Founded in Lyon, France, in 1875, Babolat invented racquet strings and is the world’s oldest company specialising in racquet sports. Babolat has built its reputation by offering products at the forefront of technology and by supplying equipment to generations of champions who have won the most prestigious competitions.

Today, Babolat can be found in more than 100 countries, 20,000 sporting goods stores and 20,000 partner clubs

Babolat has diversified its offer to provide players with a full array of technical equipment, including:

• Racquets
• Strings (natural and synthetic)
• Apparel
• Tennis balls
• Grips
• Accessories
• Tennis and Badminton shoes with Michelin technology in the outsoles

Partnership with Michelin

Michelin and Babolat started working together in 2002. In 2003, Babolat launched its first tennis shoes with Michelin technology in the outsoles. 10 years on, and the two companies are still working closely together on different generations of tennis shoes sharing similar principles like innovation. And in 2009, Babolat launched its first badminton shoe with Michelin technology.

Outsoles Development

For the last eight years, the Michelin Technology Centre has been developing rubber compounds and designing sculptures for high performance tennis and badminton shoes. They are all tailored to the needs of players on all of the different court playing surfaces. Michelin’s technical contribution delivers outstanding performance to the wearer in areas such as grip, sliding control, flexibility, durability and resistance to abrasion.

In the case of Babolat’s flagship tennis shoe, the Propulse, Michelin’s Optimized Cell System (OCS) technology is used. This is inspired by MICHELIN tyre sculptures and features microcapsules in a continuous circular pattern. The OCS delivers 20% better traction than classical chevron sculptures. See Michelin’s rigorous approach, with the steps involved, here:

Promoting the Brands Together

There have been many examples of Babolat and Michelin promoting the brands together such as; events, sponsorships, press events, etc. Here are two examples:

• Over the past few years Babolat have held a series of conventions for coaches at tennis clubs across Europe in which Michelin has participated. The purpose of the conventions is for coaches to test Babolat products and return to their clubs as ambassadors for the Babolat brand. With each coach having between 50 and 500 contacts, the impact of this grass roots type initiative can be extremely impactful and important
• Babolat is one of the official partners of the Roland Garros French Open tennis tournament. Michelin took the opportunity to hold a press event within the Babolat lounge area inviting journalists from a variety of different media. This was a tremendous opportunity to talk to journalists about the partnership between Babolat and Michelin.

Babolat has built its reputation by offering products at the forefront of technology

Babolat History Timeline

1875 – Babolat invents tennis racquet strings
1925 – Creation of the VS natural gut string
1950 – An international distribution network is set up
1955 – Creation of the first Babolat synthetic string
1968 – Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon with Babolat VS strings
1994 – Launch of the first Babolat tennis racquet frame range
1995 – Launch of the Badminton range
2001 – European launch of Babolat tennis ball range
2003 – Babolat and Michelin launch the first shoe tennis shoe
2005 – Andy Roddick signs a contract with Babolat and plays with Team All Court shoes with Michelin Technology

10 years on, and the two companies are still working closely together on different generations of tennis shoes