How to spot a fake racquet

Some time back, we bought a Yonex Astrox 99 Play White Tiger. The racquet felt very different from the other Yonex Astrox 99 Play Cherry Sunburst which I have, and I have 5 of them. This made me curious as to whether it was a production defect, but Yonex has very good quality controls, so this was an odd one.

When we dived deeper into the problems with the racquet, it was clear that this racquet was not up to the standards Yonex sets.

The White Tiger is the fake racquet here. The Cherry Sunburst (red and black) is real and bought from official channels.

Dimensions

The dimensions are a bit longer than the real Astrox 99 Play. Even with strings which usually compresses the frame and make it a few milimetres shorter, the Fake (white) racquet is still a few milimetres longer from the Real (red/black) racquet.

Both racquets are placed on the same starting line at the grip. And the Fake (white) can be seen to be longer than the Real (red/black).

Head Balance

The head balance is not the same as the other Astrox. It is outside the range for the head balance for usual Astrox 99 Play racquets.

The balance point for the Fake (white) is further away from the grip. This might be due to the fact it still has strings on. But, even when comparing the racquets when both had strings, the Fake (white) felt excessively heavy. It feels much heavier than a real Astrox 99.

Racquet Balance

There is a new thing I discovered with this Fake (White) racquet, and it is that the racquet is unbalanced and is heavier on the black part of the racquet. This makes it impossible to control when swinging the racquet.

The Real (Red/Black) is in perfect balance on both sides of the racquet. It does not tilt when balanced on the shaft.

Paint Quality. Logos and Fonts

The paint quality is similar. The Fake (White) has done a very good job in matching the quality of real Yonex products.

The Logo on the Fake (White) looks a fraction smaller than the Logo on the Real (Red/Black). The differences are very small, and it is obvious only when the 2 racquets are put side by side.

The fonts used by the Fake (White) are also a little bit different from the Real (Red/Black). It is difficult to tell the difference by looking at it on its own. It becomes clear when it is put side by side with the Real (Red/White) racquet.

The sharpness of the fonts of the Real (Red/Black) are very obvious when looking at the side of the racquet. The fonts of the Fake (White) are smudged.

The hologram stickers look almost real. The difference here is that the Fake (White) has the hologram sticker which looks solid. The Real (Red/Black) has a hologram sticker which is partially translucent.

Conclusion

The Fake (White) racquet is so well done. The usual dimensions of weight, width, length are almost identical to the Real (Red/Black). At first glance without another racquet to compare, it is almost impossible to tell the difference. However, when swinging the racquet, it immediately feels off.

I bought this racquet online, from a shop I bought a few racquets from before. This is the first time I got what I thought was a defective racquet. I actually brought the racquet back to the shop to exchange it. The shop’s reaction made me very suspicious. They refused to exchange it, giving lots of excuses.

That is a lesson well learnt. I am only buying racquets from official channels online. When walking into a shop, I can always swing the racquet to feel it. Even without strings, I can gauge whether the racquet feels good or not.

And, yeah, I am not buying anything from the shop ever again. It is a well known shop online, and I am sure if you are into badminton, you would have heard of that shop’s name.

That’s it for this entry.

Until the next entry, eat well, get plenty of rest and keep the badminton going!