Thursday, October 22, 2009

Basketball Goals - The Myth of Yellow Glass



One of the most asked questions that I hear is, will the backboard turn yellow?

What kind of question is that? Well a good one. You see back in the old days a small company called Zue corporation based in Indiana started making basketball goals. Goalrilla basketball goals. They wanted to make really good systems that would hold up to very tough play. One of the most important things to them at the time was backboard strength. That is they wanted to build a basketball goal that had a very strong backboard, one that would not crack or break when hit with, let's say a rock or something like that.

In their quest to find a material that would meet all of their needs they came across Lexon, a material used as a type of bullet proof glass. However, it was not glass it was a type of polymer. It was strong! But, Lexon had one flaw, it was susceptible to UV break-down. That's right, when the sun was bright and shinning, it would cause the material to turn from crystal clear to yellow!

Unfortunately for Zue corporation, they did not do any testing before they used the Lexon in thousands of backboards used in their Goalrilla basketball goals! So when people are driving around and they see basketball goals with a very ugly yellow color they say to themselves, "that is one terrible looking backboard, I do NOT want something like that in my driveway!" And with good reason, to this day any of those basketball goals that are still out there look like crap!

But not to worry. The fact is that most if not all basketball goal backboards today are made from cast Acrylic. A clear material that is 10 times stronger than tempered glass. The best thing is, it will never turn yellow!

One thing to remember is that thickness does matter. Do not get a basketball goal with a backboard that is any less than 1/2" think, you will regret it!

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