a few years back, batches of rackets that were bought from the SE Asia region started bearing the "IP" racket code.
the "IP" instantly created a mystery. the fact that it is distributed in the Sunrise region make us associated it with "SP", yet having the "I" and "P" made people think that it is for Indonesia National Player similar to how CP is associated with Chinese National Player (ie. Chinese national team).
as it turns out, the speculation are all just speculations and not true.
today i talked to a well respected owner of a badminton store. the store has been around for over 25 years, and the owner has always have a close relationship with Yonex Sunrise all those times.
a little digression for those who are not aware. Yonex Sunrise is the major distributor of Yonex equipment in many of the South East Asian markets, including the largest ones, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. so large is the influence of Sunrise, their racket have a "SP" designation printed in the racket shaft.
said shop owner upon seeing IP distributed coded rackets in the market, asked his close friends in Sunrise, the Yonex Sunrise marketing manager told him what it meant.
IP actually stands for International Pacific. rackets printed with IP code have no specific distribution in mind when manufactured. you can consider the IP code to be a generic distribution code. when Yonex have extra racket manufacturing capacity, yet they don't have any allocation for a specific distribution code in mind, they will mark it with IP. therefore, it is possible to find IP rackets in non-Sunrise distribution region. when demand arises in a certain region, Yonex will simply ship these IP coded rackets to fill the demand quickly.
so there it is. the reason behind the IP code.
I also asked the shop about what SP actually, stand for, previously, most of us speculate that it is Singapore, but some have also said it maybe South Pacific.
the answer i got? Singapore. so SP == Singapore
that's all i got for now.
the "IP" instantly created a mystery. the fact that it is distributed in the Sunrise region make us associated it with "SP", yet having the "I" and "P" made people think that it is for Indonesia National Player similar to how CP is associated with Chinese National Player (ie. Chinese national team).
as it turns out, the speculation are all just speculations and not true.
today i talked to a well respected owner of a badminton store. the store has been around for over 25 years, and the owner has always have a close relationship with Yonex Sunrise all those times.
a little digression for those who are not aware. Yonex Sunrise is the major distributor of Yonex equipment in many of the South East Asian markets, including the largest ones, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. so large is the influence of Sunrise, their racket have a "SP" designation printed in the racket shaft.
said shop owner upon seeing IP distributed coded rackets in the market, asked his close friends in Sunrise, the Yonex Sunrise marketing manager told him what it meant.
IP actually stands for International Pacific. rackets printed with IP code have no specific distribution in mind when manufactured. you can consider the IP code to be a generic distribution code. when Yonex have extra racket manufacturing capacity, yet they don't have any allocation for a specific distribution code in mind, they will mark it with IP. therefore, it is possible to find IP rackets in non-Sunrise distribution region. when demand arises in a certain region, Yonex will simply ship these IP coded rackets to fill the demand quickly.
so there it is. the reason behind the IP code.
I also asked the shop about what SP actually, stand for, previously, most of us speculate that it is Singapore, but some have also said it maybe South Pacific.
the answer i got? Singapore. so SP == Singapore
that's all i got for now.
Case Closed.
