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Here is my summary of the most notable / special rubbers
and blades from the Joola brand. This is not meant to promote or
criticize the Joola brand or products in any way, it’s simply a summary
of opinions of the more famous and highly regarded products of the
brand. Overview:
The brand JOOLA has its origin in the 1950s when it was popular to
combine the names of companies and cities. The sports section of the
department store JOOss in LAndau was involved in the production of the
first table tennis tables in 1952. Joola has grown to become a major
player among the table tennis manufacturers, offering the complete range
of equipment, and having shown some great innovation in their products.
Their blades are believed to be made in Germany, Sweden and possibly
some in China. A large portion of their rubbers are made in the German
ESN factory, home to the majority of top Tensor (Tensor is a trademark
of ESN) rubbers in the world. The remainder of their rubbers are made in
Japan and China.
After talking to many people, and getting lots of great feedback from
people on the table tennis forums, I’ve summarised the most popular
Joola rubbers and blades below. Although the popularity can be biassed
by marketing and availability, there are some that many agree on to be
great products, so there must be something to it…
Rubbers:
Joola Tango has been without a doubt the
most popular Joola rubber. It was one of the first Tensor rubbers
released onto the market, and the unique feel and inbuilt speed-glue
effect made it very popular. As demand for more speed grew, Joola
released the Tango Extrem, a
considerably faster version of the Tango, which also became quite
popular.
The Tensors appear to be the most popular Joola rubbers. The
Energy Green Power in
particular, and more recently the Energy
X-Tra and Air Rosnet have
enjoyed moderate popularity. Only very recently Joola released the
Express One and
Express Two rubbers, but it’s too
early to judge how good these new rubber are. With several other major
manufacturers releasing Tensor rubbers, it is getting harder to retain a
competitive advantage.
Tensor are not for everyone, and Joola has released some other rubbers
with reasonable success. The Japanese made like Mambo,
Mambo H, the Samba,
Drum and Drum
CWX all enjoyed
some popularity, but don’t stand out as much as the Tensors. With the
speed glue ban now in place, they may become less popular as some of
these need glue to really come alive.
The Tango Ultra is one of the most successful short pimple rubbers,
offering great spin potential and control, thanks to the wide pimpled
grippy topsheet and the Tensor sponge. Joola
Snabb also deserve a mention.
For the more defensive players, there is the Joola Tony Hold Antitop
which is held in high regard. Some of the long pimpled rubbers, like the
Fakir and Razor, did not survive the ITTF
frictionless long pimple ban, although
Octopus, rumoured to be made
by TSP Japan, has gained some popularity since it’s release.
Blades:
Joola is not one of the most popular brands for its blades, although
they have enjoyed some success with some of their range and are
generally regarded as high quality blades. The Balsa core blades appear
to be the most successful. The
Joola Kool, Panther and Cat were quite popular for a while, but the
Kool appears to be the only one still made, as is easily the most
popular of the three. More recently the
Joola MC1 and
R*1 have gained some popularity too.
The K-series appeared to have been very popular in China, although only
their most popular, the K5 appears to be still made. A few others like
the Fever, Viva, Guo 3C deserve a mention, but have never become very
popular. Similarly some of the Rosskopf blade, like the Fire, Force &
Allround deserve a mention.
For a modern defensive blade, the
Joola Chen Weixing is easily the most
popular and highly regarded blade from Joola. The Hold White deserves a
mention as well and has a small following.
Final words:
It is likely that a player of any level and style can find something
appropriate from the Joola brand, but this is the case for many of the
other major brands too. Hopefully this summary will be useful for Joola
fans or those that only have this brand available to choose from. Joola
do have a range of other table tennis related items, in fact they pretty
much sell everything related to table tennis, but blades and rubbers are
the extent of this write-up. |
