Originally published in Pool & Billiard Magazine, March 2005

Company Profile: Tiger Products

Jason A. Zwiker

Tony Kalamdaryan, president and owner of Tiger Products, wants to clear up the mystery surrounding the “X” in X-Shaft.  It’s a Roman numeral: ten, to be exact.  Ten represents a perfect score in Olympic competition and is also the number of years of marriage Kalamdaryan and his wife celebrated the year the shaft debuted.  “We didn’t even have a second name as a choice,” he says.  “It was that clear.”

Tiger Products has steadily raised industry standards in manufacturing since they entered the world of pool and billiards back in 1997.  The company began almost a decade earlier, in 1988, making shoe repair products from an office in Canoga Park, California.  Exquisite leather design and workmanship made them a market leader, renowned for their “V” Cut Combination Top Lifts for men’s shoes.  That same proficiency remained in evidence as the first Tiger wraps and laminated tips appeared.

The variety of colors and styles in which the company’s Stack Leather Wraps are offered at first caused concern among cue makers.  “They thought it was too much for a cue and that it would take away from the hard work they have put in the inlay work,” Kalamdaryan says.  Over time, however, many came to see the Stack wraps as complementing the cues.  “Today,” he adds, “some of the same people think it’s the best wrap in the world, period.”  Tiger advertises the wrap as akin to fine Irish linen when wound on the cue, dyed, and burnished on a lathe.  Unlike linen, however, the wraps can be refinished multiple times and are repairable.

“It warms up in your hand,” says UPA Touring Pro Corey Harper, “giving you a little tack aiding your grip.”  He adds that expertise in the use of leather and lamination technologies was what prompted Tiger’s rise to prominence in the manufacture of their first signature product, tips.  Durability, consistency, and control are the attributes most sought for in a cue tip.  Tiger Product’s design team kept this in mind as they selected not only which hides and skins to use but also precise tanning techniques.  Attention to detail in the selection and splitting of layers and the VACULAM vacuum lamination process, which eliminates excess sound and air and minimizes mushrooming, creates a finished product Tiger guarantees will last three to four times longer than an average cue tip.

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