I bought the Solinco x Brain Dead tennis racquet

I fell victim to the unique design, targeted marketing, and niche collaboration

Back in May, a lesser-known tennis brand caught my eye when they released a racquet collaboration with Brain Dead. I instantly snagged this racquet since I knew it was going to sell out fast and racquet collabs—especially with streetwear brands—are hard to come by.

I started researching the brand more and discovered their unique design principles and that they currently sponsor American men’s doubles player, Evan King, who made it to the semifinals of Roland Garros with his partner, Christian Harrison.

Solinco also sponsors players like other double’s specialist, Bob Bryan, Ingrid Martins, Henry Patten, Andre Goransson, and a handful of junior players like Jack Kennedy.

Where did this brand come from?

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Solinco specialized in tennis strings for 15 years before getting into the racquet market in 2022. Solinco supplies strings to tons of college teams from UCLA to LSU. The brand gained it’s reputation with IYKYK-style branding and high-performance strings like the Hyper-G and Tour Bite.

What’s so special about their racquets?

Sports director, KT Kim said, “Our vision has always been to work at that high-performance pro level and filter down from there," Kim says. "We wanted rackets any top-10 player could use. That was the type of quality and performance we were targeting. If we couldn't get to that point, we wouldn't have come out with anything."

To establish quality, Solinco hired Roman Prokes, who has customized racquets for Andre Agassi and didn’t rush the first release—taking about four years to drop it in 2022. The first racquets were the “Whiteout” and “Blackout” versions with “40T carbon fiber, the highest-grade of carbon fiber available in tennis and rarely used in the sport, at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions to increase the sweet spot while providing stability and strength. Crystal liquid fibers in the grip aims to dampen vibration.”

What’s unique about these racquets is they come with customizable weights where you can change the butt cap plates between 5 grams and 10 grams. Solinco’s racquets also prioritize speed and control—similar to Wilson’s Blade model. The Whiteout is for big hitters who want to shrink the court and pick spots and the Blackout is more forgiving, enabling spin. Both these racquets aren’t aimed for beginners as Solinco is trying a trickle down approach, targeting high-profile professionals and college players.

What I like about Solinco…

I’m not a big hitter like Evan King, and certainly not a professional, but Solinco’s racquets mostly remind me of a classic Wilson. I usually play with either a Yonex Percept or Ezone and love their “muted” feel and large sweet spot. Solinco is pretty different from Yonex and gives more of a pop when hitting. Solinco’s frame is also more traditional than Yonex’s and feels more a part of your arm as you feel more feedback in the racquet when hitting.

I’m the type of person that values design and trying the “trendy new thing” to see what the hype is about. The Solinco/Brain Dead Whiteout is an absolutely beautiful racquet paired with amazing green and blue strings (Solinco Hyper-Mach BD). I just wish I can get a stencil on mine. I love the little circle stencil on Solinco’s racquets.

If Solinco does more collaborations, I’ll have to dip in if it looks like this.

---

🎤 Shoutouts

• ⏮️ My Last Post: Sports betting continues to cause harassment in tennis

• 🤓 Suggested Read: The unbelievable story of Loïs Boisson at the French Open

• 🤓 Suggested Read: Tennis on clay courts: The unpredictable dance of sun, rain, wind and brick dust at Roland Garros

• 🤓 Suggested Read: Venus Williams, Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens Talk Roland-Garros, Fashion Influence, & Their Matches