Respect to Tennis Spin for not blasting Costco and admitting it's a decent product. And.....Wilson for sure knows that Costco has that product....that's a multimillion dollar deal!
I like honest people like you. Even though you are in the business of selling rackets, you told your viewers this is a good racket. If my nephew who was a #1 singles player for a major college didn't give me one of his old Babolat rackets, I would buy the Costco Racket. I trust Costco to sell good quality merchandise at a bargain.
As soon as I saw the PWS hump, I immediately suspected that this is a recycled racket from 15+ years ago. To be honest, for all we know it could be the best one out of all the old hammer line ups from years past. For $50, it is a great deal for regular weekend warriors.
Yeah, he's just under contract to Wilson so they can use his name, which doesn't really constitute an endorsement and I think it's a safe bet he's never hit with it.
Very nice review! I like that you have a shop full of high end racket's and you still review this entry level racket professionaly. And at the end you tell that it is good for the price. Thumbs up, you got me subscribed.
He went for the free food samples and found a racquet. Coach Rob really looked ecstatic. I would have had my mom buy me that racquet when I played in high school. We weren't rich.
As some of the others, you've earned a subscription from me. Before watching the video, I was thinking to myself "no way he would recommend this racquet for $50" when he's selling racquets for hundreds+ in his store. Mildly surprised. Kudos.
You’re right in calling it a rotisserie stick. It’s more a Costco than Wilson racquet. You can’t buy this from Wilson. Big box stores sell these casual recreational player racquets via a licensing deal with the major tennis brands. Typically, the racquets are sourced at scale from a Chinese factory; brand painted and packaging per the licensing arrangement. There are similar types of racquet with HEAD branding at big box stores in the UK. Costco UK actually has two models of this sort of Wilson racquet. One with Fed’s face (the one in the video) and a 105sq”, even more powerful version with Monfil’s face. Unless one is a major racquet snob, they’re actually perfectly useable for the casual player like the sort of Brit who only hits over the two weeks during Wimbledon fortnight.
There must be an easier way to classify racquets. I remember in the 1990s Wilson used to indicate the racquet's flexibility (i.e. deviation from straight upon applying a force). The inflexible ones were supposed to give more power but less control, the flexible ones the opposite. The pros apparently played with the more flexible racquets (6.1 Edberg, 6.0 Sampras, 7.1 Graf) where the stiffer Wilson Hammers were something around 4. Is that classification still valid? I didn't see that on this Wilson from Cosco. Worse, the manufacturers now make a bunch of racquets with different characteristics that look like the ones 'Federers' use (obviously to capitalize on the millions spent on the sponsorships). This makes choosing the right one even more error prone.
So because I was curious. I found the same racquet online at pga superstore, and it’s only $39.99... still a good looking racquet, I’m definitely interested
I found them for $39.99 also at PGA Superstore. Bought 2 for my wife who's just learning and used a $20 off coupon. I play with a pair of Babolat Pure Drive VS at $279 each, these $39.99 ok. I'll end up restring them for her. Lol
Great video! I liked you gave it a fair shake. As you mentioned, I too am returning to the sport after 15+ years absent. Just dusted off my Ti S6 for a re-stringing!
Good complete and interesting video. I use to give my friends a Costco tennis racket for Xmas. Hoping to encourage them to try the sport. Once restrung they hit better than you suggest! Coach Rob has nice form. I'm stunned you have a functioning elbow with that forehand! But you make good tennis videos!
Comp stands for knock off in the Costco or Walmart racquets. But, you get a get handle grip. I see tons of people that buy these racquets these days. They play the pretty durable nylon or synthetic strings until they break. Then, they buy a new one between $29-$49 or get it restrung for $20-30 dollars.
why did the phase out the light, head-heavy designs? (I recall the air-hammers that trickled down into racquetball were pretty tough on the elbow if you ever missed the sweet spot)
50$ plus all that work. Adding weight properly, you'd need special machines to analyse the specs like swing weight. After all this hurdles, you'll be at 100-150$. Might as well just buy a better racquet from the start. This is also 20% graphite. Not sure how good or bad that is but I would lean more to bad.
Nah, the swing weight is there already at close to 330, so you only need to bring down the balance and increase the swing weight by adding lead as close to the butt cap as possible, swing weight will not change with that, so you can do this at home. Use some heavy putty or metal just behind the butt cap, some lead wrapped around the grip handle. Just to increase static weight and lower the balance.
@@philipptruveller7829 and no racket is made of 100% graphite as any racket needs plenty resin, normal plastic (tubing, guard, but cap), the grip is no graphite either. And to get the rackets to spec they use lead at certain places anyway in the factory. 20% seems low, i think normal rackets are somewhere between 40% and 50%, but I'm not sure.
Not sure if this racquet has a trapdoor buttcap. Most of these types of racquet don’t, in order to save cost. Most people buying such a racquet wouldn’t be trying to mod specs anyway. 20-30g (0.6-1oz) of BlueTac stuffed into the handle of this particular racquet would make a rather nice tweener type spec.
please, if you could rebalance it and bring it up above 300g unstrung then add some solinco confidential and see how it plays, it would be wonderful! Thank you
Supposedly, but I have bought some things where the quality was poor. A couple fleece blankets after the first wash the piles were everywhere. Organic orange popsicles made with coconut milk has no flavor and solid like a frozen brick. I believe most of their stuff are locally, so it depends where you live.
I would love to see this racket restrung with a modern Luxilon and regripped to fine tune the weight distribution and improve the playability. I love a good bargain! Unfortunately Costco no longer sells this racket.
Saw this review today. Coincidentally, I purchased 2 of these racquets for my son (11) who started playing tennis in January last year, and it worked very well for him. Not knowing much about racquets or grips or anything, this luckily turned out to be a good choice. He is also tall for his age (5' 7") and was comfortable with the grip size 3. Glad to see good review from the experts on this racquet. Thank you.👍
as an avid cyclist, but beginning adult tennis player, - this must be akin to "finding" a "schwinn", "GT" or "mongoose" brand bike at Wal Mart. Point blank: if you're really into cycling, you don't buy bikes from there. Period.
This racket weighs 10.08 oz. strung. Too light to be effective. Why, you might ask? Coach Rob and Harry are good enough to hit the ball in the center/sweet spot of the racket. A beginner type buying this racket will not be that proficient. Hit it off center and what I call the wobble effect comes into play. Hit a lot of balls off center with a light racket like this and you won't want to play tennis again.
Frame is the most important part though as it determines the weight, size, and shape of how you’ll handle your swings. Strings and grip can vary the dynamic of the shots.
Well all the Wilson rackets are made in China and are dirt cheap to make. New Blade $250 or one from Costco - Ultra for $50. The quality might be slightly different but the biggest difference is the mark up to the retailer- just paying for the brand. Yonex makes it quality rackets in Japan - there cheap rackets are made in China- notable difference.
The cost goes into the design itself and not just the name brand. There are technically designers that create and tested the products before having it mass produced.
Whats up with these new $120 prestrungs that look like the regular line - but I'm guessing they're not otherwise they wouldn't be 120.00. I used to see slightly older models tumble down to the 80 or even 60 range if there was little interest. Don't see that any more.
I got started again after a 25 year break with a costco racket (Tour BLX). I think it's fine, I recently got a wilson blade 98. The costco racket had more power, and was a little lighter. But, I have more control with the blade, and If when I play a lot I tended to have wrist issues with the costco racket. Just like you said in the video, I think it's a great racket for people coming back to the game or a starter racket. I think it's a far better value than anything you get from academy or target or the other big box stores, which mostly have metal frames in my experience.
I think $50 strung racquets are good enough for "push"/"moon ball" tennis. $250 for a new racquet and $50 per restringing are killing frugal people these days.
In the past, when you pruchased a high end racket it came with a fancy cover. Now high ends come with a price tag only and a Cost Co wilson has the cover... #ProductFail
My prior racket was a Head Spark Tour I bought from Sporchek. It’s also light but head heavy, a typical “hammer” racket. I felt it’s more comfortable to play with, but harder to control. So playing with it I hardly dared to swing with my full power and had to rely on some bad habits like last second wrist adjustment. So I think these cheap rackets are good enough until you reach the intermediate level and want more power with control.
Intermediate adult male tennis player here that's very interested in this episode of Tennis Spin and here's why: I'm serious about my tennis but I'm not a tennis pro so I get my rackets, Wilson's, from this market that provides the lower end models, prestrung with nylon at about 60 lbs. They come ready to play some serious tennis with at the lowest prices. They are made of lightweight metal alloy and are good copies of the graphite tennis racket frames of the high end market.
Is this the opportunity to see what is inside the PWS bulges? How do they get the balance so head heavy? Is it a lump of graphite in there, or lumps of lead? Or are the pws bulges just fake and there is something else hiding at 12 o'clock? A hacksaw and safety goggles should do it.
I thought most beginner rackets were head heavy to help a beginner to generate power? I picked up a Wilson Federer 103 thing and that was head heavy. Just wanted to see if I could improve it. It probably needed restringing as it was so bouncy.
Leather grip, silicone in the handle, 15 gauge string and a few strips of lead under the bumper at 12 to crank up the swingweight and you could have an absolute beast 🤣
They needed to do something with a warehouse full of hammer frames. I bet these were wholesale for 15 bucks each just to recoup the warehouse full of bare hammer frames
I bought Costco rotisserie chicken maybe 3 times. I bought Costco whole pizza at the food court maybe 300 times. I got a Costco Wilson racquet about 20 years ago. It was a good racquet.. I think one of the Triad. It was accidentally sold at the garage sale. Bought a used Hammer to replace it, but it was not as good as the Triad.
