Armortec 700
Model AT-700 · Lin Dan, Taufik Hidayat
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Armortec 700: Lin Dan’s racquet from his 2007 world title to Beijing gold
Lin Dan’s racquet, in Yonex’s own reports
Yonex’s 2007 tournament reports list the racquet each winner used, and for Lin Dan the answer never changes. Six of his 2007 titles appear in those reports, from the Korea Open in January to the Hong Kong Open, including the All England and the World Championships, and every one names the Armortec 700. In the world final in Kuala Lumpur he beat Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21–11, 22–20 for his second world title. Yonex documents the same model in his hands from October 2006, when he was world No. 1, to China’s Thomas Cup final win over Korea in May 2008. At the Beijing Olympic final on August 17, 2008, where he beat Lee Chong Wei 21–12, 21–8, most forum members studying match photographs that day concluded he was using a taped, standard Armortec 700 rather than the new dragon Limited.
Launched as a speed racquet
Yonex Japan listed the Armortec 700 as new in April 2003 at ¥22,000 before tax, and in Japan it was the line’s only model until the doubles-oriented Armortec 800s arrived in April 2004. Its September 2003 magazine ad sold it as “new-dimension speed”: a light racquet, born of an ever-faster game, that still produced an astonishing smash. The mechanism was the Power Armor System. Solid titanium, which Yonex says is 2.5 times as dense as carbon, was built into the top of an ultra-high-modulus carbon frame to make the head work harder, and Yonex claimed a 4% gain in smash speed. Export literature called the titanium gForce Ti. The shaft used Ultimum Ti, the titanium material Yonex had first put in the Muscle Power 100, and the ad listed it as “10 mm long”, Yonex’s shorthand for a frame longer than standard. Yonex’s 2017 history remembers it the other way round, as the power racquet with the feel of metal that it built for a power-oriented era.
Lin Dan, Taufik and a tour of 700 players
The 700 was never a one-player racquet. At the October 2006 Yonex Open Japan, Yonex found both Lin Dan and the Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat using it. Lin Dan said its heavy head suited hard-hitting men’s singles players; Taufik’s was the new “blazing red” design. Zhang Ning said she had used it before moving to a lighter Nanospeed. Yonex claimed the highest usage rate at the 2006 Thomas and Uber Cups, and its 2007–08 reports add Chen Jin, Chen Yu, Lee Hyun Il, Markis Kido and Liliyana Natsir. Lin Dan lost two 2008 finals to other 700 players: Lee Hyun Il at the Korea Open and Chen Jin at the All England. Yonex’s own 2013 retrospective of Taufik’s career files his 2004 Olympic gold, his 2005 world title, won against Lin Dan in Anaheim, and his 2006 Asian Games gold under the 700, though no Yonex match report from those events names his racquet.
Two reds, a dragon and a gold
Yonex never split the 700 into Power and Technique versions, as it later did with the 900. Its Japan pages show one frame in two colors: Diamond Red at launch and, by October 2006, a second color, Clear Red, alongside it. Yonex’s old-model list records one Armortec 700 ending production in 2006 and another in 2010, and by 2011 its global page listed only Clear Red. Collectors call these the first and second generations. The labels are theirs, not Yonex’s, and a 2009 review of the second noted that some hardcore players still preferred the first. Two special editions followed. The Armortec 700 Limited of 2008 is a numbered, dragon-themed edition with its own entry. An AT700 Premium, which owners describe as the original colors with gold in place of the white, appeared at Asian dealers in April 2012 alongside an ArcSaber 10 Premium; Yonex Japan never listed it, and no Yonex release or production figure for it has been found. An earlier special edition was sold only in Indonesia. In a July 2004 report on its Superbrands Indonesia 2003 award in the sports category, Yonex Japan said it had made 5,000 “memorial racquets” for sale in Indonesia alone and had presented serial number #0001 to President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The report names no model; collectors identify the frame as an AT700 and call it the “Super Brands” edition.
What a buyer can check
Verified sales of the standard Armortec 700 come from the Asian resale market, Diamond Red and Clear Red frames together, and the price panel above lists them, with new and pre-owned valued separately. Most are pre-owned, and the unused figure rests on too few sales to be more than an estimate. The 2008 Limited is valued on its own page, and the 2012 Premium is a separate edition. The standard 700 was a production racquet for about seven years, sold in Japan and export markets and used at club level as well as on tour, so it is not scarce in the way the numbered Limited is. What separates one example from another can be checked: the color, the weight and grip code, the condition of the frame, and whether it has been restrung or repaired. The Lin Dan connection belongs to the model, not to any individual frame. No example has documented match provenance, and a seller’s claim of pro use should not add to the price.
Copies and mislabels
The 700 was popular enough to copy. In December 2013, years after production ended, BadmintonCentral members, including the forum’s administrator, called a supposed 700 fake: its butt cap and Yonex logo were wrong, its serial numbers did not look laser-engraved, and its owner found it very flexible, which is wrong for a frame Yonex rated extra stiff. Yonex’s own 2011 warning described many copies on auction sites as crude and prone to breaking. Mislabeling is the other risk. A plain 700 is sometimes offered as the dragon Limited, and no individual frame has been shown to be one Lin Dan used.
The end of Lin Dan’s first Yonex era
Yonex launched the Armortec 900 Power and Technique above the 700 in March 2007, but Lin Dan stayed with the 700 through the 2008 season. Yonex’s player page listed it as his racquet until late April 2009 and was gone a month later, after China’s national team switched to Li-Ning; he played Li-Ning until he signed with Yonex again in January 2015. Yonex Japan ended production of the 700 in 2010, as Voltric became its head-heavy line. In 2017 Yonex chose the 700, with Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang, to represent 2003 in its history of the Isometric head. Its list of his titles runs to 2016 and includes the 2009, 2011 and 2013 world titles and the London 2012 gold, all won on Li-Ning frames, so it is a career summary rather than a record of what he won with the 700.
The standard 700 is made in Japan. Yonex Japan sold it in Diamond Red (color 367) and, from 2006, Clear Red (color 459), in 4U (80–84.9 g) and 3U (85–89.9 g). A dragon finish, a yellow cone or an edition number means the 2008 Limited; gold in place of the original’s white, with the newer grommet pattern of the Armortec 900s, points to the 2012 Premium. Yonex rated the frame extra stiff for most of its life, so a frame that bends easily is a warning sign. Yonex’s 2011 counterfeit guidance gives four checks: the hologram sticker should be hard to peel; the YONEX logo should be crisp, since a wide, round O is a common sign of a fake; the production code on the cap above the handle should be laser-engraved, not printed; and the butt cap should match Yonex’s green.
The standard 700 is the everyday version of the frame most closely tied to Lin Dan’s first Yonex era, documented in Yonex’s reports through his 2007 world title and his last Yonex season. Buy it for the model’s history, not for a story about a particular frame. Look for a Japan-made example in one of the two documented reds, check the weight and grip code and the head and T-joint for cracks, and ask for clear photos of the cone and the engraved codes before paying.
Verified prices last updated Sep 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.