Top 5 Selling Tennis Strings – Part II
By David Henry on Jun 01, 2011 with Comments 7
Last year, I compiled a video post about the top 5 selling tennis strings at tennis specialty stores – from January 2010 through June 2010. In this post, I cover the top 5 selling tennis strings at tennis specialty stores for the time period of January 2011 through March 2011. There is one major change in the top five – check out the video below…
Thanks for checking in.
DH
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Top 5 Selling Tennis Strings
Filed Under: Strings
D:
I’ve played both Alu Rough, and RPM. Similar spin, but very different feel. I’ve also strung racquets with both, again, totally different “pull” for each. Also depends on gauge too of course.
I find RPM to be a bit more lively in feedback, where AR is more muted overall. Gauge wise on RPM, I find 17 to lose tension very quickly, and it breaks far faster than 16 gauge, quicker than you’d expect for a poly.
If I blend RPM with a soft cross string, 17 gauge is ideal, full on RPM, I’d say go 16 and work the tension to the players frame and preference for feel.
Thanks Chris. You always provide good, sound information that is much appreciated. I agree that stringing Alu Power Rough is quite different than stringing RPM Blast. To me, Rough seems much stiffer – which jives with your playability feedback.
Thanks again for the info. Take care.
DH
Hey DH,
why do you say that Nadal “supposedly” uses RPM Blast? Is it really another string with a paintjob?
Interesting that you picked up on my “supposedly” comment. When Pro Hurricane Tour (PHT) was Babolat’s “flagship” co-polyester string, there were many rumors that he was actually still using Babolat Duralast – just painted yellow to look like PHT. I was not in any of the tour stringing rooms, so I cannot confirm or deny – just stating that there were rumors. I have not heard these same rumors about RPM Blast, so I guess I should assume he is using it. 🙂 I am guessing that you can probably find some threads about this on the Tennis Warehouse Talk Tennis boards – just may have to search a bit.
Take care.
DH
What you said about babolat on pro tour was insightful and revealing. The best selling strings could be a result of the marketing strategy to the masses of tennis players and does not really tell about the playability of the string, feel, tension loss, control, etc. This can only come from the tournament players and pros who require that extra something from the string. The question that comes to mind when listening to your video on the most popular strings is why? Why or what qualities do these strings have over the others that affects playability and what are their drawbacks? There are way too many choices out there and we really need some expert advice, which I believe you can provide. Thanks. Tom
Tom – I think the top-selling strings are top sellers for the following reasons:
1. They are from large companies who already have strong brand awareness and strong reputations.
2. They are from large companies who have large marketing budgets to further increase brand awareness and reputation.
3. They are very good quality strings. The companies that produce them are, again, large and thus can devote many resources to research and development.
4. They are from companies that have large, well-developed sales forces who work with tennis specialty shops and get them to carry/recommend their strings to customers.
With that said, there are some outstanding strings being produced by many companies not listed in the top 5 – companies like PACIFIC, Technifibre, Kirschbaum, Genesis, SOLINCO, Head, and on and on.
I created a video a while back about how to select strings. You should check it out if you haven’t yet. Here is the link: http://www.inspired-tennis.com/2011/01/selecting-tennis-strings/
I think the best way to find the perfect string setup is to apply the thoughts in my video, do research, ask questions of guys like me, etc – in order to narrow down the choices a little bit to a type of string and maybe a few different brands. Then… The only way to go from there is to playtest, playtest, playtest.
Take care.
DH
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