Prince’s New Racket Releases Dip Into Nostalgia, Break New Technical Ground

Prince had planned to spend 2020 celebrating the brand’s 50^th anniversary, rolling out nostalgia-inspired racket designs and reconnecting consumers with modernized takes on the popular frames of old. Prince, like most everyone else, had to shift that celebration and will now use 2021 to not only embrace anniversary-themed creations, but introduce a new wave of tennis players to the brand with the fresh technologies embedded in the Feb. 15 launch of the Ripstick and Synergy franchises. 

The new models replace the brand’s Beast tweener catch-all, instead putting a focus on specific frame attributes. “We have been most successful when we have had stand-alone models and people understand them,” says Tim Puttock, Prince senior director. “The franchises won’t get lost with their own distinct point of view in aesthetics and technology.” 

Everything about the Ripstick, designed for intermediate to advanced players, points toward power, Puttock says. “It is the most powerful racket we have in what is now this tweener segment,” he says. A Constant Taper System that varies the beam width—the new Ripstick ranges from 27mm at the tip to 22mm at the handle—couples with larger O-Ports, allowing the frame to swing faster with less resistance. Puttock says they loaded the Ripstick with technology throughout, also adding a Power Rails design from 3 and 9 o’clock to 5 and 7 o’clock to prevent the bottom of the racket hoop flexing too much and reducing power. 

The Synergy, also launching Feb. 15 and geared toward intermediate to advanced players, offers something completely different than the Ripstick. “The Ripstick is the ultimate one-shot power racket, the Synergy is a grind your opponent down with relentless power,” Puttock says. With a higher swing weight and added texture at 3 and 9 o’clock to act like dimples on a golf ball and help the frame maneuver through the air, he calls it a really unique frame unlike any the brand has produced before. 

As the market focuses on 16x20 string patterns, the Synergy offers an 18x18 design, reducing the number of cross strings to allow the string bed to deform, but keeping the main string count high enough that players don’t hit the ball with too much height. “It still gives you a pocket, but a flatter trajectory,” Puttock says. “It is not intended for a player who hits with a lot of spin, this is for a counter puncher and someone who wants to hit really solid groundstrokes.”

Expect Prince to debut a third new franchise later in 2021. “Really, in this space, the most competitive and biggest part of the pie, we needed much more definition,” he says. “That middle part of the market needed more distinct models.” 

Along with the Ripstick and Synergy, Prince still features the Phantom, Tour and Legacy models to bookend the brand’s range. 

Prince knows it needs to gain more attention on the tour, now with John Isner, world No. 24, the only tour-level player swinging Prince—Isner will test the Synergy, but at this stage in his career, Puttock expects him to stay with his Beast model—and Puttock says they had hoped to make a big push in 2020 to attract more talent. But the pandemic put those plans on hold and Prince now hopes to “create the next generation of Prince players as opposed to targeting existing tour players,” Puttock says. 

Puttock says that ever since Howard Head created the first Prince racket in a different mold than what was available at the time, all with the goal of making tennis easier to play, Prince has focused on technology to simplify the game. Prince wants to continue that mindset, moving away from the 100-square-inch head with a 16x19 string pattern that is common today to “take risks on technology and risks on the specs that really help players,” Puttock says. “That is our focus for 2021.” 

Making Old School New

Even though Prince couldn’t tell its celebration story the way it planned in 2020 (a big U.S. Open push was canceled), the brand still put out a mix of new products meant to tie its history. “Every time I speak to someone, they have their own personal history with Prince from high school and growing up and the Graphite is an absolute classic,” Puttock says. While the Graphite has been re-released over the years in differing variations, the 2020 Original Graphite went back to the OG version by featuring individual grommets. With a heavy spec, it isn’t intended as an everyday playing racket, but something fans can have fun playing with. 

The CTS Synergy DB 26, made famous by Jennifer Capriati, is another ‘90s rackets with a following. Prince brought that one out of the archives too, retooling it from scratch. “It was surprising how solid this racket still is, even 25-plus years after its original introduction,” Puttock says. 

A special range of Phantom rackets has hit the market, inspired by the Original Graphite, and dubbed the Phantom G collection. These include three models—the 100G, 100G LB and 107G—all based on the Phantom P designs, but with an additional crossbar reminiscent of the Original Graphite. “These are great playing frames,” Puttock says, “but more of a modern take.” 

Puttock, a 15-year veteran of the brand who started as a junior engineer in in the Italy office and is now running the brand from New York, says product is where his heart lies. That product has become the focus of a new wave of Prince racket design.