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DHS Equipment - Past, Present and Future
by OnlySpecialMade
“Personal equipments are made for players according to their characteristics. On this basis, we develop our sporting equipments. In all our research and development efforts, we focus on producing equipments that allow the player to execute his/her unique techniques within the sporting technical rules.” – Double Happiness Shanghai (DHS)
1999
Following the success of classic rubbers such as C7, C8, 651, 652 and PF4 in the 1960s, DHS produced G888 and this became the classic rubber for the 38mm ball era in the 1990s.
Following that, DHS managed to breakthrough by matching and mixing different topsheet and sponge combination. This gave birth to the many topsheet and sponge combination available today.
As a result DHS rubber is typically determined from a mixture of the following:
1) Topsheet Model (e.g. Hurricane 3 with old logo)
2) Sponge Model (e.g. #22 sponge)
3) Sponge Color (e.g. orange, yellow, white, blue). Blue version, which is made for the National team, is believed to have the best tuning effect as compared to the others.
4) Sponge thickness
5) Sponge degree hardness. DHS has her own hardness indicator.
6) Sponge treatment (e.g. factory tuned)
7) Quality version (National, Provincial or Commercial)
After the #22 sponge product, the #20 sponge was designed and released for the 40mm ball era. Hurricane 2 (H2) and Hurricane 3 (H3) are also designed to be used effectively with the 40mm ball.
2000
H2 and H3 are officially released. Representative of H2: Wang Liqin, Yen Sen. Representative of H3: Liu Guozheng. According to DHS, 58% of the China national team members were using H2/H3 during that time.
Based on the requirements of the China team to increase control abilities and to minimize errors, Skyline 2 (TG2) and Skyline 3 (TG3) are later designed and produced.
H2 on hard sponge is good for Wang Liqin because of his unique strength. However, Ma Lin’s game calls for very fine hand feel. Therefore TG2 is designed specifically for him.
2004
Dipper and TNT products are made. As compared to the Hurricanes, these rubbers are softer and DHS actually intended to market them for the western market and euro style of play.
2005
Hurricane King blade is commercially released. This blade is specifically designed for Wang Liqin.
2008
Sponge #19 and sponge #21 products are produced to be used with the DHS intensifier as a temporally speed glue ban solution. These products are significantly lighter (6 to 10grams) than the usual #20 and #22 sponge of similar thickness and degree hardness. These products still lack in speed performance even though they are fully tuned. As a result, these products became a great failure and DHS is no longer producing them now.
DHS disclosed that the coming of the speed glue ban era was indeed a real challenge for them. The shocking news by ITTF of reducing the VOC allowed level completely caught DHS off guard. This finally forced DHS to quickly provide a better solution for the China national team.
During this period, many China national team players have switched to alternative rubbers from various sources/brand. One popular choice among the Chinese professionals is Haifu Blue Whale 2.
In the midst of a losing battle for DHS to capture the rubber market share, the very first prototype of DHS NEO rubbers surfaced in the China national/provincial teams in 2008. This very first batch of NEO beta version usually comes with a letter “P” serial number and has a thin transparent layer on the sponge. This may come in a clear plastic packing or old provincial packaging. No other visual differences may be found as compared to the old Hurricane/Skyline rubbers.
2009
The second wave of NEO beta version is noticed to be vacuum packed in either clear plastic package or old provincial packaging. Some came with the new laser printing on the sponge, while others still used the old DHS stamp. Some came with the new ITTF number on the topsheet while others did not. This wave of beta products is believed to have the closest quality and performance to the later released NEO rubber products with NEO packaging.
NEO products are finally released in the first half of 2009 after a long delay that keeps many DHS fans waiting patiently.
The term “NEO” is not used officially by DHS until the recent release of NEO packaged products together with DHS press release of their new products. NEO means that the product is made for the post speed glue ban era. NEO in English means "The revival of an old one" and "New form". Like the character in the movie “The Matrix”, DHS NEO products bring new form of energy and breakthrough. To DHS, NEO is not considered a “technique” but rather a “resolution” for the post glue ban era. At least the reputation of DHS is saved from a total disgrace through their NEO series.
Some of the NEO products included a revamped packaging of H2, H3, TG2, TG3 with NEO inbuilt and several new NEO blades such the Hurricane King 655 and Hurricane Hao 656. All these are not new products but rather an upgrade version of the old speed glue era equipments. Also these products claimed to work best with water glue although speed glue may still be used on them.
As the name sugguested, these NEO products are believed to be the “savior” for DHS. Most professionals have switched back to DHS rubbers and they seem to be doing okay with the latest DHS rubbers. Of course DHS has also done a lot of marketing to promote their new products based on China national team prominent figures.
According to DHS, many slight improvements have been made to Hurricane and Skyline products since 2000 without making drastic difference in the hand feel. Many should have noticed such quality adjustments and that the rubbers are no longer as tacky as before.
Similarly, DHS has verified that they have done a lot of adjustments to the NEO rubbers released in the different phases to the national/provincial players. Currently, continuous improvement is still in progress with all the DHS rubbers and these products are constantly passed to the professional teams for their usage and trial purposes. Therefore, the quality and performance should be different throughout all the different phases of NEO products. This may be also true for future NEO products.
There has been a speculation to whether the topsheet of the NEO rubbers is different from the old version of Hurricane/Skyline. Since DHS came up with the newly registered ITTF rubber serial and also kept the old logo design in the ITTF approved rubber list, some believed that the NEO rubbers come with a totally different topsheet as compared to the old series of Hurricane/Skyline. Well, sad to say that this would still remain a mystery unless DHS is willing to reveal more details of their NEO rubber products.
The hand feel of the NEO rubbers is also tested by various high level players to be different from the old series of DHS rubbers. Besides being more forgiving, the NEO rubbers also require a slightly different looping technique as compared to the old series of rubbers. Could this be another DHS effort to target the western market and players? Well… perhaps so… maybe in the near future we may see that China rubbers would become more “European” and European/Japanese rubbers to be more “Chinese”…
