How many varieties of seamless balls are there???

Many different brands now market seamless balls, such as XSF, Nexy, Yinhe, Stag, Kingnik, Joola, Tibhar, Palio, Xiom, just to name a few.  Our assumption all along has been that these are all made in one factory, and are basically rebranded XSF balls, and are essentially identical.

Lately though, there have been indications that XSF in particular has had a decline in quality control, and some other people are convinced that different brands of seamless balls play at least somewhat differently (for example Nexy vs XSF). 

So, based on the Yinhe s40+ thread, I did some googling this morning and now I wonder if these things are made in more than one place, and maybe if this can explain some variability?

Why?

1.  Shanghai Minkow, who make seamless balls, Kingnik being the "house label", is located in Shanghai.  Here is their website, which indicates that they clearly have manufacturing capabilities for seamless and seamed balls and where they specifically state that they are the OEM for many other brands:  http://www.minkow.com.cn/

2.  But Guangzhou Hefu Sports Equipment Company, who make XSF balls, is located in the Panyu district of  the city of Guangzhou (the capital  Guangdong province, in South China not too far from Hong Kong).  This is very far (~ 1,500 km) from Shanghai.  The only English language web presence for Guangzhou Hefu related to sports equipment seems limited to sites about import transactions for seamless balls into the US, such as this one:  http://en.52wmb.com/s-guangzhou_hefu_sport_eqiupment/8066705   The only thing I could learn from clicking some of the links on that site is that Guangzhou Hefu exports balls to the US through the port of Newark, and that they created a company in the US called Hitoss LLC (High Toss, get it, the most distinguishing feature of Mr. Xu Shaofa when he was a player in the 1970s) to protect their trademark etc.  XSF has a website in English that mentions their balls, and Mr. Xu Shaofa himself, but says nothing about where they make the balls, and they never mention Guangzhou Hefu.  However, a recent ITTF article that Smackman found did mention that Guangzhou Hefu is Mr. Xu Shaofa's company.  http://www.ittf.com/_front_Page/ittf_full_story1.asp?ID=44473&Category=s_club&Competition_ID=&

So what does it all mean?  Are there now two factories making these balls? 

Certainly it seems possible by this time that the necessary machines to make seamless balls could be in more than one place, but could this explain differences in ball quality that we seem to see with XSF these days?  Can this explain maybe how different materials could be used at different places? 

The one thing that makes no sense to me is that you would make the balls in Shanghai but then export them out of Guangzhou (since 2011 the Port of Shanghai is currently the world's busiest container port).  So I am leaning towards the idea that seamless balls are now made in more than one place.

I don't know the answers to the questions this all raises, and my guess is that they can only come from someone who can speak and read Chinese. 

Maybe zeio can figure it out.

Also I wonder if people who have had experiences with multiple brands of seamless balls think there are systematic differences?

@Baal - if you look at Minkow's website in the Products section (http://www.minkow.com.cn/Table-tennis-series), you will see that they are making few different types of Kingnik seamless poly balls: 3*; Premium 3*; 1*; 1* ABS ... which would indicate to me that multiple ball types can be, and are, manufactured in one facility.

From what I read in a promotional article of the seamless ball whose author was none other than Chen Zhijie, marketing director of Yinhe, Xu Shaofa's daughter registered the US version of the trademark(Xushaofa Sports) in the US, so it is reasonable to assume her daughter is in charge of the US region.  Assuming that is true, I suspect sssandy is her handle on the various English-speaking forums.  And judging from her response, it is possible DHS/DFish have a hand in the Minkow factory thing to sabotage them?

Edited by zeio - 06/01/2016 at 4:12pm

It looks like there are some connections between DHS and Minkow.

Edited by zeio - 06/01/2016 at 4:52pm

In case you don't know, there was a massive, and I mean really massive, knock-off incident for the Hurricane Long 5 in China last year.  There is no way to tell a knock-off from an authentic one.  Everything looks identical, serial number, data card, blade quality, packaging, you name it.  Though later on, they noticed a set pattern in the serial number and values on the data card.  You have to send the blade to the headquarter for a destructive test to decide if it is real or not(from the gluing).  People suspected some rogue DHS employees were behind the whole thing.  DHS would not comment on it.  Could it be Minkow?  I don't know.  Just throwing it out there.

Edited by zeio - 06/01/2016 at 4:47pm

Baal wrote: zeio, I remember those threads from 2014 but I had forgotten how heated ssandy got about the Minkow plant.  Definitely there is some bad blood there.  Haven't seen her around any forums in awhile, perhaps now that their products have more or less caught on she doesn't feel the need. I still suspect there may be more than one factory now.  zeio, that is another interesting find about DHS/Minkow connection in a different sport.

sssandy that's her I assume that because of the fact she was directed to Minkow selling Xu shaofu balls on Chinese websites, she had something to do with them not withdrawing Xu Shaofu balls