Print

[Johnny]

So how do you know if a bats good or not? Can you not tell by the look of the willow? The quality of the finish? The balance? How it feels off a mallet?

Surely there's more to any brand than the reputation of their head batmaker?!

You are starting to sound like the BlankBats thread that was on pakpassion

[Joe]

So how do you know if a bats good or not? Can you not tell by the look of the willow? The quality of the finish? The balance? How it feels off a mallet?

Surely there's more to any brand than the reputation of their head batmaker?!

You are starting to sound like the BlankBats thread that was on pakpassion

You can't get any of this buying online.

[Johnny]

That's not the question though is it. Regardless of buying online or not, we're talkIng about if it matters who made the bat

[Tom]

When a new unheard (like Blenheim were 2 weeks ago) of comes on this forum there's nothing to seperate them from the others apart from price and the look of the stickers. They have no reviews, no history, no credibility.

People want to know who the batmaker is to get an idea of the quality of the final product and perceive the value better.

People don't need to know the maker of Kookaburra, Adidas or Gray Nicolls in that same kind of way as they have seen lots of them around the circuit and have an idea about the brand

Give it 12 months and a number of good reviews and people will ask a lot less questions about who makes them, just look at Black Cat and Bulldog for examples of that.

[PedalsMcgrew]

When a new unheard (like Blenheim were 2 weeks ago) of comes on this forum there's nothing to seperate them from the others apart from price and the look of the stickers. They have no reviews, no history, no credibility.

People want to know who the batmaker is to get an idea of the quality of the final product and perceive the value better.

People don't need to know the maker of Kookaburra, Adidas or Gray Nicolls in that same kind of way as they have seen lots of them around the circuit and have an idea about the brand

Give it 12 months and a number of good reviews and people will ask a lot less questions about who makes them, just look at Black Cat and Bulldog for examples of that.

Thank you Tom! You put it far more eloquently than I could!

[Manormanic]

with the big manufacturers, you also know that they have so many bat makers that its hard to distinguish...

[Nickauger]

This is a bit of a storm in a tea cup for me. A couple weeks ago the forum mods were saying that 'if a bat is an x, y or z bat then for all intents and purposes, it is an x, y or z bat'. You buy the bat and if it's no good you send it back and give them a bad review, and that company gets bad press. If it's good then vice versa and eventually it doesn't matter who makes the bats because they are 'just good bats'.

The Blenheim argument is a pathetic one because they quite clearly said that they would tell you who makes the bats, just not in public..... which is completely fair enough because a) I doubt the bat maker would be too keen to have that info in the public domain, and b) why would they give people the opportunity to say 'ooooh that bat looks nice, I wonder if I could get the same cheaper from the same batmaker with different stickers'.

[Cover_Drive]

When a new unheard (like Blenheim were 2 weeks ago) of comes on this forum there's nothing to seperate them from the others apart from price and the look of the stickers. They have no reviews, no history, no credibility.

People want to know who the batmaker is to get an idea of the quality of the final product and perceive the value better.

People don't need to know the maker of Kookaburra, Adidas or Gray Nicolls in that same kind of way as they have seen lots of them around the circuit and have an idea about the brand

Give it 12 months and a number of good reviews and people will ask a lot less questions about who makes them, just look at Black Cat and Bulldog for examples of that.

Nailed it!

Completely acquiesce this post.

I really don't understand why some people don't mention the batmaker, I mean it won't make any difference to you if your bats are of top quality which impresses the buyer.

I really liked the way BlankBats did, they weren't reluctant in naming the maker, which was quite good of those guys.

[Nickauger]

I really liked the way BlankBats did, they weren't reluctant in naming the maker, which was quite good of those guys.

Blankbats are only able to offer their bats cheap because they are contractually not allowed to name the batmaker. It's a blank bats bat, get over it!

[tim2000s]

Coming back to the original point, many companies are contractualy bound to not name who makes their bats. You might ask them nicely and they might tell you, but if they do, they could be breaching confidentiality clauses which may result in a loss of supply, sinking the business.

As most buyers don't know who TK is, they just find that  a team mate has a bat that performs, to stay in business is it netter to a) risk your supply line or b) pander to the tiny minority on a forum or two?

[Cover_Drive]

As it was very hard to regconize there batmaker #NoBrainerifyouareonCBF

[Nickauger]

Coming back to the original point, many companies are contractualy bound to not name who makes their bats. You might ask them nicely and they might tell you, but if they do, they could be breaching confidentiality clauses which may result in a loss of supply, sinking the business.

As most buyers don't know who TK is, they just find that  a team mate has a bat that performs, to stay in business is it netter to a) risk your supply line or b) pander to the tiny minority on a forum or two?

That is my point exactly!!!

[tim2000s]

That is my point exactly!!!

What we forumites tend to forget is that as a market place we are a very small wallet. Many of the batmakers on here, the likes of SAF, Nixon, Charlie French and others such as Solitaire, Chase, etc, started off much like Beachy, making bats for friends and people in local teams in the league. As people moved away and went "where did you get that bat from?" their reputations grew and people started to make enquiries. The growth of the brand was entirely about product and direct exposure.

In many ways it hasn't really changed. Yes, the internet gives you the opportunity to share that experience more widely and others to read reviews and yes it allows you (with a good marketing/art direction guy) to appear sexier, but the core buyers tend to be local to you. As they buy and use these bats the reputation spreads, and if they are a member of this forum then it may spread faster.

We do have a tendency to overestimate just how important we are in the grand scheme of a business model...

[Manormanic]

But what happens when I go to a new company who (possibly for contractual reasons) are unwilling/unable to actually say where they are sourcing their bats from? This company has no track record, I know of no one using their gear and the prices they are asking are 'premium'. That is the ONLY reference I have as to what the bats might actually be like!

Quite agree - some of them are worth the money but its a big old risk!

[Nickauger]

Quite agree - some of them are worth the money but its a big old risk!

But if you weren't on here, then you wouldn't take a risk on any of the smaller bat makers who have built up a reputation through here, like blank bats etc. You wouldn't go to a restraunt and demand to meet the head chef before ordering!