HEAD has just revealed the MxG 3 and MxG 5 racquets which bring magnesium into a futuristic looking bridge design claiming that the new line of racquets has the perfect blend of power and control. Wilson on the other hand is not innovating their materials, but instead releasing limited edition paint job versions of their Wilson Blade
and Wilson Burn
series. Something I previously called “reverse paint jobs”. I saw a few players with these paint jobs in Monte Carlo, for example Belgian top ten player David Goffin who is using a more green than black Blade.
The new Wilson Blade Limited Edition (also available in Wilson Blade 98L) will be available from June 1st.
The specs are exactly the same, but I guess some people like to vary their colours and others might under the impression that this is a completely new racquet and buy it anyway. I think it’s clever marketing for Wilson to release (available June 1st) limited edition paint jobs since people are so intent on being original and “fresh” these days. It taps right into a certain target group’s pockets.
Wilson is not the first nor the only brand to come up with limited edition paint jobs. The new HEAD Radical limited edition is a sight to behold with its bold neon-inspired colours and Babolat has been producing special French Open and Wimbledon edition racquets (as well as the Stars and Stripes
one that Jack Sock used to endorse during the U.S Presidential election). Otherwise Babolat seem to be less “rushed” in releasing new editions of their racquet lines. The current Babolat Pure Drive has been around for more than two years now and it seems like 2-3 years is what they aim for. My guess is that Wilson and Babolat are snapping up market shares and that HEAD, despite their endorsement of Murray and Djokovic is dropping a bit. Would be interesting to see some numbers here, maybe I’m off target, but I think Nadal and Wilson have been a little bit more on the ball with their marketing and endorsements, as well as their actual racquets.
HEAD’s Graphene was an expected move into taking up the fight with the increasingly light and stiff “modern” racquets of the tour, but it seemed to miss the mark and a lot of more advanced players longed for HEAD’s more flexible and traditional players’ frames. This is not to say that the current line of HEAD racquets are poor but their HEAD Pro Tour 630 and the older HEAD Radicals used to be market leaders and are today legendary racquets still used on the ATP Tour. As you more loyal readers know, what Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic endorses, is not what they actually use. If you want to find out what Murray, Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and other pro players use, please check out my growing list of pro player specs here.
What do you think of Wilson’s new limited edition paint jobs?
