What’s Old Is New
Starting today there’s a new player with an old name in the tennis marketplace. Donnay, that old-school racquet-maker whose name conjures images of wood racquets and Bjorn Borg, who won five consecutive Wimbledon titles and four straight French Opens with the brand, is back.
Donnay USA, headed by brothers Bobby and Jerry Choe in New York, is launching a line of nine new frames in the U.S. The racquets will eventually go global under a licensing agreement with Sports Direct International, a giant U.K. retailer that owns the worldwide rights to the legendary brand.
Emile Donnay and his family started making wood tool handles in 1910 in their Belgian homeland and began producing wood tennis racquets in 1934. Rod Laver briefly carried one, but it was Borg who put Donnay on the tennis map, making it one of the world’s leading racquet producers. At its height, the company was churning out up to 10,000 racquets a day. Borg’s signature racquets, the Allwood, which was his trademark racquet until 1980, and then the Borg Pro, became a part of tennis lore. It was said that he strung them so tightly—around 80 pounds—that the strings would break while he slept. Borg was reportedly paid $600,000 a year plus a commission on each Borg model sold (though he used Bancroft racquets for tournaments in the United States under a separate endorsement deal).
But Borg’s surprise retirement at the age of 27 in 1983, along with the company’s reluctance to replace wood with lighter graphite, caused the company to go bankrupt in 1988. But its cache and fiercely loyal following allowed the brand to outlive the product.
Since Donnay SA folded, it has changed hands a lot. One of the many incarnations of the company signed Andre Agassi to play with a new-generation Donnay graphite racquet, the Donnay Pro One OS, early in his career. In 1996, Sports Direct International acquired the worldwide rights to Donnay, and later Dunlop and Slazenger as well. But instead of taking advantage of Donnay’s rich high-end legacy, Sports Direct repositioned the brand with a $99 entry-level frame that it sold briefly in the U.S. in 2004. The low-cost strategy backfired and angered Donnay loyalists who flooded tennis chat boards in protest.
Now Donnay is being resuscitated again. “My brother and I grew up on Long Island playing tennis with the old [Donnay] Allwood racquet,” says Bobby Choe, who acts as CEO, while his brother heads up the design and manufacturing of the racquets. “Our initial research showed that 40 percent of those on the chat boards were still loyal to the brand even though they felt it had been cheapened.”
The brothers set out to develop a new line of Donnay premium racquets (including the X-Red at right), along with a limited-edition racquet produced by Sports Direct to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the original Belgian company. Belgian player and 2009 U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer is currently using it on the WTA tour.
The new Donnay frames list for $249–$299. “Our consumer target is the top 20 percent of the market that is willing to spend whatever it takes to get the best product, just like the first adaptors of the Apple iPad,” says Choe, explaining the pricing strategy. “We’d like to sell 10,000 racquets this year, but we don’t need to,” Choe says. “Our plan is to grow the business in the long term, pro shop by pro shop.”
Donnay has distinguished itself with ultra-thin 15-millimeter beams that Choe says improves maneuverability for users. The Donnay models also come with three interchangeable butt cap options and bumper guards in different weights so players can experiment with weights and balances.
Currently, the Donnay frames can only be purchased on the company’s website. In lieu of playtest samples at pro shops, Choe says buyers will be provided with a seven-day test-drive guarantee, minus shipping costs and a $25 stringing fee.
The biggest missing link so far is participation by Borg, who this year began playing in senior tournaments using a Head racquet. Choe doubts Borg is aware of the Donnay revival, and an attempt to reach Borg’s agent by TENNIS.com was unsuccessful.
“We look forward to meeting with him within the next few months,” Choe says, “but our greatest challenge now is to educate a generation of players who have never heard of him or Donnay.”
http://www.donnayusa.com/pros.htm
Tennis Equipment
