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Is Your Racquet a String Eater?

Squash Racquet Broken Bumper Guard

Take a good look at the racquet in the image at the top of this article. It won’t take you long to see why the string broke where it broke.

It broke because the grommet for that string hole is both crushed and split. Two holes to the left of that, another grommet is broken.

You can see that we slid the separated grommet down the string to provide a landmark for another image of the same racquet from a different angle which is posted a little further down this page.

If you find that image, you will be a able to see what is happening on the outside of the racquet, which is the other side of the hole where the string broke.

Squash Racquet Broken Bumper Guard
The moment the bumper guard breaks, the racquet becomes a string eater.
Why did the grommet split? Probably because the bumper guard broke. Why did the bumper guard break? Because the player hit the wall.

Did either of these happen because of something the racquet stringer did six weeks ago when he strung the racquet for the client?

Absolutely not. Yet the customer’s first instinct when the string broke was to blame us.

We didn’t use the racquet. We didn’t break the bumper guard. We didn’t split the grommet.

The customer did it. He hit the wall. Hitting the wall broke the bumper guard. Breaking the bumper guard weakened the grommet. The grommet split, exposing the soft string to the hard graphite edge of the racquet frame. Then eventually, the string broke in exactly that spot.

These events may not have happened on the same day. Each may have occurred days or weeks apart. But each event led to the other and the end result was a broken string.

So before you blame the professional who strung your racquet, ask yourself this question: is my racquet a string eater?

If you have a broken bumper guard, your racquet is a string eater. If you have broken grommets, your racquet is a string eater. If your grommets are split but not fully broken, your racquet is on its way to becoming a string eater.

If your racquet is a string eater and you want to keep it you have two choices. Either fix it or be prepared to feed it a lot of string.

Don’t blame us. We will always advise you to fix rather than feed a string eater. In fact, we carry a lot of parts just so you have the option of fixing it.

Outfitting a racquet with a new bumper guard and grommets costs about $20.00, parts and labour included. However, if your racquet is a string eater, doing this could save you many times that amount.

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Racquet Stringing Options in Calgary

We offer Sergetti method tennis racquet stringing in our Calgary store.

Calgary’s Racquet Network is well known for our custom racquet stringing program. Top players from all over southern Alberta and interior British Columbia bring their racquets in for full customization. When their game is on the line, they trust us with their most important tools.

What is not as well know is that we also offer discount racquet stringing for players who just want some string in their racquets and aren’t necessarily looking for the whole custom racquet stringing experience.

Our discount stringing services programs and handled by the same staff of professional stringers who do racquets for the top players. They use the same machines and the same techniques, they are just done at a time of day when our machines and our staff would normally be sitting idle. This allows us to charge less that we do during peak hours.

Free Racquet Stringing

Our cheapest option is free. We have a free stringing program that rewards players who are making important volunteer contributions to the growth of their sports in Calgary. Depending on the player and what their contributions have been recently, we may reward them with free labour on single racquet as a one-time thing or we may string all of their racquets for free all of the time.

We also have a program that allows Calgary coaches, parents and active players access to our stringing machine after hours so that they can string their own racquets.

Cheap Racquet Stringing

Players who have not made a significant contribution to the growth of their sports are required to pay the usual fees for stringing services, but that doesn’t mean they have to pay full price for custom stringing services every time they come in. In fact, we offer a number of discount options as well.

Our best know economy option is our Stringing-On-the-Spot program which runs from 5:00-8:00pm every weekday. We also offer a “Just the Basics” program and another program for frequent string breakers.

Surprise Bonuses

Customers who come in for our On-the-Spot stringing program, are sometimes surprised to find out that we have deducted an additional 20% to 100% off of their already low stringing bill. We call these unannounced Customer Appreciation nights and we hold them once a week every week.

During these random, unannounced customer appreciation events, we check five major review sites while we are stringing each customer’s racquet. If we see five-star reviews that match the customer’s name, we knock off 20% for each. This is our way of showing our appreciation for customers who are out there saying nice things about us.

Bulk Stringing

Schools, groups and clubs can enjoy the benefit of strength in numbers because they can access our bulk stringing programs. In this program, the cost can drop to as low as $10.00 per racquet. Contact us at orders@racquetnetwork.com for more information.

Custom Stringing

Price is not everything, of course. Most of our players still want custom stringing so that they can have their racquet customized to their individual specifications. Therefore also offer custom and express options. The good news is that players who want custom stringing always have the option of pre-ordering online and getting online discounts that are not available to walk in customers.

Whatever your racquet stringing needs, Racquet Network can help. We offer more options at more price points than anybody else in Calgary. Whether you want it cheap, fast, generic or customized, we have the answer. And if you help us build our business, we will help you save even more in return.

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Yonex Badminton Racquets | Try Before You Buy

Altra Running Shoe Demos

Racquet Network customers test drive more than 1000 badminton, tennis, squash and pickleball racquets every year.

Yonex ™ racquets are amongst our most popular for in-store customers who want to try before they buy. As a result, we offer more Yonex badminton racquet demos than anybody else. We even have doubles of the most popular Yonex racquets.

Our Try Before You Buy program allows customers to spend up to month test driving a variety of racquets.

For more information, please come into the store and talk to an expert at 310 2525 Woodview Dr SW. We are open 7 days a week.

Yonex Badminton Racquets

Many — but not all — of the Yonex racquets that we sell are included in our Try Before You Buy program. Please visit us in-store for details.

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Ladies Pickleball Shoes – Sizes 11, 12, and 13

BABOLAT SHADOW TEAM ANTHR-FLUO PINK LADIES BADMINTON SHOE
We carry ladies pickleball shoes in sizes 11, 12, and 13.
Racquet Network offers Calgary’s largest selection of court shoes for all racquet sports, including ladies pickleball. With more than 2000 cubic feet of dedicated shoe storage, our customers know that it makes sense to start here first.

In addition to common adult sizes for men and women, Racquet Network carries a full range of junior court shoes as well as extra large ladies sizes, including sizes 11, 12 and 13.

Racquet Network also works hard to ensure that we have wide court shoes in stock at all times. In addition to ladies standard widths, we do our best to offer wide and extra wide unisex pickleball shoes, which is why it is not unusual to see current and former college volleyball players in our southwest Calgary store.

Wide Court Shoes

Since we opened our first retail store in 2012, Calgarians have come to trust us as the place to go for court shoes of all kinds. This is especially true for customers with wide feet. They know that our shoe buyer works hard to ensure that we have a steady supply of wide court shoes for men and women.

Unfortunately, customers with wide feet have also learned that the overall selection of genuinely wide court shoes is extremely limited in Canada. While people with standard width feet can choose from a panoply of colours and styles, people with wide feet have very few options. And since the sporting goods giants do not offer wide shoes, they can spend a lot of time running around looking for something that only Racquet Network is likely to carry.

Find Out if You Have Wide Feet

Racquet Network experts are trained to fit people correctly. If you have wide feet, we can help you. If you think you might have wide feet, we can help you too. Come and see us. Our experts will help you figure out your true size and width.

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Racquet Bags

BABOLAT PURE DRIVE RACQUET BAG X9
We stock a large selection of racquet bags for tennis, squash, and badminton
We stock a large inventory of racquet bags for tennis, squash, and badminton in our southwest Calgary store.

However, racquet bags are highly seasonal. Particular styles and colours sell out quickly and it is impossible for us to have all bags in stock in all colours at all times.

We advise customers who are looking for a particular bag to order it online and then choose SHIP TO STORE. We will email you when your bag is ready to pick up. If the bag you want is unavailable, we will cancel the order and issue a refund.

All brands change their racquet bags change every year. So a bag that was available in a particular colour or style one year will not be available the following year. However, we carry new colours/styles at all three price points every season.

Random Sample of 25 Racquet Bags

Racquet Network carries a large selection of racquet bags for tennis, squash, and badminton. This is a random sample of 25 options.

Bag Selector For a full list of racquet bags in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET BAG SELECTOR. You can sort by size, brand and colour.