In the basketball shoes industry, Nike, Adidas and all the big players often use NBA stars' name as their shoes name. For example, Air Jordan, Nike Lebron, Nike KD, Adidas Drose, New Balance Kawhi, etc. It gives sort of prestige to the shoes and make them a bit more special. Yonex could make Astrox Sanjaya or Astrox KS. Or Victor TTY. Or Mizuno Nozomi. Instead of a generic name like 88S or Thruster F. They could even make different iterations every year so people keep buying; TTY 1, TTY 2, TTY 3, etc. I wonder why they don't do this for high end rackets.
Personally I think it's cringe to put a player's name as an entire iteration. There has been the Lin Dan Force before though. Rather than make a different racquet with a name attached, I'd much rather just have a special (player) edition, like how there's been Arc10 Taufik and Gade editions, Duora 10 and Astrox 99 LCW editons, VFII LD version, etc. Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk
How many more racquets can they sell by doing this? It’s a question of economics. What’s the worldwide appeal of a badminton player compared to a basketball player?
As others pointed out this has been the case in the past. Victor also had a Jetspeed YYS (Yoo Yeon Seong) or Bravesword LYD (Lee Yong Dae) f.e. Li Ning and Yonex have had special editions for certain players with different colourways, f.e. N9-II Fu Haifeng/Tontowi Ahmad, N7-II light Natsir/Zhao YL, Chen Long N99 or Duora 10 LCW/Astrox 99 LCW... Li Ning and Yonex also had Player Edition shoes/colourways. In LN's case with the player's signature on it and they also have bags for specific players.
Pretty sure YD Sport or Yong Dae Sports (Korean badminton gear comp) uses Lee Yong Dae name as their company name and pretty sure LYD did have some input on some products, but he's still sponsored by Yonex so he didn't use YD Sports racket.
What about the issue that players need to use rackets with the name of their opponent on it or we customers need to choose from various Arcsaber 11s which got named by various pros, in various colorways to seperate them(customers are even more confused)? And what about the issue that brands need to change the production-line more frequent (higher costs -> higher prices)? And what about the issue that pros don't use their signatures so the whole impact is gone? E.g. Take a look at Ahsan and Setiawan who went in a few years through 4 sponsors (Yonex, Li-Ning, Mizuno and Victor) and got from each a signature. Does it pay-off for a brand? IMO the idea make no sense, because nobody wins at all.
Well...If people still buys the signature racket the company will still bring it out. Also, if you're talking about the collector perspective. It's kinda like "limited" in some way since the production will stop once the player switch brand or retire. If you ask who win? I would say everyone since the one who wanted the racket will buy it anyway no matter the cost. The brand got money to develop new products and the players got incentive and sales share for their life after retirement. No matter how many colorways and names they pump out, it's buyers job to study the specs or ask the shop about the differences.
Please read the title and the OP. We are not talking here about the existing side business with signatures, limited editions and serving a very small collectors market or to please a few fanboys. The OP asks why brands don't name their commercial and normal rackets by pros and that's the point: how naming rackets by pros if 300 Yonex sponsored players choose between 8-10 models? How should this work?
Uuummm.... It would be funny to hear a player using Gideon or a player wearing tty & having limited edition sell higher than regular one. So why use Kento Momota name as regular product. Astrox 99 Pro limited edition Kento Momota signature sell with twice price. That would be much profitable & while just knowing KM use 99 are enough to attract fan boy to buy regular one.
Would be also funny when Yonex try to explain Goh V Shem that he need to decide between the Fernaldi or Sukamuljo when he wants a racket which suits him.
Li Ning n7ii light and 75i, both of them has Liliyana Natsir edition, n7ii Hendra Setiawan edition, Aeronaut 9000C Yuta, Bladex 800 Zhang Nan, Axforce 80 Chen Long There are more from Yonex beside Ax99 LCW and VZF LD like Arcsaber 71 light and Nanoray 70 light. Victor have Auraspeed, Thruster K, and Drive X Cai Yun, Thruster Tokyo Silver, Drive X Tokyo Gold, Auraspeed 100x Ahsan, Thruster K Falcon Hendra
OP mean instead of Aeronaut 9000 C Yuta, why not name it Lining Yuta. Instead of N9ii FHF, just name it Lining FHF. Instead of Voltric ZF Lindan why not Yonex Lindan.
Nike Air Jordan and they have normal Nike Air. Adidas has Nemeziz Messi and normal Nemeziz before. It's a choice for normal fans and fans who like spent money for limited player edition, that make the brand got more money. Example: Normal Aeronaut 9000C 2000 USD but Yuta edition 2500 USD. Normal fans will choose the first but for some people will choose second
you got it wrong friend. OP mean using player name as the product model itself not adding their name to the existing lineup as a limited edition item. For example from your example to be used as example(hope that not confusing): Nike Air Jordan > Nike Jordan (no Air name) Adidas Nemeziz Messi > Adidas Messi (no Nemeziz name) & my guest are exactly right how you explain. Limited edition sell higher than regular one but still some fanboy would rob the bank for it. Not to mention when you wear Nike Jordan & your friend yell out loud... Holy sh.. You are using Jordan. Other people hear it would be.....Damn... What he mean using? Hey Jordan (looking at their friend named Jordan) did you do something with him, you didnt do something wierd right?
