Badminton shuttle materials

Hi! Welcome to my shuttles testing page!

Ever since I was "conned" to buy a tube of Li Ning A+60 (RM58/tube of 15, the guy say very durable and better than Yonex), I'm now very skeptical about shuttle quality.

So... what makes a good shuttle? The best shuttle feel is supposed to be a head made of cork and good flight and durability depends on the feathers. Also I've found better feathers to he "harder to open", meaning that when you smash hard, lousy feathers tend to be ruffled while good ones keep their original shape.

Good feathers also tend to be thick and err on the softer side.

Also, the white thingie that covers the cork is supposed to be made of kid leather.

I'm pretty shocked to find out that there is almost no manufacturers that give you a full head of cork and kid leather, preferring a hybrid of cork-foam and synthetic leather! And this even goes into their most premium shuttles!

So on to the test~!! Hope this helps make better decisions. =)

This is not a play or durability test, just to show what materials goes into a brand's shuttles. Head will be split open to show head material and the white part will be burned for about 3 seconds using a jet lighter.

How to see this review?

1. I'm looking at the materials used here only. A cork head gives the best feel (I think so) but is also the most expensive.

2. Material of the cloth covering the head. It's mostly real leather vs synthetic leather (hopefully no cloth, etc)

Example of real leather. Taken from Yonex AS-30. Notice that it burns without shrinking.

Example of synthetic. Taken from Protech Classic 88. So shrunken

And let the shuttles begin!

Aeroflight 700 BWF

foam sandwiched between cork

Aeroflight 700 BWF

Synthetic (shrinks)

Dana

Half foam half cork

Dana

Synthetic (shrinks)

Protech Classic 88

Foam sandwiched between cork

Protech Classic 88

Synthetic (shrinks)

Protech Classic 99

Foam sandwiched between cork

Protech Classic 99

Synthetic (shrinks). This one is also one of the worst one. Don't know why it seems to be of a different material than the Classic 88

Protech Masterpiece

Foam sandwiched between cork

Protech's top shuttle

Protech Masterpiece

Synthetic (shrinks)

Protech's top shuttle

RCL Titanium Gold

Foam sandwiched between cork

RCL Titanium Gold

Synthetic. Badly burned as well, one of the worst

RSL Classic

Half foam half cork

RSL Classic

Synthetic (shrinks)

RSL No.1

Half foam half cork

RSL's top shuttle

RSL No.1

Synthetic (shrinks)

RSL's top shuttle

Sealion C2101

Foam sandwiched between cork

Sealion C2101

Synthetic material. One of the worst.

Yonex Aerosensa 2 (AS-2)

half cork, half wood? (it appears to be wood of some sort)

Yonex Aerosensa 2 (AS-2).

Real kid leather (notice no shrinking). Burned twice

Yonex Aerosensa 10 (AS-10)

full cork head

Yonex Aerosensa 10 (AS-10).

Real kid leather (notice no shrinking)

Yonex Aerosensa 30 (AS-30)

full cork head

Yonex Aerosensa 30 (AS-30). I burned this a little longer than the rest just to see how it fares.

Real kid leather (notice no shrinking)

Yonex Aerosensa 40 (AS-40)

full cork head

Yonex Aerosensa 40 (AS-40).

Real kid leather (notice no shrinking)

Yonex Aerosensa 50 (AS-50)

full cork head

Yonex's top shuttle

Yonex Aerosensa 50 (AS-50). I burned this a little longer than the rest just to see how it fares.

Real kid leather (notice no shrinking)

Yonex's top shuttle