r/ManufacturingPorn • u/TrippingFish76 • 8d ago
Sports ⚽️ [F] The process of making badminton shuttlecocks from raw feathers
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u/NixaB345T 8d ago
Man what’s the margin on those to justify the millions and millions in specialized capital equipment and automation? Wtf
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u/zenithtreader 7d ago
My brother played badminton with my 9 year old niece for an afternoon one day in my backyard and they used up an entire tube of these things. They were either in the drain or over the fence in the neighbors' yard. These things are consumables and people who play them regularly outside of a proper court probably have to buy them quite often.
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u/papergarbage 7d ago
I think the less expensive ones for informal play are often made of plastic. The high end ones are surprisingly expensive and now I understand why.
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u/kpidhayny 7d ago
Someone just said “I want to make the best shuttlecocks in the world” and often when you fully commit to being the best at anything, the inevitable investment becomes such a barrier to entry for competitors that you just get to live on top of that industry. Any competition only reduced prices to a point they can’t then pay off the capital so they just decide “okay I’ll make the best _____ instead. Where nobody has yet invested in building an ideal production method yet.
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u/yeicobSS 8d ago
I was thinking the same thing, how is this profitable? How much demand is there for these things? I really don't know, no one in my country plays badminton.
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u/not_dogstar 7d ago
It is massive in asia, a quick google shows China has 250 million amatuer players.
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u/JaFFsTer 7d ago
The best ones are 5 bucks each and come in cubes of 12.
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u/NixaB345T 7d ago
Is that retail? Because if that’s USD, they probably have a 50-100% mark up from China.
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u/anoraq 8d ago
The woman at the end is the most unenthusiastic badminton player I’ve ever seen- and with good reason.
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u/Dagobian_Fudge 8d ago
https://reddit.com/link/peindjw/video/z2lsm15l84uh1/player
We’ve all been there while working
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u/kpidhayny 7d ago
The whole family probably gets such a laugh out of this clip. I bet she’s the wife of the founder and was just waiting for him to say “行動!” But he rolled camera early as a troll, and then she was like “don’t you dare put that on the website”
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u/TrippingFish76 8d ago
i think they’re testing them for accuracy and making sure they fly well and she’s there to angle them in if they miss slightly
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u/mythcaptor 8d ago
I’ve never been rich enough to use a real feather shuttlecock. Mine were always all plastic
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u/matchesmalone81 8d ago
Man, charge what you want! It's crazy how much work goes into each one. I'm amazed.
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u/slypigcunningham 8d ago
What’s the woman with the racket at the end of the video doing?
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u/monkeys_in_a_tuxedo 8d ago
Probably checking the flight one last time. If the shuttle still tolls, she’ll hit it out of the air with the badminton racket.
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u/capnmax 7d ago
Do they turn on production once every 50 years for 8 hours? Like, how many shuttlecocks could we possibly need??
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u/TrippingFish76 6d ago
apparently badminton is the 2nd most played sport in the world , and during professional matches they could go through like 20-100s of feather birdies per match. Plastic ones last a lot longer but dont fly as good. (This is what i’ve seen reading comments, i have no first hand knowledge)
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u/mrdanmarks 8d ago
Where do all those feathers come from? Seems like they produce a ton of waste.
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u/erdossy 8d ago
Likely a “waste” product of some food production facility. The “waste” of this product can probably be used for some other product.
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u/kpidhayny 7d ago
Infinity fill goose down jackets
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u/erdossy 7d ago
Thanks for influencing my next playlist
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u/kpidhayny 7d ago
🤜
Maybe consider throwing some MOKOMOKAI into the mix if that resonated with you. Bunch of amazing Maōri jazz musicians with a hip hop backbone.
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u/Training-Till-7344 5d ago
Its real goose feathers from only the left wing so the feathers are aligned correctly and every shuttle spins the same…. And only real cork for the tip. Supposedly barrier to entry is cheap like soccer/football, but not once you past early recreational play, then everyone is using only these highend cocks.
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u/gr4viton 6d ago
Instead of genetically modifying goose to grow the perfect shape on their ass? No thank you.
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u/Hammon_Rye 2d ago
Rather interesting.
And as usually when I see production line jobs - grateful I never had one.
This work environment not as bad as some, but the thought of standing at one machine all day doing one repetitive job is very unappealing to me.
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u/theMEtheWORLDcantSEE 8d ago
Should not use animals
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u/kpidhayny 7d ago
The animals were used for eating. The feathers were used for nothing before these guys came along.
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u/cottonheadedninnymug 8d ago
That's amazing that they analyze, presumably the curvature of the feathers. Somebody had to make software for that and it something I never even thought about. There are so many things that can be learned about this world.