Calderano Signs with Joola (#139)

[zeio]

Your posts are full of highly interesting points, but why, why, WHYYYY do you insist on linking to your own TTD posts as "sources", which then in turn link to other posts, by yourself, as "sources" etc etc etc?
Can't you see this completely devalues your credibility?
Sources, when used properly, are supposed to be entities other than yourself. Third parties that corroborate the story.

Look. Those incomplete quotes where I paraphrased actually contain links (except for the financial numbers) to the original sources that are not in English.

 

[zeio]

Arrangements can differ, I'm speaking moreso about DHS and Butterfly. He also probably wants his blade to sell well and it's not a good look if he says "my blade is quite different from the one you can buy, but please buy it anyways".

Not every top pro opts to use these services even if they are available to them, but the point is that its available to them, and them only, when its not available to others.

Add Stiga to the mix.

XX said in video interviews at a trade fair from many years back that his blades (Offensive Wood NCT, Rosewood NCT V, Intensity NCT etc.) came with a bigger head because he has bigger hands and most people couldn't play with it.

秦志戬透露许昕晋级东京秘密:因手大而特制球拍 (Qin Zhijian reveals Xu Xin's secret to advancing to Tokyo [WTTC 2014]: He had a custom-made racket because of his large hands)
https://www.chinanews.com/ty/2014/03-04/5906520.shtml

　　金陵晚报记者采访到许昕的主管教练秦志戬，对方感慨许昕在一队逐渐站稳脚跟的不易，还不经意透露了一个小秘密：因为手太大，许昕的乒乓球拍是特制的，普通人拿着他的拍子就像拿着一把扇子。

(A reporter from Jinling Evening News interviewed Xu Xin's head coach, Qin Zhijian, who expressed his admiration for the difficulty Xu Xin had in gradually establishing himself in the first team. He also inadvertently revealed a little secret: because Xu Xin's hands are so big, his table tennis racket is custom-made, and for an ordinary person, holding his racket is like holding a fan.)

　　手太大成乒坛奇葩

　　很多人不知道，成年后的许昕，用的球板都是定制的，“因为他的手太大了，他拿的又是直板，会影响到手感。所以队里专门联系厂家，给他量身订制了球拍。女选手拿着他的拍子，常感慨像把扇子。”

　　正因为他特制的球拍，秦志戬为许昕特制了技战术：“我希望他的前三板控制和反控制能学习马琳，反手体系能借助王皓，但要加一些推挡。加上自己本身超强的正手杀伤力，在世界乒坛还是能站稳脚跟的。”

　　“这次直通赛他就打得很好，尤其最后一场赢下势头正旺的樊振东，对他的自信帮助很大。”樊振东这一路上来很有杀伤力，先是赢了郝帅，又战胜马龙，打许昕时也表现得虎虎生威，关键时刻，许昕及时调整心态，连扳三局，拿下宝贵的门票。

　　“我常常调侃他，国乒里只有他一个人有特制球拍的待遇，他一定要对得起自己这把与众不同的拍子。”

(Oversized hands have made him a unique figure in the world of table tennis

Many people don't know that Xu Xin, after reaching adulthood, uses custom-made rackets. "Because his hands are so big, and he uses a penhold grip, it affects his feel. So the team specially contacted a manufacturer to have a racket custom-made for him. Female players often remark that his racket looks like a fan."

Because of his custom-made racket, Qin Zhijian developed a special strategy for Xu Xin: "I hope his control in the first three shots and his counter-control can learn from Ma Lin, and his backhand system can draw on Wang Hao's, but with some push-blocking added. Combined with his own super strong forehand attack, he can still stand firm in the world of table tennis."

"He played very well in this qualifying tournament, especially winning the last match against the in-form Fan Zhendong, which greatly boosted his confidence." Fan Zhendong has been very aggressive throughout, first defeating Hao Shuai, then Ma Long, and also showing great strength against Xu Xin. At the crucial moment, Xu Xin adjusted his mindset in time, winning three consecutive games to secure the valuable ticket.

"I often tease him that he's the only one in the national table tennis team who gets the special treatment of a custom-made racket, and he has to live up to the uniqueness of his racket.")

 

[Doralikesmath]

In musical instruments, different wood grades definitely affect sound and price. I’m not very familiar with how wood grading applies to table tennis blades, but I’d guess that the very top players use blades made from the highest-quality woods available to the manufacturers.

 

[NextLevel]

That is pretty much all I said in my comments simply that it is true that these customizations do occur and in some cases are not available to the public. Not with every brand, not with every player, not with every product. Based on Matt's comments, Joola doesn't appear to be one of those brands but that is likely because they don't produce their own blades or rubbers so it is really up to the abilities of whoever they contract with.

I thought that most people can understand that their stuff differs in (what some might consider) fundamental ways from what some pros use, without that meaning that commercial versions are clearly "worse" for amateur players. I thought that was obvious. But maybe not.

You seem to be more willing than I am to overlook when amateur players claim that customization is going on with pros equipment with hardly any evidence of it in specfic blade playing features. For example, based on our conversation, Zhang Jike is using customized Viscarias because they don't have the writings that are the standard features of commercial Viscarias. The main point here is that the fact that it isn't commercial is evidence that it is specially customized for the player. So Timo Boll is gluing custom Boll ALCs. Truls is using custom Cybershapw Carbons. All without any specific understanding of whether there is a meaningful difference between ZjK's Viscaria and the commercial Viscaria or Boll's non-commercial ALCa vs the ones you can buy. The fact it doesn't have the serial number for commercial blades makes it custom. For me, using the word custom should be tied to an insight into a genuinely unique feature. And hopefully something more significant than handle design if possible. But it is okay, we have exhausted the topic. People are free to continue believing that pros have blades that use vibranium-carbon in the weave while selling us the ALC ans ZLC ones.

 

[joshmak10]

I hear your point. But do you think different veneer thicknesses, overall thicknesses, wood selection are "meaningful differences"? I would argue they are. Some may not.

Change one degree difference for a pro player’s rubber or a 0.1mm thicker core of their blade, and I’m sure they will feel a difference, even though many will argue that it is, quote, “meaningless”

 

[joshmak10]

This doesn't sound quite right, but at this point, it's not worth digging into (his equipment video is 41 minutes long). Not sure what "commercial national 41 degree" means, and I know you are citing Heming.

What I mean is the regular National Hurricanes. Not the Star versions or player versions.

But basically, what you are saying is that if I buy this rubber:

https://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/dhs-hurricane-3-neo-41-5-wang-chuqin-fh-black

I am not buying what Wang uses, I am just wasting money?

Yes on both counts because a) you can buy it for much cheaper on Prott and b) this is just a star version Hurricane of the highest quality that uses Wang’s preferred hardness. I can bet if, and that’s a big if, the actual player version of Wang’s hurricane from Prott is legit, it will feel a million times better than the star version

 

[NextLevel]

I hear your point. But do you think different veneer thicknesses, overall thicknesses, wood selection are "meaningful differences"? I would argue they are. Some may not.

They can be, but I would rather the topic be discussed with the specifics, not under the assumption that because it is a Tino Boll blade without commercial serial numbers delivered to Timo Boll, it suddenly assumes magical custom properties for that reason. We don't say that because Boll got rubbers without the plastic sheets and only the paper sheets that he got custom Dignics 09c though I must speak for myself because you might.

For example, I have written elsewhere that Quadri gets his rubbers with a thicker sponge than commercially available. It's the same rubber though and the thicknes he uses might be available in some Asian countries though I don't know the latter for a fact. But what I am arguing against is the default 'he is a pro, therefore he plays with Harry Potter wands..." Even some fairly highly ranked pros don't do much better than "I got all these blades and found a few of them I liked."

 

[ck1407]

Guys, what if the switch made by Hugo was due to the constrains of his xiom contract. His new club uses DHS tables. Since he was a xiom sponsored player, he should technically be furnishing his club with xiom tables. But since he opted for DHS instead, that could be grounds for xiom that it is a breach in contract.

So maybe Joola is more relaxed about this matter as they value Hugo as player and what he can bring to the brand.

Or xiom is just not profiting well since they are losing a lot of sponsored players like an jae hyun aside from hugo

 

[zeio]

I hear your point. But do you think different veneer thicknesses, overall thicknesses, wood selection are "meaningful differences"? I would argue they are. Some may not.

Definitely for one-ply blades.

To add to what Chihara said about players' custom orders that I didn't translate, RSM's blades have roughly the same weight as those of KTS, 98-103g, with the former being heavier by roughly 3g to make up for the missing bottom handle piece. Chihara then added that blades with grains so tight (0.5mm typically, 1mm tops, as he mentioned earlier) that meet the weight requirement only account for 1% and sometimes not even 1% of all blades. And when those players inspect the blades, the grains are very important and they would knock the blade against their head or with their knuckle (essentially rudimentary modal analysis), through which they can tell if the blade is a fit or not. In addition to that, according to play styles, some players don't like blades that sound too stiff or bounce too much and there are players like RSM who like bouncy blades and so it is not absolute.

Ahem, quoting my own post for future reference.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/calderano-signs-with-joola-139.38480/post-558014

Here is the one where Chihara talks about players making a special order for 1 to 2 blades at a time, whereas RSM orders 3 blades at most at a time. Can't find the other one for now.

蝴蝶公司的单桧选材标准及千原悟谈柳承敏对底板的选择

蝴蝶公司的单桧选材标准及千原悟谈柳承敏对底板的选择_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

考古老视频，自费请人翻译了一下，用爱发电，还请多多支持。, 视频播放量 7083、弹幕量 5、点赞数 218、投硬币枚数 34、收藏人数 210、转发人数 83, 视频作者 比克__大魔王, 作者简介 日直横打，偶尔拍照，相关视频：让人久等的蝴蝶末代日直单桧特注，Mauricio Bernales Ketterer，用单桧日直横打的智利选手，美洲桧与木曾桧，绿盒与红盒到底谁软谁硬，蓝色柳承敏对比蝴蝶Gmax，地球Armstrong单桧底板，硬弹与软弹，两支单桧名红柳，帝芒特橘盒与红盒的颠球对比，日直横打的第一次参赛

www.bilibili.com

 

[JackJohnson]

Guys, what if the switch made by Hugo was due to the constrains of his xiom contract. His new club uses DHS tables. Since he was a xiom sponsored player, he should technically be furnishing his club with xiom tables. But since he opted for DHS instead, that could be grounds for xiom that it is a breach in contract.

So maybe Joola is more relaxed about this matter as they value Hugo as player and what he can bring to the brand.

Or xiom is just not profiting well since they are losing a lot of sponsored players like an jae hyun aside from hugo

Could be. It was kinda strange to see the DHS tables and not Xiom at the time. It’s going to be interesting now to see if Joola will be mad that Hugo club has DHS tables and not Joola tables. Will Joola force Hugo to switch the tables to Joola.

 

[JackJohnson]

@Matt Hetherington why did Joola change their logo. The one before the current one looks better with the triangle logo for the A. The new one looks bland.

 

[zeio]

It boggles my mind that this is such a heated disagreement when the reality is that both cases seem to be true, and it may vary by brand.

On the one hand, players like ZJK and Anders lind have stated that they get the same commercial equipment. You can see in ZJK's videos that he does a lot of customizing himself. In Timo's gluing vid, he has a stack of blades and rubbers all of which he weighs individually because he doesn't know exactly what he's getting in that batch, but with the intent of asking for future supply to fit the range he likes.

On the other hand, we have photographic evidence of Hurricane rubbers with the player's name and a hardness rating that doesn't exist in their commercial products, so we know at least DHS does custom equipment. (Now, it could be they produce a batch of H3's and measure all of them for hardness, pick out the ones that measure what the player requested, and package up the rest for commercial sale; e.g. a player gets a 40.5° but the 40.1°'s get sold as 40 and the 40.7°'s as 41 etc. But unless DHS makes a public statement on the matter, we'll never know that for sure.)

As a personal anecdote, my coach has a custom Yinhe that is a W968 clone made for a player (unnamed). Slightly different construction from the Pro 05 and with the T2S handle, weirdly. (The thing plays beautifully and I secretly hope he'll let me snag it off him when he retires...)

Now as to the topic of the thread--Hugo--Matt has said Joola can work with him to make whatever he wants, so... I think the only remaining question is, will Hugo go for one of Joola's existing pro-line rackets, or will he and Joola develop something new that us mortals can fork over cash for in an attempt to imitate greatness?

FWIW, back at the end of 2024, roughly a week after announcing his Donic sponsorship, and mid-2025, ZJK said in his live stream (see Facebook and Bilibili links) that in his 15 years of using Viscaria, 14 of which were using custom-made ones that are off-limits to the public. As far as he could remember, he's only ever given them out on 2 occasions, 1 for Hao Shuai and 1 for WMY. He added that their requirements on blades are not as stringent as those for rubbers.

As for DHS, their officials have shed light on custom-made blades (but nothing on prototypes such as 506 and 968) and rubbers (a leak of "bill of materials" for Rio 2016 shows the parameters that could be tweaked).
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/the-myth-of-custom-rubbers.21039/post-274493
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...-players’-rubbers-different.37607/post-531885

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LTTF.TW/posts/8582604365178005/
Jiahe Chou
選手板本來就特製，這不是大家都知道的事？鄭怡靜那支也是特製的，市面上連對應規楁都沒有。板子大家就是看好不好打而已，有人覺得老碼好打，跟選手光環關係也不見得大，會因選手光環買板的人，個人覺得也是屬於少數的不理性買盤。
(Player-specific boards are custom-made, isn't that common knowledge? Cheng I-Ching's board was also custom-made; there aren't even any matching boards available on the market. The choice of a board is simply a matter of how easy or difficult it is to play. Some people think older [serial number] boards are easier to play, but that doesn't necessarily have much to do with the player's reputation. I personally think that people who buy boards solely based on a player's reputation are a minority of irrational buyers.)

张指导聊vis
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gaEbzfE34

http://www.dhs-sports.com/ppdb/#a24

“506”有什么含义？几款底板是“506”体系的？他们之间的差异在哪儿？

“506”是底板送到国家队时使用的编号，并不是底板的正式名称，没有特别的含义。

有机时代，运动员偏向5层板，因为5层打得透，7层容易发闷。但是无机时代，加厚是一个趋势。“506”底板作为纯木七夹，采用中心层厚度比较大的七夹，突破了传统七夹中央三层几乎等厚的惯例。传统的中央三层几乎等厚的7层结构虽然取得了均衡和整体性，但是容易缺失大芯的支撑感。而采用厚度比较大的中心层，相当于底板有了清晰的“核动力”。在强化了底劲的同时，赋予7层板更通透清晰的手感。“7层底劲、5层通透”这就是“506”底板设计的初衷。目前红双喜底板系列中，以国家队“506”底板为原型，先后投入市场的底板共有七种，分别是天极7A（或称天极7P）、劲极7、天极506、天极506+、狂飚霞、狂飚龙2、狂飚龙3。

天极7A：属506鼻祖，其结构与在国家队形成成熟产品的506有一定的区别。扎实、厚重感十足，力量和控制能力都不错。

劲极7：虽然结构形似“506”，但在选料的位置和等级上存在比较大的差异，属于常规性选料，标准没有狂飚、天极系列那么高，性能容易为初学者掌握，手感比较细腻。

天极506：是国家队506结构的标准版，性能沉稳，扎实厚重。相较于天极7A，底劲更足，发力容易。手感细腻忠实，容易控制。整体均衡，攻击性需要人为调动，适应面较广，对于各种技术，似已不惑。所谓“万佛归宗”，大抵如此。

狂飚霞：也使用了“506”结构，但面材采用了黑檀木，是红双喜结合经典结构和新型材料的结合。

狂飚龙2：是在“506”底板结构的基础上，为马龙度身定制的，特别是底板各层木之间的粘合剂，已与天极506不一样，可以将其视作“506”底板的升级版。

狂飚龙3：对狂飚龙2的粘合剂进行了调整，并根据马龙喜好对底板进行重新配色。

天极506+：是红双喜根据新材料乒乓球的特点开发的，对结构再次进行了微调并使用新型粘合剂，加强了速度和力量，弹性和连续性也更出色，是经典“506”结构在新材料乒乓球时代的优化。

解读红双喜神秘编号“506” | 乒乓装备
https://www.sohu.com/a/665381913_580074

p.s.
And for future reference, the answers by DHS Research Institute that the transparent layer of primer on the sponge of H3 Neo should be removed before gluing and that red topsheet is tackier than black topsheet.

[原创]我的NEO省狂满月了----- 最新感受
http://bbs.cnpingpang.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=185466

deniel021 2009-10-2 10:34:00

...期间特意问了红双喜研究所的朋友关于NEO套胶是否要除膜的事，得到的答复是要除，NEO海绵的工艺不是打底，而是对海绵进行了预处理，也就是大家通俗说的用了膨胀剂，那层透明薄膜和729-08省专的作用是一样的，起到隔绝保护作用。

[讨论]为什么国内的球员正手用黑色反手用红色胶皮呢？
https://bbs.cnpingpang.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=186942

以下是引用deniel021在2009-10-9 9:15:00的发言：

可能每家厂商的配方不同，根据红双喜研究所的说法是，红双喜的套胶配方中是红色比黑色粘。楼上苏州街33号的说法可能是理由之一，就是特制的多为黑色。另外有个说法，就是红色代表激情，正手红色对着对手，可能使对方振奋，黑色给人的感觉是消沉。

 

[The0rigina1]

Guys, what if the switch made by Hugo was due to the constrains of his xiom contract. His new club uses DHS tables. Since he was a xiom sponsored player, he should technically be furnishing his club with xiom tables. But since he opted for DHS instead, that could be grounds for xiom that it is a breach in contract.

So maybe Joola is more relaxed about this matter as they value Hugo as player and what he can bring to the brand.

Or xiom is just not profiting well since they are losing a lot of sponsored players like an jae hyun aside from hugo

I'm pretty sure AJH (who was terminated by Xiom) didn't get a "farewell" post on Xiom's social so Hugo getting it means he wasn't terminated and simply parted ways on good terms

 

[yodachi]

Tenergy 09cは一般には販売されませんでした。

 

[zeio]

I just missed where that was said in the video and was asking for a reference. No need to resort to name calling, we all make mistakes. You admitted to making one when you claimed Timo's rubbers were tuned for him, but had no reference to support it. In the video, Timo goes further and says that he got used to playing with the rubbers he was sent without boosting them so he just never has in his career. I leave it to others to believe him or make up their own speculations.

Ahem, welcome to the club. I provided sources from multiple current/former pros to back my long-standing stance on various pros and still got the same treatment on multiple occasions from you know who. Thank you very much for feeling the heat.

 

[Bran]

hugo's personal blades are made with an ayous core instead of kiri like in the commercial ones

The Calderano SAL has ayous core. It's the HAL that has kiri core. Not sure why they made this change, possibly to keep the average weight lower.

 

[kapahoo]

Add Stiga to the mix.

XX said in video interviews at a trade fair from many years back that his blades (Offensive Wood NCT, Rosewood NCT V, Intensity NCT etc.) came with a bigger head because he has bigger hands and most people couldn't play with it.

秦志戬透露许昕晋级东京秘密:因手大而特制球拍 (Qin Zhijian reveals Xu Xin's secret to advancing to Tokyo [WTTC 2014]: He had a custom-made racket because of his large hands)
https://www.chinanews.com/ty/2014/03-04/5906520.shtml

(A reporter from Jinling Evening News interviewed Xu Xin's head coach, Qin Zhijian, who expressed his admiration for the difficulty Xu Xin had in gradually establishing himself in the first team. He also inadvertently revealed a little secret: because Xu Xin's hands are so big, his table tennis racket is custom-made, and for an ordinary person, holding his racket is like holding a fan.)

(Oversized hands have made him a unique figure in the world of table tennis

Many people don't know that Xu Xin, after reaching adulthood, uses custom-made rackets. "Because his hands are so big, and he uses a penhold grip, it affects his feel. So the team specially contacted a manufacturer to have a racket custom-made for him. Female players often remark that his racket looks like a fan."

Because of his custom-made racket, Qin Zhijian developed a special strategy for Xu Xin: "I hope his control in the first three shots and his counter-control can learn from Ma Lin, and his backhand system can draw on Wang Hao's, but with some push-blocking added. Combined with his own super strong forehand attack, he can still stand firm in the world of table tennis."

"He played very well in this qualifying tournament, especially winning the last match against the in-form Fan Zhendong, which greatly boosted his confidence." Fan Zhendong has been very aggressive throughout, first defeating Hao Shuai, then Ma Long, and also showing great strength against Xu Xin. At the crucial moment, Xu Xin adjusted his mindset in time, winning three consecutive games to secure the valuable ticket.

"I often tease him that he's the only one in the national table tennis team who gets the special treatment of a custom-made racket, and he has to live up to the uniqueness of his racket.")

This on is easy to understand. If I played table tennis two-three times a day I would have a blade-maker make me an adult sized handle as well.

 

[rbtitco]

Could be. It was kinda strange to see the DHS tables and not Xiom at the time. It’s going to be interesting now to see if Joola will be mad that Hugo club has DHS tables and not Joola tables. Will Joola force Hugo to switch the tables to Joola.

If i hit with as much rotation as hugo, i'd rather be playing on DHS tables, too. Hopefully, that didnt mess him up, but maybe Xiom are sensitive. Werent a few xiom pros playing with DHS blades?

 

[JackJohnson]

If i hit with as much rotation as hugo, i'd rather be playing on DHS tables, too. Hopefully, that didnt mess him up, but maybe Xiom are sensitive. Werent a few xiom pros playing with DHS blades?

Few Xiom players are using DHS blades so maybe it was fine for Hugo to use DHS tables but I think Joola will be much stricter as I never seen Joola sponsored players use other brands blades instead of Joola blades.

The only time I seen Joola not being strict in are forcing players to use Joola shoes as I seen most Joola sponsored players use Mizuno. Liam was using Asics shoes at the time. ZQH at the time was allowed to use H3 on the FH but not sure if Joola allows players to use a different brand rubber with other players.

 

[NextLevel]

FWIW, back at the end of 2024, roughly a week after announcing his Donic sponsorship, and mid-2025, ZJK said in his live stream (see Facebook and Bilibili links) that in his 15 years of using Viscaria, 14 of which were using custom-made ones that are off-limits to the public. As far as he could remember, he's only ever given them out on 2 occasions, 1 for Hao Shuai and 1 for WMY. He added that their requirements on blades are not as stringent as those for rubbers.

As for DHS, their officials have shed light on custom-made blades (but nothing on prototypes such as 506 and 968) and rubbers (a leak of "bill of materials" for Rio 2016 shows the parameters that could be tweaked).
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/the-myth-of-custom-rubbers.21039/post-274493
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/damien-Éloi-are-the-top-players’-rubbers-different.37607/post-531885

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LTTF.TW/posts/8582604365178005/
Jiahe Chou
選手板本來就特製，這不是大家都知道的事？鄭怡靜那支也是特製的，市面上連對應規楁都沒有。板子大家就是看好不好打而已，有人覺得老碼好打，跟選手光環關係也不見得大，會因選手光環買板的人，個人覺得也是屬於少數的不理性買盤。
(Player-specific boards are custom-made, isn't that common knowledge? Cheng I-Ching's board was also custom-made; there aren't even any matching boards available on the market. The choice of a board is simply a matter of how easy or difficult it is to play. Some people think older [serial number] boards are easier to play, but that doesn't necessarily have much to do with the player's reputation. I personally think that people who buy boards solely based on a player's reputation are a minority of irrational buyers.)

张指导聊vis
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gaEbzfE34

http://www.dhs-sports.com/ppdb/#a24


解读红双喜神秘编号“506” | 乒乓装备
https://www.sohu.com/a/665381913_580074

p.s.
And for future reference, the answers by DHS Research Institute that the transparent layer of primer on the sponge of H3 Neo should be removed before gluing and that red topsheet is tackier than black topsheet.

[原创]我的NEO省狂满月了----- 最新感受
http://bbs.cnpingpang.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=185466


[讨论]为什么国内的球员正手用黑色反手用红色胶皮呢？
https://bbs.cnpingpang.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=186942

Many player specific blades are listed as custom made, including Cheng I Ching. My focus here is on the differences between what a player is advertised as using and what is commercially sold using their brand and in such cases where there are differences, whether it is something that deserves special attention because it is a sign that the pro is using something far superior to or even very different from what is being sold using their brand and that for whatever reason, what is being used is not available on the market and the market version is misleading. Because other than this situation, using a custom blade is interesting but in principle anyone can do that. It's when Ma Long is selling an HL5, uses a W968 and the W968 is not sold anywhere and is listed as an HL5 and only available to Ma Long that it is interesting. Because that is the situation that creates the excitement around "oh, ML is using a custom HL5 blade that plays very differently from what is sold using his name because it is built with significantly different materials and specifications".