Work of TTGearLab :

(1) The concept of rubber

(2) The adjustment of configuration by the cooperation with rubber factory

(3) Refinement of pacakging design (Original design was done by a German company)

In early 2011, A.R.T.E. (= the first name of TTGearLab) changed its name to ReDATT, and started the development management of adidas table tennis. P7 is the first rubber that was developed under the management of ReDATT.

P7 was developed as the new member of P (= Performance) series. Before the development of P7, P series consists of two models – P5 and P3. P5 is the rubber which is similar to Butterfly Tenergy 05 but more biased to the elasticity and speed. P3 is the rubber which is similar to Butterfly Tenergy 64 but a bit softer. Both of those were suggeted to professional players. And, more advanced TenZone series that is even faster and more powerful than P series was about to be launched at that time. The trend of rubber development in 2011 was to enhance the elasticity. During 2011~2013 many manufactures launched new models with enhanced speed. However, P7 was develped under totally different concept decided by ReDATT.

In fact, what ReDATT wanted to develop was a sticky rubber made in Germany that can compete with DHS Hurricane 3. That was because ReDATT predicted that sticky rubber will be the mainstream of professional rubber in near future. The performence of glued Tackifire Special was the target performence of new rubber. (Butterfly Tackifire Special isn’t made in China but made in Japan.) However, the developement of sticky rubber in German factory wasn’t prepared yet at that time. For that reason, instead of developing sticky rubber, ReDATT decided to just concentrate on the characteristics of dragging the ball.

The required character of new rubber was reduced repulsion in vertical direction and enhanced ability of dragging ball. ReDATT ordered German factory the samples those satisfy that requirement. And, after the adjustment of some samples, the final specification of P7 could be decided. Although P7 isn’t a sticky rubber, it showed the characteristics like the rubber with mild stickiness. Overall feeling was close to that of Butterfly Tackifire Special except for the hardness. To make the rubber closer to Chinese sticky rubbers, ReDATT wanted to add hard sponge version of P7. But, that wasn’t realized because of some practical reasons.

Although P7 isn’t a sticky rubber, it showed the behavior very close to sticky rubber in many situations. Further it was much easier to use than Chinese sticky rubbers because it isn’t a sticky rubber. Some playes thought that it is a sticky rubber. Extraordinary spin performance was another advantage of P7. At the cost of speed, P7 gained extreme spin ability. Extreme ease of

P7 was very successful, and many players loved it. However, it wasn’t as successful as P5, P3 and TenZone. That was bacause it can’t produce high speed if player doesn’t put strong spin to the ball.

During 10 years after the launching of P7, the trend of table tennis rubber has been changed. Many top players those are not Chinese players have started to use sticky rubbers. And, German rubber factory can now produce perfect sticky rubbers made in Germany. Many table tennis manufactureres are launching sticky rubber and those rubber are being used by top players. Tibhar Hybrid K3 is the example. P7 may be able to be considered as the rubber of 10 years ago that pursued the same goal as current German sticky rubbers.

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