Calderano Signs with Joola (#139)

[zeio]

Here is a 福原愛 選手注/Fukuhara Ai Player Order with a short serial number. Note that 選手注/player order is different from 特注/special order.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ8SYPPE86T

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[ThePongCommenter]

Here is a 福原愛 選手注/Fukuhara Ai Player Order with a short serial number. Note that 選手注/player order is different from 特注/special order.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ8SYPPE86T

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I would like to buy a few of this racket. Anyone got a link for where I can purchase? Seems like a lot of people on this thread should know.

 

[NextLevel]

I would like to buy a few of this racket. Anyone got a link for where I can purchase? Seems like a lot of people on this thread should know.

Let me humor you a bit - what do you know about the racket that makes it special other than that a player ordered it?

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Give me strength. Isn’t there a thread on the forum for discussing the pro’s equipment? Can’t you all take this conversation over there 🤣 this thread is about Hugo signing with Joola, whatever blades Anders and Dima and Ma Long are using has nothing to do with this thread. If you want to keep speculating on how this universe of pro equipment works go do it somewhere else 💀 the forum is organized by threads and categories for a reason.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Let me humor you a bit - what do you know about the racket that makes it special other than that a player ordered it?

What do you know about the "special thickness (tokuatsu)" text on the label of the pro-issued Butterfly rubber packages that indicates that it isn't special? See my prior post if this reference doesn't make sense.

 

[NextLevel]

What do you know about the "special thickness (tokuatsu)" text on the label of the pro-issued Butterfly rubber packages that indicates that it isn't special? See my prior post if this reference doesn't make sense.

So what is the special thickness and how does it compare to the regular model?

BTW, I would like to order 5 Gergerlys . If you can share a link to that, I would appreciate it as well.

Give me strength. Isn’t there a thread on the forum for discussing the pro’s equipment? Can’t you all take this conversation over there 🤣 this thread is about Hugo signing with Joola, whatever blades Anders and Dima and Ma Long are using has nothing to do with this thread. If you want to keep speculating on how this universe of pro equipment works go do it somewhere else 💀 the forum is organized by threads and categories for a reason.

Unfortunately, it is zeio's thread, and I do like the persistence of the believers.

 

[golden_son]

Just curious how you think this works - someone at Butterfly goes and measures each individual piece from a batch of thousands to identify the few anomalies that meets the players standard and sets them off to the side? Then, for fun and just to troll the conspiracy theorists, prints a separate packaging with the word "Special thickness (tokuatsu)" on the package label like the one seen here?

Seems pretty time consuming and inefficient, especially when some players have a preference for 5+ degrees harder than commercial which you probably aren't even going to find one anomaly of in a batch.

Or do you think maybe just maybe Butterfly can tweak the recipe and produce a batch that meets the spec and sends it to the players rather than weighing and hardness-testing every single square?



And someone who has trained with Ovtcharov and was gifted his rubbers said it came in the package like the one linked above and was noticeably harder and therefore better with booster.

Some pros choose to use their custom pieces, some don't.

Butterfly (and I imagine most manufacturers) measure the product as part of the QC inspection process during production. See the durometer pictured in the sponge punching section. (I believe it's also specifically mentioned in a video Butterfly produced, but I haven't found it again.) You wouldn't risk packing a set of D09c's that came out 4° softer or whatever because Steve forgot to add an ingredient in the mixing process. So yes, BTY tests thousands of rubbers by hand. It does say they use a robot to QC the thickness so maybe they've automated the hardness testing too by this point. But they almost certainly have the engineering know-how to both 1) make consistent batches of rubber within a 1-2° margin of error and 2) produce a batch of harder sponge rubber when needed, so the truth is probably a bit of both.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

So what is the special thickness and how does it compare to the regular model?

BTW, I would like to order 5 Gergerlys . If you can share a link to that, I would appreciate it as well.


Unfortunately, it is zeio's thread, and I do like the persistence of the believers.

Then change the name again, it has about 15% to do with Calderano and 85% to do with everyone’s obsession and differences in opinion about professional players and their equipment. I don’t think I have ever seen a thread get derailed this hard since the beginning of the forum’s existence lol

 

[ThePongCommenter]

So what is the special thickness and how does it compare to the regular model?

We've established that Butterfly prints the text "special thickness" on their pro-issued rubber sheets. They do not print this text on the commercial packaging on the same label box.

It is probably just nothing though.

 

[NextLevel]

Then change the name again, it has about 15% to do with Calderano and 85% to do with everyone’s obsession and differences in opinion about professional players and their equipment. I don’t think I have ever seen a thread get derailed this hard since the beginning of the forum’s existence lol

Zeio isn't my best friend so I will let him habdle this one. I have enough issues where I have to override him later since he doesn't respond to PMs lol.

We've established that Butterfly prints the text "special thickness" on their pro-issued rubber sheets. They do not print this text on the commercial packaging on the same label box.

It is probably just nothing though.

Nah, its an intergalactic blade, Ai Fukuhara ordered it. So it must contain magical properties. Definitely not a custom blade like any that Butterfly could have made when she was a pro. The thickness must be so unique you cant duplicate it with calipers.

Okay I am done being silly. Good luck to whoever pays for that if it is on sale.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Nah, its an intergalactic blade, Ai Fukuhara ordered it. So it must contain magical properties. Definitely not a custom blade like any that Butterfly could have made when she was a pro. The thickness must be so unique you cant duplicate it with calipers.

Okay I am done being silly. Good luck to whoever pays for that if it is on sale.

In support of this argument, I heard a superstar uses rubbers thicker than those commercially available after consultation with his brand. You can get the sponge hardness commercially but his rubber thickness you can't. Makes you think lol.

Could you maybe elaborate on this? Maybe I am misunderstanding your stance in this discussion. It seems like you are aware that some pro players get rubbers with thickness that can't be commercially purchased? Old post so maybe you have some additional new information to that story that changed your viewpoint? Am I missing something?

 

[longle]

Give me strength. Isn’t there a thread on the forum for discussing the pro’s equipment? Can’t you all take this conversation over there 🤣 this thread is about Hugo signing with Joola, whatever blades Anders and Dima and Ma Long are using has nothing to do with this thread. If you want to keep speculating on how this universe of pro equipment works go do it somewhere else 💀 the forum is organized by threads and categories for a reason.

I'm curious if Hugo gave feedbacks about the Joola blades and rubbers he tried in the last event ?

 

[NextLevel]

Could you maybe elaborate on this? Maybe I am misunderstanding your stance in this discussion. It seems like you are aware that some pro players get rubbers with thickness that can't be commercially purchased? Old post so maybe you have some additional new information to that story that changed your viewpoint? Am I missing something?

If people can specify *exactly* what makes the blade not commercially avaliable, I am okay with that especially if they can explain why that is something yhat they think should be commerically available.. What I am against is the claim that just because a pro is using it, and he didn't go to q shop to buy ir, it is custom. This is what drives the belief that pros use inherently special stuff. Not everything a pro got sent is custom in the sense that it is not commercially available. And a lot of it is very similar to what the brands generally sell and the brands would sell what the pro uses if the demand was decent.

 

[longle]

If people can specify *exactly* what makes the blade not commercially avaliable, I am okay with that especially if they can explain why that is something yhat they think should be commerically available.. What I am against is the claim that just because a pro is using it, and he didn't go to q shop to buy ir, it is custom. This is what drives the belief that pros use inherently special stuff. Not everything a pro got sent is custom in the sense that it is not commercially available. And a lot of it is very similar to what the brands generally sell and the brands would sell what the pro uses if the demand was decent.

actually, EJ-ing is a form of searching for a custom blade. In the case of pros they can't use other brands equipment freely. We mortals have much more freedom to search for custom blades of our own.

 

[NextLevel]

actually, EJ-ing is a form of searching for a custom blade. In the case of pros they can't use other brands equipment freely. We mortals have much more freedom to search for custom blades of our own.

Yes, and given the nature of TT, if a blade is special, it is rarely about how it plays and more about how the player using it feels about it.

 

[joshmak10]

If people can specify *exactly* what makes the blade not commercially avaliable, I am okay with that especially if they can explain why that is something yhat they think should be commerically available.. What I am against is the claim that just because a pro is using it, and he didn't go to q shop to buy ir, it is custom. This is what drives the belief that pros use inherently special stuff. Not everything a pro got sent is custom in the sense that it is not commercially available. And a lot of it is very similar to what the brands generally sell and the brands would sell what the pro uses if the demand was decent.

Specifying a certain thickness, weight, vibration, structure (mixture of inner and outer possible, see Jorgic), wood type (different wood both sides), carbon type (mixture of carbons), handle design and shape, if a pro asks for any of these to be different than that of a commercially sold blade, is it not custom? You are saying that Jorgic’s dual inner/outer carbon racket is not custom made, as an example? Let’s face it, pros can get specially customized equipment, and it is special in the sense that they chose specific properties they wished they had for a blade. we the consumer cannot easily get this

 

[nablaz]

What do you know about the "special thickness (tokuatsu)" text on the label of the pro-issued Butterfly rubber packages that indicates that it isn't special? See my prior post if this reference doesn't make sense.

To be completely fair, "トクアツ" normally just means "extra thick", which is the standard japanese definition for rubbers with >= 2.0 mm sponge.
All japanese manufacturers use this definition, even on their own websites, and you can find it commonly used in japanese stores (both physical and online) to refer to other brands "2.0" or "max" thickness or Butterfly's "2.1".

Also, commercial Dignics 09c I bought in Japan in 2024 had "トクアツ" printed on it. The ones I bought in 2025 did not.

I don't know why Butterfly doesn't bother printing that on their commercial packaging anymore, but they did for domestic products in the past... so who knows! 🤣

Edit: edited a few points for clarity and added a pic.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

I'm curious if Hugo gave feedbacks about the Joola blades and rubbers he tried in the last event ?

He’s working directly with our product team yes

 

[ShakehandJpenCpenEnjoyer]

I think it will be a good marketing move if you make a vlog about hugo testing prototypes and finding his blade with joola. it will be so interesting to know his way of thinking and reasoning.

I would buy that blade for sure.

 

[NextLevel]

Specifying a certain thickness, weight, vibration, structure (mixture of inner and outer possible, see Jorgic), wood type (different wood both sides), carbon type (mixture of carbons), handle design and shape, if a pro asks for any of these to be different than that of a commercially sold blade, is it not custom? You are saying that Jorgic’s dual inner/outer carbon racket is not custom made, as an example? Let’s face it, pros can get specially customized equipment, and it is special in the sense that they chose specific properties they wished they had for a blade. we the consumer cannot easily get this

Again, many of these things can be found in the commercial versions of blades. Remeber that Xiom marketed a dual fiber blade (different fiber for forehand and backhand) under JYS's name. Now if you know for a fact that Jorgic is using a blade that is innerforce on one side and outerforce on the other and it is not commercially available, then yes, Jorgic is using a custom blade - traditionally, such blades have been deemed more susceptibleto warping so the user has to know and accept the risks - sometimes, different fibers and outer plies doesn't always translate to how the blade feels since it might vibrate as a unit. And if Tibhar has found a good design, it is a missed opportunity on their part.

But what is important to me as I have said is that you know why it is custom so that people stop just making up stories about *anything* a pro is using because a pro is using it. Because IMHO, it is better to work out of secure knowledge than to continue to support the magic properties of pro blades. Anyone who has EJed enough knows that many things new to you feel nice when you first use them and then the feeling goes away as you play real matches and come to terms with your results.