Butterfly Table Tennis Equipment
What you need to know ...Is Butterfly table tennis equipment the best in the world?
Read my top tips to help you decide.  Butterfly table tennis equipment is probably the most well known brand of table tennis equipment in the world.
The company - Tamasu Company Ltd - was founded by the Japanese international player Hikosuke Tamasu on the 19th December 1950. Butterfly now manufacture world class table tennis equipment which is endorsed by many leading international players ... and it's sold all around the world. You can buy Butterfly and other table tennis equipment from my table tennis store. But why are they called ...  Butterfly ... what's in a name?
 Hikosuke Tamasu chose the brand name Butterfly because the butterfly was an image of peace and beauty throughout the world.
This was in stark contrast to the horrible experiences he'd witnessed during World War Two. In 1945 as a young soldier, he was only 2km away from Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. In the decades that followed, he tried very hard to diplomatically maintain friendly relations with all the nations in the world as he built up his company. Before we review their equipment, let's take a brief look at the history of Butterfly table tennis ...
Their first success Tamasu's philosophy was that every player was different and that every player had his strengths and weaknesses. He therefore wanted to help players to emphasize their individuality. After showing Butterfly products at the Japan Industrial Exhibition in Peking in 1953, many of the Chinese world stars, as well as the top European players, were playing with Butterfly equipment. But his first success was in the early 1960s with the rubbers Allround D13 and Tempest D13. However, his greatest success came in 1967 with ...
Butterfly Sriver  In 1967, the Butterfly table tennis company launched their Sriver rubber ... one of the most popular rubbers of all-time ... and it's still used by many of the top players today.
(By the way, it's not called Shriver, as some people think!) Sriver rubber brought the company international recognition and in the early 1970s, Tamasu Butterfly Europe was founded in Moers, Germany. But even though this rubber has been so successful ... and used by many world champions ... they're still striving to improve it. In fact, since 1983 Butterfly table tennis have had their own training and research center in Tokyo where highly qualified scientists co-operate with world class players and coaches to further develop their table tennis rubbers and blades. Proof of their success so far is that, for many years, Butterfly rubbers and blades have been used by more than half of the participants at most World Championships and European Championships. Although rubbers and blades are Butterfly's main products, they also supply a wide range of other high quality equipment such as tables, clothing, shoes and accessories. Indeed, Butterfly's motto is ... Quality and service come first. So what next? ...
The dawn of a new era At the start, Hikosuke Tamasu was the Managing Director of the company, whilst his father was President. However, in the early 1990s he appointed his son Kimihiko to lead the company. Subsequently, Hikosuke passed away in 2004 at the age of 83, having been born in Yanai, Japan on 20 August 1920. Two years after his death, Kimihiko went through every article that his father had left and decided to donate the items that were most important to him, and the most valuable to the table tennis world, to the International Table Tennis Federation's Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. This included an extensive pin collection, books, early Butterfly magazines, a selection of Butterfly rackets together with some personal items including photographs. Even the heavy Nikon camera which always accompanied Hikosuke wherever he travelled was donated. The next stage for Butterfly was to ...
Focus on young players The Butterfly table tennis company decided to focus on young players ... so they signed up some leading young European players, giving them long term contracts to promote Butterfly table tennis products. Two of these players were Germany's Timo Boll and Denmark's Michael Maze. Former world number one, Timo Boll remembers ... "At age 10 I had a contract with another brand, but they didn't want to extend it. The reason given was that I had asked for 28 instead of 8 sheets of rubber. Obviously this was too many for them and so Butterfly took over. This was the beginning of a super partnership."
So which top players currently endorse Butterfly table tennis equipment? ...
Butterfly sponsored players Top international players who currently endorse Butterfly table tennis equipment include: Men - Timo Boll (Germany), Joo Se Hyuk (Korea Republic), Chuan Chih-Yuan (Chinese Taipei), Oh Sang Eun (Korea Republic), Werner Schlager (Austria), Kalinikos Kreanga (Greece), Michael Maze (Denmark), Mitzutani Jun (Japan) and Zoran Primorac (Croatia). Women - Zhang Yining (China), Guo Yue (China), Tie Yana (Hong Kong), Tamara Boros (Croatia) and Gao Jun (USA). And which top clubs currently endorse Butterfly table tennis equipment? ...
Butterfly sponsored clubs Top table tennis clubs who currently endorse Butterfly table tennis equipment include: European (Nancy Evans) Cup winners Levallois S.C.TT, Champions League Finalists TTV RE-BAU Gönnern, Caja Granada ... and the most successful club in Europe, Borussia Düsseldorf, who are three times European Cup winners and European Champions League winners in 2000. And which top coaches currently endorse Butterfly table tennis equipment? ...
Butterfly sponsored coaches Croatian Mario Amizic, Germany's Helmut Hampl and Dirk Huber together with Frenchman Stephane Michel are all butterfly sponsored coaches. In addition, butterfly supports numerous talents worldwide, especially in it's home country of Japan and in Europe.
You can buy Butterfly and other table tennis equipment from my table tennis store.
Want to know more about Butterfly TT equipment?
Butterfly equipment reviews Read my top tips, reviews and recommendations here ...
Butterfly sponsored players Discover what Butterfly equipment the best players use ... Timo Boll (Germany) Joo Se Hyuk (Korea Republic) Chuan Chih-Yuan (Chinese Taipei) Oh Sang Eun (Korea Republic) Werner Schlager (Austria) Kalinikos Kreanga (Greece) Michael Maze (Denmark) Mitzutani Jun (Japan) Zoran Primorac (Croatia) Zhang Yining (China) Guo Yue (China) Tie Yana (Hong Kong) Tamara Boros (Croatia) Gao Jun (USA)
Butterfly sponsored clubs Borussia Düsseldorf (Germany) TTV RE-BAU Gönnern (Germany) Levallois S.C.TT (France) Caja Granada (Spain)
Butterfly sponsored coaches Mario Amizic (Croatia) Helmut Hampl (Germany) Dirk Huber (Germany) Stephane Michel (France)
You can buy Butterfly and other table tennis equipment from my table tennis store.
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