How High Strung Tennis determined that one of our customers was playing with a counterfeit Wilson K Six.One Team racquet.
The following is an Email exchange with David Bone (President, USRSA) and Bob Patterson (Editor for USRSA Publications). These two men are very highly regarded within the tennis community, and have many years in the retail tennis industry.
Very Likely a FAKE Wilson K Six.One Team - HELP
Tue 10/26/2021 9:19 AM
From: Stringer@HighStrungTennis.com
To: "David Bone - USRSA", "Bob Patterson - USRSA "
David and Bob,
I hope this email find you both well.
Do you happen to have a Point Of Contact at Wilson who would be familiar with the Wilson K Six.One Team racquet and it's construction?
We had a customer bring me a couple of these racquets, and they were in great condition, but the grips had disintegrated over time, so we put on new grips and strung them up. I was a little surprised when I took off the grips to find the racquets were incorporated into the forming of the handle. This seemed more like what one would see with the lighter/cheaper racquets, but as both were, the same and they both had Wilson Serial Numbers stickers I did not think any more about it.
One week after we worked on both of the customers Wilson K Six.One Team racquets, he called and said one broke on a hard serve.
I offered to find him a replacement and found one to purchase for him. It was in good condition except its grip was also in very poor condition.
Once I took off the grip of the used replacement racquet I began to wonder if my customer original racquets were indeed counterfeit racquets.
I have attached the following photos of both racquets together.
The one on the LEFT is the customers racquet and the one on the RIGHT is the one I purchased to replace the cracked racquet.
The counterfeit has a hollow handle whereas the real Wilson’s handle is filled with foam.
The (K) Factor and W NanoTechnology are on opposite sides and on the fare left-hand side of the photos you can see the one racquet has TM while the other has R with a circle around it.
The one counterfeit racquet’s grommet has small Wilson embossed in the grommet, while the other has large letter K FACTOR.
Both have very realistic looking Wilson stickers with Serial Numbers.
If there is anyone that could help shed some light on this I would very much appropriate it.
Sincerely,
Gordie
Re: Very Likely a FAKE Wilson K Six.One Team - HELP
Tue 10/26/2021 10:37 AM
From: "David Bone"
To: Stringer@highstrungtennis.com
Cc: Bob Patterson,
Hi Gordie:
I agree. It looks like a fake to me. Let’s see what Bob thinks. He’s dealt with the handle systems a lot more than I have. But, I used to use the K Six One 95 16x19 and it had the handle system like the replacement frame. I bet it had the same handle system as the Team. Unfortunately, it is probably going to be hard to find someone at Wilson these days who was around when these were being manufactured. There has been a lot of turnover there over the last 5 years or more. Did the customer say where he/she bought the racquets?
Best Wishes,
David Bone
President, USRSA
Re: Very Likely a FAKE Wilson K Six.One Team - HELP
Tue 10/26/2021 11:07 AM
From: Bob Patterson
To: Stringer@highstrungtennis.com, Gordon Lehman
Cc: "David Bone"
Gordie,
I think it highly likely that the frames in question are counterfeit, but as Dave said, it would be a call for Wilson and I doubt anyone there could tell us anything, unfortunately. I hesitate to say it is definitely fake simply because Wilson uses several vendors to make their racquet, even using different factories for the same model, and so it is possible to have two different handle systems. They do use the molded in handle as part of the frame mold but usually only on super light game-improvement frames.
Sorry, I could not be more helpful.
Cheers,
Bob Patterson
Racquet Sports Industry Magazine
USRSA Stringer’s Assistant Newsletter
It was not fun telling our customer that he will now have two Wilson K Six.One Teams and in all likely hood, they will play quite differently.
Cathy & Gordie Lehman |
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