La Fleche (part 2)

In the interview I had with Mr. Ng Ki Sze, the owner of the La Fleche brand of badminton rackets and gears, I was curious about how he decided to establish his own company and manufacture his own brand:

What made you decide to put up La Fleche? I already have my own sports shop in HK. My shop is no. 1 in stringing rackets in all of HK. It was inevitable for me to eventually make my own rackets to my specifications since I love badminton so much and I play it regularly.

What does La Fleche mean and how did you come up with the name? A Fleche is "Arrow" in French. My sister, Wendy, coined that word for me since she is very fluent in French having lived in Paris for 4 years. The word "Arrow" is very apt in badminton for it corresponds to the characteristic of the sport - speed and accuracy. I didn't choose a Chinese word for my brand for it would be too common in my country. You can see an archer in the logo of La Fleche about to shoot an arrow.

What makes La Fleche different from the other brands? Since I am a badminton player myself, I know the demands of the sport and the requirements of players. The model LF 500 is very famous already in many countries. It has a telescopic shaft that gets slimmer from the base to the head. The arc of the shaft is also nearer the head which makes a whiplash effect giving more power to a players' smashes.

(As a parting question, I asked him about his observations on the recently held World Championships where the USA won) I wasn't able to watch all the games of the tournament but I can make one observation on the upsets that happened during the games. The very famous seeded players are always at a disadvantage when playing against unseeded players. Everyone sees the seeded players in tournaments especially the ones in the top 10. Everyone knows the style of these players including their strengths and weaknesses, whereas, people are unfamiliar of how the unseeded ones play. This is especially true for the former world no. 1 ladies singles player from HK Wang Chen where she lost to the 17-year-old unseeded player from Chinese Taipei.

* * * Lorna T. Cup

About 50 badminton aficionados have flown to Manila yesterday to join the celebrity tournament this weekend organized by Lorna Tolentino in Makati. Among those who joined are my regular playmates at Metro Sports including the big group of Park and Go Bakeshop and Gal's Bakery. My regular playmate Jimmy Gomez is joining with the full support of his wife Gina. My brother in law Ferdinand and my sis Menchu are also joining the games. Wish you all the luck and may you win your games. Hope you won't be starstruck and get intimidated by your celebrity opponents. What's more important than winning though is the camaraderie of friends and playmates. ([email protected])