History (1971-1980)

  • History of Yonex
  • History of products and athletes

1971

  • The company introduces its aluminium racquet to the world's largest tennis market - the USA.

1973

  • yy logo designed, mixing the founder's name "Yoneyama" with the word "Youth," thus "yy."

  • The corporate colours are chosen to represent the wide blue sky and open land.

  • Company enters the soft tennis industry, starting production and sale of soft tennis racquets.

  • Eight-time (seven consecutive) All England Open Badminton Championships winner and badminton icon Rudy Hartono signs for the company.

  • Soft tennis racquets TS-6500, TS-5500 go on sale.

1974

  • Whilst the company was boosting its presence overseas, the YONEYAMA name was thought to be too long and difficult to pronounce. The company decided to change its name, omitting the Japanese-sounding "Yama" and replacing it with the letter "X," representing boundless possiblities for the future.

  • Limited Company Yoneyama Racquets Tokyo Factory changes its name to Limited Company YONEX SPORTS Tokyo Factory (Current: Tokyo Factory)

  • Foreign trading company Limited Company Yoneyama Sports changes its name to YONEX TRADING Co., Ltd. (Current: International Sales Department)

  • Production of wooden tennis racquets starts.

  • YONEX signs Tony Roche (the doubles title winner in all four Grand Slam tournaments).

1975

  • Company headquarters (Current: Niigata Factory) builds second factory in Niigata prefecture, Nagaoka City.

  • YONEX GRAFLEX tennis racquet T-9000 goes on sale.

  • Soft tennis racquet best seller TS-7000 CARBONEX goes on sale.

1976

  • 1975 Wimbledon doubles winner Ann Kiyomura (USA) signs on with YONEX.

1977

  • The first tennis racquets to feature carbon fused with glass fibre - the innovative CARBONEX 7 and CARBONEX 8 - go on sale.

1978

  • Wanting to strengthen the company's presence in western Japan, YONEX started to branch out with Osaka as its base.

  • YONEX Trading Co.,Ltd. starts Taiwan Office.

  • Limited Company YONEX SPORTS Tokyo Factory restructures to become Limited Company YONEX Tokyo Factory.

  • The first badminton racquets to weigh under 100g go on sale.

  • Carbon soft tennis racquets, CARBONEX 25 and CARBONEX 26 go on sale.

  • The first badminton racquets to weigh under 100g - the B-8500 and CARBONEX 8 - go on sale.

1979

  • Tokyo Main Sales Office (Current: YONEX Co.,Ltd.) construction is completed.

  • YONEX tennis racquets receive official recognition from the USPTA.

1980

  • First tennis racquet to feature the ground-breaking ISOMETRIC (square shaped) frame goes on sale.

  • Top tennis players Billie Jean King (USA), Martina Navratilova (USA) and Dianne Fromholtz (Australia) all sign on with YONEX.

  • Tennis racquets featuring the square-shaped ISOMETRIC frame - R-1, R-2 and R-3 - go on sale.

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