Heima's 2025 Table Tennis Market Observations, Part 3
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Manufacturing is diversifying, but more domestic production is the big trend. This shows vividly with Stiga. Originally mostly Sweden-made, it has now split. Some shifted to Nakayama production (representative works: the Inspira Carbo King and various Banda blades) and Korea production (Inspira mixed carbon, Surge mixed carbon). Swedish workers have good benefits and long holidays, which turned new blades into a kind of “futures” — announced, then you wait months or even half a year for launch. China and Korea production eased this, though Korea production still makes you “wait a bit.” China production serving the China market is naturally most efficient.
China- and Korea-made blades have their own character. Though the gluing and pressing craft feels distinct from Sweden’s, there are still many good blades. The Sweden-made feel remains unique and will continue. In the new year, the Destiny Carbo and I1 can also win over a batch of fans. Almost every foreign brand is expanding its domestic-blade share; the relatively low-priced ones are mostly domestic. Domestic is not bad — like Nakayama Feng’s and Jiangsu Aster, whose self-developed reputations seem less than Yinhe’s or Sword’s, but quality control is very much online. But some foreign brands, to cut costs, choose even smaller or unknown factories to OEM, purely to make a quick buck. In that case, we may as well pick a domestic brand’s products.
Rubber origins are diversifying too. Double Fish’s blades opened the Korea-made road; later their rubber will also be OEM’d by ESN. Meanwhile, more and more foreign brands’ rubbers go China-made. Yasaka Flying Dragon, Asia China, Stinger, Moon 12 — these domestic levels are okay. The gap between China-made and ESN is indeed narrowing.
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For the same product, people’s opinions differ more than before — because information flows faster, and because everyone’s demands differ. Take the Tournament Power custom: to me it holds the ball well, but feels soft after applying force, with bottom power not satisfying enough. To some others, it may play steady. Take the Heima refined-craft KLC (Yinhe Blue-Gold Workshop custom): some see its powerful backhand explosiveness, some feel the forehand ball-wrap is less comfortable than the 968. Because of different needs, opinions split. We cannot expect everyone’s views to stay objective and fair at every moment. To put it more extremely, there are no junk products, just different styles. Different products can each find their fans. For brands, the task now is often not to make the product good, but how to attract customers. Still, I believe when you make the product good, the market will eventually embrace it. Be patient enough and you will be seen — like this account: when I started writing, I resolved not to cut corners or play to the gallery, but to steadily write as truthful and objective an understanding of products as possible. Nearly ten years on, the recognition and fans have grown.
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A not-so-good phenomenon: today’s gear trends ever more toward sameness — a hundred flowers blooming is now hard. One reason for the lack of innovation: the market does not really pay for it. For a brand, survival comes first. Outer ALC and inner KLC take too large a market share. Luckily, green-arylate-carbon has joined in recent years — some progress. But consumers really do not easily embrace new structures. Just outer and inner, then different fibers — at least sales stay reliable. As the era developed, more amateurs’ styles got homogenized, with two wings dominating. To guarantee a sales floor, brands must go mainstream in structure. Rubber is the same. Of every ten new rubbers now, at least seven go the “lightly-tacky” route. That is a bit boring. Lightly-tacky struggles to maximize either spin or speed. But at least the concept sells. We lament that blades seem less fun than before, yet we know well: once we buy a novel structure, it is hard to resell secondhand.