I tried looking this up in the rules, but couldn't find anything, but in a tournament, are you required to wear a collared shirt?
Ahhh, thanks for the replies... I was just wondering why Yonex game shirts always have collars - something I think looks kinda dorky. I thought it had to be some sort of rules thing to make the players look more "proper" or something.
Actually, a lot of badminton wear manufacturers, including Yonex, have been coming out with modified collars, some of them like mandarin collars with a zippered V-neck but you might consider that dorky, too. For that look, check out Chens Jin and Hong, Wang Chen, Zhao Tingting, Bao, Candra, Sigit, Gade, and Lee&Lee in this thread. Nathan Robertson is wearing a round-necked T-shirt in this thread, too. Look at this thread started by Loh and you'll see the complete absence of collars on the Adidas and Carlton stuff worn by players in Europe. You are right, however, most of the shirts still sport those "dorky" collars.
I'd seen the "mandarin" collars, and I don't mind them as much... I actually kinda like them, but I thought that might've been a way of making the collars less dorky. That's one of the reasons why I thought it might've been a dress code rule. Thanks for the pictures of players wearing non-collared shirts... I tried to look on my own, but the great majority of players still seem to wear the dorky collars.
In years gone by, white shirts with collars and white shorts were standard wear for badminton. No colours allowed. This Dress Code stood for a long time. In golf, most of the clubs even now require proper dressing and this include a shirt with collar and sleeve. Golfers then have to wear metal spiked shoes, but now these are disallowed for they may damage the greens. Therefore now golf shoes with rubber spikes are normally the norm. Although now there is greater leeway in badminton fashion, this has been exploited more by the ladies who have more choice of designs, fabrics and colours. Men's fashion has always been more restricted and I have yet to see a male badminton player wearing a round-neck or collarless shirt (maybe Robertson Nathan of England did wear one?) at IBF tournaments. But as you can see in the pics, more ladies are wearing round-, V-neck and collarless shirts. By default, Yonex seems to be the pace-setter as it decides the designs for its sponsored players. However it hasn't come up with more varied designs for men yet, I think, the closest being the mandarin collars with zip instead of collarless. So it is up to the European badminton equipment companies in England and France perhaps, to take the initiative again. By and large, there has been little or no restriction on badminton wear so long as it is within the bounds of decency, I suppose. I say this as some benchmarks have been set by recent IBF sanctioned tourneys as can be seen from the pics and even Punch Gunalan, the IBF Deputy President, has come forth to proclaim that badminton fashion needs to match that of tennis.
Yes, it appears so for official IBF tournaments. And, it appears that in Singles, the opponents must NOT wear the same colour.
I think what Neosakai means is that the standard name for the T-shirts with what Locomoco calls the "dorky collars" is the word "polo shirt" even though that is the preferred fashion not only for polo but also for golf, badminton, ping pong and, to a lesser degree these days, tennis. So, in other words, this would be called a "polo shirt" by a lot of people even though Yonex designed it specifically for badminton.
