Apparently Taylormade OUTRIGHT OWNS Foremost Now ...

[JohnnyO3478]

Pay attention some of you Maxfli, Vice, Oncore, Wilson, Seed and probably some other DTC brand devotees:

 

According to theTM guy being interviewed on this week's NPG podcast, TM has gone from having an equity stake in Foremost to outright owning the whole plant.  This is in addition to the old Nassau plant in S. Korea and the ball plant in Liberty, SC (cores are made in he over seas plants and the balls are covered and priinted/painted stateside).

 

No reason to suspect the flow of the other brands to stop - but keep in mind what happened to Snell's access to the Nassau plant when that deal went down.  TM is obviously gunning for some of Titleist and Callaway's market share.  There's no reason to think that if they cut off the DTC brands that the folk who loved those brands would flock to a TM selection.  The DTC brand probably contribute nicely to the factory bottom line.  Though, you never know ...

 

 

[MattM97]

They bought them like a year or two ago.

[JohnnyO3478]

1 minute ago, MattM97 said:

They bought them like a year or two ago.

They had some equity in them a year or two ago.  The complete ownership sounded like a new develpment.

[dbdors]

8 minutes ago, MattM97 said:

They bought them like a year or two ago.

Yep, old news.  That is what put the hurt on Snell.

[MattM97]

7 minutes ago, JohnnyO3478 said:

They had some equity in them a year or two ago.  The complete ownership sounded like a new develpment.

 

It was more than some equity they pushed out a few brands like @dbdors said they pushed Snell out, made them find a new plant and well reviews haven't been great since that.

[JohnnyO3478]

Just now, dbdors said:

Yep, old news.  That is what put the hurt on Snell.

Buying the Nassau plant put the hurt on Snell.  Snell was never made in Taiwan.  TM and Foremost had a joint venture, until recently.  Now TM owns Foremost.

[JohnnyO3478]

2 minutes ago, MattM97 said:

 

It was more than some equity they pushed out a few brands like @dbdors said they pushed Snell out, made them find a new plant and well reviews haven't been great since that.

Snell was pushed out of the Nassau plant when TM bought that one.  Snell was never made at Foremost.  Up until recently there was only a TM - Foremost joint venture.

Edited February 22 by JohnnyO3478

[MattM97]

Just now, JohnnyO3478 said:

Snell was pushed out of the Nassau plant when TM bought that one.  Snell was never made at Foremost. 

 

Ah, well guess TM is buying every ball plant in Taiwan to crush the small guys.

[JohnnyO3478]

2 minutes ago, MattM97 said:

 

Ah, well guess TM is buying every ball plant in Taiwan to crush the small guys.

The only other one in Taiwan worth owning burned down in an explosion last fall ....

[Avidswampthing66]

Just now, JohnnyO3478 said:

The only other one in Taiwan worth owning burned down in an explosion last fall ....

🤔

[moostache]

Vice is creeping up in price too now. Have to wait for their buy five get one free to keep the dozens at 30 USD… still a good price, but damn is equipment getting spendy…

[wantacigar]

On 2/21/2024 at 10:27 PM, moostache said:

Vice is creeping up in price too now. Have to wait for their buy five get one free to keep the dozens at 30 USD… still a good price, but damn is equipment getting spendy…

Yea, Vice is getting pricey.  Maxfli Tour as well.  Looks like the Kirkland V3 will be getting more playtime

[GoTime]

On 2/21/2024 at 8:20 PM, MattM97 said:

 

Ah, well guess TM is buying every ball plant in Taiwan to crush the small guys.

 

Much like chip manufacturing, we need to diversify production locations. If China blockades and/or invades Taiwan for unification, the golf world will collapse!

[MattM97]

28 minutes ago, GoTime said:

 

Much like chip manufacturing, we need to diversify production locations. If China blockades and/or invades Taiwan for unification, the golf world will collapse!

 

That's on the OEM's that outsource there and they probably don't care. China isn't the biggest rubber producer in the world, they're probably the easiest to deal with. I'm sure they could setup in another country if needed. 

[JohnnyO3478]

44 minutes ago, GoTime said:

 

Much like chip manufacturing, we need to diversify production locations. If China blockades and/or invades Taiwan for unification, the golf world will collapse!

Apparently, casting urathane cheeply is hard.

[Ger21]

On 2/26/2024 at 7:46 AM, wantacigar said:

Yea, Vice is getting pricey.  Maxfli Tour as well. 

I switched from 2019 Maxfli Tour to Vice Pro Plus, when Maxfli raised their prices. Now that Vice raised their prices, I went back to Maxfli. They had some sales in the fall that got them to $25/dozen, so I stocked up. But I had to pick some up on vacation last week, and paid $70 for 2 dozen.

[wantacigar]

1 hour ago, Ger21 said:

I switched from 2019 Maxfli Tour to Vice Pro Plus, when Maxfli raised their prices. Now that Vice raised their prices, I went back to Maxfli. They had some sales in the fall that got them to $25/dozen, so I stocked up. But I had to pick some up on vacation last week, and paid $70 for 2 dozen.

I'm getting new irons this year.  Likely either P790's, PXG 0211 XCor or another DTC.  These hollow body irons are all low spin.  The KSig is a higher spinning ball (So says the "testers").  I've played them throughout all last year in casual and practice rounds.  Went through about 2 dozen.  Didn't see much, if any, distance drop off with no noticeable performance differences with current equipment.  Being the new equipment is lower spin generating, the slightly higher spin of the KSig may just be the "magic sauce" for the new lower spinning equipment options for stopping power into greens without any over-spin or ballooning.  All for $14.50/dozen 

Disclaimer:  These strange ideas are not based on any scientific or testing data other than personal experience with the aforementioned equipment.

[JohnnyO3478]

1 hour ago, wantacigar said:

I'm getting new irons this year.  Likely either P790's, PXG 0211 XCor or another DTC.  These hollow body irons are all low spin.  The KSig is a higher spinning ball (So says the "testers").  I've played them throughout all last year in casual and practice rounds.  Went through about 2 dozen.  Didn't see much, if any, distance drop off with no noticeable performance differences with current equipment.  Being the new equipment is lower spin generating, the slightly higher spin of the KSig may just be the "magic sauce" for the new lower spinning equipment options for stopping power into greens without any over-spin or ballooning.  All for $14.50/dozen 

Disclaimer:  These strange ideas are not based on any scientific or testing data other than personal experience with the aforementioned equipment.

The new Ksig is the second lowest scoring ball in the history of Ball Lab testing.  Wildly inconsistent for compression, weight and diameter.  I'd be worried about piling these inconsistencies on top of my own inconsistencies.  If you want a DTC ball on the spinnier side of the spectrum that seems to be well made, check out Wilson Triad. Still twice the price of Ksig - but well made by Foremost.

[storm319]

This will be an interesting development to watch (even more so than when they acquired Nassau in 2021). While I doubt that Maxfli will be impacted (TM could not afford to cut off what is likely to be their largest retailer and risk retaliation), but it would not be inconceivable to see them cutoff DTCs like Vice, Oncore, and Seed. Additionally it will be interesting to see if this spells the end of the Liberty, SC plant (they have been producing some complete TP5 balls covers included at both Nassau and Foremost over the past couple of years). 

[bcjim]

On 2/27/2024 at 1:26 PM, JohnnyO3478 said:

The new Ksig is the second lowest scoring ball in the history of Ball Lab testing.  Wildly inconsistent for compression, weight and diameter.  I'd be worried about piling these inconsistencies on top of my own inconsistencies.  If you want a DTC ball on the spinnier side of the spectrum that seems to be well made, check out Wilson Triad. Still twice the price of Ksig - but well made by Foremost.

I find those results misleading. They tested fine for the important stuff,  concentricity, layer consistency,  cover defects,  etc. The scatter, particularly in the weight strikes me as a non issue. It may be worse than sone other balls but it's, small in absolute terms and, I suspect,  undetectable in terms of playing golf. Same with the diameter.  I'd much rather have a box of balls that varies a little in compression over a box where some where layers are bulging or the balls are out of round.