Have you tried the HOW tips yet? I am a Canadian dealer for them and sell a ton. They initially had issues with the top layer coming off too, but I haven't seen one in quite a while now. As far as playability they are very similar to the black Kamui, but a bit harder across the board, which I like as well. The HOW tips are black too. Now to be VERY honest here and with ANY new tip they WILL mushroom after about 30 to 40 racks but after a nice quick trim they will hold their shape for the remainder of the life of the tip. I do not burnish mine as the heat can break down the adhesives in the layers. As a performance standppoint I say "they seem to feel like they stay on the ball a bit longer", which is a description I use to explain how they feel. I have switched to them myself and have not had any issues other then a couple years ago about the top layer coming off, but as mentioned it seems like they have that addressed now. They come in soft, med and hard. I play the mediums and like the feel, playability, finesse and overall performance of them. If you look it up there are a lot of top pros using them including Shane and Josh so in my opinion, they are very good tips not because they use them but because they do perform very good. To provide a hardness rating as a comparison point a LePro tip is at a 78 hardness the HOW tips are as follows: Hard (84), Medium (77), or SOFT (70) Try one, you will not be sorry!