Are ZLC blades even popular?

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Just curious about it.
Because in all the years of playing table tennis I never met anyone of my friends or opponents that use it.
My retailer says he only sold 2 of them in the last 3 years and 1 of those even was sent back.

Even in the highest leagues here players don't seem to use it.

And yet butterly makes a lot of ZLC and super ZLC blades, Every butterfly player has his ZLC blade.
Appolonia, Boll, Harimoto,Zang Jike and Lin Gaoyuan is on the way.

The main reason is the price , the range is 250 to 350 euro+ and no player here seems to think it's worth that.

So is this type of blade popular in other regions then? What's the catch ?
Butterfly must believe it's worth it because they make so many of them.
 
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Liam Pitchford of England uses it ;):D
Lin Yun-Yu, Patrick Franziska, Jun Mizutani, Jeoung Youngsik (world top 20)
One of the best 2 players of our club, England top 20-ish, uses it.

Finally, I use it :) (albeit a much cheaper clone)
 
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Liam Pitchford of England uses it ;):D
Lin Yun-Yu, Patrick Franziska, Jun Mizutani, Jeoung Youngsik (world top 20)
One of the best 2 players of our club, England top 20-ish, uses it.

Finally, I use it :) (albeit a much cheaper clone)

Groth, Chuang, Sathiyan, Apolonia, Kallberg, Uda, Jorgic, Tsuboi to name some more.
 
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says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
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ALC has been king in China for nearly a decade. Cash grab Viscaria Golden says it all. ZJK winning the Grand Slam with the Viscaria in the shortest amount of time infected players, men and women, around the world to EJ. Before all that craze, TBS and TB ALC, especially the former, were actually more popular. Similar situation for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In Japan, Viscaria was discontinued in late 2006 but was brought back in 2019 due to strong demand. Before that, the folks there had to reimport them back to Japan. LOL!

Talks of ZLC didn't really pick up in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan until late 2009 when the Innerforce series was released, which was based on the Zhang Yining ZLC that was released in China in 2008. Photino(ZL), Amultart and Haruvatart(ZLC) were the first models with an outer fiber construction. Didn't sell at all. From what I could gather, ZLC isn't selling that well even now.

The world's first ZL blade, the Tremendous by Nittaku(surprisingly made in China and designed by Michael Schneider), didn't sell either and was discontinued soon after release. Though in an interview, Schneider cited supply issue of the fiber as the reason.
 
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I think in terms of the Butterfly blades the ZLC blades are victim to how popular the ALC blades are, both with professional and amateur players. So long as the general view seems to be 'ZLC = ALC + even more speed, more than players like Timo and ZJK need' I can't see ZLC becoming more popular.

Incidentally, the few ZLC or SZLC blades that I've seen IRL have belonged either to relatively new players, often getting their first expensive blade, or to high level young players who don't really think about equipment.
 
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I wasn't talking about some pro's who use it. I was talking of real life people or club members you know using it.
Right now Butterfly has 15 ZLC or SZLC blades in their catalog and more on the way.

Which seem really disproportional to their popularity among players.
Because Yes, a 350 Euro SZLC blade seems an expensive gamble compared to 120-150 Euro ALC alternative.
 
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