So I get the feeling some pro players may be using carbon fiber shafts not by their own choice, but because that is what their sponsors want them to play?
DCC carbon-fiber/wood shaft usage ratio....?
- Thread starter garczar
- Start date
I'd be amazed if that wasn't the case.
I've been lead to believe that in some pro sports that the top tier sponsored players sometimes even use older tech dressed up to appear current products.
If that's true it would take an athlete that is in demand versus one needing to get paid by someone.
I guess I'm confused by the economics of this. Sure, CF is the future, but Predator wood shafts still fetch over 300 bucks a piece. As a long time Predator user, like over 20 years, it seems like there's still quite a bit of money to be made on the wood shaft side, or at least it seems there could be. Someone like me, picks up a new wood shaft every so many years, but once I switch to CF that won't be happening. Even with a dwindling market, you'd think they'd want to keep milking the wood shaft players. Guess it's pretty simple math at this point, and I'm sure they have it figured out. Just seems like it could benefit them to have a high-level sponsored player stick with wood as long as possible.
doesn't make sense for me either. their wood shafts are still very popular.
i seriously doubt that a person that plays to eat is not going to use a cue/shaft he doesn't like. these guys can use a fkng broomstick and still play good. they can adapt to any material, tip, whatever. sure they want the sponsorship $$ but they also want to win and that means using something they like.
From what i'm hearing the Revo's are way outselling the wood shafts.
Well , Earl played with POS for a decade or so.
And he called it that.
just the butt. he used different shafts. when i saw him play he had a Gulyassey really longgggggg taper shaft. as long as the butt said 'cuetec' on it they didn't care what shaft he used.
Dollar-for dollar, larger profit margins on CF shaft than on a wood shaft, even more so with the higher prices commanded by a CF shaft. I expect CF shafts are easier/cheaper to manufacture these days, including less rejects due to more consistent quality control over a larger production volume. Fewer humans involved in production too. People wanting to "upgrade" from wood, as well.
That just it... Congrats to the shaft manufacturers in convincing the masses that there is a tangible performance based reason to "upgrade" to CF. Other than durability, it offers nothing a human could appreciate over wood.
However on a manufacturing level, the margin on CF over wood must be awesome.
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I can't say for sure, but I would guess there is a consistency aspect to this as well.
After someone knocked one of my customs onto the ground and severely damaging it, I switched to a factory-made butt with a CF shaft.
My thought was that it is not only more unlikely to be damaged but it is 100% replaceable with an identical cue/shaft.
CF shafts more than likely have less variance between them than wood shafts.
My cue maker passed away so I will never get a replacement shaft that will play exactly the same as the ones I currently have. (not saying all my current shafts are identical)
If this Chinese POS gets damaged or stolen, I will have one JUST like it in 2 days. I'm only our a few bucks and 2 days before I'm back at it.
I think that part of the higher cost and margin of the CF shaft goes partly to the marketing cost to the masses, and that includes pro endorsement costs. Classic aspects of macro-economy going on at Predator and CueTec - a symbiotic relationship/dance between them and their pros on display at DCC. The consumer/player is paying for that through the current CF shaft price.
Especially for those that buy tubes and finish them which is almost all of them. Only one i know of actually make their own tubes and that's Cuetec. Just about everyone else buys Chinese-made tubes and adds the joint/ferrule/tip.
I've heard this angle before. I can't argue against it... The notion of consistency that is. Whether it matters is a different discussion.
It's easy to say that a manufactured tubes of CF would be more consistent than the organic nature of wood. Definitely wouldn't be wrong. I can only speak for myself when I say that I have never hit two 'quality' shafts of the same design and had them perform differently to the extent that it was noticeable.
I've always taken the 'consistency' benefit as pure hype.
Possibly... I fail to see how the costs of marketing CF shafts would be any different than those associated to wood counterparts though.
More cost allocated to CF as people need more convincing.
lol... oh ya... Those "this will finally fix my crappy game" folks are a tough sell...More cost allocated to CF as people need more convincing.
Das Cue-Boot
Active member
It’s like that for virtually all cf products. Except for prototypes, almost all bike frames, tennis racquets, golf club shafts, cross country poles come from a very few Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers. Highly automated so little labor, but a big advantage over US and EU is that they can ignore or bribe their way out of environmental, health and safety regulations, and can find their way around patents and intellectual property rights. Cue shafts will follow the same patterns.