Nike dropping golf equipment (merged)

[BlackM00Nlight]

Would be a big splash for Mizuno if Tiger games their blades like once before. #nothingfeelslikeamizuno

[GC70]

This thread is huge 730 reading! 21 plus pages in like 5 hours! Kind of like the WRX Oven thread! Oh those where the days!

[NGstaff]

Wow. Got the call from my rep earlier. Wish it was a bluff. I have been on staff since basically 2007/2008. Have been nothing but extremely satisfied with the equipment and with how I have been treated (other than not getting to go to the oven). I have trusted and believed in the product and have grown Nike Golf at my course drastically over the years. Enough to be my top selling brand for the last 5-6 years. Since the Covert came out...not counting this year, i sold 68 drivers in 3 years...just in Nike drivers all from actually just putting it in people's hands. I have NEVER pushed Nike on anyone. If you didn't like it fine...lets get you into something else. This year probably 18. I have done around $90,000 in retail sales with them in that span as well as another $22,000 this year. For a small public golf course...with a bunch of "Nike haters," I do not think that is bad at all. I am in completed shock right now. One word can't describe it. Angry. Pissed. Upset. Disappointed. Sad. Gutted. Livid. Disbelief. I could keep going. Heck I sold 30 clubs that I ordered on Monday morning between Saturday morning and Sunday evening. Plus another 10 from stock...and I am now being told that I will not get them. Who is calling my customers? Who is going to look like the bad guy? Me! That is another thing that really pisses me off with this whole thing. When I am told custom orders will be filled until 8/12 and then stock only...only to find out 2 days later...it's gone. Sorry for the rant but from someone who has bled the swoosh for a decade or more (including before staff), I am extremely...well feel kind of betrayed. There were no rumblings of this that I had heard of at all. Not sure what else to say...

[Smash Factors]

Doesn't bother or surprise me that Nike is backing away from golf. Years ago when I first heard that Nike was going to make clubs I thought it was strange. What the heck does Nike know about golf anyway? I never bought any of their clubs and I don't recall ever buying or even hitting a Nike ball. Nike was first a shoe company. Lets not forget that.

 

So yeah, I'm fine with them leaving the game. I don't think they ever really should have been in the game in the first place.

[Holy Moses]

Sorry to hear NGstaff. What do you think was behind Nike Golf's downfall?

[mallrat]

I don't play Nike golf gear, but a good buddy of mine works there (worked there) and he got his pink slip today.

 

The human capital impact will be very sad.

 

There are also the folks who work at the Clubhouse in Beaverton who lost their jobs in addition to the folks at the Oven.

 

Did they give severance packages?

 

 

 

I don't know. When I heard the news I texted my buddy who was supposed to be in Texas for the week. He was already heading home.

 

Can't speak for reps and any staffers but yes there was the standard severance for Nike

[Holy Moses]

Doesn't bother or surprise me that Nike is backing away from golf. Years ago when I first heard that Nike was going to make clubs I thought it was strange. What the heck does Nike know about golf anyway? I never bought any of their clubs and I don't recall ever buying or even hitting a Nike ball. Nike was first a shoe company. Lets not forget that.

 

So yeah, I'm fine with them leaving the game. I don't think they ever really should have been in the game in the first place.

 

They knew Tiger was going to be a huge cash cow, unprecedented really. They had to get in the equipment business. With Tiger being out, no one close to his commercial success in their stable, the golf equipment business hurting, and misreading the golf market (thought that the untapped market was younger and hipper golfers), they couldn't get over those barriers. But this was the right move even though it sucks to say. Golf equipment is down, rounds are only up because of the warm winter, and you just can't have so much volatility.

[skee]

I have a whole bag of Nike stuff if anybody wants to buy it....lol. Its kinda shocking to hear this, not totally surprised though.

 

What do you have for sale lol

[yoder9339]

I would hate to be Tiger's FedEx or UPS person next 2-3 days. EVERY golf manufacturer will be sending him equipment.

[Holy Moses]

Tiger never won a major with a Nike Method and never will. Huge disappointment for Nike Golf.

[Anser]

I would hate to be Tiger's FedEx or UPS person next 2-3 days. EVERY golf manufacturer will be sending him equipment.

 

But he doesn't play golf

[CasualLie]

Someone wake me when Parsons pulls the plug because even he gets tired of losing money and his friends laughing at him.

 

The economics of the club business (and golf in general) is completely f'd. Think about it...millionaires make a bunch of pars and cash checks and somehow this will grow the game??? The marketing expenses of OEMs are so outrageous they can't even make money on hard goods which cost $9 for a driver that sells to the retailer for $200.

 

Everytime golf even looks like for a moment it has some ideas to make the game more attractive, then the USGA, the so called caretakers of the game, bewilder us with their stupidity and set the game back another few years or so. It's sad when you think about it, on the one hand you have real people following their passion and working in the industry pushing the envelope of club design in an effort to make the game fun, and on the other hand a rules body so out of touch with today's world you have to wonder do they even play golf? I mean really play, play for the social aspect, the relationships, the comraderie - I don't think so. Even more sad, it's the people with passion losing their jobs - I hope they get on track elsewhere fast. Meanwhile, the people with phoney passion keep on ruling the game.

 

Many can criticize Nike for being many things in the golf industry that Titleist, Callaway, etc...are not. But love them or hate them, they are a company that has "unlimited" resources to make a go in the golf industry. But a decade+ later they finally have to admit the business model is broken. Good news there are fools who still jump in with $millions to make a go in golf; it gives people we know jobs and opportunities. The bad news is it doesn't last. The current economics only support a few top companies. Nike isn't and wasn't one of them.

 

On we go...

[Mtngolfer1]

Anyway you look at it this is sad news for Golf . Anyone who loves the game should be disjointed. This is one of the largest companies in the industry that is telling us that the game is not in a good state. Nike, Taylormade, who is next? Tom Wishon nailed it, there are just not enough of the Millennial generation taking up the game. It is going to get worse before it gets better and better is stretch. I am not trying to be negative, but some of the naysayer/Nike haters really disappoint me in their lack empathy and insightfulness.

[BillMurrayGolfing]

Please, NO PXG.

[yoder9339]

I would hate to be Tiger's FedEx or UPS person next 2-3 days. EVERY golf manufacturer will be sending him equipment.

 

But he doesn't play golf

And you don't own or manage a golf manufacturing company.

[wldchld22]

PXG cavity backs!

[DukeOfChinoHills]

i feel like my mom died girlfriend broke up with me and kicked in nuts all at the same time.

 

This type of statement just sounds so overdramatic and lame, I had to laugh when I read it the first time.

[MuskieCy]

Trash cans on a stick. Balls that reminded me of McGregor Tourney's. Nike golf sucked. However, TW made the game relevant for millions around the world.

 

TW drove the game over the last 20 years. TW pushed billions of $'s into golf. Nobody has ever come close to delivering the dollars, inflation adjusted or whatever.

 

Nike decided Rory can't move the needle. Adadis has decided nobody can move the needle. How long before UA decides JS is just as stagnant?

 

First world problems. The fallout will be interesting.

[wldchld22]

PXG B2 006 clones!

[wldchld22]

What stinks the most is knowing that it wasn't about them making money. It was about them not making enough.

[bwhitish]

Im very sad for the people that worked at Nike Golf. Does anybody know if they were making their own balls?

[Jigga]

Doesn't bother or surprise me that Nike is backing away from golf. Years ago when I first heard that Nike was going to make clubs I thought it was strange. What the heck does Nike know about golf anyway? I never bought any of their clubs and I don't recall ever buying or even hitting a Nike ball. Nike was first a shoe company. Lets not forget that.

 

So yeah, I'm fine with them leaving the game. I don't think they ever really should have been in the game in the first place.

 

This is why Nike got out of hard goods; they couldn't overcome the negative perception like this dude's.

[dlamb83]

PXG B2 006 clones!

 

You should buy my 006 I have posted now. Buy the og. Lol.

[Yellow Jacket]

Doesn't bother or surprise me that Nike is backing away from golf. Years ago when I first heard that Nike was going to make clubs I thought it was strange. What the heck does Nike know about golf anyway? I never bought any of their clubs and I don't recall ever buying or even hitting a Nike ball. Nike was first a shoe company. Lets not forget that.

 

So yeah, I'm fine with them leaving the game. I don't think they ever really should have been in the game in the first place.

 

This is why Nike got out of hard goods; they couldn't overcome the negative perception like this dude's.

Checkmate

 

[4puttJohnny]

Will the Hopkins Golf thread be this long once they finally gurgle their last breath?

[jons1]

I'm not really surprised at all. From the moment they got into the golf equipment business I thought it was temporary. That wasn't their likely intentions at the time, but a company like Nike makes way too much money in shoes and apparel to really want to tough it out with golf equipment.

[sweetcity]

probably one of the dumbest, poorly written threads I've ever seen

[ahare89]

Please kill your terrible opinion.

[JackpotJohnny]

This is as I call it a Jordan speith effect. His deal with under armour and titleist had escalators. He got base for playing titleist then if he won 2 majors it went up. Then under armour did his 10 year deal on clothes and shoes and now titleist has to pay under armour to have titleist on his bag.

 

Oh! And rumor is that under armour owns his bag. That's why titleist has to pay under armour to have titleist on it. I could see how this would be good for other companies. Let the apparel companies pay them for apparel have the club companies pay for using clubs but get a kick back.

 

He doesn't have Titleist on his bag. AT&T is the only logo on his bag now.

 

+1

 

It was a pretty good fish tale tho

 

It's really not a fish tale at all. Under armour has rights to Jordan's bag and under armour is paid by the sponsor titleist or AT&T or whoever wants to be on his bag.

 

Still not buying that. When he was still on his first UA contract he had a UA bag. if the bag was part of that deal, att probably bought it out instead of leasing it.

[jpdx]

Oh man. Was out enjoying a round. Then Got the text. Gutted me. I started with a taylormade set as my first real set not knowing much about golf. They cost me $300 brand new for a 2009 set? I Always was eyeing a set of Nike clubs. I told myself I'd get Nike golf equipment one day. Just didn't want to pay the $500 or so for the covert irons at that time.

 

I wouldn't touch titleist. Ping. Or any other "traditional" golf equipment company's goods. I didn't care if they said its 15 yds longer. It was more expensive anyways. Tiger was the man. And I wanted to play Nike equipment.

 

I wanted it all. I wanted the putter. I wanted wedges. I wanted the irons. I wanted the hybrid. I wanted the fairway wood. I wanted the driver. I wanted the bag. I wanted the golf balls. I didn't care what tiger played previously. He always intrigued me but I'd say he was the biggest reason I even knew what golf was in the early 2000's I'm a self taught hack. I have really only played for a few years.

 

Since I started playing I've tried other equipment. Trying clubs old and new. But nothing spoke to me like the Nike golf equipment. The colors. The bold fashion statements on the apparel. The feel (relative to what I owned). The innovations.

 

I'm close to my goal of completing a Nike bag. Vpc (which I chose over ap1 and s55's), vf 3w. Vp driver. Nike air hybrid ll bag. Just need the hybrid and wedges. maybe I'll get that stuff for cheap now.

 

I'm almost heartbroken. I'll get over it. I'll wear a hole in all the clubs before I buy new ones. My short lived "club ho-ing" days are over since there'll be no more Nike equipment to ho on.

 

Haters are just that - haters. Glad all you haters are relishing in "Nike fanboy" sorrows. Just remember this day when there are no courses to go to because you wanted "traditional" equipment and the products that COULD have increased the numbers of golfers (or hacks like myself) don't exist. Because I am one of those that probably wouldn't have tried out the sport had it not been for Nike golf and tiger woods.

 

RIP Nike golf. It's been fun!