Knockoff Throwbacks! Come reminisce...

[CarloGolfer]

Spotted this bag of goodies outside my print shop today. Took me way back. Do they make knockoffs anymore?

 

[Stonewalled]

Nice looking bag of goodies. I still have a set of Tour Model 111's I bought for $14 each out of a warehouse in Florida 1-SW. Real Pings were crazy priced, can't blame the knock-off manufactures. Played those for many a year until I found this place. Wallet was never the same after that.....

[MattyO1984]

This has inspired me!! I am going to pop past my mum’s house on the way home tonight to break out some of the old sticks. My first ever driver was a Pinseeker Jumbo which was a total rip off of the Callaway design from the time but with a bright red shaft like the Wilson Firestick. I got it when I was maybe 12.

[dekez]

I recall "King Snake" irons from the days where King Cobra irons were hot.

 

[14max]

That MacGregor 2 iron probably feels like the belle of the ball...

[gomuskies09]

My grandpa was deep in the knockoff scene back in the day. I remember when the Tight Lies fwy woods first came out and their infomercials were on TV -- Dad asked if I wanted one -- heck yeah i did! Turned out to be a "Super Concord" tight lies knock off that my grandpa bought in Florida, not a real Adams. Much disappointment haha. I also remember having an Orlimar TriMetal knockoff and a set of King Snake irons. Its amazing how close they looked to the real thing - right down to the patent numbers and the stripes toward the end of the shaft!

[reider69]

In the 80s and 90s all of us kids dreamed of a bag full of Pings but they were super pricey at the time. I had a set of Triumph Lazers which were Ping knockoffs. The whole set including woods was 399 back in 1992. Nice sticks and lasted me until 2009.

[CarloGolfer]

I was waiting for someone to mention this, but I will just refresh a few memories. The Big Brother does not have a bore-thru shaft like the real deal Callaway. It's just a paint detail on the bottom.

 

[LeoLeo99]

A couple guys in my golf league have clones from the 80s/90s. There were independent shops back then that just sold clones.

[LeoLeo99]

That's funny.

[Nessism]

I never did the clone thing but I did buy a good many Golfsmith and some Dynocraft stuff. They offered clonish stuff as well but I preferred the more unique components. Good times!

[llamont]

I had some Magique “GWS” irons which were King Cobra Oversize clones. They also had a players cavity that cloned the Titleist DCI 962 irons.

[SylvesterLundgren]

 

Y’all know ya seen them linemeadow clubs or whatever brand that made them faux r11-burner superfast clones.

[Bigarch]

There's a lot of stuff still out there. Monark Golf sells a lot of heads that look good and at a glance, they look very similar to the real deal. Priced right too!

[zerotiger]

love those old clones

[cradd10]

Z-Models were my 1st real set of clubs. Played during 9-10th grade. Hit some good shots with those. Wish i had kept, probably traded in and got next to nothing.

[CarloGolfer]

I'm still disappointed in a set I got for xmas one year. I had asked for a few different sets, one of which was the Lynx Black cat irons. Halfway unwrapped I thought I got them, but they were "Black Aces" or something. My heart is still broken. I never liked those stupid clubs.

 

(Carlo don't complain, be happy, some kids don't get bla bla bla... SHUT UP!)

[games]

A friend owned Raven Golf out of Wisconsin. He did mostly clones, with a few original pieces. Eventually, he bailed as he saw the market for small-scale component manufacturers as no-win, due to the large OEMs new product cycles...

[Jkfuller]

the old clones were great, but thank goodness for technology

[tkwilliamson22]

 

Had these and honestly they were pretty solid for a beginner set.

[B-Man]

 

Had these back home late 80's, early 90's. The original Starion and then a few years later the Starion Plus!

[disco111]

Had a friend back in the day that used to put together clone iron sets. He ordered like 10 sets of King Snakes from a distributor in California and when he got the shipment in, 4 of the sets were actual Cobras. He said that he called the distributor up to check on the mix up and the guy told him it was no big deal and to just keep the actual Cobras. He told him that they both came from the same factory and actually were the same club, just a different stamping of the name. He further stated or rather speculated that Cobra actually authorized for the clones production, thereby removing the possibility of anyone else using their design. Just how true this story is, that's anyone's guess, but if you place a King Cobra next to a King Snake, you'd be hard pressed to see any difference, outside of the name

[Warrior42111]

That makes perfect sense, if you go to large food processing plant they literally make the same food and say package for Kraft from 8am to noon then package for great value from 1pm to 5pm. I learned that from a buddy was was an industrial engineer. Literally got paid to figure out how to line the floor of so switching packages was faster.

Actually look at any food recall it comes from one distributor then like 7 different brand names show up.

[RainShadow]

I played some Pima III irons for a while back in the late 80's......

They were a ping knock off.

[scooterhd2]

13 years old, first set of irons were given to me by my grandpa - King Snake Oversize. An obvious knockoff of the Cobra's.