What's the difference between Butterfly and European rubbers?

[Lizh with skVII]

Butterfly rubbers and most European rubbers both seems to be combinations of bouncy sponges and non-sticky/little sticky surfaces,but Butterfly is always considered as better ones,what caused this?

 

[Airoc]

what caused this?

Myth?

Due to a different technological approach some people prefer the playing characteristics of Butterfly rubbers. And of course t05 used to rule the world for so long that people rely on it and simply don´t see a reason to adjust to something that plays a little different

But I don´t see any advantage of their rubbers over ESN rubbers in terms of performance anymore, maybe in terms of durability.

But even that is not a critical issue like it used to be. Of course I can only speak of conditions over here: Several years ago a tenergy cost 50 Euro, a typical ESN rubber was around 35, and you could get discounts on both - at that time tenergy outlasted others by far and the price was justified for that alone.

Today I pay 60 Euro for a tenergy (no discount) and around 45 for a discounted Evolution MX-D and I don´t see there´s any significant difference in their durability.

At the end of the day, a matter of personal preference, I´d say.

 

[merlin el mago]

Could Evolution MX-D be different of MX-P that I used? Sincerely don't believe the same durability MX-D like BTY TGY....

 

[JJ Ng]

Price, durability, prestige, feeling, performance, quality control, etc. etc.

Often times, people equate high prices with quality. So Butterfly being more expensive must be better.

But on a more serious note, some people are used to playing with Tenergy and its Spring Sponge technology. Yes ESN (European rubber) has tensor but some players will swear tensor does not feel the same as spring sponge.

If you look at top players, overwhelming majority use Butterfly. My club coach pretty much uses that as an excuse and sell Butterfly equipment only. There is something to be said about that argument. After all, top players want every little edge they can get so if that means Butterfly, then they will stick with Butterfly.

On the other hand, Lebrun brothers switched from Butterfly (D09c I believe) to Tibhar (K3 now) and they have not missed a beat. Kao Cheng-Jui switched from Butterfly to Andro and he seemed to struggle a bit in the beginning but is doing very well now. Oh Junsung switched from Butterfly to Tibhar but seems to be struggling with adapting to European rubbers.

So it is a matter of preference and where you can source your equipment (it is impossible to get any discount on any Butterfly equipment; Butterfly is very strict with its distributer policy and will revoke your ability to sell Butterfly products at any time.

 

[Tyce]

Price, durability, prestige, feeling, performance, quality control, etc. etc.

Often times, people equate high prices with quality. So Butterfly being more expensive must be better.

But on a more serious note, some people are used to playing with Tenergy and its Spring Sponge technology. Yes ESN (European rubber) has tensor but some players will swear tensor does not feel the same as spring sponge.

If you look at top players, overwhelming majority use Butterfly. My club coach pretty much uses that as an excuse and sell Butterfly equipment only. There is something to be said about that argument. After all, top players want every little edge they can get so if that means Butterfly, then they will stick with Butterfly.

On the other hand, Lebrun brothers switched from Butterfly (D09c I believe) to Tibhar (K3 now) and they have not missed a beat. Kao Cheng-Jui switched from Butterfly to Andro and he seemed to struggle a bit in the beginning but is doing very well now. Oh Junsung switched from Butterfly to Tibhar but seems to be struggling with adapting to European rubbers.

This is a bit of cause-and-effect. Butterfly sponsors a LOT. They spend so much time, effort and money on sponsorships that "getting sponsored" in many countries is, or has been, analogue for "using Butterfly".

It's easy to then think that Butterfly equals good, because good players use Butterfly.

So it is a matter of preference and where you can source your equipment (it is impossible to get any discount on any Butterfly equipment; Butterfly is very strict with its distributer policy and will revoke your ability to sell Butterfly products at any time.

This is just perfect marketing. They're making the brand "exclusive" which means that companies that want to look exclusive too, need to barter for distributorship. In Western Europe at least, there's only one official distributor per country. So if companies have to be good to be able to sell these products, the products have to be awesome, right?

Butterfly complements this with more marketing factors:
- their own rubber hardness scale
- a very comprehensible rubber catalog

But what they also do is generally release good products, with a high level of consistency in QC (rubbers) and good standard of finishing (blades).

ESN brands have released what, 5-10 hybrids with different hardnesses and ideas per brand? Butterfly just did 2 (Dignics and Glayzer 09c) with a pretty clear picture of the target audience for each. I honestly get completely lost in ESN brand catalogs. And that's besides the obvious marketing issues with horrible websites and little to no (f)actual information for brands like Tibhar and Donic.

Andro is making a good point about providing specifications, including sound clips of their blades. I personally think though that their product lines lack courage (pizazz) and international targeting. Most of it is rather bland and/or too German-focused. Even if Germany is a huge market in Europe, I think it's a problem.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

This is a bit of cause-and-effect. Butterfly sponsors a LOT. They spend so much time, effort and money on sponsorships that "getting sponsored" in many countries is, or has been, analogue for "using Butterfly".

What countries are those? Butterfly's sponsorship policy is pretty clearly "top players in the world, earn your position and we'll be there waiting for you", and I don't see them getting into the club level or lower level players any more than ESN brands. Currently in 2025, ESN brands like Tibhar and Andro are actually pretty clearly investing more resources into player sponsorship than anyone else.

ESN brands have released what, 5-10 hybrids with different hardnesses and ideas per brand? Butterfly just did 2 (Dignics and Glayzer 09c) with a pretty clear picture of the target audience for each. I honestly get completely lost in ESN brand catalogs. And that's besides the obvious marketing issues with horrible websites and little to no (f)actual information for brands like Tibhar and Donic.

100% this

 

[Tyce]

What countries are those? Butterfly's sponsorship policy is pretty clearly "top players in the world, earn your position and we'll be there waiting for you", and I don't see them getting into the club level or lower level players any more than ESN brands. Currently in 2025, ESN brands like Tibhar and Andro are actually pretty clearly investing more resources into player sponsorship than anyone else.

ESN brands have caught up well nowadays, but definitely lots of Butterfly sponsorships in juniors in Netherlands, France, Belgium from what I know. And they have been doing it for a long time too.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

ESN brands have caught up well nowadays, but definitely lots of Butterfly sponsorships in juniors in Netherlands, France, Belgium from what I know. And they have been doing it for a long time too.

Tibhar has been dominant in France long before the Lebruns. Tibhar and Donic have been leaders in Belgium as well. Andro has been a presence for a while I hear.

Netherlands I'm not as sure and you probably know better than me but I was under the impression JOOLA always had a strong presence there, sponsoring Rajko Gommers one of the top Dutch players for almost all of his career. In fairness Britt Eerland has long been with Butterfly.

Sure, Butterfly has presence in these countries too, but I'm not sure that being sponsored being analogue to using Butterfly in many countries is very accurate.

 

[Angerer]

Butterfly rubbers and most European rubbers both seems to be combinations of bouncy sponges and non-sticky/little sticky surfaces,but Butterfly is always considered as better ones,what caused this?

Durability is the main reason, imo.
For example, I don't see how products from Tibhar and Andro are worse than the Butterfly's counterparts. But for me it's obvious that BTY products last longer, some even last way longer.

 

[Tyce]

Tibhar has been dominant in France long before the Lebruns. Tibhar and Donic have been leaders in Belgium as well. Andro has been a presence for a while I hear.

Netherlands I'm not as sure and you probably know better than me but I was under the impression JOOLA always had a strong presence there, sponsoring Rajko Gommers one of the top Dutch players for almost all of his career. In fairness Britt Eerland has long been with Butterfly.

Sure, Butterfly has presence in these countries too, but I'm not sure that being sponsored being analogue to using Butterfly in many countries is very accurate.

Ah you hit the hole of my hiatus apparently... I had to look up who Rajko Gommers is

Guess my knowledge is limited to pre ABS ball and my current club

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Ah you hit the hole of my hiatus apparently... I had to look up who Rajko Gommers is

Guess my knowledge is limited to pre ABS ball and my current club

Great guy and solid player. He spent some years here in the US coaching and playing before moving back.

 

[TensorBackhand]

Butterfly rubbers and most European rubbers both seems to be combinations of bouncy sponges and non-sticky/little sticky surfaces,but Butterfly is always considered as better ones,what caused this?

I think very little difference.

The only thing frustrating about Euro rubbers is that they often will shrink after cutting.

 

[Airoc]

some players will swear tensor does not feel the same as spring sponge.

It´s true. Equal if not better performance meanwhile, different feeling. Whenever I play with someone´s t05 it´s a familiar, different feeling, although I haven´t used it myself in a long time now.
It´s just not a better feeling ;-)

 

[Airoc]

If you look at top players, overwhelming majority use Butterfly.

Is that still true?
In the top 10 of the world ranking I see 4 Chinese players who very likely use Chinese rubbers, 5 ESN (Calderano XIOM, Moreghard Stiga, both Lebruns and Jorgic Tibhar) with Harimoto the only Butterfly player.
From 10 to 20 it looks a little better. From then on I don´t know who plays what ;-)

 

[RefereeNumber2]

Butterfly pours massive resources into R&D — much more per product line than ESN — and manufactures all their rubbers themselves. And their rubbers definitely stand apart. You just need to hold a sheet of Butterfly and ESN rubber side by side to see the differences in sponge material, topsheet texture, flexibility, etc. They produce different feeling on the racket, too.

Whether Butterfly rubbers are better comes down to personal preference. I prefer them bc of the feeling, weight (Butterfly rubbers are among the lightest in their hardness class), and performance. I personally feel like Butterfly rubbers produce stronger/more consistent spin than ESN rubbers I’ve tried — at least once you factor in durability, given the fact that most of the time you’re going to be playing the rubber with some amount of wear on it. Butterfly rubbers generally hold up better than ESN. Another minor quality of life thing is since Butterfly rubbers have sturdier sponges, in my experience it’s easier to remove glue from them without damaging/tearing the sponge, which matters if you want to move rubbers between blades and/or (re)boost. With ESN rubbers, this is more challenging, if not impossible (in the case of softer tensors).

I do think that ESN’s hybrids have closed the gap with Butterfly in the sense that products like Donic Bluestar and Andro Nuzn are unique, so if you like them there’s no Butterfly alternative (yet).

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Is that still true?
In the top 10 of the world ranking I see 4 Chinese players who very likely use Chinese rubbers, 5 ESN (Calderano XIOM, Moreghard Stiga, both Lebruns and Jorgic Tibhar) with Harimoto the only Butterfly player.
From 10 to 20 it looks a little better. From then on I don´t know who plays what ;-)

If you're looking at the top players in the world, what equipment they use often isn't as simple as what they prefer to use

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

What countries are those? Butterfly's sponsorship policy is pretty clearly "top players in the world, earn your position and we'll be there waiting for you", and I don't see them getting into the club level or lower level players any more than ESN brands. Currently in 2025, ESN brands like Tibhar and Andro are actually pretty clearly investing more resources into player sponsorship than anyone else.

This is the case in Asia
Lots of juniors from Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
I would say more than 2/3.
Butterfly tend to pick them up early.
Don't offer a lot compared to ESN brands, but Butterfly quality makes the players stay.

and when they get better/more famous, but not famous enough, you could see them changing to ESN for more lucrative deals.
So far, some brands allow H3 on FH and you just need to use they blade and BH rubber.
Some brands says no, and giving up a H3 is a bigger problem than finding a ESN Butterfly rubber

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Is that still true?
In the top 10 of the world ranking I see 4 Chinese players who very likely use Chinese rubbers, 5 ESN (Calderano XIOM, Moreghard Stiga, both Lebruns and Jorgic Tibhar) with Harimoto the only Butterfly player.
From 10 to 20 it looks a little better. From then on I don´t know who plays what ;-)

This is because Butterfly lost a bit of ground.
Timo Boll and Dima, former top 10 players out
LYJ is one of the top non Japanese Butterfly players.

and then the top Butterfly Chinese players (FZD) is gone.

And with Lebruns showing up from no where, Tibhard is max in the mix.
Generally Koreans are Butterfly too, but men's side missing a Korean.
So if you have 1 to 2 Chinese, 1 Japanese, 1 Korea, 1 German, 1 Taiwanese, Butterfly will be back in the 60% range in the Top 10.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

This is the case in Asia
Lots of juniors from Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
I would say more than 2/3.
Butterfly tend to pick them up early.
Don't offer a lot compared to ESN brands, but Butterfly quality makes the players stay.

and when they get better/more famous, but not famous enough, you could see them changing to ESN for more lucrative deals.
So far, some brands allow H3 on FH and you just need to use they blade and BH rubber.
Some brands says no, and giving up a H3 is a bigger problem than finding a ESN Butterfly rubber

Yeah it's the case in a select few countries in East Asia but not even all of Asia, but definitely not the case in most of Europe and the rest of the TT playing world - other brands have plenty of representation elsewhere on the map

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

ESN brands have released what, 5-10 hybrids with different hardnesses and ideas per brand? Butterfly just did 2 (Dignics and Glayzer 09c) with a pretty clear picture of the target audience for each. I honestly get completely lost in ESN brand catalogs. And that's besides the obvious marketing issues with horrible websites and little to no (f)actual information for brands like Tibhar and Donic.

From production point of view
Butterfly spends 5 to 10 years to bring something out.

ESN... something new every year.

Butterfly has a small product mix (only grown recently with Glazyer and Rozena added for affordability).
and Butterfly uses generations,
Spring sponge, and version 2 as the core.

Most pros say, the sponge is unmatchable, with only recent that Tibhar is very close. But Tibhar requires daily replacement, where Butterfly can be up to a week

Personally, the quality of the rubber itself, the consistency, of Butterfly is better.