The Yonex ™ Astrox 99 badminton racquet has several technical innovations that improve upon earlier racquets in the Astrox series. Each of these innovations are described below. If you want to test drive this racquet, stop by our store in southwest Calgary.

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Buy Yonex Astrox 99

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Yonex Astrox 99 Badminton Racquet Innovations

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Yonex Namd

A world-first, new dimension graphite material, Namd, greatly improves the adhesion of the graphite fibers and resin by attaching nanomaterial directly to the graphite fiber.

In high performance racquets, it is common to combine nanomaterials with resin that connects graphite fibers, but in Yonex Namd, nanomaterials are directly adhered to the graphite fibers and resin is greatly increased. This major improvement in Yonex racquets produces a shaft that flexes and stores energy, delivering explosive force on impact with the shuttle.

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Yonex Badminton Racquet Full Frame Namd

The ASTROX 99 has adopted Namd in the entire body of the racquet, including the frame. This doubles contact time with the shuttle, resulting in an explosive shot, as the racquet returns from flexed to straight at the end of the swing.

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Yonex Nanometric

NANOMETRIC* improves the bonding strength between the carbon fibres enabling us to take racquet shaft construction to another level. By reducing the amount of carbon in the shaft to make it 60%* thinner than a conventional racquet whilst retaining stiffness, YONEX has created a revolutionary lightweight racquet with lightening head speed and control.

*NANOMETRIC is the new material which applies the NANOALLOYTM Technology of Toray Industries, Inc.

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New Grommet Pattern

Yonex’ new single-pass grommet hole construction provides more grommet holes and fewer shared holes than other brands. This permits for a more high-performance stringing pattern.

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Rotational Generator System

Yonex rotational generator system applies the counterbalance theory in Yonex racquets. Weight is distributed throughout the grip end, frame top and the joint for maximum control. This ensures a smooth and rapid transition to the next shot.

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Solid Feel Core

The built-in solid feel core in Yonex premium racquets reduces harmful miscellaneous vibration at impact. This technology, called “solid feel core” is a feature of all Yonex racquets manufactured in Japan.

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Super Slim Shaft

This is the slimmest shaft ever produced by Yonex. It vastly reduces air resistance whilst providing maximum feel.

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Aero+Box Frame

Yonex frames are contoured differently on different parts of the loop. Some areas feature an aerodynamic shape to reduce air resistance. Other areas feature a box shape to provide strength and power. This combination offers a quick swing with a solid feel.

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Built in T-Joint

Moulded deep into the layers of graphite where the frame connects with the shaft, the YONEX Built-in T-Joint creates a durable and high-strength one-piece frame that is torque-free.

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Energy Boost Cap

The new shape of the energy boost cap allows the shaft to flex, which ensures the maximum effect of “Namd (more flex and faster kick-back graphite material)” and stabilizes the racquet face by preventing the shaft twisting, increasing control

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Isometric Head Shape

Yonex’ square-shaped ISOMETRIC frame shape is designed to keep vertical strings at a similar length. This shape produces a larger sweet spot in all directions.

The worst thing about shopping in the big self-serve sporting goods stores is that you don’t know what you are buying. And more often than not, the staff don’t know what you are buying either.

Take the racquet in this photo, for example. Is it an adult racquet? Is it a kid’s racquet? How can you tell?

Thousands upon thousands of these racquets were sold in major sporting goods stores in Canada and the US last year. The questions is, though, did the people who bought it know what they were buying?

Let’s look at the picture on the racquet’s face card. The badminton player is none other than Sho Sasaki, a Japanese badminton champion who competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Based on that — and with no other information to go on — a reasonable person would assume that this racquet is suitable for adults.

But it’s not. It’s a child’s racquet, barely suitable for a 10-year-old.

In fact, this racquet is too short (by more than a centimeter) to be an adult racquet and too heavy (by about 15 grams) and far too stiff to be a child’s racquet.

In our store, this racquet is classed as a toy. It looks like a badminton racquet. You can even use it to hit a badminton shuttle. But it’s not really a badminton racquet because a badminton player would not use a racquet like this to play badminton in any kind of formal or semi-formal setting.

If somebody brought this racquet to practice with a knowledgeable badminton coach, the coach would probably advise them to get a new racquet.

But chances are tens of thousands of people who didn’t know any better were tricked into buying this racquet last year because they were hanging on the walls of virtually every major sporting goods store in North America.

And that’s the problem with self-serve sporting goods stores. They buy what they know they can sell. They don’t care of it’s the real thing or a toy. They look at the packaging, the brand name, the colour, the price and the margin. That’s all they need to know if people will buy it.

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A Random Sample of Our Badminton Racquets

For a full list of racquets in this category, please check out our ONLINE RACQUET SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, weight, balance and more.