Pro's equipment at ETTC

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Worn I wouldn't say, but Karlsson's rubber seemed as butchered as when I cut my first rubber.

It´s not a beauty contest, mind.

In lower leagues, the newly assembled bat is often treated with pride and care, especially as it´s meant to last a while.

On pro level, the racket is a tool, necessary for work. As such, it has to function (and pass racket control). So while you and I might take care cutting a rubber once in a while, these people do it every few days and sometimes results vary ;)
 
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It´s not a beauty contest, mind.

In lower leagues, the newly assembled bat is often treated with pride and care, especially as it´s meant to last a while.

On pro level, the racket is a tool, necessary for work. As such, it has to function (and pass racket control). So while you and I might take care cutting a rubber once in a while, these people do it every few days and sometimes results vary ;)

From what I see - including when they are busy fitting it on
they don't really care what it looks like
as you said, its just a tool and every few days they must put on a new one

I guess if you have dozens of new rubber in your bag, you don't care about the cutting job
 
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Thanks!

-Tibhar Lebesson and FX-P, in these parts that would be considered a little slow as a beginner setup, some days... Nice to see it hasn't been just marketing talk from them about Lebesson using it.

-Players apparently not keen to move to nextgen after Bluefire.

-Also a fair amount of all-wood and just plain diversity in this, which is nice to see. Is it me or T05 would have been seen (even) a little more not so long ago?
 
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Thanks!

-Tibhar Lebesson and FX-P, in these parts that would be considered a little slow as a beginner setup, some days... Nice to see it hasn't been just marketing talk from them about Lebesson using it.

True, but these aren´t shop version FX-P rubbers. Lebesson uses a harder sponge. Still that makes this rubber softer than standard MX-P, which most other pros would consider too soft.

Players apparently not keen to move to nextgen after Bluefire.

I was also surprised to see Bluefire on Dyjas´ racket. As a Donic player, I would have expected to see the "newest" rubber name. With Mladenovic, I think he´s not sponsored by Donic, so there aren´t any expectations, he just uses what he likes probably.

Is it me or T05 would have been seen (even) a little more not so long ago?

This time, quite obviously only players true to their sponsors had their rackets pictured. The ones that uses t05 despite being under contract here and there probably weren´t contacted or kindly declined ;)
 
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Thanks!

-Tibhar Lebesson and FX-P, in these parts that would be considered a little slow as a beginner setup, some days... Nice to see it hasn't been just marketing talk from them about Lebesson using it.

-Players apparently not keen to move to nextgen after Bluefire.

-Also a fair amount of all-wood and just plain diversity in this, which is nice to see. Is it me or T05 would have been seen (even) a little more not so long ago?

Butterfly probably doesn't hand out free rubbers to not sponsored players so changing the rubber every 1-2 weeks is very expensive if you don't get it for free ;) or maybe Butterfly does hand out rubbers to non sponsored but they simply get a little more money from their brand if they use their rubbers.
 
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or maybe Butterfly does hand out rubbers to non sponsored but they simply get a little more money from their brand if they use their rubbers.

Normally, they don´t (maybe on Ovtcharov level ...). Instead sponsored players used to trade their "pro" rubbers for shop version tenergys, because even the shop version seemed better to them than anything their sponsors had to offer.
 
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Normally, they don´t (maybe on Ovtcharov level ...). Instead sponsored players used to trade their "pro" rubbers for shop version tenergys, because even the shop version seemed better to them than anything their sponsors had to offer.

of all the pros I know, I still don't know a single one that would trade it for a retail tenergy.....
and what would the shop do with a "non commericial packaged" "pro" rubber?

what kind of pro are you talking about? as there are many people who considered themselves pro in South Africa, where I just laugh about it.
btw, do you think those "pros" would risk violating a legal contract for a sake of a few euro tenergy rubber?
 
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and what would the shop do with a "non commericial packaged" "pro" rubber?

Sell them under the counter to people (like me, I must admit, but not anymore) trying to get a hand on something special.

what kind of pro are you talking about?

First league in Germany (a couple of years ago). Still playing internationally.

btw, do you think those "pros" would risk violating a legal contract for a sake of a few euro tenergy rubber?

In some contracts, there was a tenergy clause, allowing them exactly this kind of behaviour.
In other cases, the logic was "If you want to see me win something so you can place ads with my face, you´d better let me play what´s best for me."

Some players quite probably still get along on that, because the number of people using t05 despite being under contract elsewhere is still high, although the younger players seem to be more true to the names on their jerseys when it comes to picking rubbers, also some companies now look very closely and would indeed cause trouble for their contract players when catching them with Butterfly material.

So maybe, it doesn´t happen that much anymore. But I can guarantee you that it did, and I heard it from the players, even saw the swap being done in front of my eyes ;)
 
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What also happened is that, players get customized rubbers from brand 'A' but with a different printing from brand 'B' on it.

I know one guy who is sponsored by a well known company, but since he loved playing with a chinese fh rubber the sponsoring company let a certain amount of rubbers be produced by the chinese company but with the sponsoring company's printing on the rubber.

I had the pleasure to have a hit with one of those and the direct comparison with a National rubber on his backup blade and it exactly felt like the National version rubber but with a completely different printing on it.

I asked if i could have that rubber after it's worn out, but he said he wasn't allowed to and would get into serious trouble if any of those rubbers appear anywhere.
 
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