Donic ‘Zhang Jike’ series, released in early 2025, is the new flagship blade family that Donic launched after recruiting Zhang Jike as its brand ambassador. It consists of two models those have been developed in collaboration with Zhang Jike who has won titles in the Olympic Games, World Cup, and World Championships. Of the two models, ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ is the more powerful version which is based on the configuration used by Zhang Jike, while ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is the more controllable version with softer feeling and improved control.

‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is developed by the advice of Zhang Jike that very fast blade isn’t the optimum for all players. (Zhang Jike is managing a table tennis school in China, and the advice is from his experience of teaching table tennis.) It looks like a common outer-type fiber blade. But, differently from common fiber blades whose artificial materials are woven by one or two kinds of fibers, its artificial material is woven by three different fibers for more sensitive feeling. And, controllability has been improved by choosing Limba wood, which is softer than Koto wood of ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’, as top layer material.

‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is the new standard offensive blade for every player suggested by Donic. Between two models of ‘Zhang Jike’ series, ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is more biased to control. (But, it isn’t a control-oriented blade. Although slower than ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’, it is still categorized as a very fast blade.)

The construction of ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is an ‘outer-type’ construction. The top layer is Limba, the middle layer is Ayous, and the center layer is Kiri. Trio UAC Synthetic Fiber is inserted directly under the top layer. Overall thickness is around 5.8mm.

Trio UAC Synthetic Fiber is woven by three different fibers – one kind of carbon fiber and two different kinds of aramid (or arylate) fibers. The advantage of using three different fibers is that fine tuning of the characteristics of different orientations – vertical and horizontal – becomes easier.

The size of head is around 157mm x 150mm which is the common head size of most of recent offensive blades. (Actual length is close to 156.5mm.)

The width of FL (flared) handle is around 24mm (at head side) ~ 27.5 mm (at bulge) ~ 27.0mm (at narrowest point) ~ 33mm (at the end). And, the thickness of FL handle is around 22.5mm (at thumb) ~ 24.5mm (at the end). It can be dealt as a kind of ‘semi-wide’ FL handle, and in the hand it feels wider than the FL handle of ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’. The size of ST hasn’t been measured yet.

On the foreside of head, the name of Zhang Jike is printed at left side, and the product name is printed at right side. Below the product name, the construction and the recommended playing styles (= OFF-/OFF) are indicated. Donic doesn’t use the signs such as ALL+ or OFF- for expressing speed level but for indicating the recommended playing style. ‘ALL-‘ means the all-round style which is more aggressive than classic all-round style, ‘OFF-‘ means continuous offensive style which lays emphasis on the safety, and ‘OFF’ means ordinary offensive play which is more aggressive than OFF-. If the blade fits for very aggressive playing style, it is indicated as ‘OFF+’.

At the foreside of handle, transparent plastic lens of ordinary shape is applied. Donic logo and the product name are printed in the lens. The layout in the lens is vertical type which is different from the horizontal type applied for most of Donic blades.

Squared aluminum plate with Donic logo is applied at the end of handle. The text in the end plate is current slogan of Donic – “Donic create(s) success.”

Nothing is printed on the backside of head, other than the country of origin (= China) notation at the bottom.

Olso the handle and the center of head, the logo that depicts Zhang Jike’s initials, ‘Z.J.’

The backside of the handle features a circular lens with the logo ‘Z.J.’

Donic ‘Zhang Jike’ series is the new flagship blade family of Donic, and it consists of two outer-type fiber blades with different top layers and artificial materials. Left is ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ with Koto top layer and Cured Aramid Carbon. Right is ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ with Limba top layer and Trio UAC Synthetic Fiber.

‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ (left) and ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ (right) share the basic plywood construction, and are distinguished by top layers and artificial fibers.

The point colors are red for ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ and yellow for ‘Zhang Jike New Era’.

The base color of handle of ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is black, and the ‘Z.J.’ graphic with yellow color makes strong contrast.

‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is the blade developed in Germany and produced in China.

‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is an outer-type fiber blade which is based on the top model ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ but with different top layer and artificial materials for wider level of players. It provides softer ball touch than ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’, but there isn’t noticeable difference in fundamental elasticity and overall feeling. Some players may feel that ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ and make faster ball than ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ because it doesn’t hug the ball as deeply as ‘Zhang Jike Original Carbon’ when the player hits the ball very strongly. ‘Zhang Jike New Era’ is recommended for most of amateur offensive players who play with various technics including topspin and smash.

Following are the performance indices of Zhang Jike New Era (avg.weight = 84.4) :

– Ep = 2.23

– Ec = 2.05 (Ec/Ep = 0.92)

– Vp = 1.39

– Vl = 1.49 (Vl/Vp = 1.07)

Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.


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