The company describes itself as “The Player’s Company”, emphasizing equipment developed around the needs of individual players. 1

1979 — Origins

Tecnifibre’s roots go back to 1979, when tennis enthusiast Thierry Maissant co-founded Major Sport with former Formula 1 driver Hermano da Silva Ramos.

Maissant’s original ambition was to develop sporting products specifically adapted to players’ needs and skill levels. The company would eventually evolve into Tecnifibre. 2

The early company was particularly focused on tennis technology, rather than attempting to compete immediately as a general sporting-goods manufacturer.

1983 — String expertise

One of the most important moments in the company’s history came in 1983, when Tecnifibre developed its first strings using polyurethane technology. This became a fundamental part of the brand’s identity.

Tecnifibre says its strings are still manufactured 100% in France, at facilities associated with Cousin in northern France. This reputation did not originally come from professional tennis rackets; its roots are in string technology.

1985 — Stringing machines

In 1985, Tecnifibre entered the stringing-machine business, producing machines in France. Its growing expertise in racquet stringing eventually led the company to become an official stringer at major professional tournaments.

This helped create a distinctive Tecnifibre philosophy: understand the stringing process, understand the player’s needs, and develop better strings and equipment.

1987 — Roland-Garros

In 1987, Tecnifibre became an official stringing partner of Roland-Garros, giving the company direct exposure to elite professional players and tournament stringing requirements. 3 This relationship became one of the major pillars of Tecnifibre’s history. The brand subsequently strengthened its relationship with the French Tennis Federation and Roland-Garros.

1998 — Roland-Garros tennis ball

In 1998, Tecnifibre developed and distributed the official Roland-Garros tennis ball. According to the company’s history, the ball was used worldwide for more than ten years. This illustrates how Tecnifibre gradually expanded beyond strings into other categories of tennis equipment.

2001 — First squash racket

Tecnifibre entered the squash-racket market in 2001, working with French professional player Thierry Lincou. Lincou subsequently became one of the most important players associated with the brand and was a former world No. 1. Tecnifibre says its collaboration with Lincou has lasted for more than two decades.

Squash became extremely important to Tecnifibre’s sporting identity. The company developed a particularly strong reputation in professional squash, eventually becoming associated with some of the sport’s biggest players and racket families.

2004 — First Tecnifibre tennis rackets

After establishing itself in strings and squash, Tecnifibre officially entered the tennis-racket market in 2004. Its first major racket families were:

• T-Fight: Designed around control and precision.
• T-Flash: Designed around power.

The distinction between control-oriented and power-oriented rackets became a recurring part of Tecnifibre’s product strategy. This was an important transition: Tecnifibre was no longer primarily a string specialist—it was becoming a complete tennis-equipment company.

2013 — ATP World Tour

One of Tecnifibre’s biggest milestones came in 2013, when it became a partner of the ATP World Tour. The company supplied official rackets, strings, bags, and accessories. It also became sponsor and official stringer of the ATP World Tour Finals, a relationship that continued through 2020. 4

This was significant for the brand because it placed Tecnifibre equipment directly into the professional men’s tennis ecosystem.

Tecnifibre has historically used professional athletes heavily in product development and marketing. Rather than simply treating players as advertising ambassadors, the company emphasizes its philosophy of using elite players to identify technical requirements and develop equipment around those requirements. 5

Some notable players associated with Tecnifibre over its history include:

• Daniil Medvedev — tennis
• Iga Świątek — tennis
• Janko Tipsarević — tennis
• Thierry Lincou — squash
• Mohamed El Shorbagy — squash
• Ramy Ashour — squash
• Nour El Sherbini — squash

Tecnifibre’s Japanese site currently identifies Daniil Medvedev and Iga Świątek among its contracted athletes, alongside numerous ATP and WTA players.

2017

A major corporate change occurred in 2017, when Lacoste acquired a majority stake in Major Sports, the company behind Tecnifibre. Lacoste’s corporate history places Tecnifibre within the portfolio of MF Brands Group, alongside Lacoste, Aigle and Gant.

Contemporary company information states that Lacoste acquired 80% of Major Sports’ capital, with the acquisition taking effect on October 1, 2017. This gave Tecnifibre considerably greater access to international distribution and the wider Lacoste ecosystem. Importantly, Tecnifibre did not simply become a Lacoste racket line; it continued to operate as a distinct technical sporting brand.

The relationship became increasingly integrated after the acquisition. In 2021, Lacoste announced that, beginning with the Spring/Summer 2022 season, Tecnifibre would globally distribute Lacoste’s tennis and golf performance products. 5

This demonstrates an interesting division between the two brands:

• Lacoste: Premium fashion, sports lifestyle, and performance apparel.
• Tecnifibre: Technical racquet-sports equipment and sporting expertise.

Together, they allow the wider group to cover both the technical-equipment and premium-lifestyle sides of tennis.

Today Tecnifibre describes its activities across several sports:

Tennis

The largest and most recognizable category. Products include tennis rackets, tennis strings, tennis balls, bags, apparel, accessories, and stringing equipment.

Squash

Tecnifibre has a particularly strong heritage in squash. Its best-known squash racket family is Carboflex, alongside other performance-oriented ranges. The brand’s involvement with elite squash players has been one of its major competitive advantages.

Padel

Tecnifibre has expanded into padel, developing dedicated racket families and related equipment.

Pickleball

More recently, the brand has also expanded its performance-equipment philosophy into pickleball. Tecnifibre now explicitly lists pickleball alongside tennis, squash and padel as one of its sports.

Strings

If you wanted to identify the single product category most responsible for Tecnifibre’s technical reputation, it would arguably be strings. This is because strings predate its racket business by decades. Tecnifibre’s history includes several important string technologies and families, including X-One Biphase, NRG², Multifeel, HDX Tour, Triax, Black Code, Black Code 4S, Ice Code, Razor Code, and Pro Red Code.

Its catalogue covers both multifilament and polyester/co-polyester constructions. The company’s early use of polyurethane helped establish its reputation for comfortable, high-performance multifilament strings. 6

Tennis Racket Families

Tecnifibre’s racket lineup has evolved considerably over time, but several families have become particularly recognizable:

• T-Fight: The brand’s major control/performance family, aimed at players who want a combination of control, stability, precision, modern power, and competitive-level performance. The T-Fight name dates back to Tecnifibre’s original 2004 tennis-racket launch.
• TF40: An important performance racket family, particularly associated with traditional control-oriented players.
• TF-X1: Represents Tecnifibre’s more power-oriented approach, evolving from the earlier T-Flash concept.
• Tempo: Positioned toward players seeking accessible performance and maneuverability.

Squash: Carboflex

If T-Fight is one of Tecnifibre’s signature tennis names, Carboflex is arguably its equivalent in squash. The Carboflex line has become one of the most recognizable squash-racket families in professional squash. 1 players—has helped make Carboflex particularly prominent.

Tecnifibre’s product-development philosophy is essentially player-driven engineering. The company says its process begins by identifying players’ needs, quantifying those needs, developing technical solutions, testing those solutions, and translating them into equipment. It describes this philosophy as being at the heart of its identity as “The Player’s Company.”

This helps explain why the brand has historically placed so much emphasis on string technology, stringing, racket feel, control, power generation, player-specific equipment, and professional-player feedback.

Although Tecnifibre is now an international brand, French manufacturing and French tennis culture remain important parts of its identity. The most notable example is its strings. Tecnifibre states that its string production remains 100% Made in France. Its long relationship with Roland-Garros also reinforces its French sporting heritage.

This gives Tecnifibre a somewhat different identity from brands such as Wilson Sporting Goods, Head, Babolat, and Yonex. Tecnifibre sits in an interesting position: French heritage + highly technical equipment + professional racquet-sports specialization.

Tecnifibre has also begun incorporating sustainability into its product-development strategy. Its current brand messaging highlights X-LOOP, a technology/initiative focused on incorporating recycled tennis strings into new products and reducing waste within the tennis ecosystem.

The concept is particularly appropriate for Tecnifibre because strings have been at the heart of the company since its earliest days. In other words, the brand’s sustainability strategy connects directly to its historical expertise rather than being completely separate from it.

Tecnifibre has expanded considerably beyond France. Its Japanese operation describes the brand as expanding internationally across 82 countries, particularly in Europe and the United States. Its products are now distributed internationally through specialized sporting-goods networks. The brand therefore occupies a niche between large global sports corporations and specialist racquet-sports manufacturers.

Tecnifibre can broadly be characterized as a premium performance-oriented racquet-sports brand. Its core identity is not primarily fashion, lifestyle or mass-market sporting goods. Instead, it emphasizes performance, technology, player feedback, and specialized equipment.

This is especially apparent in its historical development. It started with strings, moved into stringing technology, expanded into squash, then tennis rackets, and eventually developed a much broader portfolio.

There are several characteristics that distinguish the brand:

1. It started with strings: Unlike many racket companies, Tecnifibre’s heritage is deeply rooted in string engineering.
2. Strong professional connection: Its Roland-Garros and ATP stringing history gave it direct exposure to elite-level equipment requirements.
3. Strong squash presence: Tecnifibre is not merely a tennis company that happens to make squash rackets. Squash has been a major part of its identity since 2001.
4. French technical heritage: The company’s string manufacturing continues to be positioned as Made in France.
5. Lacoste connection: Since 2017, Tecnifibre has benefited from being part of the broader MF Brands/Lacoste corporate ecosystem.
6. Player-centric philosophy: The company explicitly bases product development around player requirements rather than treating athletes purely as marketing tools.

A simplified comparison looks like this:

Tecnifibre is therefore not necessarily the largest tennis brand, but it has a strong specialist reputation, particularly among players who pay attention to racket specifications and string setups.

Tecnifibre’s reputation can be summarized in three words: Technical. French. Player-focused.

The company’s historical strength is particularly compelling because its development followed a logical progression: Strings → stringing → tournament expertise → squash → tennis rackets → complete racquet-sports brand.

Rather than beginning as a giant consumer-sports company, Tecnifibre built its reputation through a relatively narrow area of technical expertise and then expanded outward. That history explains why the brand is especially respected among serious tennis and squash players, competitive amateurs, coaches, stringers and equipment enthusiasts.

1. Tecnifibre / テクニファイバー公式サイト
2. Our history
3. Notre histoire
4. TECNIFIBRE TO DISTRIBUTE ALL LACOSTE PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS – Lacoste
5. TECNIFIBRE REPREND LA DISTRIBUTION DES PRODUITS SPORT PERFORMANCE LACOSTE – Lacoste
6. Sobre a Marca – Tecnifibre