Adidas to discontinue table tennis products

That's sad. I got the impression that they were just about building up a large following. From posts on forums their P7 rubber seem well accepted.

CHILD`S PLAY.

Table Tennis is a childplay, just a trifflig. And the children/youngsters are not whielthy buyers. You can`t make some substantial money income through cattering products to the sport. No decent profit, anyway. NO decent profit. TT is a mere child`s play.

Wow. And I just found a rubber combo I was planning on sticking with.

That's sad. Adidas blades are well made and I like them a lot. It is sad to see them leave TT. Time to buy up the remaining Adidas blades then..

This is a shame I think. Interestingly enough, in many schools I coach in, many of the kids buy pre made bats and usually they get the Adidas one. Maybe they targeted the wrong market, trying to compete with DHS etc.. it is a shame. How true is this article, I can't find anything on google at the moment.

Like @Tinykin has said, the rubbers seem very popular here on TTD.

I always felt like something about Adidas making table tennis equipment didn't fit. I think the idea of the jumping in and trying to make table tennis equipment seemed good for the sport. But I don't think they were doing it because they were involved in table tennis or wanted to be. I think they were doing it because they wanted to make a profit. Table tennis is not as big as that. And most of the table tennis equipment companies have some deeper connection to the sport rather than just wanting to jump into the sport to make money.

I think they hired decent companies to make rackets and rubbers for them. Their equipment is good. But outsourcing, hiring other companies to design products that you put your name brand on is different than making the products yourself because you have people who know enough about table tennis to design and produce the products. Or, that is how it seems to me.

In one sense it is sad for table tennis to have a big, high profile company that had decided to jump into the table tennis "market" decide to bow out of that market. But in another sense, their goals were not to make the best table tennis equipment so table tennis players and pros would have better equipment. Their goals were to make money off of table tennis. And the companies that really are about making things for the players, in my opinion, are better companies for the sport when you look at the bigger picture.

There are several different versions of this and all have their place. There are many companies from China that make very decent equipment at an affordable price so that players can have decently high quality products without paying quite as much. In this area Yinhe/Galaxy comes to mind; Dawei also comes to mind; Gambler; Friendship; LKT. Then there are companies that make some products that are affordable and some products that are high end: Stiga, Donic, Andro, Tibhar, DHS, Yasaka. And then there is Butterfly and Nittaku. Their audience is different. But their main products are top of the line and they are not worried about the price. Nobody makes a better high end composite blade than Butterfly even if I don't like to use their products. Nittaku may have lost some share of the market but their high end all wood blades are still pretty high end. And you would have to go to a small company like OSP--blades made by hand--to get a flexible all wood blade with the same level of feeling.

One thing I can say about all these companies: they are in it for the love of the sport not JUST for the profit or to dominate the market.

Are any top pros, say, top 100, using Adidas? I don't know the answer to this. But it would be interesting to find out. It would also show the focus of the marketing Adidas pursued. Because I don't think they got top pros to help them make what top pros want. And if you look at the market, that is also what aspiring table tennis addicts....um....I mean players, also want.

They did get good products on the shelf. But did they try to get top players to use their products? Did they get the top players helping them make exactly what was wanted--rather than pretty much what players want?

By the way, I categorize myself 100% in the table tennis addict category, and proud of it.

I've heard through the grapevine that they are going to shut down within a year. Also please don't confuse Adidas TT with Adidas the company. The table tennis company is owned by a separate entity. They just really liked to make quality products. The unfortunate issue was that the royalties paid to Adidas corporation cut their profits to almost nothing. Adding to that many of the brands actually worked together on hindering their growth, but cutting into their markets as often as possible.

Mr. RicharD said:

I've heard through the grapevine that they are going to shut down within a year. Also please don't confuse Adidas TT with Adidas the company. The table tennis company is owned by a separate entity. They just really liked to make quality products. The unfortunate issue was that the royalties paid to Adidas corporation cut their profits to almost nothing. Adding to that many of the brands actually worked together on hindering their growth, but cutting into their markets as often as possible.

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Oh, okay, so maybe the people running the TT company were on the same page as most of the top TT manufacturers, but, Adidas the larger company wanted its money making the TT division have less profitability as a result of having to kick money upstairs. Interesting.

Everything made by Adidas TT will show up as another brand within a year or two. Big deal.

NextLevel said:

Everything made by Adidas TT will show up as another brand within a year or two. Big deal.

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Yeah. This is true.

Unfortunately it was expected. Adidas made the name of the company "good" with other products. It is also possible, that the table tennis players are a little bit "conservative". Who knows. At list ths is not a good news.

NextLevel said:

Everything made by Adidas TT will show up as another brand within a year or two. Big deal.

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sure about that? And how would I find it then? (Thinking P7 and Tenzone Ultra)

Kaizoku said:

sure about that? And how would I find it then? (Thinking P7 and Tenzone Ultra)

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It depends - either someone buys the product line from ESN, or the company comes back under a new name, or ESN makes the rubber for someone else.

With adidas equipment everything was expensive, i never saw a mid-range product to try to lure the skeptical buyer (like me). It was a risky strategy to price ther equipment to the butterfly levels and now you get this result.

I hope to find a good discount on a rubber that i had my eye on, just to check it out.

When will Adidas rubbers be remeved from the LARC?

When does ITTF approval for Adidas rubbers run out?

edit: I just checked the ITTF website. The present LARC is valid until 30 Sep2015. Can I assume that if Adidas have not paid their dues, then the rubbers are not legal beyond 30Sep15?

I never tried any of that stuff but I think it's unfortunate that they have left the market. If Adidas were really gonna get into table tennis as a product and had high quality rubbers up on their regular website it would be a great thing for the growth of the sport. But, as a lot of people said above, it seemed to be just about selling to the TT community, and, when they didn't get the profit they wanted, they were done. It's a shame.

I think the guy who designed their blades is the guy who runs the largest Korean TT forum. That dude is simply QUALITY people and knows his stuff.

This is bad news, just sad news.

Well, I only tried once an Adidas rubber, I think it was called Tenzone SF. What makes me sad about the leaving of the TT market by Adidas, is that they really were a big company that had the opportunity to invest big money in TT, and so, they could become a real competitor to Butterfly, or even better, who knows...

Well that's sad that the company is leaving TT . But actually, given Adidas' financial health http://www.bizdb.co.uk/company/adidas-uk-limited-01075951/ it is still very surprising the company manages to function at all. I have never played with Adidas blades, mostly given the fact they are overpriced. Maybe that's the problem? Too much overpriced equpiment, not really anything to choose from for noobies (myself included) or just mid-range customers... Wonder if the same will happen in other areas Adidas is involved in.