that I'm completely flabbergasted. In fact, I'm so disappointed that this product even got made that I'm seriously considering dumping all of my Victor products. It's already bad enough that strings and rackets go into landfill, but now Victor wants us to put shuttle into landfill as well?? Lazy, stupid and irresponsible beyond words.
Hmmm, where have we heard that before? But really, why don't we want an improved plastic shuttle? At least we'll kill less ducks and geese, no?
You have an awesome memory! As far as I'm aware, ducks and geese are not killed especially for making shuttles from their feathers. It's more like they are killed eitherway for other puposes and the feathers are more like by-catch. But I'm still with you - I would highly enjoy having significantly improved plastics available. And at least around here, most of the trash is being burnt efficiently and with strict emission control. That extra bit of styrofoam and carbon fiber will be easily digestable food for the burning facilities.
True. But if these can "replace" the plastic shuttle, then its not making it any worse. Just not any better. I personally am all for development and if Victor didn't do this, another company will I'm sure. I admire your view on sustainability but it would seem a bit extreme to boycott victor just because they have developed a new plastic shuttlecock. This is merely a first stab at the idea, they may well move on to use other materials as they improve. And as a concept, I fully support it.
Yes they're available. Calibre in sydney has them, and I held a sample here at the Victor shop in South Melbourne.
OK .... also found them on eBay, apparently they´re only available in Australia yet ..... Anybody played them already ?
That's a typical Victor again. There is not a single word about the Carbonsonics on any of their company pages. Is that some kind of field test (pun intended) they are doing in Australia currently?
Hi ! I'm in France and I had the chance to try the new shuttlecock yesterday. Just a few hits because our trainer has just one of them to try it. It's a little bit heavier than a feather shuttlecock, but it's better than a simple plastic shuttlecock. "Maklike Tier" is right for the pollution. But today, the feather shuttlecocks are going to the garbage ! there is no valorisation. Here in France some actions are made to recycle but it's a drop of water in the ocean. So for the pollution .... and not to mention the pollution created by the industry of meat ! If the feathers come from the ggose and ducks killed for meat ! Because some feathers are gathered "alive". We don't really know because when you want to know how a shuttle is made, you just see the feather already "out" of the animal. But there was an animal before ! So, for me, these shuttle are a good step. Hope we will find a better solution with recyclable material, but in waiting, it's a good thing. For the price, here we are talking about 4 € the shuttle, not cheap, but if we can play an entire match with it it's ok.