Frankly, I get a kick out of purists and theorists, most of whom have never played with a rubber tip, and simply try to imagine a rubber tip. If hard tips and leather are so great, why did we start using chalk to help it along? Ever wonder about that? It was because of the lack of adequate consistent friction and the miscue factor! Leather tips come in various hardness, and tend to compress and harden, needing chalk, sandpaper roughing, or piercing for roughing…I don’t call that consistent hardness and grip…I call it the need for consistent hardness and grip. But as to rubber tips. I’ve only shot with one kind, and it was adequate but not perfect, and I don’t know where to find them these days. I would like to find them, even if I rejected them in the end. Professional players develop their favorite gear by trying them out, not by theorizing and rejecting something without even giving it a whirl. They don’t necessarily need rubber, but then not everyone is or even wishes to be a professional…they just want to play and have less miscues…make sense? Rubber is not all springy or spongy or inconsistent. There is natural rubber of many types, as well as synthetic rubber and similar. And this could be developed at any hardness desired from springy to much harder than leather. And…it could have impregnated in it whatever type of friction-increasing fine grit one desired…throughout the entire tip, so that as you shape it if desired, the new surface will already have grip WITHOUT CHALK. And if a tip (any tip…leather, rubber or whatever) becomes lessened in quality over time, you replace it…tips are not intended to last forever, and are specifically expected to deteriorate and be replaced…so people can cut the yak yak about how rubber cue tips would deteriorate in surface quality. People can applaud chalk all they want, but frankly there are two messy items found around pool tables: chalk and powder. I personally think that in this day and age it’s time to retire both forever, and use the technology we have to create entire lines of custom cue tips, at whatever hardness and grip ratings that could be designed and made available. All this “Oooh…you don’t want a springy or spongy tip is nonsense, since that does not have to be the case with rubber tips.” If you want a hard as glass leather tip and want to chalk it constantly, you already have that…so enjoy it…your choice. Ever wondered why most table cloth is green, but most chalk is blue? Dumb…that’s why. Of course, there are some fine chalk in many colors, with variations in their grip qualities…some of which also come off on the felt cloth and make a horrible mess. A table in the apts where I live now has black streaks all over the place because someone thinks he’s a pro and thus uses a lame black chalk. “BORING!” Nobody seems to know where rubber tips exist, so maybe they don’t exist anymore. Oh well…probably the purists ran them out of town on a rail. Most purists have probably never played with a pro who did not have to shoot soft most of the time to maintain control. Ever see someone bang a bank shot so hard it traveled the return path through the air and landed in the corner pocket…with the cue ball racing around the table at least 3 times…only to come to rest right under the finger of the waiting pro shooter? I have…a wonder to behold. Never saw anyone beat this guy even once. He probably didn’t need a rubber tip either. LOL It’s a big world with lots of tech availability…let’s consider using it.