Will Wilson Golf ever rise to relevance again?

[Pnwpingi210]

25 minutes ago, Steve o said:

They never have shy'ed away from getting the top pro's in other sports. Look at the list of tennis players over the decades. Baseball as well. I love Streels and Kiz  but even they know nobody is buying a driver off their numbers.

I do appreciate they don’t spend a ton of marketing dollars spouting about some face tech or how their iron is the most played iron on tour.  It allows them to keep the cost of equipment way down compared to the most other oems.  
 

come to think of it, it’s absurd the cost from titlists, cally, and tm is about 1500 bucks for a set vs 1000 for Wilson or srixon.  That extra 25% is us paying more for to market and tell us how great there club is.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Pnwpingi210

[bluedot]

1 hour ago, Steve o said:

They never have shy'ed away from getting the top pro's in other sports. Look at the list of tennis players over the decades. Baseball as well. I love Streels and Kiz  but even they know nobody is buying a driver off their numbers.

Padraig Harrington has been using Wilson clubs for 25 years.

[Straphael]

Unless they get tiger to stand up and say how great it is nobody is going to move the needle that greatly. Tiger with Bridgestone is the only time in recent memory when a company really jumped with a signing. 

it’s brutal getting a share of the market and the big 4 will fight hard over half a percent in increased sales. So it leaves Wilson to keep putting out quality products and getting it into players hands. 
At this point I think they’re better off signing the YouTube kids and going that route instead. Young golfers are too young to remember the made for sets in Walmart. One of the worst ideas in golf retail history was to make cheap stuff for the big box stores 

[Pnwpingi210]

9 minutes ago, Straphael said:

Unless they get tiger to stand up and say how great it is nobody is going to move the needle that greatly. Tiger with Bridgestone is the only time in recent memory when a company really jumped with a signing. 

it’s brutal getting a share of the market and the big 4 will fight hard over half a percent in increased sales. So it leaves Wilson to keep putting out quality products and getting it into players hands. 
At this point I think they’re better off signing the YouTube kids and going that route instead. Young golfers are too young to remember the made for sets in Walmart. One of the worst ideas in golf retail history was to make cheap stuff for the big box stores 

Agreed - plus aren’t the big 4 (cally, titleist, taylormade, ping) only golf (ball, equipment, appere) companies?   Makes sense they put all their eggs in one basket.

 

wilson and mizuno are very diversified in comparison

[scruffynick]

18 hours ago, bluedot said:

It’s not being a snob if Wilson irons aren’t available for fittings.  I have 4 brands in my bag; I’d use ANYTHING that would help me get the ball in the hole more quickly.  But I’ve never even seen a Wilson fitting cart, or heard of a Wilson fitting day.  I could order Wilson clubs off the Golf Galaxy website, but they aren’t an in stock item.

Loads in UK and I mean Loads...must be just bad in the US. Wilson sell very well here and there's fittings for wilson at each place...even American golf have the full range with free fitting. I have no idea why you can't get what you want with wilson staff 

[Pnwpingi210]

5 minutes ago, scruffynick said:

Loads in UK and I mean Loads...must be just bad in the US. Wilson sell very well here and there's fittings for wilson at each place...even American golf have the full range with free fitting. I have no idea why you can't get what you want with wilson staff 

We can order it in the us as their website is super friendly, it’s just most of us don’t have access to test it with what’s considered standard options (no ability to test kbs tour 130, px 6.5, x100).  most options in the fitters cart are 70 - 105 grams stuff 

[Louis_Posture]

On 10/12/2023 at 6:59 AM, Jag80 said:

I work in golf retail and recently met with our Wilson Golf rep.  He's a new guy so he was fired up about his products.  They have some interesting ideas with branding and prices.  Won't go into it here, but keep an eye out in the first quarter of 2024.  We have a big problem getting people to even try Wilson clubs.  Of course everyone asks for the Big Four (Cally, Titleist, Ping and TM.)  Try to put Wilson in the mix and most give you the side eye..LOL  We, as gear hoes know Wilson stuff is as good or better in some cases as any of the current lines offered by competitors.  

 

My question to you is what do you think will happen with their golf division?  Being that they are a full line Sporting Goods company, golf is just a small part of the big picture.  Thoughts?

If Wilson signs a dozen current PGA Tour players to play the brand's clubs, bag, and hat then Wilson will become relevant and sell well at full retail price.

[Louis_Posture]

18 hours ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Agreed - plus aren’t the big 4 (cally, titleist, taylormade, ping) only golf (ball, equipment, appere) companies?   Makes sense they put all their eggs in one basket.

 

wilson and mizuno are very diversified in comparison

Approximately 25%  of Callaway's annual revenues are not related to golf (Jack Wolfskin apparel and much of the Ogio product line).

[Louis_Posture]

I believe the 60's -70's and 80's era golf leading brand names (Hogan, MacGregor, Wilson) went out of style because these companies did not spend enough money on product development and marketing to keep up with the companies that did spend the money (Callaway, TM, Ping, Titleist).

 

[95124hacker]

Not all companies can be great in each sector. They make very good baseball gloves & mitts (A2000 & A2K models). As long as they’re in the black in golf sales, maybe that’s all that matters to them.

[bluedot]

11 hours ago, 95124hacker said:

Not all companies can be great in each sector. They make very good baseball gloves & mitts (A2000 & A2K models). As long as they’re in the black in golf sales, maybe that’s all that matters to them.

I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but Wilson also makes the balls used in both the NFL and the NBA.  No way to even guess how many high schools and colleges are using them.

 

Wilson has been around for a long, long time, and there’s NO reason to believe that they don’t understand the golf equipment market.  Throwing money at endorsements and advertising, with no guarantee of a significant increase in market share might be exactly what Wilson does NOT want to do.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

13 hours ago, 95124hacker said:

Not all companies can be great in each sector. They make very good baseball gloves & mitts (A2000 & A2K models). As long as they’re in the black in golf sales, maybe that’s all that matters to them.

And when I played Tennis lets' just say a few DECADES ago 😉   I had the Wilson T5000 racket and it was great!  Wilson pretty much had the market on tennis rackets back then!  So yes, Golf remains a very small piece of their pie. 

[bluedot]

4 minutes ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

And when I played Tennis lets' just say a few DECADES ago 😉   I had the Wilson T5000 racket and it was great!  Wilson pretty much had the market on tennis rackets back then!  So yes, Golf remains a very small piece of their pie. 

I wrote this earlier as well, but I was a college tennis player way back in the wood racket days, and Wilson supplied all our rackets.  They were the best of the best at that time, and Wilson remains a major player in the tennis market.  Again, I have no reason to believe that Wilson doesn’t understand the golf equipment market.

[ColoradoMike]

Their Staff Model ball is really good, but expensive. If I find them on sale, I load up

[Carolina Golfer 2]

1 hour ago, ColoradoMike said:

Their Staff Model ball is really good, but expensive. If I find them on sale, I load up

I'm a staff ProV1 player, but tried the Wilson Pro V this week for 27 holes and it was damn good.  slightly cooler temps than I played most of the summer and I had a couple of my lnger drives and the stopping on the greens with mid iron approaches was just about as good as I get from the ProV    

[bluedot]

Reading reviews and testing on MGS just this morning, I come to find that the Wilson Dynapower fairways are the highest rated fairway woods for 2023.  I went on the Wilson website, and there ARE custom options for shafts and grips available, with a base price of $249.  Didn’t do a real deep dive to see if other Wilson clubs are as highly rated.

 

This doesn’t get around the issue of retail outlets and fitting cart availability, which is a BIG deal for me, but I think it probably does mean that Wilson is still making good golf equipment, as others have posted earlier.

[TheMoneyShot]

2 hours ago, bluedot said:

Reading reviews and testing on MGS just this morning, I come to find that the Wilson Dynapower fairways are the highest rated fairway woods for 2023.  I went on the Wilson website, and there ARE custom options for shafts and grips available, with a base price of $249.  Didn’t do a real deep dive to see if other Wilson clubs are as highly rated.

 

This doesn’t get around the issue of retail outlets and fitting cart availability, which is a BIG deal for me, but I think it probably does mean that Wilson is still making good golf equipment, as others have posted earlier.

If Wilson equipment was more readily available at stores or courses to test I’d definitely give them a go.  Outside of golf balls, my club and none of the stores in my area stock their equipment, it’s special order only.