I had the good fortune to do a podcast with Tim Puttock, the Senior R&D Director from Prince. We talk about his passion for building racquets (etc).
Tim Puttock has been with Prince for 15 years and has seen, hit and designed many tennis racquets! He has held various roles with the company during its turbulent recent history and is now the Senior Director for the Prince brand (his employer is Authentic Brands Group). In the podcast, he talks about his desire to innovate in an industry that’s not always best known for exploring new technologies.
Two examples of Tim and Prince pushing the envelope is the new Prince Ripstick racquets, which look and play quite differently from what’s out there. He is also behind the interesting Prince Synergy 98Â with the unusual 18×18 string pattern, a low flex, but high swing weight. You can check these frames out on Tennis Warehouse here (any purchase sends me a small commission, which will help Tennisnerd stay alive!)
For a true tennis nerd, it’s always fascinating to talk to a guy who actually designs racquets and I hope you find this Tennisnerd podcast interesting to listen to. If you have any feedback or ideas for guests I should talk to, don’t hesitate to comment below!
Listen to the podcast
You can listen to the Tennisnerd podcast on Spotify and iTunes and other places where podcasts are listened to. The podcast is hosted on Podbean and you can also listen directly on their player below.
Big thanks to Tim for the conversation. I look forward to play with more Prince frames and see the direction the brand goes from here. They do create excellent racquets and have a serious heritage as a brand, so I wish them all the best.
Do you have a question you would ask Tim about the Prince brand or racquets?
2 comments
I would ask him about Prince’s marketing budget. They just had Swiatek win Roland Garros and they let her get picked up by Technifibre. The Textreme Tour 100’s are great. The Beast line, both 03 and normal grommets are great. The X line was a good move leaving the the Phantom line in the rearview mirror, but keeping most of Phantoms’ best qualities. The bottom line is the potential customer’s perception of Prince in the market. Their potential customer base sees many pros using Wilson, Babolat, Head, Yonex, and a Technifibre here or there, but no one on the pro tour, man or woman, uses Prince and that’s a huge marketing problem. You have to buy that. Positioning in the market can be bought. It must be bought. You’re in the game (literally and figuratively) or you out. You’re selling racquets, or you’re not. What is Prince’s marketing plan and how are they willing to spend to drive its success? Prince’s’ products are good. Their marketing is not. Are they concentrating on changing this and how?
Good question!