Victor Carbonsonic #1 Shuttle

Description

Victor’s Carbonsonic #1 is the world’s first carbon fiber foam plastic shuttle that is cruelty-free and designed to mimic the flight characteristics of premium feather shuttles while being far more durable. Six shuttles per tube.

Our Honest Review

We have been testing these for a bit and they are pretty cool. They fly a lot closer to standard feather shuttles than nylon shuttles, that’s for sure. The arc and fall are closer to a feather’s flight path. Even though the speed of these is a 78, which we thought would be a bit too fast for Phoenix, they actually traveled almost equivalent to a 77-speed feather…maybe slightly faster.

When hit, they do have a more hollow, almost “pingy” sound, relative to feather and they do feel lighter on the racket. This could be the #1 version’s slightly cheaper artificial cork as the #2 is supposed to be a fully natural cork. It’s not that offputting but it may throw more advanced players a bit.

We’re still testing the durability but after a few hours, they seem to be holding up well when a feather would definitely be showing some wear. We do notice small bits of foam that get released on harder hits so eventually, the shuttles will become unusable. However, as a good compromise on price vs flight vs durability, these seem like winners to us. They play far better than nylon and the quality is great, especially for recreation or training. One thing to keep in mind is that the “feather” spines are actual carbon fiber and thus are pretty rigid. There’s no flex like you would find in a feather shuttle and you certainly can’t step on these as you could with nylon so just be a bit more careful that you watch your step, especially for younger players.