The nice thing about this guy’s channel is that he gives great information, and he speaks so slowly that you can comfortably watch his videos on 1.5x speed. Good time saver!
As a junior Pete Sampras hit with a Donnay racquet and loved it. However given the quality and heritage of the Prostaff went in that direction instead.
Interestingly enough...Iga Swiatek just won the French Open swinging a Prince Tour! When is the last time a Prince racquet was a partner in crime in winning by a singles Grand Slam? Sharapova's 2006 US Open?
I still sell tons of Prince tennis rackets here in Sweden. Most of the customers even ask to try only prince rackets, they dont want any babolat or dunlop or technifibre. but thats just my experience over here! :)
Thank you for the history lesson on my favorite tennis brand! I’ve played with Prince all my life. I tried Babolat, Wilson, Head, Yonex, but I keep coming back to Prince. It’s the most arm friendly racquet for my tennis elbow.
Yes, the Phantom line awesome for comfort with old school look and feel, enhanced with modern technology! Look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October! •Phantom 100G (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar) •Phantom 100G LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”) •Phantom 107G (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17mm CTS section)
Albert Murata thanks for the info! I currently use a Phantom 100 and Tour 100 with O ports. I will selling my Wilson Clash 100 for the new prince probably.
@@ChowDownDetroit Looks like we have the same taste! Played with the same racquets with some customizations - weight 330g & swingweight 310. 2014-17 Tour 100 w/ string ports at 3:00 & 9:00 and string inserts at 12:00 2017-19 Phantom 100 w/tubing at 11:00-1:00 2020 O3 Phantom 100X w/tubing at 11:00-1:00 Note: I started using the string inserts, then later the tubing to provide a little more feel and make it less muted. Definitely buy the new O3 Phantom 100X, you'll love it! The Phantom 100X 305 and Phantom 100P are great sticks too, but I keep going back to my faithful O3! :)
I played High School tennis in the early to mid 80's and my 1st oversized racket was a Wilson Extra. It was better than the wooden Wilson Kramer I learned with. I moved up to the Prince Pro during my 2nd year of H.S. I Always wanted a Prince Graphite back then but could not afford it. I graduated H.S in 84 after moving to a different school that didnt have a tennis team. I had 2 tennis courts 100 yards from my home though so I continued to play and in 1987 I got a crazy good deal on a new Prince Spectrum Comp 110 and Friggin loved it. Still have it today along with a collection of about 100 others. I have since bought all the old rackets I wanted when I was poor especially the original Prince graphite rackets I wanted so bad in the mid 80's. Including the Chang extra long ones. LOVE the old prince sticks. I lost vision in my left eye in 1988 which killed my depth perception so I could no longer play at a high level. But I still love collecting the old rackets of my youth.
This was fascinating. I'm just getting back into tennis after ~25 years and it's a different world. The last racquet I bought was the Prince CTS Approach 90 (which I proudly still own). Loved that racquet. Back in the day Prince was also a huge innovator in the squash world as well. They were the first to put strings through the throat with their "CTS Extender" if anyone remembers that.
I am in the same position myself, I’ve grabbed so many nostalgia racquets off eBay to hit with, really cool and some great memories. Prince cushion grip vortex was a super comfortable grip
I recently got back into Tennis, having grown up on Prince, i was devastated to not find them anywhere. A little more digging and i found this video (thanks). I was determined to buy Prince again as it has a cool retro feel, so i went over to tennis warehouse. Happy customer cheers
Yes, definitely are! If you're playing with the new Phantom I'm sure you're happy, but look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October! •Phantom 100G (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar) •Phantom 100G LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”) •Phantom 107G (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17MM CTS section)
I had my stolen when I car stolen and it was in the trunk...I was more upset at losing the racket as I had worked all summer for it...it wasn't cheap...the car was insured.
I’m loyal (for some reason) to Prince to this day, maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it cause I was on staff with them up until their bankruptcy and I got out of the tennis industry. A big issue for me was quality control post bankruptcy. I was a fan of the T-22 shoe, but my first pair post bankruptcy was horrible and I haven’t went back. But I’m still out here balling with a Textreme. But early to mid 1990’s Prince was awesome. The whole CTS world of frames. Frames with power and weight. Colorful bags and accessories. Greats stuff. Babolat was brilliant in their American Launch, and that even though a few bells and whistles have changed, a Pure Drive is still a Pure Drive, Aeros are still Aeros.. etc. Some people don’t want to switch every season. You can stick with a line and spec (or super close to it) every season. That’s why Wilson needs to be smart and keep that Clash line as is for awhile, but I guess that doesn’t keep R&D people employed. Side note- I like how your videos say what I’m thinking as I’m watching it for the first time... the EXO3 Black, the stringing issues... good stuff. I’d love for you to go back and talk about the Wilson Profile line. If you need samples I can send you a couple. It’s an interesting story with that Author and all.
Interesting perspective Harry. My first racket in High School was the aluminum alloy Head Master, and later I played with a Prince Pro. Much later when I got back into Tennis I tried a Babolat and ended up choosing a Prince "O3" racket after testing a few. I decided to start stringing my own rackets, so I started on the "O3" rackets and never had much trouble, perhaps because I read the instructions and selected a machine that had a table lock and skipped all the weird techniques. Never had to bore a grommet, the frames are marked for the tie-off points, at least for the Tour 100's I have. "O3" rackets can also be strung 50/50 on the crosses which avoids the port issues. Seems like less of an issue than many other strange grommet layouts and one piece stringing - problems that lots of other popular rackets manage to survive. One piece stringing is perhaps the problem, some rackets are just not well suited for it. I never string one piece anyway, usually want a hybrid or a different tension in the crosses, and many tournaments and pros avoid one piece. I suspect it wasn't so much the stringers, but there were many other issues at a higher corporate level and more competition from other manufacturers that started some business transactions and bad decisions that damaged the company and caused the majority of the problems. Sad to see it, hope TW can bring them back. Thanks for your fun videos.
Played with my '97 vintage Thunderlight Midplus 95 just today! Love it. Strung up with RPM Blast @ 50 and quite a bit of added weight in the but cap (mixture of swimmer's ear plug silicone with embedded 2g lead air rifle pellets) to get the racquet to 324g strung weight (the racquet is 285 unstrung. It has the "morph beam", and apparently was originally designed to be head heavy, although it is indeed a rather light frame stock. Beam is 28mm at the tip, 27mm mid frame, 25mm at the bottom of the hoop, tapering down to 24mm just above the handle. With the added weight in the handle it is now head light and plays great. 95 head gives some good control, so it's not a total cannon, mixed with the RPM Blast for reasonable levels of spin. But when you uncork one with that thick beam, the ball does get moving pretty good. My first ever racquet was (actually I still have it..) a Prince Graphite Controller Oversize. I had no idea at the time what to get, went to the mall (1990) and just picked a racquet pretty much at random. Wasn't a fan of that racquet at all. In '97 when I got the Thunderlite 95, I couldn't believe what a difference there was in how the new racquet played and performed. Just ordered a used Textreme Tour 100P off of Fleabay for $99. Looking forward to see how that new Prince compares 25 years on from my last Prince. BTW, I a couple months back I got a brand new Clash V1. First impressions were great. Nice soft feel, etc, etc. But after a little while I decided to switch from an eastern grip to semi-western, and now I don't feel the Clash suits me, thus justifying getting a new stick. Thanks for all your vids, Harry!
Pam Shriver used the Prince Classic to reach the finals of the US Open. The major reason for the downfall began when Prince was purchased by the Bennetton family. That, coupled with a major decline in participation were the primary cause. Interesting that this was not even mentioned in this overview! The "O" series technology played a minor role in the overall picture. It was an important issue, but not a major reason for the decline.
Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry. The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same. Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more! Howard Head’s goal from the beginning to help make tennis easier to learn and play better tennis. Prince has a tremendous history on innovation and game improvement and that’s why they still exist as a quality brand.
You're right, there was a major decline in tennis in the 2000's. It makes sense that at least one company went bankrupt, especially if they were bought out by incompetents.
Thank you for the very informative video. When I was a kid, I learned to play using my mom's Prince Classic just like the one that you showed on camera. As I got better and when I started playing tournaments, I played with a Prince Precision Graphite 110 right after it was released. My brother used a Prince Graphite 110. We both really loved our rackets. After a few years of playing tournaments, we both had to get to "real life" and went to college and tennis took a back seat in both of our lives for the first time. Our trusty Prince rackets went into our closets and collected dust. I never thought much about Price or even about tennis much over the last 25+ years. I'm pretty shocked at how Prince has fallen from grace in my absence from the tennis world. Fast forward to this past weekend and I actually took out my good old Precision Graphite for the first time in about 12 years (I did take it out in about 2010 to hit some balls on one weekend) and played some tennis with my young son. He has just started taking lessons and he is having a lot of fun. I was looking at the rackets that other people were using that afternoon and I was shocked at the changes compared to what people were using back in my playing days. Rackets now are so much more colorful! Mine looked really outdated with its mostly black frame. That's OK with me though because my old racket still felt great, even when I was just goofing off and doing some weekend hacking with my son. I actually did some racket shopping and today I just bought another Prince Precision Graphite 110 online. It's in really good condition and it looks just like mine. I just bought it as a backup in case something happens to my original one. It's not a very highly regarded racket today, unlike my brother's Prince Graphite, so when I found a used Precision Graphite for sale that was in really good condition, I decided to buy it. It was pretty cheap since it's not a "collector's item" like some of the rackets from back in my day. I just hope that I'm good enough to keep a rally going with my little boy. I'm pretty rusty! Thanks again for the great video.
Prince's revamp is a blessing in disguise. They're developing racquets with tons of feel, and no hype. The 2018 Prince Phantom 93p is easily my favorite racquet since the original Head Prestige Classic. Definitely not for everyone, but I recommend it for hitters looking for a more traditional feeling players stick.
Agree . . . that's a true player's stick. Any racquet that comes with a leather grip is saying something! Have you tried the 2020 Phantom 93P? Just wondered how you felt about the added Twaron?
@@AMstringing I have not, although I'm really curious. I suspect it brings the sweetspot a little higher where it needed it from the first iteration. Please let me know if you get a chance to hit with it...
Prince O3's are the best hybrid rackets I have played with in 20 years of tennis - better than most other brands, esp Wilsons. John Isner still uses Prince and it has remarkable power and stability. It was designed for big hitters and pro tour players. Wilson and Babolat, Yonex have big player endorsements which is why they sell and they market their brands better. Pure drives are good though haven't like a single Wilson yet, lol.
Prince Composite Graphite 110! Used from 1988 thru 2019... Bought a Wilson...and yes ...I still have it...actually have my original and some extras I purchased
What a great video! you hit all the points. My first racquet was the Prince Pro, and then the Response 90, Tricomp 90, Spectrum 90 and the Graphite 90. After that era nothing really clicked. I was teaching at the time for a company that was sponsored by Prince, so I had to teach and sparingly hit with the CTS series, the Vortex and the Mono, (all while secretly competing with my Wilson and later Heads). My reason for finding this video was tennis elbow issues and was considering buying the Phantom 97p which had the same colour scheme as the Response 90 (One of my favourite racquets of all time) with an RA of 58) but really couldn't find any aside from TW and in limited grips sizes...etc. Thanks for the great video, subscribed, and liked!
I play with Prince Textreme Beast 100 and it is truly a beast. Soft on the arm but with lots of power, spin and control.The sound it makes on contact with the ball is just amazing!
This was a great video thanks and im glad that i came across this. I Played tennis all thru the 80s and 90s and I only owned Prince rackets. I went online and bought all the rackets i loved as a kid. in both 90's and 110's. Woody, Classic, Graphite Comp, Graphite, Spectrum Comp , CTS Response, CTS Lighting. Using Prince Strings, Pro Blend ,Topspin,. I even remember a string that would change colors as it wore out. I miss my tennis days playing all day long with friends. When it got dark we found courts with lights to move to and play. Great video again and thanks for posting.
Thanks for answering this! I love my Prince racquet and was disappointed when a number of vendors stopped selling Prince racquets. I think TW is the only retailer that sells racquets in the US.
In addition to Tennis Warehouse, Prince products can be purchased at retail and pro shops around the country in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Your point is well taken. I used to work in a tennis store and the stringers used to love Prince racquets because they were easy and fast to string. They had a very open string pattern (it was patented along with the oversize head size for 17 years). The "O" port design reminds me of the old Wilson T-2000 trampoline design that also did not have grommets. Stores used to charge extra to string them. However, in its day, the T-2000 was a very popular frame and stores would have been insane not to stock it for that reason. I recently purchased a Prince Phantom O3 frame and it is very comfortable and flexible. It is very easy on my elbow. So far, I have not had it re-strung. It is unfortunate that Prince has entered into an exclusive distribution arrangement with a competitor. Maybe they could return to the design of the MORE PERFORMANCE racquets that did away with grommets all together but did not have large, shared ports. Prince design has been up and down for the last several decades. I did not care for the Triple Threat design - it was not sufficiently stable. I really did like my CTS Precision DB24 oversize though! I think a lot of people will want to try to new TwistPower frame. Babolat racquets are high quality but are much too stiff for me. As I get older, the more I miss wood and aluminum racquets - I NEVER had elbow problems with them.
I agree, the Wilson T-2000 was definitely unique in design and time consuming to string. I think the O-ports take a little more time to string, but if you're not stringing in a pro tournament or doing high volume stringing, it's really not that bad. I was playing with the original O3 Phantom 100 too, but switched to the 2020 Phantom O3 100X. Same comfort and feel with a little more pop!
@@AMstringing Thanks but I like the more flexible version. I, unfortunately, have a bad elbow. And, I just bought it! It's too soon to invest in another one! It's barely broken in!
@@tedneanderthal7373 Yes, It definitely helped me with my elbow too! I was playing with it from 2017-2019, and eventually went away! I even strung it with full poly (17 & 18 gauge at 38 pounds). When the new Phantom came out, I felt it was calling to me! :)
In 1983 I picked up a couple of Prince Pro rackets - the original prince was popular around my club at that time. The Prince Pro won me every singles match I played that year. Our team won the Sussex ( UK) league and I won my club tournament. I loved those rackets. I left tennis for a while in my forties, and when I came back I tried the O3 white. This was great for me. I followed Maria Sharapova to the Speedport Black - great racket , still got them both. I then went to the rebel 95 - not so good for the arm - my friend recommended the EXO3 tour team 100. This saved my arm and I had some good seasons with it in the veterans ITF tournaments - still got both. Now I have the EXO3 tour 100 - they were out of production by this time and I got one form USA and one form Japan. I love them and continue to use them, despite also having tried one or two other Prince Rackets - I even had two seasons with the Wilson Blade 98 Countervail but I keep retuning to these EXO 3 tour 100's. They work for me!
Prince has really done a spectacular job with the Phantom line. I currently use the 2020 Phantom 100p and its a really solid and spectacular frame that has a nice balance of power and control. It's also quite arm friendly and plays well with a synthetic string.
@@hellohello-yi8yr The 100P is really a solid racquet with a great balance of power and control! It's really one of best point and shoot frames! Easy targeting for flat, topspin and slice! I highly recommend you making the switch!
@@hellohello-yi8yr Great! Here's a tip that I recommend to my customers when demoing racquets. Never go by first impression, while you're in that honeymoon stage with a new racquet. Play with it at least 3-4 times: #1 - Have someone feed you balls or hit on a ball machine. This will give you an opportunity to breakdown all your strokes and by repetition feel how the racquet behaves in your hand. #2 - Hit with someone and play some structured points. This will allow you to tailor game-like situations and what the racquet would feel like in competition. #3 - Play a set or a practice match. This will allow you to feel if you can trust the racquet in pressure situations.
Albert Murata somehow that stick plays so different than the #s would tell you. It doesn’t feel super heavy, it has plenty of spin, control for days, and huge serve power
And to follow up, I love Prince and am a Phantom pro user. I believe the O port racket line was the best game improvement frame line for rec players, ever. But joe public would rather use the cool aeropro or heavy rf 97 than something that would probably help their game more. So its marketing. Perhaps if Sharapova stayed with Prince, perhaps if Ferrero beats Roddick in the 03 us open final, perhaps if Isner years later, wins a slam, if Ferrer upsets Nadal 13 RG final...maybe its a different story for Prince.
Very insightful, thanks. I'd like to add that Prince stubbornly stuck w the rectangular thin beam aesthetic, even with their thunder series, while's Babolat thicker oval/diamond beam delivered the power that polyester strings needed. Also, after the Prince 710 OS (the OS Rafter racquet), it literally took me 8 or 9 racquets to find one with the same feel albeit with more power. I went thru the ThunderLite 105 (no control), the more DB OS & MP (no feel AND no power, what's the point)? More control I think (super slim silver frame,). That POS went a decade back in time, bone jarring stiffness and no control nor power. It was one horrible playing racquet after another. I finally found my stride in the AIR DB, but the frames were so old that they completely lost power. All of the square holes thru the body were horrible. No control, too dampened. In the end they made one horrible racquet after another. I was loyal to Prince for over 20 years but once I started playing with Head & Dunlops I sold all my Prince. I only have their shiny orange bag now.
Prince screwed up by deciding they'd rather earn rents on their IP when they were able to patent the hole. Something that frankly should have never been patentable. But they got away with one, and they decided they had caught a golden goose that shouldn't exist, and they lost interest in tennis. Plain and simple. They didn't just stop giving a hoot about stringers (not just making the racquet hard to string, but requiring a kindergarted color coded mess of a key ring of boomerangs to be able to handle their entire line). They also stopped giving a hoot about the pros who were using their racquets. The nail in their coffin was when Maria switched... and it was my read, from the press around the time, that basically Prince was saying, yeah, we don't want to pay you what your worth in terms of sales... because really we don't care about selling stuff anymore, we just want to earn rents on our magic patent. And you say they failed, but bankruptcy for those cats wasn't a failure. It reflected the fact that they knew the golden goose might stop laying eggs, so they ran to the bank with this stream of gold eggs that was coming in and said, "we'll take the cash now please", and they did... The guys with the corner offices were no left shaking tin cups on the street corner. They appropriated all the value in that company in the form of cash-out's. I would also say that it's difficult to fathom when you are a stringer how many people buy a raquet and never, for it's lifetime, ever have it restrung. Even HS players who are playing seasonal tennis at a pretty high level in their region or state might not string their racquet more than 1 time each year. So I don't think there was a massive market drop with those kids, or for that matter most recreational players... but you did get into a situation where Prince would be sponsoring a junior playing at the national tournament level, and those kids walk in with their racquets to the club shop for a re-string and the tech there says, sorry, I have to charge you extra to string that because of the extra time, etc. Those kids aren't fussy about their racquet configuration like the pros. You can give them 3-4 choices from a line and they are like, yeah, I like this one. Done deal. They (or their parents) were probably like, damn, I don't need this headache getting that Prince racquet restrung. And there's the racquet tech ready with the answer - I got a lot of kids who switched to this Babolat.
Having a hard time following your story. What does “IP” and “rents” mean? Did they commit financial misdeeds in a Lehman Brothers sort of way as Harry discussed? Or did something else lead to their Chapter 13 filing?
@@BorisBecker1872 There has definitely been a lot of changes and uncertainty with Prince in recent years. The Prince brand currently operates under a licensing model where the IP (trademarks, patents, etc.) is owned by a partner company who specializes in licensing by the name of Authentic Brands Group. In this model, ABG act as the licensor and Prince works with operators around the world who act as their licensees. These licensees manage the day to day operations of the brand in their particular markets (sales, distribution, customer service, etc.) while the Brand and Marketing team in the US manages the global product development and marketing operations. For the past 1.5 years Prince has been working with Tennis Warehouse and Dick’s Sporting Goods to be their licensees and distribution partners in the US market and have been working to regain the brands place in the wholesale market through the Tennis Source B2B platform. The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same. Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
It sounded to me like he was saying the market drop was less down to customers being annoyed at how much restrings cost or how often they had to do it, it was more because the tennis shops didn't like restringing them so presumably more and more shops stopped wanting to stock Prince racquets in the first place, or would be more likely to recommend other brands to customers, and over time that's probably going to have a big impact. But yes, I expect dissatisfaction from the actual players (or their parents, as you point out) would have an impact too. This was a useful video - I used to love Prince tennis racquets and especially their squash racquets, but the quality really went downhill in the last few years, and this helped explain why.
I have been playing Prince for 10-15 years now, first just by chance finding a Prince on clearance, then later because they make some of the most arm friendly racquets on the market. I purposely went to a local pro shop for my first one but then couldn't find any locally, maybe now I know why. I have since added two Phantom 100s and I love them. No more problems with tennis elbow, although I also went to a longer swing using more shoulder.
@tennis spin Can you tell us how Prince USA is different than Prince Japan? Are they both owned by the same equity firm or are they completely separate from each other?
Japan has their own license and works with ABG, like Tennis Warehouse in the U.S. Japan does have more input regarding racquet design. Recently, the Twistpower X100 was added to the Prince line which is originally a Japan licensee design. Check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/6rVg8Z9zaXI/v-deo.html Prince as a brand has not experienced the “turmoil” overseas it has in the U.S., which may explain why Japan have so many more products. Considering the state of the business here between 2012-2016, Prince is rebuilding what once was in the U.S.
Great video in every way. Thank you for holding your promise and producing this excellent material. You really told us a well put together and an interesting story.
Great history lesson! My Dad had the Classic. I started out with wood, then Head Edge. First Prince was the Pro in high school. Then Ace Face, Synergy 26, Vortex, Triple Threat, Shark, O3 Royal, Shark Hybrid, Textreme, Legacy. I actually had multiple rackets of each. As they got old or brittle, I always found a way to give them away or sell for cheap to others. I currently have 4 different rackets in my bag and use them depending on the situation. I pride myself at being able to hit with any Prince. It helps to add variety to my game. Only bad thing I find with the Prince brand recently is the availability of replacement grommets. They've made my rackets disposable...
They have good raquets but they have, well i thik they have a bad marketing, there are good players with prince but not the best players. I have a prince raquet and i play with it but it´s just ok, but not like the other brands. Right now they are making better desitions.
@@joseberronesgomez440 Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry. The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same. Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more! Howard Head’s goal from the beginning to help make tennis easier to learn and play better tennis. Prince has a tremendous history on innovation and game improvement and that’s why they still exist as a quality brand.
@@AMstringing Of course I know that prince are the reason for the modern tennis we know and that is why there are the great current brands. But they are no longer the kings of the industry, wilson, babolat, head, yonex and other brands are leaving a very high standard. I repeat they are not bad rackets, they are excellent, but it is not the prince of 10 years ago. And you tell me data from the United States, what about the rest of the world. The only rackets I've seen prince outside of the US are old or very rare 1 out of 30 if not 1 out of 50 players. I'm telling you, I play with prince but prince is no longer the same in today's market. I wish prince could get out of this and go back to being the king of tennis. Regards.
@@joseberronesgomez440 Thanks for your reply! The new 2020 Phantom line is awesome. Old school thin beam and feel enhanced with modern technology! Also, look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October! •Phantom 100 Graphite (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar) •Phantom 100 Graphite LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”) •Phantom 107 Graphite (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17mm CTS section)
Very interesting story. I have owned some of them and I have strung quite a few. My favourite racquet (until the Wilson Pro Staff) was the Original Prince Graphite(107). What a racquet(still going on to this day)! But you've got to be in a very good shape to play with this stick. Memories....
I owned and operated a a tennis shop in San Diego for 32 years (retired two years ago). This is a good video explaining why Prince went bankrupted. There is a little more to the story. First many viewers of the channel need to understand how big tennis was in the late 80's and early 90's. Wilson OWNED the tennis racquet market in the early 90's, close to 45% of all racquet sales in the US. This was close to $150M in sales (just racquets), today the top brands of Babolat and Wilson both make close to $25M each. In 1990 US racquet sales was near $250M, today the total US business is under $80M. All sports including tennis have decreased in play, big time. Prince did have a roller coaster ride starting in the 70's. Prince was sold around 2000 to several investors at a good price. Around 2007 Prince was again at the top the sales chart with the "O" racquet series. This group of investors sold it to another group of buyers at a huge profit, selling the company close to $100M. This is when tennis took another huge hit in actual number of peopling playing the sport. Prince had the #1 selling shoe for years, the T-22. Rumors had the company owing a large sums of money to an Asian production company that would no longer fabricate their shoes until the money owed was paid. Prince couldn't pay the loan so Prince moved production to Vietnam where new molds were required. Along with material changes the new molds changed the fit of the shoe. I would say Prince lost over 50% of their shoe sales because of this move. It forced our customers to find other shoes. Over time Prince sales dropped significantly and the cost of money over several years forced Prince to file bankruptcy. I'm not sure the exact number but rumors have the Prince licencing fee worth less $1M a year. Prince is now a TW house brand.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same. For the past 1.5 years they have been working with the teams from Tennis Warehouse and Dick’s Sporting Goods to be the licensees and distribution partners here in the US market and have been working to regain their place in the wholesale market. Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Watching this video in 2023. I knew when he got to his explanation it wasn't the full picture. Like come on, tennis store stringers was the reason the company failed? Thank you for explaining the rest of the story! Had to scroll too far.
The Prince CTS Approach 110 was the best racquet ever made. I still have six of them. Had a nice thin throat, but a wider frame at the top. Great stability and very powerful. Quite heavy, but overall the best racquet I have ever used. And lots of players used the Prince Pro. I remember when Peter Doohan beat Boris Becker in the 2nd round of the 1987 Wimbledon. Doohan used the Prince Pro. Prince defined 80's tennis. Sad to see them decline. Great video!
DAMN RIGHT!! I now use the Prince CTS Oversize Approach from 88. I am USPTA pro and have tried hundreds of racquets. The CTS models have a thick rubber grip over the handle which dampens shocks immensely. This is the only oversized racquet I could even play with.
@@guruofendtimes819 Nice. Absolutely right. Dampens shock, incredibly stable at the top of the racquet for players who hit high on the racquet, rubber grip over the handle, powerful, the throat just sits well in the hands. Prince CTS Approach 110! Thanks for the great comment.
Did you know that Prince is reintroducing the CTS Synergy DB26 and the original Graphite (with individual grommets and no bumper guard)? It's part of Prince’s 50th anniversary celebration! It should be out in the last week of August. Check out this podcast. ua-cam.com/video/Rhe4oNFhnPg/v-deo.html
The original Prince Oversize was 110 square inches for years. Pam Shriver used the original green throat model for her 1978 US Open Semi run... Monica Seles also played the Graphite...Prince at one point sold more racquets than the next two companies combined...Dominant Brand. Michael Chang helped develop the LongBody racquet ( with Steve Davis Designer ). I served on the National Teaching Pro Advisory Staff for Prince for 12 years, starting in 1984. I was a play tester for every new model ( even some prototypes ) during that time. if you have any specific questions what happened to PRINCE, send me a message.
Yes definitely! Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
There were a couple of port key sizes. If you had the proper key size, the racquet could be strung without using the brake. However, I found it just as easy and faster to use brake when pulling the crosses that required it.
I started playing with a Prince Pro in 1984. I had been playing with a Head aluminum (red badge in the throat but I don't recall model name) before that and all I could do with that racket was serve; couldn't hit ground strokes to save my life. Anyway, while the Prince gave me some confidence and helped me advance my game (relatively speaking), within a couple of years as I played more, I noticed the PP flexing as I hit the ball. When I hit with the newer graphite rackets and went back to the PP, it was like night and day. So I went with a Wilson Pro Staff and while it was a smaller head, the size no longer was an issue. I hit with most of the Prince line during the early and mid-80s: the Woodie, the Classic and the Graphite, even owned the Graphite for a short time. Like the Pro, they served a niche but I don't think they were the top of the line. I liked my Wilson better than the Prince Graphite, and I even liked a buddy's Pro Kennex (maybe a few years later) that was a lower end model than the Prince but still graphite. I just wish I had played more and developed my game. If I had to do it all over again, I would have either just saved up for the Wilson in 1984 or the Prince Graphite at the time and bypassed the Prince Pro.
The Head racket with red throat called Professional and also have another with blue throat called Master, I was using Professional or called Red Head. Later Prince gave me racket to play, and i stick on it up to now, more than 30years, now I am 65 years old and using O3 Sliver 0S. Great Racket.👍👍👍
too late this comment but my short story at tennis is tied with Prince. I am now 70 years old ( still moving very well ) and I begun to play 6 years ago after several sports. I was lucky because at that time the Textreme 100 Tour T had good reviews so I bought it. In spite I like it a lot I tried other brands recently (Wilson, Head, Yonex) but I get back always to my Prince. Is very arm friendly and quite easy to maneuver. I love it.!! Even so, I ordered now the Prince Ripstick 280 but with what you said about stringing these modern prince racquets I got worried. I hope my stringer does not raise problems with it.
Good job on the history lesson of Prince although there are a couple of edits I would add. It was the 78 Open and she played with the Classic, not the Pro. Pam first began playing the Classic back in her epic battles with Elise Bergin in the juniors in the MALTA section. The Prince Classic took her serve and volley to the next level. Nobody hit top back then and her cupped, under slice forehand was a perfect match for that aluminum frame. She ALWAYS hit slice backhands and I think the Classic made it easier for her to keep the ball deep. She wanted to do one thing: get to the net and once there... game over. Cross Keys and Columbia Tennis Barn coaches like Lew Gerrard, Steve Krulevitz and I guess Candy? (never saw him) would drill into the MALTA juniors "take that short ball, drive it to a corner and get to the net". Pam was a master at it. MALTA tennis was strong back in the day with Shriver, Bergin and Baltimore Jr. Davis Cuppers like Jimmy Hodges, Rodney Harmon, Dek Potts but NONE of them would seriously consider the new OS frames. I remember one coach yelling "dont even bring one of those snowshoes to practice because if you NEED that, then you don't belong here...they are a fad and won't last, so don't bother!" lol, little did he know. . .didn't we hear that same thing about that strange thing called...the snowboard? lol. I still play my POGOS. They're enjoyable for the first 30 minutes and then I'm reminded why they call my division "Seniors" and I swap out for a lighter friendlier version..oddly enough it's a Head Radical Microgel OS. Keep going Prince and thanks again for your educational video.
I worked at a tennis shop when the O3 came out. Stringing those racquets was a big pain - you are correct. And the quality was poor - marking the "short" label on the wrong side. You also need a stringing machine with a turntable you can lock, otherwise weaving the crosses is just painful.
This is actually a very informative Video by Someone who really experienced the whole respective history of racket industry. Imponderable whether Wilson will stay as big as they used to be, after Serena and Roger stepped down. There are more exciting rackets than Wilson Blade and not many can play a classic heavy Wilson Pro Staff. Dunlop went down already in the 90s, just as Snauwaert. Voelkl, Fischer and Kneissl were big in Europe and now only produce skis. Now we are observing that Tecnifibre is coming up, just as Babolat did, and both are basically string companies.
Oh the nostalgia! Here in Brazil in the 80s (and I assume worldwide) Prince Racquets were all the rage. My dad played with the Prince Pro and latter it was handed down to me. I still have a Textreme frame I bought for cheap new 2 years ago but the wide body is a let down since I favor thinner racquets. Great video, keep up telling the history of tennis brands!
Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry. The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same. If you like the thinner beam frames, check out the Phantom line. Old school look and feel enhanced with modern technology! Look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October! •Phantom 100G (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar) •Phantom 100G LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”) •Phantom 107G (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17MM CTS section)
I play with the Prince graphite 100 (2013 edition) and it´s one of the best rackets i´ve played with in my life. I own 5 of them so I am covered. Gabriela Sabatini was another Prince Star she used the Graphite 110 and the last top 5 player that used Prince is David Ferrer, john Isner is still out there playing with his Prince beast. I see Dunlop and Prince as similar cases, brands that were on top of the world for decades and are trying to recover some lost ground. I really hope that Prince survives and continues the strategy of re editing classic frames customized for the modern game. I´d love to see a Graphite 100 special edition :)
Coming back to tennis after 15-17 years, this is wild to me. Everyone had either a Head or Prince racket ( I was the one kid with Dunlop). Crazy how they've fallen so hard.
Used Prince Graphite 110 in the late 80's, great stick, then serve & volley 90's with Approach 90 which was awesome. Ran with T22's in the 200's. Who did not use this brand??
Yes, there a bunch of great Triple Threat frames! If you liked the Diablo Mid 93, you'll probably like the new Phantom 93P. It looks like it came out of the same mold! Only thing is that you'll have to decided between the 16x18 or 18x20. The Diablo had an unusual 16x20 pattern.
@@AMstringing Same with the triple threat graphite mid, its 16x20 (i still have it ;). Currently I really like the Wilson blade, wouldn't mind demoing one of the Phantom 93Ps tho
@@chuckharris4855 Great, I don't suppose you live in Hawaii? I'm a Prince dealer on Oahu and would be happy to string up a demo for you. If not, Tennis Warehouse has a great demo program and I hope you can get your hands on one!
John Isner and Lucas Pouille (both in ATP top 25) use Prince Racquets and a few WTA players do as well. The company is coming out with new products all the time and are still making some of the classics, including T22 shoes.
@@tedneanderthal7373 I hit with a phantom 100p and they were way to flexible for my liking. Looks like his elbow got used to the soft flex and broke when he switched to the stiff Pure Drive.
@@tedneanderthal7373 Does not change the fact that his pro stock racquet stiffness was 62 then switched to the Pure Drive and had to get elbow surgery.
@@javace79 From what I have read, Pouille was having elbow problems before he switched tennis racquets and brands. He has been injured on and off with the same problem for a while. I am not sure the problem is the racquets. Rather, I think the problem is the stiff polyester strings that the pros use. He may have also switched frames and racquet companies for financial / sponsorship reasons.
At 50 years old, I remember using the Prince Pro back in the day. And that was the last time I ever used it. Today, my kids are coming up, and the academy they train in (in London) has maybe 50 kids. I have not seen a single Prince racket for probably the last 3 years, and that includes tournaments I drive to.
Demo'd a handful of racquets after playing with an o3 speedport tour in 2007. Landed with the Phantom 93p. It's an incredible players racquet! If you're a fan of heavier, smaller sticks. Don't overlook it!
Interesting points. I had the Prince Pro, Graphite Original OS, Mid, Mono, O3, Diablo, and now playing with Phantom 100G. I love their shoes too but now almost impossible to but in here in HK. Had my share of Wilson, Volkl, Fischer, YY, Technifiber and Head too. I couldn't play with any Babalot racket, too thick and the balance always felt strange to me.
I remembered demo-ing some of their racquets during the Rebel 98 days and not liking the feel of any of them. Never really considered Prince until the Textreme 100P but I'm a 98 guy and couldn't get over the mental hump of going to 100. From memory my ownership went: Prince Sierra Ti -> Head Liquid Metal 4 -> Volkl DNX 9 -> Dunlop Aerogel 4D 300 Tour -> Technifbre TFight 295 -> Dunlop 3.0 F Tour. -> Wilson Six One 95 16x18 -> Volkl Organix 10 -> Yonex Ezone DR98 -> Babolat Pure Strike 16 x 19 -> Volkl V-Sense 10 -> Technifibre TF40 315.
Have you considered the new Phantom 97P? Nice thin beam design and open string pattern. www.tennis-warehouse.com/Prince_Phantom_97P/descpageRCTWABG-PP97P.html
Albert Murata I wanted to go back to 18x20 so it came down to: - Phantom Pro 100x - sub 20 mm beam, 100 inch head, not stable enough. - Yonex Vcore Pro HD - a bit too flexi, plus I don't think I've got the game for it. - Head Gravity Pro - 100 inch head + 18x20 + heavy swing weight = a fraction too sluggish. 98 I probably would have switched.
I remember also the Prince Woody. Only the grey hairs used it. Maybe because it was expensive and bigger than a large pizza. I also remember when the first Prince Graphite came out and Glickstein used it to hit insanely fast serves. The first time I hit with the Prince Graphite I was blown away by its power. It was too expensive for most of us at that time. Now hardly anyone knows the Prince name. I wanted a Prince when I got back into tennis, but Bobolats were better. I tried the Prince, Wilson, Yonex, Head, etc. None of them felt as sweet as the Bobolat PureDrive. I guess their design leap-frogged the others somehow.
Thanks for the history lesson. I had a Classic as my first real racquet. Followed by a few graphites. Wasn’t aware of what caused the downfall. I remember in the 80’s Yonex was the rich kids racquets.
As a kid I played with the Approach 110, after that the CTS Synergy 26 DB 110. I got hold of the black Vortex 110 and played with it for many years. It had uncomparable feel. I now plat with the orange O3 tour 100.
Sounds you've been a loyal user of Prince racquets! If you want the most current frame to replace your O3 Tour 100, go with the Phantom O3 100X! www.tennis-warehouse.com/Prince_Phantom_O3_100X/descpageRCTWABG-PP100X.html
Albert Murata thanks for the response but when I look at the video I don’t get the feeling that my racket and the phantom you mention are quite the same. The orange O3 seems to be for more advanced players...
@@joostvandinten7584 Yes, you're right. Depending which O3 Orange you are referring to, the specs can differ. These are all orange in color and have O3 ports ... lol :) Here's what I found in my database. These are unstrung specs. O3 Tour 95 - weight 323g / stiffness 64 / swingweight 303 O3 Speedport Tour 97 - weight 320g / stiffness 65 / swingweight 313 Ozone Tour 100 - weight 323g / stiffness 64 / swingweight 303 Tour 100 - weight 307g / stiffness 62 / swingweight 301 Phantom O3 100X - weight 305g / stiffness 60 / swingweight 300
Major (played by Leconte, now bac via Tecnifibre, after many years), Dunlop (Haas, Anderson), Völkl (all Russian players in the 80s and 90s), Fischer (Stich and Bagdatis, now Pacific) Estusa (Becker), ProKennex… Many brands have only a minor piece of the cake now, when they’re not dead.
By just having TW has the distributor, Prince losses a lot of users. A lot people prefer seeing racquets in person at a store. I prefer buying my racquets from my local store because they can make my money instead on an online shop.. I like to keep my local tennis shop around since I go there to restring my (and my sons) racquets.
I guess it depends where you live, but Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Depending where you live, Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
I love my Prince Phantom 100X 305. Tons of feel and control and comfortable on my wrists. Playtested some racquets from Wilson, Head, and Yonex but the Prince was my favorite by far.
My very first racquet was a Prince J/R, then I played with a lot of racquets that tried to approximate the Graphite feel (esp. some of the Radicals from Head) without ever owning one, then 5 years ago I got around to buying a couple of PCG 107 and love them. I still keep an RF97 in the bag on days when I want to work on my footwork and timing since it’s more demanding and with a smaller sweet spot, but the PCG 107 with Volkl Cyclone 17 at 47/45lbs and it’s just about the ideal setup for me in terms of allowing me to really carve the ball with topspin on clay while still getting some good power (great drop shots too). I’ve experimented with the PCG 100 LB as well and it’s definitely worth a try if, like me, you have a 2HBH. I hope Prince sticks around for some time, because there’s really still nothing out there quite like the Graphite 107.
Thanks for this video super informative..... would appreciate if you could do one one “Dunlop”..... i knew they were awesome for a long time then they sort of faded out..... and. Now they are back.... sort of Would like to hear your take on the brand “pro kennex” too. Thanks again for the videos
I still use the Biometric 400 , great racquet, easy on the elbow. They always have a following in England, but they come out with so many models it is hard to keep up.
I went from Wilson pro staff wood to Prince Woodie in the 1980s, and never liked a racquet so much. I tried Thunderstick, and played CTS Lightning in the 90s, but went to the graphite Wilson Pro Staff, similar to the Sampras model, but not the same. Loved Pammy’s game, but the aluminum racquets always felt too light for me. Same with Martina and Yonex.
Yup, even though it weighed a ton, it's my all time favorite racquet too! Back then, it was the perfect marriage of old school wood construction with modern oversize technology. Top it off with natural gut . . . the ultimate organic combination!
Excellent overview of the downfall of a once mighty company. The same thing happened to Prince squash. So many top pros used to play with Prince- Rodney Martin, Rodney Eyles, Michelle Martin, Peter Nicol, James Willstrop, Nicol David, Saurav Ghosal, Ramy Ashour, Mark Talbott. Not to mention a lot of college players and recreational players. They had a lot of state of the art racquets at the time with their Extender series and the Power Ring followed by Triple Threat, More Performance, O Port/Speedport etc.. Interestingly, with Prince squash's downfall, it was another French company that was previously known for just strings, that took over the squash racquet market. That would of course be Tecnifibre whose Carboflex model has become nearly ubiquitous among top pros (a lot of the Egyptians) as well as college players, top juniors, and recreational players. Nowadays, few if any play with Prince squash. They had tried to make a comeback post bankruptcy in 2017 but those latest models were notable for easy breakage as well as being too head heavy. Harry mentions another salient point with Prince that the company was frustrating a lot of the pro shop owners/stringers with their technology. The same thing was happening to their squash line. The O Ports/Speedports were a nightmare to string and the stringers did not like them. They also really didn't like stringing the Power Rings as they were challenging. Prince recently released a new line for squash but is really a shell of itself. RIP.
Yes, you are right. I played squash with a Prince racket and it was the best racket I had used. Till date haven't found anything as good as it. Unfortunately they don't have any new models or availability of even the older ones any more.
Informative! Thank you. I am a stringer, yes, it is a pain in the butt to string, but I don't mind stringing them for myself. However, it is not a racquet I want to string on the regular! However, I still play with EXO3 White and still loving it!
If you ever saw a Rafter Volley, you cant forget it. Its like a Sampras Serve or a Guga Backhand. I liked the Diablo but moved to a Prestige for the availability. I remember seeing Babolat for the first time at Newks tennis camp on a HS 4 day trip. I also remember seeing green clay for the first time then too.
Hey it’s solely showcased in Netflix Original’s Prince of Tennis, which is about a teen going to High School and having an ambitious attitude towards becoming better, and surpassing his father.
Because of an anime titled "baby steps" I went and bought a price racquet (the main character uses one). I got the Beast by price. I use it every now and then for warming up ( I use the pro staff team for most part) or feeling nostalgic because it was that anime that got me into playing tennis
I used 93P to fix my technique and then changed to to Phantom 100X. Prince 100X 305 is a seriously good racquet. Tried Head Gravity Pro, Yonex 97HD, Völkl PB + others, but nothing yet has come close to that racquet yet.
Tilden, Kramer, Borg, Lendl, Sampras, Federer, Djokovic... They all took the game to a new level, but no one has changed it as much as Howard Head- HE REINVENTED TENNIS! It's ok to start playing tennis at 60, provided you are an engineering genius.
You left out Marion Bartoli winning Wimbledon with an Prince Exo3 .... I was introduced to Prince just about when the Exo3 line were introduced . And I must say . It was incredible . I bought the Ignite 95 Exo3 , developed tennis elbow and subsequently went through a whole lot of other Brand’s with variance to swing weight , balance etc . And after around 15years ... have come back to my Ignite 95 Exo3 . I can’t play with anything else without those open ports . But you have to admit that the company was innovative . Even their dampener is unique.
Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry. The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same. If you like the thinner beam frames, check out the Phantom line. Very comfortable playing frames with the old school look and feel, enhanced with modern technology! Speaking about the Double Bridge dampener, did you know the CTS Synergy DB26 will be reintroduced in late August? It's part of Prince’s 50th anniversary celebration! Check out this podcast. ua-cam.com/video/Rhe4oNFhnPg/v-deo.html
Also I left out that their iconic P racquet face stencil has a blanked out bar that cuts through the letter . It just dawned on me that place on the stencil that is blanked out .. is where the sweet spot is ... perhaps so that the stencil ink doesn’t affect the strings ? Or that’s the first place where the stencil ink would fade off .....
@@chowchichang2922 Yeah, it's funny how some players would leave that part blank? Always wondered it was a fashion thing, or just didn't know that part was supposed to be inked in after? :)
I'll always have a soft spot for Prince rackets. I used a few different prince rackets up til I was about 15/16 (for reference, I'm 21 now, so this wasn't that long ago), and really liked them. The last Prince racket I used was a Response 97, which once I modified it, played better at the net than almost everything else I've ever tried (bar a modified PS85, but come on...). Incredible stability and feel, very easy power even on low volleys. Unfortunately, it never really did it for me from the back of the court, making it quite difficult to get to the net in the first place! I moved on to Wilson ProStaff 90s not long afterwards, which weren't quite as good at the net, but the general improvements everywhere else made up for it. My sister used an exo3 tour 98 for quite a while. Beast of a racket from the back of the courts: Once you dropped into a rhythm on your groundstrokes, it was a very powerful racket that allowed for a lot of spin. But you're right, unfortunately a very dead feel. She's since moved onto a Wilson Ultra, which is so much sharper feeling. Another big problem that exo3 tour had was the very poor stability. Personally I think it's because the exo3 holes removed the weight from the sides of the hoop, reducing twistweight, but hey, that's just a theory. Buy and large, Prince rackets were never quite as stable as some other brands. Stringing that exo3 tour was a pain though. Weave a cross, put machine's brake on, stick lump of wood between crosses, pull tension, pray, and watch the whole system collapse anyway. Had to string it pretty tight to compensate for the poor stability too... The failure of exo3 to capture the public's imagination could be blamed for Prince's failure. But speaking from personal experience, teenage me and my friends saw Prince as the brand used by the old folks in tennis clubs. It certainly didn't help that a lot of what we heard from Prince's advertising was about their "player improvement" rackets, with lightweight frames and bloated headsizes. There just didn't seem to be anything readily available for the more advanced tennis player. I want to try out some of Prince's newer rackets, like the Phantom Pro 93 etc, but I doubt I'd switch back to the brand.
Can’t demo the racquets so hard to know which new model’s a best fit. Went to Babolat but the racquet gave me tennis elbow. Now reverted back to my old Synergy DB26
Prince will be reintroducing the CTS Synergy DB26 and the original Graphite (with individual grommets and no bumper guard) as part of Prince’s 50th anniversary celebration! They should be coming out by the end of this month! Check out this podcast. ua-cam.com/video/Rhe4oNFhnPg/v-deo.html
The Speedport Gold & Platinum were the 2nd design of the ported frames. The instructions for stringing the ported frames was flawed, since they pushed using a tool to install the crosses, which were a pain to keep track of . We old guys who used 50/50 when we strung gut had no problem we just strung them that way on machines with no breake. The factory spacer tool varied by model so many stringers did hate it. Same fate befell the earlier Wilson Roller technology.
I see prince doing now what babolat did in 2000. At least in my country, prince gives out the most number of racquet sponsorships by a long shot. You go to a tournament you'll see more prince than anything else. They are trying to build strong grassroots marketing. But I also see many coaches not recommendeding prince because they played during the X03 days.
I remember working in a tennis shop back in the 80s. The prince oversize graphite was 300.00 and The prince Boron was 500.00!!! We always said you were a MORON TO BUY A BORON
I started playing with a Wilson Jack Kramer Wood racquet. Then Yonex 8500 Aluminum racquet. My first composite was a Head Edge Graphite. At some point in the early 1980’s I tried a Prince Pro 110 and never looked back. I played with Prince Spectrum 110 for many years. As a senior player now the Over Size 107-110 head really type racquet helps with serves and volleys for doubles players.
The nice thing about this guy’s channel is that he gives great information, and he speaks so slowly that you can comfortably watch his videos on 1.5x speed. Good time saver!
Oh snap. I tried it. Lolololol it legitimately sounds great. 😂
I watch all his videos on 1.5, 😂
I always do 1.75 on this dude
I do 50X speed 🤣🤣
You should do one on what ever happened to Donnay Racquets!
As a junior Pete Sampras hit with a Donnay racquet and loved it. However given the quality and heritage of the Prostaff went in that direction instead.
Interestingly enough...Iga Swiatek just won the French Open swinging a Prince Tour! When is the last time a Prince racquet was a partner in crime in winning by a singles Grand Slam? Sharapova's 2006 US Open?
@@calvinm.miller4451 Most memorable? - Chang at the French
two bananas later and an underhanded serve to boot
I have a Jimmy arias Donnay Pro Cynetic One 85 sq. Inch and it is terrific. Some say it was made from the same mold as the Sampras racquet.
I still sell tons of Prince tennis rackets here in Sweden. Most of the customers even ask to try only prince rackets, they dont want any babolat or dunlop or technifibre. but thats just my experience over here! :)
Yeah they are doing great here in Japan as well. Lots of people are using them here, including me. Tour 98 suits me down to the ground.
Thank you for the history lesson on my favorite tennis brand! I’ve played with Prince all my life. I tried Babolat, Wilson, Head, Yonex, but I keep coming back to Prince. It’s the most arm friendly racquet for my tennis elbow.
Yes, the Phantom line awesome for comfort with old school look and feel, enhanced with modern technology!
Look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October!
•Phantom 100G (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar)
•Phantom 100G LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”)
•Phantom 107G (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17mm CTS section)
Albert Murata thanks for the info! I currently use a Phantom 100 and Tour 100 with O ports. I will selling my Wilson Clash 100 for the new prince probably.
@@ChowDownDetroit
Looks like we have the same taste!
Played with the same racquets with some customizations - weight 330g & swingweight 310.
2014-17 Tour 100 w/ string ports at 3:00 & 9:00 and string inserts at 12:00
2017-19 Phantom 100 w/tubing at 11:00-1:00
2020 O3 Phantom 100X w/tubing at 11:00-1:00
Note: I started using the string inserts, then later the tubing to provide a little more feel and make it less muted.
Definitely buy the new O3 Phantom 100X, you'll love it! The Phantom 100X 305 and Phantom 100P are great sticks too, but I keep going back to my faithful O3! :)
Try Pro Kennex, more comfortable than Prince in my experience.
Yep the CTS has a thick rubber undergrip.
I played High School tennis in the early to mid 80's and my 1st oversized racket was a Wilson Extra. It was better than the wooden Wilson Kramer I learned with. I moved up to the Prince Pro during my 2nd year of H.S. I Always wanted a Prince Graphite back then but could not afford it. I graduated H.S in 84 after moving to a different school that didnt have a tennis team. I had 2 tennis courts 100 yards from my home though so I continued to play and in 1987 I got a crazy good deal on a new Prince Spectrum Comp 110 and Friggin loved it. Still have it today along with a collection of about 100 others. I have since bought all the old rackets I wanted when I was poor especially the original Prince graphite rackets I wanted so bad in the mid 80's. Including the Chang extra long ones. LOVE the old prince sticks. I lost vision in my left eye in 1988 which killed my depth perception so I could no longer play at a high level. But I still love collecting the old rackets of my youth.
Prince is releasing an "Original" Original graphite OS. 107" headsize, 12.9oz, no headguard
This was fascinating. I'm just getting back into tennis after ~25 years and it's a different world. The last racquet I bought was the Prince CTS Approach 90 (which I proudly still own). Loved that racquet. Back in the day Prince was also a huge innovator in the squash world as well. They were the first to put strings through the throat with their "CTS Extender" if anyone remembers that.
You won't find a better racquet....
I am in the same position myself, I’ve grabbed so many nostalgia racquets off eBay to hit with, really cool and some great memories. Prince cushion grip vortex was a super comfortable grip
I used the Approach 110 to win HS State championship singles.
I recently got back into Tennis, having grown up on Prince, i was devastated to not find them anywhere. A little more digging and i found this video (thanks). I was determined to buy Prince again as it has a cool retro feel, so i went over to tennis warehouse. Happy customer
cheers
You are absolutely so great at telling stories. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this informative info on Prince!
The Prince Phantom series with Textreme are pretty good. Who knows...maybe Prince is on the comeback trail.
Yes, definitely are! If you're playing with the new Phantom I'm sure you're happy, but look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October!
•Phantom 100G (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar)
•Phantom 100G LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”)
•Phantom 107G (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17MM CTS section)
I use the prince phantom 93p, its a nice, classic racquet. It reminds me of the head prestige 93
@@bretts5571 I've heard good things about the 93P. Do share if you have tried it back to back with a POG mid.
ALVIN D'EXPLORER I haven’t, it has a box beam so it reminds me of the Wilson 90s and prestige 93
I hope so, but it looks very bad for Prince.
Prince Graphite is my all time favorite. I remember the brown suede racket bags they came in. #1
I had my stolen when I car stolen and it was in the trunk...I was more upset at losing the racket as I had worked all summer for it...it wasn't cheap...the car was insured.
I was really ready for the first 5 mins to be "I don't carry prince, now lemme tell you why. I don't carry prince"
Excellent insight
I’m loyal (for some reason) to Prince to this day, maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it cause I was on staff with them up until their bankruptcy and I got out of the tennis industry. A big issue for me was quality control post bankruptcy. I was a fan of the T-22 shoe, but my first pair post bankruptcy was horrible and I haven’t went back. But I’m still out here balling with a Textreme. But early to mid 1990’s Prince was awesome. The whole CTS world of frames. Frames with power and weight. Colorful bags and accessories. Greats stuff. Babolat was brilliant in their American Launch, and that even though a few bells and whistles have changed, a Pure Drive is still a Pure Drive, Aeros are still Aeros.. etc. Some people don’t want to switch every season. You can stick with a line and spec (or super close to it) every season. That’s why Wilson needs to be smart and keep that Clash line as is for awhile, but I guess that doesn’t keep R&D people employed.
Side note- I like how your videos say what I’m thinking as I’m watching it for the first time... the EXO3 Black, the stringing issues... good stuff. I’d love for you to go back and talk about the Wilson Profile line. If you need samples I can send you a couple. It’s an interesting story with that Author and all.
babolat changed the game a lot in creating "lineage" lines. it's sort of how In N Out is successful, making the decision fatigue reduced.
How is prince now?
Interesting perspective Harry. My first racket in High School was the aluminum alloy Head Master, and later I played with a Prince Pro. Much later when I got back into Tennis I tried a Babolat and ended up choosing a Prince "O3" racket after testing a few. I decided to start stringing my own rackets, so I started on the "O3" rackets and never had much trouble, perhaps because I read the instructions and selected a machine that had a table lock and skipped all the weird techniques. Never had to bore a grommet, the frames are marked for the tie-off points, at least for the Tour 100's I have. "O3" rackets can also be strung 50/50 on the crosses which avoids the port issues. Seems like less of an issue than many other strange grommet layouts and one piece stringing - problems that lots of other popular rackets manage to survive. One piece stringing is perhaps the problem, some rackets are just not well suited for it. I never string one piece anyway, usually want a hybrid or a different tension in the crosses, and many tournaments and pros avoid one piece. I suspect it wasn't so much the stringers, but there were many other issues at a higher corporate level and more competition from other manufacturers that started some business transactions and bad decisions that damaged the company and caused the majority of the problems. Sad to see it, hope TW can bring them back. Thanks for your fun videos.
Played with my '97 vintage Thunderlight Midplus 95 just today! Love it.
Strung up with RPM Blast @ 50 and quite a bit of added weight in the but cap (mixture of swimmer's ear plug silicone with embedded 2g lead air rifle pellets) to get the racquet to 324g strung weight (the racquet is 285 unstrung. It has the "morph beam", and apparently was originally designed to be head heavy, although it is indeed a rather light frame stock. Beam is 28mm at the tip, 27mm mid frame, 25mm at the bottom of the hoop, tapering down to 24mm just above the handle. With the added weight in the handle it is now head light and plays great. 95 head gives some good control, so it's not a total cannon, mixed with the RPM Blast for reasonable levels of spin. But when you uncork one with that thick beam, the ball does get moving pretty good.
My first ever racquet was (actually I still have it..) a Prince Graphite Controller Oversize. I had no idea at the time what to get, went to the mall (1990) and just picked a racquet pretty much at random. Wasn't a fan of that racquet at all. In '97 when I got the Thunderlite 95, I couldn't believe what a difference there was in how the new racquet played and performed. Just ordered a used Textreme Tour 100P off of Fleabay for $99. Looking forward to see how that new Prince compares 25 years on from my last Prince.
BTW, I a couple months back I got a brand new Clash V1. First impressions were great. Nice soft feel, etc, etc. But after a little while I decided to switch from an eastern grip to semi-western, and now I don't feel the Clash suits me, thus justifying getting a new stick.
Thanks for all your vids, Harry!
Pam Shriver used the Prince Classic to reach the finals of the US Open. The major reason for the downfall began when Prince was purchased by the Bennetton family. That, coupled with a major decline in participation were the primary cause. Interesting that this was not even mentioned in this overview! The "O" series technology played a minor role in the overall picture. It was an important issue, but not a major reason for the decline.
Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same.
Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Howard Head’s goal from the beginning to help make tennis easier to learn and play better tennis. Prince has a tremendous history on innovation and game improvement and that’s why they still exist as a quality brand.
Decline of tennis? What do you mean decline in participation? Also, why did Bennetton family buy Prince for?
@@scottcha-choe7378 fewer people playing tennis at that time. I'm not sure what the Bennetton family paid for Prince.
You're right, there was a major decline in tennis in the 2000's. It makes sense that at least one company went bankrupt, especially if they were bought out by incompetents.
Thank you for the very informative video. When I was a kid, I learned to play using my mom's Prince Classic just like the one that you showed on camera. As I got better and when I started playing tournaments, I played with a Prince Precision Graphite 110 right after it was released. My brother used a Prince Graphite 110. We both really loved our rackets.
After a few years of playing tournaments, we both had to get to "real life" and went to college and tennis took a back seat in both of our lives for the first time. Our trusty Prince rackets went into our closets and collected dust. I never thought much about Price or even about tennis much over the last 25+ years. I'm pretty shocked at how Prince has fallen from grace in my absence from the tennis world.
Fast forward to this past weekend and I actually took out my good old Precision Graphite for the first time in about 12 years (I did take it out in about 2010 to hit some balls on one weekend) and played some tennis with my young son. He has just started taking lessons and he is having a lot of fun. I was looking at the rackets that other people were using that afternoon and I was shocked at the changes compared to what people were using back in my playing days. Rackets now are so much more colorful! Mine looked really outdated with its mostly black frame. That's OK with me though because my old racket still felt great, even when I was just goofing off and doing some weekend hacking with my son.
I actually did some racket shopping and today I just bought another Prince Precision Graphite 110 online. It's in really good condition and it looks just like mine. I just bought it as a backup in case something happens to my original one. It's not a very highly regarded racket today, unlike my brother's Prince Graphite, so when I found a used Precision Graphite for sale that was in really good condition, I decided to buy it. It was pretty cheap since it's not a "collector's item" like some of the rackets from back in my day.
I just hope that I'm good enough to keep a rally going with my little boy. I'm pretty rusty!
Thanks again for the great video.
Prince's revamp is a blessing in disguise. They're developing racquets with tons of feel, and no hype. The 2018 Prince Phantom 93p is easily my favorite racquet since the original Head Prestige Classic. Definitely not for everyone, but I recommend it for hitters looking for a more traditional feeling players stick.
Agree . . . that's a true player's stick. Any racquet that comes with a leather grip is saying something! Have you tried the 2020 Phantom 93P? Just wondered how you felt about the added Twaron?
@@AMstringing I have not, although I'm really curious. I suspect it brings the sweetspot a little higher where it needed it from the first iteration. Please let me know if you get a chance to hit with it...
@@JernEye Yup, will do.
love my Phantom 97P
I loved my spectrum comp circa 1990..the white one...
Prince O3's are the best hybrid rackets I have played with in 20 years of tennis - better than most other brands, esp Wilsons. John Isner still uses Prince and it has remarkable power and stability. It was designed for big hitters and pro tour players. Wilson and Babolat, Yonex have big player endorsements which is why they sell and they market their brands better. Pure drives are good though haven't like a single Wilson yet, lol.
Really appreciate you taking the time to make such an interesting and well-done video.
My first “real” racket 💪 Prince Graphite 👍
And I still have mine. 😀
Prince Composite Graphite 110! Used from 1988 thru 2019... Bought a Wilson...and yes ...I still have it...actually have my original and some extras I purchased
I still have mine... And enjoy...
Me as well cost 80 pounds in 1997 expensive at the time in recession times ..
What a great video! you hit all the points. My first racquet was the Prince Pro, and then the Response 90, Tricomp 90, Spectrum 90 and the Graphite 90. After that era nothing really clicked. I was teaching at the time for a company that was sponsored by Prince, so I had to teach and sparingly hit with the CTS series, the Vortex and the Mono, (all while secretly competing with my Wilson and later Heads). My reason for finding this video was tennis elbow issues and was considering buying the Phantom 97p which had the same colour scheme as the Response 90 (One of my favourite racquets of all time) with an RA of 58) but really couldn't find any aside from TW and in limited grips sizes...etc. Thanks for the great video, subscribed, and liked!
I play with Prince Textreme Beast 100 and it is truly a beast. Soft on the arm but with lots of power, spin and control.The sound it makes on contact with the ball is just amazing!
I play with the beast 98 and yess it is definitely a beast! Love the rarer 16x20 string pattern
This was a great video thanks and im glad that i came across this. I Played tennis all thru the 80s and 90s and I only owned Prince rackets. I went online and bought all the rackets i loved as a kid. in both 90's and 110's. Woody, Classic, Graphite Comp, Graphite, Spectrum Comp , CTS Response, CTS Lighting. Using Prince Strings, Pro Blend ,Topspin,. I even remember a string that would change colors as it wore out. I miss my tennis days playing all day long with friends. When it got dark we found courts with lights to move to and play. Great video again and thanks for posting.
Woodie in middle school, spectrum 90 in high school and graphite in college. Great memories
I've been with Prince since the 70's starting with the original Classic! The Woodie is my all time favorite strung with natural gut! :)
Thanks for answering this! I love my Prince racquet and was disappointed when a number of vendors stopped selling Prince racquets. I think TW is the only retailer that sells racquets in the US.
In addition to Tennis Warehouse, Prince products can be purchased at retail and pro shops around the country in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Your point is well taken. I used to work in a tennis store and the stringers used to love Prince racquets because they were easy and fast to string. They had a very open string pattern (it was patented along with the oversize head size for 17 years). The "O" port design reminds me of the old Wilson T-2000 trampoline design that also did not have grommets. Stores used to charge extra to string them. However, in its day, the T-2000 was a very popular frame and stores would have been insane not to stock it for that reason. I recently purchased a Prince Phantom O3 frame and it is very comfortable and flexible. It is very easy on my elbow. So far, I have not had it re-strung. It is unfortunate that Prince has entered into an exclusive distribution arrangement with a competitor. Maybe they could return to the design of the MORE PERFORMANCE racquets that did away with grommets all together but did not have large, shared ports. Prince design has been up and down for the last several decades. I did not care for the Triple Threat design - it was not sufficiently stable. I really did like my CTS Precision DB24 oversize though! I think a lot of people will want to try to new TwistPower frame. Babolat racquets are high quality but are much too stiff for me. As I get older, the more I miss wood and aluminum racquets - I NEVER had elbow problems with them.
I agree, the Wilson T-2000 was definitely unique in design and time consuming to string. I think the O-ports take a little more time to string, but if you're not stringing in a pro tournament or doing high volume stringing, it's really not that bad.
I was playing with the original O3 Phantom 100 too, but switched to the 2020 Phantom O3 100X. Same comfort and feel with a little more pop!
@@AMstringing Thanks but I like the more flexible version. I, unfortunately, have a bad elbow. And, I just bought it! It's too soon to invest in another one! It's barely broken in!
@@tedneanderthal7373 Yes, It definitely helped me with my elbow too! I was playing with it from 2017-2019, and eventually went away! I even strung it with full poly (17 & 18 gauge at 38 pounds). When the new Phantom came out, I felt it was calling to me! :)
In 1983 I picked up a couple of Prince Pro rackets - the original prince was popular around my club at that time. The Prince Pro won me every singles match I played that year. Our team won the Sussex ( UK) league and I won my club tournament. I loved those rackets. I left tennis for a while in my forties, and when I came back I tried the O3 white. This was great for me. I followed Maria Sharapova to the Speedport Black - great racket , still got them both. I then went to the rebel 95 - not so good for the arm - my friend recommended the EXO3 tour team 100. This saved my arm and I had some good seasons with it in the veterans ITF tournaments - still got both. Now I have the EXO3 tour 100 - they were out of production by this time and I got one form USA and one form Japan. I love them and continue to use them, despite also having tried one or two other Prince Rackets - I even had two seasons with the Wilson Blade 98 Countervail but I keep retuning to these EXO 3 tour 100's. They work for me!
Prince has really done a spectacular job with the Phantom line. I currently use the 2020 Phantom 100p and its a really solid and spectacular frame that has a nice balance of power and control. It's also quite arm friendly and plays well with a synthetic string.
Yup, nice classic thin box beam! I play with the 2020 O3 Phantom 100, but can easily play with the Phantom 100X or Phantom 100P too!
I demoed that racket from tennis warehouse and I'm seriously considering switching to that one from my yonex core 330.
@@hellohello-yi8yr The 100P is really a solid racquet with a great balance of power and control! It's really one of best point and shoot frames! Easy targeting for flat, topspin and slice! I highly recommend you making the switch!
@@hellohello-yi8yr Great!
Here's a tip that I recommend to my customers when demoing racquets.
Never go by first impression, while you're in that honeymoon stage with a new racquet.
Play with it at least 3-4 times:
#1 - Have someone feed you balls or hit on a ball machine. This will give you an opportunity to breakdown all your strokes and by repetition feel how the racquet behaves in your hand.
#2 - Hit with someone and play some structured points. This will allow you to tailor game-like situations and what the racquet would feel like in competition.
#3 - Play a set or a practice match. This will allow you to feel if you can trust the racquet in pressure situations.
@@AMstringing Thank you
93p user here. Such a great stick
Yup, that's a great player's frame . . . don't you love the old school leather grip! :)
Albert Murata somehow that stick plays so different than the #s would tell you. It doesn’t feel super heavy, it has plenty of spin, control for days, and huge serve power
It's a brilliant stick indeed
played with it the other day and struggled with it, does not fit the modern game at all. i enjoyed playing the backhand slice though
And to follow up, I love Prince and am a Phantom pro user. I believe the O port racket line was the best game improvement frame line for rec players, ever. But joe public would rather use the cool aeropro or heavy rf 97 than something that would probably help their game more. So its marketing. Perhaps if Sharapova stayed with Prince, perhaps if Ferrero beats Roddick in the 03 us open final, perhaps if Isner years later, wins a slam, if Ferrer upsets Nadal 13 RG final...maybe its a different story for Prince.
Very insightful, thanks. I'd like to add that Prince stubbornly stuck w the rectangular thin beam aesthetic, even with their thunder series, while's Babolat thicker oval/diamond beam delivered the power that polyester strings needed. Also, after the Prince 710 OS (the OS Rafter racquet), it literally took me 8 or 9 racquets to find one with the same feel albeit with more power. I went thru the ThunderLite 105 (no control), the more DB OS & MP (no feel AND no power, what's the point)? More control I think (super slim silver frame,). That POS went a decade back in time, bone jarring stiffness and no control nor power. It was one horrible playing racquet after another. I finally found my stride in the AIR DB, but the frames were so old that they completely lost power. All of the square holes thru the body were horrible. No control, too dampened. In the end they made one horrible racquet after another. I was loyal to Prince for over 20 years but once I started playing with Head & Dunlops I sold all my Prince. I only have their shiny orange bag now.
Prince screwed up by deciding they'd rather earn rents on their IP when they were able to patent the hole. Something that frankly should have never been patentable. But they got away with one, and they decided they had caught a golden goose that shouldn't exist, and they lost interest in tennis. Plain and simple. They didn't just stop giving a hoot about stringers (not just making the racquet hard to string, but requiring a kindergarted color coded mess of a key ring of boomerangs to be able to handle their entire line). They also stopped giving a hoot about the pros who were using their racquets. The nail in their coffin was when Maria switched... and it was my read, from the press around the time, that basically Prince was saying, yeah, we don't want to pay you what your worth in terms of sales... because really we don't care about selling stuff anymore, we just want to earn rents on our magic patent. And you say they failed, but bankruptcy for those cats wasn't a failure. It reflected the fact that they knew the golden goose might stop laying eggs, so they ran to the bank with this stream of gold eggs that was coming in and said, "we'll take the cash now please", and they did... The guys with the corner offices were no left shaking tin cups on the street corner. They appropriated all the value in that company in the form of cash-out's.
I would also say that it's difficult to fathom when you are a stringer how many people buy a raquet and never, for it's lifetime, ever have it restrung. Even HS players who are playing seasonal tennis at a pretty high level in their region or state might not string their racquet more than 1 time each year. So I don't think there was a massive market drop with those kids, or for that matter most recreational players... but you did get into a situation where Prince would be sponsoring a junior playing at the national tournament level, and those kids walk in with their racquets to the club shop for a re-string and the tech there says, sorry, I have to charge you extra to string that because of the extra time, etc. Those kids aren't fussy about their racquet configuration like the pros. You can give them 3-4 choices from a line and they are like, yeah, I like this one. Done deal. They (or their parents) were probably like, damn, I don't need this headache getting that Prince racquet restrung. And there's the racquet tech ready with the answer - I got a lot of kids who switched to this Babolat.
Having a hard time following your story. What does “IP” and “rents” mean? Did they commit financial misdeeds in a Lehman Brothers sort of way as Harry discussed? Or did something else lead to their Chapter 13 filing?
@@BorisBecker1872
There has definitely been a lot of changes and uncertainty with Prince in recent years. The Prince brand currently operates under a licensing model where the IP (trademarks, patents, etc.) is owned by a partner company who specializes in licensing by the name of Authentic Brands Group. In this model, ABG act as the licensor and Prince works with operators around the world who act as their licensees. These licensees manage the day to day operations of the brand in their particular markets (sales, distribution, customer service, etc.) while the Brand and Marketing team in the US manages the global product development and marketing operations.
For the past 1.5 years Prince has been working with Tennis Warehouse and Dick’s Sporting Goods to be their licensees and distribution partners in the US market and have been working to regain the brands place in the wholesale market through the Tennis Source B2B platform.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same.
Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
It sounded to me like he was saying the market drop was less down to customers being annoyed at how much restrings cost or how often they had to do it, it was more because the tennis shops didn't like restringing them so presumably more and more shops stopped wanting to stock Prince racquets in the first place, or would be more likely to recommend other brands to customers, and over time that's probably going to have a big impact. But yes, I expect dissatisfaction from the actual players (or their parents, as you point out) would have an impact too.
This was a useful video - I used to love Prince tennis racquets and especially their squash racquets, but the quality really went downhill in the last few years, and this helped explain why.
I have been playing Prince for 10-15 years now, first just by chance finding a Prince on clearance, then later because they make some of the most arm friendly racquets on the market. I purposely went to a local pro shop for my first one but then couldn't find any locally, maybe now I know why. I have since added two Phantom 100s and I love them. No more problems with tennis elbow, although I also went to a longer swing using more shoulder.
@tennis spin Can you tell us how Prince USA is different than Prince Japan? Are they both owned by the same equity firm or are they completely separate from each other?
Japan has their own license and works with ABG, like Tennis Warehouse in the U.S. Japan does have more input regarding racquet design. Recently, the Twistpower X100 was added to the Prince line which is originally a Japan licensee design. Check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/6rVg8Z9zaXI/v-deo.html
Prince as a brand has not experienced the “turmoil” overseas it has in the U.S., which may explain why Japan have so many more products. Considering the state of the business here between 2012-2016, Prince is rebuilding what once was in the U.S.
fantastic historical lesson from Prince Corp!! grew up with Price in the 80´s and 90´s...An equity firm can not run Prince!! :)) cheers from Argentina
Great video in every way. Thank you for holding your promise and producing this excellent material. You really told us a well put together and an interesting story.
Great history lesson! My Dad had the Classic. I started out with wood, then Head Edge. First Prince was the Pro in high school. Then Ace Face, Synergy 26, Vortex, Triple Threat, Shark, O3 Royal, Shark Hybrid, Textreme, Legacy. I actually had multiple rackets of each. As they got old or brittle, I always found a way to give them away or sell for cheap to others. I currently have 4 different rackets in my bag and use them depending on the situation. I pride myself at being able to hit with any Prince. It helps to add variety to my game. Only bad thing I find with the Prince brand recently is the availability of replacement grommets. They've made my rackets disposable...
Playing with Phantom Textreme 100x (305g) and it is such a great racquet!!!
I play with the Textreme tour 310 and it’s a great racquet.
They have good raquets but they have, well i thik they have a bad marketing, there are good players with prince but not the best players. I have a prince raquet and i play with it but it´s just ok, but not like the other brands. Right now they are making better desitions.
@@joseberronesgomez440 Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same.
Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Howard Head’s goal from the beginning to help make tennis easier to learn and play better tennis. Prince has a tremendous history on innovation and game improvement and that’s why they still exist as a quality brand.
@@AMstringing Of course I know that prince are the reason for the modern tennis we know and that is why there are the great current brands. But they are no longer the kings of the industry, wilson, babolat, head, yonex and other brands are leaving a very high standard. I repeat they are not bad rackets, they are excellent, but it is not the prince of 10 years ago. And you tell me data from the United States, what about the rest of the world. The only rackets I've seen prince outside of the US are old or very rare 1 out of 30 if not 1 out of 50 players. I'm telling you, I play with prince but prince is no longer the same in today's market. I wish prince could get out of this and go back to being the king of tennis. Regards.
@@joseberronesgomez440 Thanks for your reply! The new 2020 Phantom line is awesome. Old school thin beam and feel enhanced with modern technology!
Also, look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October!
•Phantom 100 Graphite (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar)
•Phantom 100 Graphite LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”)
•Phantom 107 Graphite (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17mm CTS section)
José Berrones Gómez I agree. Poor marketing and aesthetics. They need newer strategies to appeal to the younger public
Very interesting story. I have owned some of them and I have strung quite a few. My favourite racquet (until the Wilson Pro Staff) was the Original Prince Graphite(107). What a racquet(still going on to this day)! But you've got to be in a very good shape to play with this stick. Memories....
I owned and operated a a tennis shop in San Diego for 32 years (retired two years ago). This is a good video explaining why Prince went bankrupted. There is a little more to the story. First many viewers of the channel need to understand how big tennis was in the late 80's and early 90's. Wilson OWNED the tennis racquet market in the early 90's, close to 45% of all racquet sales in the US. This was close to $150M in sales (just racquets), today the top brands of Babolat and Wilson both make close to $25M each. In 1990 US racquet sales was near $250M, today the total US business is under $80M. All sports including tennis have decreased in play, big time. Prince did have a roller coaster ride starting in the 70's. Prince was sold around 2000 to several investors at a good price. Around 2007 Prince was again at the top the sales chart with the "O" racquet series. This group of investors sold it to another group of buyers at a huge profit, selling the company close to $100M. This is when tennis took another huge hit in actual number of peopling playing the sport. Prince had the #1 selling shoe for years, the T-22. Rumors had the company owing a large sums of money to an Asian production company that would no longer fabricate their shoes until the money owed was paid. Prince couldn't pay the loan so Prince moved production to Vietnam where new molds were required. Along with material changes the new molds changed the fit of the shoe. I would say Prince lost over 50% of their shoe sales because of this move. It forced our customers to find other shoes. Over time Prince sales dropped significantly and the cost of money over several years forced Prince to file bankruptcy. I'm not sure the exact number but rumors have the Prince licencing fee worth less $1M a year. Prince is now a TW house brand.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same.
For the past 1.5 years they have been working with the teams from Tennis Warehouse and Dick’s Sporting Goods to be the licensees and distribution partners here in the US market and have been working to regain their place in the wholesale market.
Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
CTS was the best series.Rubber undergrip:
Watching this video in 2023. I knew when he got to his explanation it wasn't the full picture. Like come on, tennis store stringers was the reason the company failed?
Thank you for explaining the rest of the story! Had to scroll too far.
The Prince CTS Approach 110 was the best racquet ever made. I still have six of them. Had a nice thin throat, but a wider frame at the top. Great stability and very powerful. Quite heavy, but overall the best racquet I have ever used. And lots of players used the Prince Pro. I remember when Peter Doohan beat Boris Becker in the 2nd round of the 1987 Wimbledon. Doohan used the Prince Pro. Prince defined 80's tennis. Sad to see them decline. Great video!
DAMN RIGHT!!
I now use the Prince CTS Oversize Approach from 88. I am USPTA pro and have tried hundreds of racquets. The CTS models have a thick rubber grip over the handle which dampens shocks immensely. This is the only oversized racquet I could even play with.
@@guruofendtimes819 Nice. Absolutely right. Dampens shock, incredibly stable at the top of the racquet for players who hit high on the racquet, rubber grip over the handle, powerful, the throat just sits well in the hands. Prince CTS Approach 110! Thanks for the great comment.
The Prince aluminum was my first racquet when I started to play tennis in 1980. Then the Prince graphite ever since. Great video.
Did you know that Prince is reintroducing the CTS Synergy DB26 and the original Graphite (with individual grommets and no bumper guard)? It's part of Prince’s 50th anniversary celebration! It should be out in the last week of August. Check out this podcast.
ua-cam.com/video/Rhe4oNFhnPg/v-deo.html
The original Prince Oversize was 110 square inches for years. Pam Shriver used the original green throat model for her 1978 US Open Semi run... Monica Seles also played the Graphite...Prince at one point sold more racquets than the next two companies combined...Dominant Brand. Michael Chang helped develop the LongBody racquet ( with Steve Davis Designer ). I served on the National Teaching Pro Advisory Staff for Prince for 12 years, starting in 1984. I was a play tester for every new model ( even some prototypes ) during that time. if you have any specific questions what happened to PRINCE, send me a message.
very interesting, you shoudl do a video
I demoed Prince Phantom 100P last month and it was an excellent racket. I believe Prince is on the comeback trail. Look out!
Yes definitely! Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Did the exo port key allow for normal stringing?? I ordered the wrong one years ago and never even got to use one. I used the brake on my stringer...
There were a couple of port key sizes. If you had the proper key size, the racquet could be strung without using the brake. However, I found it just as easy and faster to use brake when pulling the crosses that required it.
@@AMstringing oh. ok thx
I started playing with a Prince Pro in 1984. I had been playing with a Head aluminum (red badge in the throat but I don't recall model name) before that and all I could do with that racket was serve; couldn't hit ground strokes to save my life. Anyway, while the Prince gave me some confidence and helped me advance my game (relatively speaking), within a couple of years as I played more, I noticed the PP flexing as I hit the ball. When I hit with the newer graphite rackets and went back to the PP, it was like night and day. So I went with a Wilson Pro Staff and while it was a smaller head, the size no longer was an issue. I hit with most of the Prince line during the early and mid-80s: the Woodie, the Classic and the Graphite, even owned the Graphite for a short time. Like the Pro, they served a niche but I don't think they were the top of the line. I liked my Wilson better than the Prince Graphite, and I even liked a buddy's Pro Kennex (maybe a few years later) that was a lower end model than the Prince but still graphite. I just wish I had played more and developed my game. If I had to do it all over again, I would have either just saved up for the Wilson in 1984 or the Prince Graphite at the time and bypassed the Prince Pro.
The Head racket with red throat called Professional and also have another with blue throat called Master, I was using Professional or called Red Head. Later Prince gave me racket to play, and i stick on it up to now, more than 30years, now I am 65 years old and using O3 Sliver 0S. Great Racket.👍👍👍
Played with Beast 98 for couple of years loved it, its excellent with Volkl Cyclone 16
too late this comment but my short story at tennis is tied with Prince. I am now 70 years old ( still moving very well ) and I begun to play 6 years ago after several sports. I was lucky because at that time the Textreme 100 Tour T had good reviews so I bought it. In spite I like it a lot I tried other brands recently (Wilson, Head, Yonex) but I get back always to my Prince. Is very arm friendly and quite easy to maneuver. I love it.!! Even so, I ordered now the Prince Ripstick 280 but with what you said about stringing these modern prince racquets I got worried. I hope my stringer does not raise problems with it.
Good job on the history lesson of Prince although there are a couple of edits I would add. It was the 78 Open and she played with the Classic, not the Pro. Pam first began playing the Classic back in her epic battles with Elise Bergin in the juniors in the MALTA section. The Prince Classic took her serve and volley to the next level. Nobody hit top back then and her cupped, under slice forehand was a perfect match for that aluminum frame. She ALWAYS hit slice backhands and I think the Classic made it easier for her to keep the ball deep. She wanted to do one thing: get to the net and once there... game over. Cross Keys and Columbia Tennis Barn coaches like Lew Gerrard, Steve Krulevitz and I guess Candy? (never saw him) would drill into the MALTA juniors "take that short ball, drive it to a corner and get to the net". Pam was a master at it. MALTA tennis was strong back in the day with Shriver, Bergin and Baltimore Jr. Davis Cuppers like Jimmy Hodges, Rodney Harmon, Dek Potts but NONE of them would seriously consider the new OS frames. I remember one coach yelling
"dont even bring one of those snowshoes to practice because if you NEED that, then you don't belong here...they are a fad and won't last, so don't bother!" lol, little did he know. . .didn't we hear that same thing about that strange thing called...the snowboard? lol. I still play my POGOS. They're enjoyable for the first 30 minutes and then I'm reminded why they call my division "Seniors" and I swap out for a lighter friendlier version..oddly enough it's a Head Radical Microgel OS. Keep going Prince and thanks again for your educational video.
The prince pro phantoms are fantastic racquets. I suggest trying them out.
I worked at a tennis shop when the O3 came out. Stringing those racquets was a big pain - you are correct. And the quality was poor - marking the "short" label on the wrong side. You also need a stringing machine with a turntable you can lock, otherwise weaving the crosses is just painful.
This is actually a very informative Video by Someone who really experienced the whole respective history of racket industry. Imponderable whether Wilson will stay as big as they used to be, after Serena and Roger stepped down. There are more exciting rackets than Wilson Blade and not many can play a classic heavy Wilson Pro Staff. Dunlop went down already in the 90s, just as Snauwaert. Voelkl, Fischer and Kneissl were big in Europe and now only produce skis. Now we are observing that Tecnifibre is coming up, just as Babolat did, and both are basically string companies.
Oh the nostalgia! Here in Brazil in the 80s (and I assume worldwide) Prince Racquets were all the rage. My dad played with the Prince Pro and latter it was handed down to me. I still have a Textreme frame I bought for cheap new 2 years ago but the wide body is a let down since I favor thinner racquets. Great video, keep up telling the history of tennis brands!
Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same.
If you like the thinner beam frames, check out the Phantom line. Old school look and feel enhanced with modern technology!
Look for these new limited edition frames coming out in October!
•Phantom 100G (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar)
•Phantom 100G LB LTD (updated version of the Phantom 100P w/a crossbar and 28”)
•Phantom 107G (updated version on the Phantom w/a crossbar - 21-17MM CTS section)
I play with the Prince graphite 100 (2013 edition) and it´s one of the best rackets i´ve played with in my life. I own 5 of them so I am covered. Gabriela Sabatini was another Prince Star she used the Graphite 110 and the last top 5 player that used Prince is David Ferrer, john Isner is still out there playing with his Prince beast. I see Dunlop and Prince as similar cases, brands that were on top of the world for decades and are trying to recover some lost ground. I really hope that Prince survives and continues the strategy of re editing classic frames customized for the modern game. I´d love to see a Graphite 100 special edition :)
I hope you already saw this, but if not, here you go!
ua-cam.com/video/YBi5vt9MUgU/v-deo.html
@@AMstringing thanks
I like these new type of videos! Keep it up!
Coming back to tennis after 15-17 years, this is wild to me. Everyone had either a Head or Prince racket ( I was the one kid with Dunlop). Crazy how they've fallen so hard.
Hello Mr. Spin! I think Carlos Moya used the Soft Drive 1994
Used Prince Graphite 110 in the late 80's, great stick, then serve & volley 90's with Approach 90 which was awesome. Ran with T22's in the 200's. Who did not use this brand??
Anyone remember the triple threat series? Graphite, diablo and rebel were awesome racquets
diablo mid - played the best tennis of my life with it
Yes, there a bunch of great Triple Threat frames!
If you liked the Diablo Mid 93, you'll probably like the new Phantom 93P. It looks like it came out of the same mold! Only thing is that you'll have to decided between the 16x18 or 18x20. The Diablo had an unusual 16x20 pattern.
@@AMstringing Same with the triple threat graphite mid, its 16x20 (i still have it ;). Currently I really like the Wilson blade, wouldn't mind demoing one of the Phantom 93Ps tho
@@chuckharris4855 Great, I don't suppose you live in Hawaii? I'm a Prince dealer on Oahu and would be happy to string up a demo for you. If not, Tennis Warehouse has a great demo program and I hope you can get your hands on one!
@@AMstringing That's why I am using the beast 98, both solid beam and port version. I think I grew out of those hefty mids.
Prince textreme tour is the best racquet in market now with combination of feel, spin, control, power...touch shots are wow...prince is back...
John Isner and Lucas Pouille (both in ATP top 25) use Prince Racquets and a few WTA players do as well. The company is coming out with new products all the time and are still making some of the classics, including T22 shoes.
Last I saw, Pouille had switched to Babolat. He is now recovering from elbow surgery.
@@tedneanderthal7373 I hit with a phantom 100p and they were way to flexible for my liking. Looks like his elbow got used to the soft flex and broke when he switched to the stiff Pure Drive.
@@javace79 That's not true. Pouille did not play with the Phantom - no pros do. Pouille played with the Prince Textreme Tour.
@@tedneanderthal7373 Does not change the fact that his pro stock racquet stiffness was 62 then switched to the Pure Drive and had to get elbow surgery.
@@javace79 From what I have read, Pouille was having elbow problems before he switched tennis racquets and brands. He has been injured on and off with the same problem for a while. I am not sure the problem is the racquets. Rather, I think the problem is the stiff polyester strings that the pros use. He may have also switched frames and racquet companies for financial / sponsorship reasons.
At 50 years old, I remember using the Prince Pro back in the day. And that was the last time I ever used it. Today, my kids are coming up, and the academy they train in (in London) has maybe 50 kids. I have not seen a single Prince racket for probably the last 3 years, and that includes tournaments I drive to.
Demo'd a handful of racquets after playing with an o3 speedport tour in 2007. Landed with the Phantom 93p. It's an incredible players racquet!
If you're a fan of heavier, smaller sticks. Don't overlook it!
If I were a stronger player, without should issues, I’d be using the 93p. Is amazing, but my shoulder just can’t handle it past 30 minutes.
Interesting points. I had the Prince Pro, Graphite Original OS, Mid, Mono, O3, Diablo, and now playing with Phantom 100G. I love their shoes too but now almost impossible to but in here in HK. Had my share of Wilson, Volkl, Fischer, YY, Technifiber and Head too. I couldn't play with any Babalot racket, too thick and the balance always felt strange to me.
I remembered demo-ing some of their racquets during the Rebel 98 days and not liking the feel of any of them.
Never really considered Prince until the Textreme 100P but I'm a 98 guy and couldn't get over the mental hump of going to 100.
From memory my ownership went:
Prince Sierra Ti -> Head Liquid Metal 4 -> Volkl DNX 9 -> Dunlop Aerogel 4D 300 Tour -> Technifbre TFight 295 -> Dunlop 3.0 F Tour. -> Wilson Six One 95 16x18 -> Volkl Organix 10 -> Yonex Ezone DR98 -> Babolat Pure Strike 16 x 19 -> Volkl V-Sense 10 -> Technifibre TF40 315.
Have you considered the new Phantom 97P? Nice thin beam design and open string pattern. www.tennis-warehouse.com/Prince_Phantom_97P/descpageRCTWABG-PP97P.html
Albert Murata
I wanted to go back to 18x20 so it came down to:
- Phantom Pro 100x - sub 20 mm beam, 100 inch head, not stable enough.
- Yonex Vcore Pro HD - a bit too flexi, plus I don't think I've got the game for it.
- Head Gravity Pro - 100 inch head + 18x20 + heavy swing weight = a fraction too sluggish. 98 I probably would have switched.
@@elmtree97 I was wondering if the 16x18 would be a consideration.
Did you check out the 93P (18x20), smaller head size though?
@@AMstringing Flirted with a 95 in the past and it was too small so didn't bother with a 93.
@@elmtree97 Gotcha. I don't think I can play with anything smaller than 100! :)
I remember also the Prince Woody. Only the grey hairs used it. Maybe because it was expensive and bigger than a large pizza. I also remember when the first Prince Graphite came out and Glickstein used it to hit insanely fast serves. The first time I hit with the Prince Graphite I was blown away by its power. It was too expensive for most of us at that time. Now hardly anyone knows the Prince name. I wanted a Prince when I got back into tennis, but Bobolats were better. I tried the Prince, Wilson, Yonex, Head, etc. None of them felt as sweet as the Bobolat PureDrive. I guess their design leap-frogged the others somehow.
Thanks for the history lesson. I had a Classic as my first real racquet. Followed by a few graphites. Wasn’t aware of what caused the downfall. I remember in the 80’s Yonex was the rich kids racquets.
As a kid I played with the Approach 110, after that the CTS Synergy 26 DB 110. I got hold of the black Vortex 110 and played with it for many years. It had uncomparable feel. I now plat with the orange O3 tour 100.
Sounds you've been a loyal user of Prince racquets! If you want the most current frame to replace your O3 Tour 100, go with the Phantom O3 100X!
www.tennis-warehouse.com/Prince_Phantom_O3_100X/descpageRCTWABG-PP100X.html
Albert Murata thanks for the response but when I look at the video I don’t get the feeling that my racket and the phantom you mention are quite the same. The orange O3 seems to be for more advanced players...
@@joostvandinten7584 Yes, you're right. Depending which O3 Orange you are referring to, the specs can differ. These are all orange in color and have O3 ports ... lol :)
Here's what I found in my database. These are unstrung specs.
O3 Tour 95 - weight 323g / stiffness 64 / swingweight 303
O3 Speedport Tour 97 - weight 320g / stiffness 65 / swingweight 313
Ozone Tour 100 - weight 323g / stiffness 64 / swingweight 303
Tour 100 - weight 307g / stiffness 62 / swingweight 301
Phantom O3 100X - weight 305g / stiffness 60 / swingweight 300
Vintage Prince owners crew checking in
I feel ya Bro 🤣🤣🤣
I still remember Jay Berger playing on tour with his old aluminium Prince frames whilst everyone else was playing with graphite etc
Berger strung it ridiculously tight too.
@@tedneanderthal7373 whatever happened to him? Did he just quit and never go back or did he end up going into coaching?
@@TheBigBlue22 Berger is now a tennis coach. www.tennis.com/pro-game/2017/12/jay-berger-fulfilled-steve-flink/70856/
Major (played by Leconte, now bac via Tecnifibre, after many years), Dunlop (Haas, Anderson), Völkl (all Russian players in the 80s and 90s), Fischer (Stich and Bagdatis, now Pacific) Estusa (Becker), ProKennex… Many brands have only a minor piece of the cake now, when they’re not dead.
Man this video takes me back and makes me feel old.
By just having TW has the distributor, Prince losses a lot of users. A lot people prefer seeing racquets in person at a store. I prefer buying my racquets from my local store because they can make my money instead on an online shop.. I like to keep my local tennis shop around since I go there to restring my (and my sons) racquets.
I guess it depends where you live, but Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Depending where you live, Prince has been growing in retail and pro shops around the country over the past year and now have a presence in markets like: Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Palm Desert, San Jose, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Raleigh, Richmond, Charlotte, Asheville, Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Hilton Head, Jacksonville, Boca Raton, Naples, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Alexandria, Hawaii, and more!
Dicks sporting goods stores carry Prince racquets.
I love my Prince Phantom 100X 305. Tons of feel and control and comfortable on my wrists. Playtested some racquets from Wilson, Head, and Yonex but the Prince was my favorite by far.
Yup, it's the best selling frame in the Phantom line right now!
My very first racquet was a Prince J/R, then I played with a lot of racquets that tried to approximate the Graphite feel (esp. some of the Radicals from Head) without ever owning one, then 5 years ago I got around to buying a couple of PCG 107 and love them. I still keep an RF97 in the bag on days when I want to work on my footwork and timing since it’s more demanding and with a smaller sweet spot, but the PCG 107 with Volkl Cyclone 17 at 47/45lbs and it’s just about the ideal setup for me in terms of allowing me to really carve the ball with topspin on clay while still getting some good power (great drop shots too). I’ve experimented with the PCG 100 LB as well and it’s definitely worth a try if, like me, you have a 2HBH. I hope Prince sticks around for some time, because there’s really still nothing out there quite like the Graphite 107.
I'm from France and remember all the racquets you mentioned! Played with a Prince Graphite for a few years. Oh what feel!
Thanks for this video super informative..... would appreciate if you could do one one “Dunlop”..... i knew they were awesome for a long time then they sort of faded out..... and. Now they are back.... sort of
Would like to hear your take on the brand “pro kennex” too.
Thanks again for the videos
Yeah .. I miss the Biomimetic Series ... 400Tour .. the cosmetics were beautiful too .. with the Bioskin !
People say more grand slams have been won with dunlop rackets than any other brand.... wonder if that statement is still true.... doesn’t feel like it
I also wonder what happened to Dunlop, good suggestion!
I still use the Biometric 400 , great racquet, easy on the elbow. They always have a following in England, but they come out with so many models it is hard to keep up.
I went from Wilson pro staff wood to Prince Woodie in the 1980s, and never liked a racquet so much. I tried Thunderstick, and played CTS Lightning in the 90s, but went to the graphite Wilson Pro Staff, similar to the Sampras model, but not the same. Loved Pammy’s game, but the aluminum racquets always felt too light for me. Same with Martina and Yonex.
Yup, even though it weighed a ton, it's my all time favorite racquet too!
Back then, it was the perfect marriage of old school wood construction with modern oversize technology. Top it off with natural gut . . . the ultimate organic combination!
They still have some gems, the Tour 95 (not the textreme, the yellow/black one) is a nice prestige-like stick.
Excellent overview of the downfall of a once mighty company. The same thing happened to Prince squash. So many top pros used to play with Prince- Rodney Martin, Rodney Eyles, Michelle Martin, Peter Nicol, James Willstrop, Nicol David, Saurav Ghosal, Ramy Ashour, Mark Talbott. Not to mention a lot of college players and recreational players. They had a lot of state of the art racquets at the time with their Extender series and the Power Ring followed by Triple Threat, More Performance, O Port/Speedport etc.. Interestingly, with Prince squash's downfall, it was another French company that was previously known for just strings, that took over the squash racquet market. That would of course be Tecnifibre whose Carboflex model has become nearly ubiquitous among top pros (a lot of the Egyptians) as well as college players, top juniors, and recreational players. Nowadays, few if any play with Prince squash. They had tried to make a comeback post bankruptcy in 2017 but those latest models were notable for easy breakage as well as being too head heavy.
Harry mentions another salient point with Prince that the company was frustrating a lot of the pro shop owners/stringers with their technology. The same thing was happening to their squash line. The O Ports/Speedports were a nightmare to string and the stringers did not like them. They also really didn't like stringing the Power Rings as they were challenging.
Prince recently released a new line for squash but is really a shell of itself. RIP.
Yes, you are right. I played squash with a Prince racket and it was the best racket I had used. Till date haven't found anything as good as it. Unfortunately they don't have any new models or availability of even the older ones any more.
Informative! Thank you. I am a stringer, yes, it is a pain in the butt to string, but I don't mind stringing them for myself. However, it is not a racquet I want to string on the regular!
However, I still play with EXO3 White and still loving it!
If you ever saw a Rafter Volley, you cant forget it. Its like a Sampras Serve or a Guga Backhand. I liked the Diablo but moved to a Prestige for the availability. I remember seeing Babolat for the first time at Newks tennis camp on a HS 4 day trip. I also remember seeing green clay for the first time then too.
Nawh I can remember him sweating LOL.
@@davidpayumo23 that too. Dude sweat buckets
Tennis spin history 101!!!!! Love it!!!!!
Hey it’s solely showcased in Netflix Original’s Prince of Tennis, which is about a teen going to High School and having an ambitious attitude towards becoming better, and surpassing his father.
Fireball Dude I’ll try and watch this.
Fireball Dude Does it take place on Japan?...
Because of an anime titled "baby steps" I went and bought a price racquet (the main character uses one). I got the Beast by price. I use it every now and then for warming up ( I use the pro staff team for most part) or feeling nostalgic because it was that anime that got me into playing tennis
I used 93P to fix my technique and then changed to to Phantom 100X. Prince 100X 305 is a seriously good racquet. Tried Head Gravity Pro, Yonex 97HD, Völkl PB + others, but nothing yet has come close to that racquet yet.
Yes, agree. The increased beam width definitely adds more pop compared to the previous Phantom Pro 100!
Well....i have to say that their textreme tour 100 310 is an amazing racquet. I retired my aero pure. Great feel, plow through and spin for days.
Tilden, Kramer, Borg, Lendl, Sampras, Federer, Djokovic... They all took the game to a new level, but no one has changed it as much as Howard Head- HE REINVENTED TENNIS!
It's ok to start playing tennis at 60, provided you are an engineering genius.
You left out Marion Bartoli winning Wimbledon with an Prince Exo3 ....
I was introduced to Prince just about when the Exo3 line were introduced . And I must say . It was incredible . I bought the Ignite 95 Exo3 , developed tennis elbow and subsequently went through a whole lot of other Brand’s with variance to swing weight , balance etc . And after around 15years ... have come back to my Ignite 95 Exo3 . I can’t play with anything else without those open ports .
But you have to admit that the company was innovative . Even their dampener is unique.
Technology and innovation have been the cornerstone of the Prince brand DNA since the founding of the company in 1970. It’s been the driving force behind some of the most iconic racquets in the tennis industry.
The Prince brand distribution model has undergone significant changes over the years. But the core brand operations, such as product development, has remained the same.
If you like the thinner beam frames, check out the Phantom line. Very comfortable playing frames with the old school look and feel, enhanced with modern technology!
Speaking about the Double Bridge dampener, did you know the CTS Synergy DB26 will be reintroduced in late August? It's part of Prince’s 50th anniversary celebration!
Check out this podcast.
ua-cam.com/video/Rhe4oNFhnPg/v-deo.html
Albert Murata hey thanks for sharing ... appreciate it !
Also I left out that their iconic P racquet face stencil has a blanked out bar that cuts through the letter . It just dawned on me that place on the stencil that is blanked out .. is where the sweet spot is ... perhaps so that the stencil ink doesn’t affect the strings ? Or that’s the first place where the stencil ink would fade off .....
@@chowchichang2922 Yeah, it's funny how some players would leave that part blank? Always wondered it was a fashion thing, or just didn't know that part was supposed to be inked in after? :)
I'll always have a soft spot for Prince rackets. I used a few different prince rackets up til I was about 15/16 (for reference, I'm 21 now, so this wasn't that long ago), and really liked them.
The last Prince racket I used was a Response 97, which once I modified it, played better at the net than almost everything else I've ever tried (bar a modified PS85, but come on...). Incredible stability and feel, very easy power even on low volleys. Unfortunately, it never really did it for me from the back of the court, making it quite difficult to get to the net in the first place! I moved on to Wilson ProStaff 90s not long afterwards, which weren't quite as good at the net, but the general improvements everywhere else made up for it.
My sister used an exo3 tour 98 for quite a while. Beast of a racket from the back of the courts: Once you dropped into a rhythm on your groundstrokes, it was a very powerful racket that allowed for a lot of spin. But you're right, unfortunately a very dead feel. She's since moved onto a Wilson Ultra, which is so much sharper feeling.
Another big problem that exo3 tour had was the very poor stability. Personally I think it's because the exo3 holes removed the weight from the sides of the hoop, reducing twistweight, but hey, that's just a theory. Buy and large, Prince rackets were never quite as stable as some other brands. Stringing that exo3 tour was a pain though. Weave a cross, put machine's brake on, stick lump of wood between crosses, pull tension, pray, and watch the whole system collapse anyway. Had to string it pretty tight to compensate for the poor stability too...
The failure of exo3 to capture the public's imagination could be blamed for Prince's failure. But speaking from personal experience, teenage me and my friends saw Prince as the brand used by the old folks in tennis clubs. It certainly didn't help that a lot of what we heard from Prince's advertising was about their "player improvement" rackets, with lightweight frames and bloated headsizes. There just didn't seem to be anything readily available for the more advanced tennis player.
I want to try out some of Prince's newer rackets, like the Phantom Pro 93 etc, but I doubt I'd switch back to the brand.
Prince Spectrum goes down as my all time fave, and pleased that Pat Rafter got a shout out in the video.
Used and stiil have the M.CHANG graphite, then to Exo3 Tour 100. Then just recently went to the Pure Strike 16x19.
jonlsl Pure Strike gave me tennis elbow.
Can’t demo the racquets so hard to know which new model’s a best fit. Went to Babolat but the racquet gave me tennis elbow. Now reverted back to my old Synergy DB26
Prince will be reintroducing the CTS Synergy DB26 and the original Graphite (with individual grommets and no bumper guard) as part of Prince’s 50th anniversary celebration! They should be coming out by the end of this month! Check out this podcast.
ua-cam.com/video/Rhe4oNFhnPg/v-deo.html
FYI you can demo prince racquets from Tennis Warehouse.
@@ViaticalTree Sure can! TW has a great demo program. Check it out.
www.tennis-warehouse.com/demosbyvendor.html?ccode=PRINCERACS
The Speedport Gold & Platinum were the 2nd design of the ported frames. The instructions for stringing the ported frames was flawed, since they pushed using a tool to install the crosses, which were a pain to keep track of . We old guys who used 50/50 when we strung gut had no problem we just strung them that way on machines with no breake. The factory spacer tool varied by model so many stringers did hate it.
Same fate befell the earlier Wilson Roller technology.
I see prince doing now what babolat did in 2000. At least in my country, prince gives out the most number of racquet sponsorships by a long shot. You go to a tournament you'll see more prince than anything else. They are trying to build strong grassroots marketing. But I also see many coaches not recommendeding prince because they played during the X03 days.
That's interesting to hear! What country are you from?
@@AMstringing India
@@homosapien5156 Thanks for your reply!
Carlos Moyá was a Pure Drive player. The most famous Pure Control player was The Chilean Fernando González.
I remember working in a tennis shop back in the 80s. The prince oversize graphite was 300.00 and The prince Boron was 500.00!!! We always said you were a MORON TO BUY A BORON
I started playing with a Wilson Jack Kramer Wood racquet. Then Yonex 8500 Aluminum racquet. My first composite was a Head Edge Graphite. At some point in the early 1980’s I tried a Prince Pro 110 and never looked back. I played with Prince Spectrum 110 for many years. As a senior player now the Over Size 107-110 head really type racquet helps with serves and volleys for doubles players.
Prince makes some of the most innovative racquets in the sport. Also, amazing sticks for people with arm problems.