I received the Adidas Wucht P7 & P8 yesterday, just finished stringing them. They are good looking rackets and feel very head heavy. The P8 was rated to have a balance point of 304. There isn't much difference between despite the indication on the shaft. The P8 feels very stiff, P7 stiff. Both are 4U Black, gold and bright orange makes a good combo: I was surprised the frame is so small, about a cm smaller then Thruster Falcon
Are these some test pieces that you received or have you purchased it. If it was purchased, can you pls tell where from and if possible the price? Pls do share your initial thoughts when you have played with it .
I have a thing with collecting rackets Purchased them at http://racquetforce.com Next week I'll have played some sessions
Überschall F5 First impressions. The Überschall F5 is a bright reflective racquet. It doesn't really stand out in any particular way due to little contrast between the different colours. The most distinctive feature is the set of light three yellow green Adidas stripes at the top of head of the racquet arranged symmetrically. In fact, I didn't even notice it at first as the Adidas logo but that is probably to be expected given the lack of Adidas racquets on the market. The racquet itself starts of as purple/blue along the head gradually increasing in darkness down the shaft with a splash of gold and silver markings. On the side of the frame, there are some markings with the words "SMART/UDi/30T/FR+40CC/HMA/CF". The technical specifications are also imprinted along the shaft. The weight is 85(±2)grams. A seven point grade system is used both for the head light/head heavy aspect and stiffness. This racquet comes at slightly head heavy and more stiff. The specifications show the racquet is more head heavy at no.6 out of 7 and no.5 out of 7 for stiffness. The cone, instead of being a cone, is an eight sided design. The maximum recommended tension is also printed on the shaft. Maximum tension is 28lbs, stringing pattern 20 mains, 20 crosses. (pic) The racquet comes with a bright yellow grip. As a stock grip, it's perfectly serviceable and I was able to pick it up and use straight away. It feels well balanced. A vibration test showed very little lateral movement of the racquet head when flicked. That's quite pleasing because it gives me confidence that if I hit the shuttle, the racquet is not going to vibrate all over the place when playing the next shot. The vibration test is a very rough test and described as follows. I fixed the handle on a hard bench using my right hand with the racquet coming out perpendicular. Then flicked the head downwards with my left hand and looked at the vibration characteristics. Near the end of the vibration, you will see some racquets vibrate side to side but not this one. When I first used the racquet, I was coming back from a hiatus due to injury. I could clear, smash and net shot with the racquet pretty quickly. The racquet feels well balanced and damped pretty well. The damping is important to reduce vibration going into arm thus reducing irritation to any tendonitis. Since it is a very light racquet, it may appeal more to doubles players. The nice thing about the racquet is the slight emphasis of it being head heavy. That just helps with clears, smashes and drives to give that extra little oomph to the shuttle. As an all round racquet, I like the slight head heaviness because it feels like just giving a little bit momentum on to the shuttle. I found this effect most pronounced on midcourt shots where you might simply want to redirect a slower shuttle as a control shot rather than trying to hit it flat or hard. However, I still feel it a little difficult with this racquet compared to my head heavy 3U racquet. I have to move my arm more with the Überschall F5 rather than just use a little movement of my fingers with a heavier racquet I found it a bit difficult to produce more speed on the midcourt backhand drive straight after my smash with the shuttle coming back to my left side. Going back to the cone design, because it is flat, theoretically that should help thumb placement on a backhand grip. However, it made no difference for me. I did go through a period of using a head light 4U from another manufacturer where I had to adjust my technique more to adapt on mid court shots. For the Überschall F5, I found a bit of mistiming on smashes due to a really quick swing. Unfortunately, I broke the strings twice on the Uberschall during the testing. One time happened after I only just received the racquet back from restring. Both times occurred with mishits near the top of the frame. Using a different racquet is prone to mishits. However, the slightly less dense stringing pattern makes this racquet more prone to string snapping on mishits. Taking it back to string, the stringer was a bit disappointed to see me again so quickly. The racquet has an unconventional stringing pattern with the tie off for the knots at the upper end of the racquet making it more fiddly. Usually knots are at the lower and more robust area of the head. I would rather have kept the traditional number of mains in the design to minimise string breakages. Not all users can easily access a stringer and have a quick turnover time. After discussing with the stringer, we decided to go for a slightly thicker 0.69mm guage string instead for the next restring. Those with long memories will remember the old Prince badminton racquets having low string density as a unique selling point but then being notorious for frequent string breakages. Just a last point on this. I do have offcentre shots with other racquets as well but I don't break the strings as frequently. I gave the racquet to my 9 year daughter to play. She was able to pick up the racquet and use it straight away. Her clears are just past three quarter length of the court which is her limit anyway. Some 9 year olds might be able to clear the length of the court but that is not yet within her ability. I noticed that she was able to control the racquet and start using her fingers to produce small movements to control the shuttle and get a better contact when hitting the shuttle. Granted that this may be also a natural development from her training rather than using the racquet per se. The racquet is placed at the upper end of the racquets market. I feel it is justified to be there though obviously, with a new product, it is difficult to comment on the quality control. Would I get another one ? Initially, no. But the longer I used it (and trying other racquets) , the more it grew on me.... So I did get another one. Whether I use it as my main racquet is a bit difficult to say but for another person, I can see it will suit some styles of play. One has to bear in mind the possibility of string breakage so this reviewer would expect the next generation to go back to a more traditional string density pattern
Some weeks ago, I was contacted by the new Adidas Badminton team and they asked me if I would like to test some of their new equipment. I was a bit concerned at first that this could turn out to be a calculated marketing stunt to influence other BC’ers with over-the-top praises of their rackets, but they convinced me that they were interested in open and honest feedbacks from a player’s perspective. And being the gear head that I am, guess what my answer was… Before we start… Before moving on with the review, I would like to clearly state that I have been sent the reviewed test racket free of charge, but didn’t receive any other sort incentive from Adidas. Also, even if I had to send this review to Adidas for a release prior to posting it here in BC, they haven’t changed a single word from my original version. For those who are wondering why this review might be a little more detailed then my other ones – I feel that it’s only fair to spend some time and effort in return for the efforts that Adidas has invested to make this happen in the first place. Also, I haven’t found any information on this racket at all yet, so I hope that I can fill that gap a little. Specs and construction details Adidas has managed already what seems to be impossible for other brands – to create a logical and easy to understand product line setup (hello, Li-Ning!). And being a German company originally, I really like the idea to give their product lines german names. Since the lines and terms have been listed and explained before in here, I won’t be repeating it once more. The Wucht series is Adidas’ line for power rackets for the big hitters which makes it stand against the Voltric series from Yonex or Victor’s Thrusters. The Wucht P6’s manufacturer spec sheet is as follows: - frame weight: 87 g ± 2 (3U) - balance: 290-295 mm - shaft stiffness: 8.5-9.0 - length: 675 mm - handle size: G5 - tension: ≤30 lbs (click to enlarge...) So I was expecting a medium-stiff, slightly head heavy racket that plays in the same ballpark as my current go-to rackets N9II or N7II. The racket arrived unstrung which gave me the chance to do some dry measurements before stringing it. Total weight: 85.69 g Head weight: 37.62 g Balance point: 296 mm As the other Wucht rackets shown a couple of posts earlier, it has a more compact head shape in the lower half of the head which is identical to the Victor JS10. You can clearly see the difference to the N9II if you put one on top of the other: Also, it shares the JS10's string pattern with 76 holes and a 2+4 shared/single pass holes setup at the top. The frame has noticeable bulges at 10/2 and 4/8 o’clock which are even more prominent then Yonex’s Tri-Voltage bumps. Adidas calls those zones “Quattro Cage” and they are supposed to give the frame extra dynamic stability in these critical areas and to provide an additional snap back effect. The rest of the frame has a delta shaped profile, so kind of in the middle between a box- and an aero-frame, the grommets are sitting in a groove that runs along the full head. The shaft has a diameter of 6.8 mm. One also immediately notices the orange grommet strips around the T-joint that Adidas calls “Expanders”. According to Adidas, are supposed to “boost the elastic stringbed power”, although I have no clue how these things should have any noticeable impact there. If you ask me, it’s a marketing gimmick to immediately recognize the Wucht rackets as such. From a stringer’s perspective, I don’t really like these special grommets since there is always the question how to get them as spare parts later on. IMO the normal U-shaped grommets are doing the job as well there. Grip length is identical to JS10 and N9II. The so called “Launch Trigger” cone shows some structures to make it more grippy. The paint job quality is top notch, the racket comes with a high quality full length thermo cover (for all those who really use it…). The racket is made in China. Stringing I’m convinced that you can only get a proper impression of a new racket if it is strung with your preferred string and tension. So I was kind of pleased that the racket came unstrung and I could string it with my long term favorite string LN1 @13/13 kg (28.4 lbs.). The frame of the P6 made a very stable impression on the stringing machine. The frame bent and moved very little which is always very comforting and assuring for the stringer once you get closer or even exceed the warrantied tensions. Since the P6 has a standard 76 hole pattern, you can basically string it with whatever is your favorite pattern. As a side note, the racket comes with a booklet that contains the recommended stringing patterns for all current Adidas rackets – that’s worth a stringer’s bonus point from me! I’ll have to deduct the previous bonus point again because the single pass grommets at the top are not staggered but drilled in a perfectly straight line. So make sure to have some scrap string ready to unblock the holes later on in the process. As you can also see in this picture, the grommets have a really thick head and appear to be very robust. Would be nice to see these grommets being available as spare parts at some point in time. Another parallel to the JS10 is the high position of the topmost cross string. On the plus side this is supposed to put less stress to the strings on mishits, the downside is that things get a bit cramped when it comes to doing the tie off knot at the top. That’s of course not a major issue and fairly common with compact head rackets and a 2+4 pattern. Overall, the racket is easy to string and leaves a very robust impression. It didn’t seem stressed at all with the ~29 lbs. that I confronted it with. And for those who believe in these things – the ping tail (1333 Hz by the way) was long, loud and clear… Wucht P6 reporting ready for duty… (to be continued...)
(... Part 2...) Enough with the talking, start hitting! To get my usual grip setup, I removed the stock base grip (a fairly heavy one…) and applied one overgrip directly on the wooden handle. For documentation, here are the wet specs with this setup: Total weight: 88.10 g Head weight: 40.44 g Balance point: 308 mm I tried to start the testing phase without making too many direct comparisons with my current go-to rackets. Cause hands down, it’s just not realistic to expect a new and pretty much unknown racket to immediately compete with or even outclass your personal favorites that took some months (years?) to find you. And I noticed that this was actually the first time ever that I had to evaluate a racket from scratch without having read any other user feedback before. So I tried to clear my mind, start playing and let my hands and guts tell me the rest. So far, I’ve spent round about 6 hours on court with it yet and I feel like this is enough to write down my impressions. It only took some warm-up rallies to get a first impression on what to expect. The P6 felt very familiar from the beginning. It was during the first match with it that I stopped thinking about the racket in my hand and could simply focus on the game. And I take that as a very good sign. Despite the little flex in the shaft, there’s a super solid feel on impact with good feedback if I’ve hit the sweet spot or not. Li-Ning is still ahead in the feel department, but it’s definitely ahead of the JS10 in that regard. And speaking of the sweet spot – the racket can’t hide that it has a compact head. The sweet spot is smaller compared to a full-size isometric head, but it gives you that extra kick once you really hit it precisely. If you have ever played with a JS10 for a longer period of time, you know what I mean. Good thing is though that the shot doesn’t die completely once you hit slightly outside the sweet spot center. You won’t be rewarded with that extra power boost, but still get out decent length and control. Torsion stability is sensational which speaks for a very stable T-joint and frame construction. On the plus side of the compact head there is the reduced air resistance and hence the higher swing speed. This is a clever compensation of the bulky frame and makes it a seriously fast racket. It’s still not a JS10, but it’s on par with an N7II I would say. So definitely fast enough to pull off convincing defense stunts or flat exchanges in level doubles. What I really liked was the precision in drops and net shots. Although you have to be careful with sliced drop shots. If you miss the sweet spot just a bit too much, the result will be very hard to control – this was especially obvious on “outward-sliced” shots. The smash power is there when you need it, but hands down, this thing was not designed to be a smash monster. Again, the bit of flex in the shaft offers nice support in the smashes without making the head lag behind. I didn’t have to do anything special in my swing to get out good results. For the record, I’m not the hardest smasher around, so I’m more relying on steep angles and placement and the P6 gave me all I need in that regard. If I only look at the shuttle speed, I would say it’s on par with JS10 and N7II, but I can hit a little harder with the N9II. Not a big surprise looking at the balance and head weight there. Summary Adidas has done a lot of things right with this racket. That Wucht P6 was designed to be a solid all-rounder and that’s what it does really well. Looking at the specs and construction, it appears to be a mixture between a JS10 and an N9II (or make it an Arc11 if you’re more into Yonex). It’s a racket that doesn’t make much fuss or tries to shine with some super special features but instead provides solid performances in all areas. Still, it gets his own character by the compact frame which makes it feel different from the previously named direct competitors. The head construction with those massive bulges gives it a solid and stable platform that also gives it a more solid feel compared to the number of aero frame rackets around. Personally, I still miss that certain wow-moment that gives me the chills and makes me put aside all other rackets in the bag for a while. I think you know what I mean. Nevertheless I got along really well with it and basically I cannot complain about anything in particular – and if you know Germans, this is one of the biggest compliments one can receive. General remarks I think the biggest problem with this racket and Adidas as a new-coming badminton brand in general is a different one: It’s a damn tough competition out there with loads of high class rackets that have been released in the past couple of years. The issue will be a lot less for shoes and clothing since Adidas is well known to produce great stuff there for ages (I still can’t wait to finally see the Wucht P8 shoes being available in Europe!). But with rackets, this is a totally different story. It will be the biggest challenge for Adidas to find a way to stand out from all the others and to give the players good reasons why they should choose one of their rackets. And with a current sales price of round about 140 USD for the P6 at RacquetForce, they are clearly also not trying it by lowballing. It has to be seen what they will do regarding sponsorships in the pro scene since that could give them a significant boost. Anyway, for us players it’s always a good thing to have another big brand entering the market and to keep the pressure on all the others. It’s great to see that they have come up with a lot of innovations in the details like cone or grommet design, so I have my fingers crossed that Adidas will be here to stay for longer than in their previous attempts. The overall performance, the build quality and the technical details that I have seen on that Wucht P6 are serious reasons for me to keep a closer look on their rackets in the future. I hope that they will extend their sales area significantly in the upcoming months too. Next up, I already have a second test racket in the bag which is currently not yet released. I hope I’m not saying too much but it’s part of a whole new product line that is targeted to offer maximum control and precision. So I’m looking forward to giving this a try too over the next weeks to come.
Nice review, as you've said they're in a difficult position as Yonex have just released new rackets that are receiving great reception. I'm happy to see another competitor on the scene. It's a very interesting looking frame; the depth of it (like the height of the frame around the grommets) looks really tall. It looks similar to the AT frames in terms of height. I suspect the power grommet things are, as you say, a gimmick. They're probably just a slightly softer material, and make the main strings just a little longer reducing the tension per inch. It's interesting that they've combined a sword frame with something very similar to the tri-voltage system. Does it sit well in the machine while stringing, or did it take some fiddling to get it to sit nicely? I can imagine it'd be a problem if your supports were on that transitional area between the two profiles, which looks like more of a danger at the top than the bottom. I think this time, Adidas are going to have to put in a lot more work at the ground level to get people using their products. Their name isn't going to carry their rackets in stores. Even a major brand like Wilson is a little looked down upon in the badminton world, and they're well known for producing quality tennis rackets. I think they'd be wholly wise to offer substantial discounts on their products when they're bought together. As you've said people trust the Adidas name for clothing, if you compound that by saying "If you buy an Adidas pair of shoes, you get 25% off of an Adidas racket", that'd be a very tempting offer for people - especially those that are in the emerging market of players that have started to play at a senior level, or have otherwise taken up the sport for ~1 year where they're looking to upgrade their equipment suitably.
I didn't have any issues mounting it since the bulges are nowhere near the side support touching points: The lower ones won't be an issue also with more extreme side support positions, but if you do a significant @Mark A style bias, the upper ones might get in the way at some point. That's a great idea! It should be a lot easier to win the less experience players who don't have a bag full of high end rackets already. And the more often you see the Adidas logo on badminton courts (shoes, clothes, rackets...), the more it will be related to badminton in general.
Every time I mention Adidas in the badminton world, people say, where are the clothes and shoes ? Good question..! Racquets are going to take a longer time to build up their reputation. How many years have Victor or Apacs been in the market? Other brands like Yang Yang, joobong, Astec, Black Knight, Bonny, Kason etc have their own specific markets. Prokennex was a medium player but dropped away. Carlton...
I had an Adipower Tour and Adipower Pro... never seemed to have good accuracy. Felt like the frame would twist at the T joint on hard hits... Hope this new series run will be better. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
I felt it as vibration. It is now a totally different manufacturing process and the person at the top knows badminton so we are looking at a different thing altogether. For us badminton fanatics, we will have a different perspective as we know the history. Those newer players that @Charlie-SWUK was referring to will start be starting afresh and probably a better bet for the brand. I guess us oldies will always have the first original range in the back of our minds..
We have a lot of the adidas racket line in our store, and it has sold really well in Canada and US. However, just like someone mentioned about the lack of European representation, we get a surprising amount of orders from Germany
Just a thought @Cheung - would it make sense to move this thread to the "Rackets / Equipment" sub-forum or create a separate one there to gather the racket related stuff like reviews and such? EDIT: Thanks @Cheung!
Nice review! I love Adidas products, but why is nothing to be found in Germany? Even under Adidas.de badminton is not available. I would especially wish for special Adidas badminton shoes.
Adidas badminton is a separate legal entity (so in fact a different company) than the "normal" Adidas stuff. So they first have to build up their own distribution network and that's what is currently happening. Currently, the only option for us Europeans is to order from overseas - check out RacquetForce, they have a wide selection of Adidas stuff in the shop. Although ordering unknown shoes from Asia is a bit delicate.
Ofcourts (disclosure- I own shares in the company) is a US/ Canada retailer and carries a decent range of adidas badminton gear.
It's about time a german company also show what they can do for the badminton community, unless they find this area of interest not that.much of a worthy challenge to their expertise☺ Adidas in particular should've ventured into this more aggressively earlier on although maybe it's not too late to do so. Maybe because badminton is not much of a big deal in europe so business wise it's not gonna be practical and profitable for them? I love many german products because of their quality and would be happy if badminton would be one thing also that they would lay their hands on. Sent from my SM-J320F using Tapatalk
They already did the aggressive approach but that failed and set the company backwards. This is their second attempt after complete reevaluation
But it sounds like Adidas badminton is a completely separate entity from Adidas AG corporation. It's not even a subsidiary. Adidas badminton is just borrowing the Adidas name. Perhaps the shoes are designed by Adidas shoe division, but none of the rackets are designed by Adidas nor are they made in Germany (mostly China). CMMIIW, but they have been oem'd out by Adidas badminton (which is a HK company) from factories in China. It's like if DinkAlot could've borrowed a licence in Nike's name to design and sell rackets instead of using the Panda Power name. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
