I thought that you might be interesting in this little account of the Lords show this morning...
I have approached this from a softs perspective - because the bats are basically bits of wood, with shiny stickers on, some will be good, some wont...Obviously there were lots of lovely bats there. Most appeared to be Indian made.
Firstly a lot is made of the show and it really isn't set up for a punter like me! From a layman’s perspective, I was an interested observer and one for the wholesalers to avoid.
My main observations were that most brands were playing very safe, lots of rebadged ss and sg stuff in the softs world, although I did like the chase softs - probably just about my favourite, plus the sf kit generally looked good. As did the oblivion pads - I was not a fan of the GN gloves.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed with the gloves generally.
the stands were (from memory)
Chase, M&H, asics, Trion:z, Sunwise, Mongoose, CA, Boom Boom, Dukes, Willostix, PiriPiri, Stuart Surridge, Ayrtek, Masuri, Bradbury, GN, SF, Aero/Nike, Newbery, County and Salix.
There may have been more, but not that I can remember. The best stands were Chase, Salix, Newb, M&H, Mongoose and Willowstix. If I was going to buy something - It would have been the Salix stuff probably - but it is expensive – so (as a tight git) I would probably look for bargains elsewhere if I was in the market. Realistically I will stick with what I have next season as it is all great.
Actually if I was in the market it may be that Chase is where I would go for my next softs - which isn't something I thought I would say, but they looked pretty good (to my taste) and also had a really nice duffle bag. I think they have really upped their game.
Biggest winners?
Newbery stuff, I liked their colours, Chase - I really liked their softs and the sf stuff which is as “ronseal” - as it comes but decent quality, I think you will see a lot of that next season, especially because of their prices and how well they did last year with retailers.
Biggest comedy launch (other than Ayrtek) - the new purple stickered M&H bat called the master. They will sell loads of this massive railway sleeper.
The chase bats looked good although one of their bats takes concaving to a new extreme and was horrid.
Oh and I love the retro ss turbo and jumbo... probably a generation thing.
Biggest fail: Aero and Nike - aero have brought out a "vintage range" - rebranded SG stuff I think - so they have abandoned their new ideas approach. Their bats had a horrid ridge running down the bottom of the handle which means you can't hold the bat properly but were ok shapes.
Oh and I hate the orange Nike shoes.
The strippers will be their one saving grace
Finally the Ayrtek lids. I was kindly invited by Tom to the show and his presentation with Lord Maclaurin - which was why I was there in the first place. Firstly I hope the team do really well with their new range of lids, I think they have the price points right and I got to try their product for the first time - I actually liked them a lot more than I expected to. Then after the presentation, I knew it was time to leave when I was accused of looking like someone who can play when I tried the new carbon lid on! They did look pretty good.
thanks again to tomtek...
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Topic: Who went to lords trade show? Any decent bats? (Read 23026 times)