Wilson Golf - What Do You Think?

[SirShanksAlot]

We’ve talked lots about Wilson Golf and their slow “righting of the ship”. The company is trying to get back to what made them good and what made them popular years ago. We’ve had a lot of readers letting us know how happy they’ve been with the new Wilson stuff. We’ve done one Wilson review this year (with more on the way I might add) and we did a few last year. Overall our testers really seemed to like the products and most of my customers are satisfied with thier Wilson purchases. So if most reviews are positive… why hasn’t Wilson been able to regain their seat at the golfing table?

First… my take. Wilson lacks “wow”. They lack that certain something that makes golfers drool. Fellow golfers don’t get excited when you pull out a Wilson driver or iron. The equipment (overall) is really good but it just isn’t “cool”. So how do you make a product “cool”? You need to advertise it, you need Tour players to win with it, you need a solid buzz around it (partly gernerated by the internet, partly through advertising, partly through salespeople and pros) and you need to keep up with the times. Companies like TaylorMade and Callaway make sure that every golfer on the planet is aware of a new product. People are excited to see these products and they flock to their local shop once they’re available. Are they any better than those produced by Wilson? Not always. Do they have more buzz and flare around them? Yep.

What whould you do if you ran a company like Wilson Golf? I’d still focus on the whole Staff idea… that’s something that is slowly catching on with golfers. I’d consider a small, more technical and less traditional product line to accompany the current offerings. Kind of like Tour Edge and their Exotics line. Perhaps bring a club or two over from Asia to anchor this line… something like the Nc6 iron. Get people talking about these “technical” irons and I think the buzz will carry through the line. I think you need to keep the golf balls… any company is a long ways away from making a dent in the golf ball business but it’s just something that a company needs to have in their line. I like their current staff colors and there are some real possibilities with the silver/black/red idea and the Staff logo. I’d also look at changing up their Tour roster a bit. Paddy Harrington is an awesome player but he is not the kind of guy you can build an entire marketing campaign around… especially in North America. They make great products but there just has to be a better way of getting people to try (and buy) them…

So there are some ideas from me. I know we have a very smart readership… both here and on and I’d love to hear what you have to say. Send us an email or post your thoughts on Golfwrx… I’ll gather up some of the best ones and post them in a few days!

www.sirshanksalot.com

[gangster17pi5]

I would try to get the younger guys using the kit; to do this i would use Jesper a little bit more in advertising and paddy for the older generations unfortunately Wilson dosent have a younger guy like camillo villegas as part of there stable if they did im sure the younger guys would stand up and take notice, i use the pi5 irons and the ball, i did use the wedges too, Wilson look after me and have great customer service which is a credit too them i really admire cobra at the minute from being up there in the old norman days then going downhill and now back up to date with there new roster of players is impressive , i dont like there equipment much; but there branding and resurgance is great and wilson should take a leaf out of there book. Plus the new wilson drivers are awesome!

 

Thats my say ???? any one else have a take?

[alexthegrrr8]

First of all I just wanted to say that I'm one of the wrx'ers out here that uses Wilson Staff products. I would list what I carry in my bag but it can be seen below. he comments and observations made by SirShanksAlot are bang on. Wilson Staff makes a real nice looking product, and I think the word classy would apply to the Fi5and Pi5 irons. The fact remains that as long as they aren't endorsing players they are not going to get the buzz. Paddy and Parnevik are the only ones on the PGA Tour using their products, you look at names on the European and Asian Tour and it's like...who? They do need to sign some young guys or lure guys away, but if they do that then they enter the realm of higher price point products, something that they are trying to avoid. I talked to a local Wilson rep about this while the snow was flying still in March. Straight up, if they did go into a higher price point I would STILL give them the first look. Their customer service has been great.

 

From a technical standpoint they don't stick out with moveable weights yada yada, and they likely won't so you aren't going to see that from them. Like Shanks said no wow factor, but if it looks good in the eye and feels good...who cares. I heard that when released the new Pi7 is going to be downrght beautiful, so maybe just maybe you'll see that signing of a player or two. Ball wise, I don't think the Tx4 is the answer to the Pro V1 et al but they definitely have the right idea with the Px3. The ball is reallll sneaky good and doesn't get love. The wedges (Tw5) stack up with the Cleveland's and Vokey's as I have used all of the above, and I'll say this my wedge game is the best it's ever been. The FwC fairway wood is another under rated club. On a launch monitor it beat out a V Steel head to head to go into my bag.

 

In closing, I feel that if their clubs said Callaway, Taylormade or Nike you'd be seeing top selling clubs. Those not familiar with the Pi5 irons or FwC can view them in the forum What's in the Bag.

 

Hit'em pure,

 

Alex

[chicubs]

I use a Wilson Kirk Currie #1 putter and I absolutely love it. Terrific putter.

[arkstorm]

It seems tha Wilson has failed to create a "brand DNA" for themselves by not having any products with real wow factor. This wasn't the case about 7-9 years ago when they first came out with their "Fat Shaft" line which did inspire some "wow". Since then its been a slow withdrawl.

 

I think Wilson makes some awesome products...they just need to convince the golfing public.

[Titleist87]

Bottom line is they need to get their name out to the public and the only way to do that is get some more guys on the PGA tour to push the brand. Paddy or Jesper don't seem to be doing that. Maybe get some young guys from the States signed on.

[GripandRip06]

I've been looking for some reviews about the Ci 6 irons they look like a real nice club and at a graet price also. Im gonna demo the Ci 6 irons here soon and so how they feel and how i hit them if i like the feel and how i hit them i may consider them for my next set of irons but right now the Callaway big bertha's are at the top of my list.

[schlebrock]

The quality of the product is only half (sometimes less than that) of the battle. When your most marketable player is Padraig Harrington, you've got some serious notoriety issues.

 

That's not to imply that Paddy isn't a good player, he is, but as far as marketing goes he doesn't cut it.

 

How many people would have considered Nike golf as a viable clubmaker a few years ago? Even with Tiger as their initial spokesperson, it took some time for the brand to catch on.

 

Wilson needs to throw some serious cash at a player(s) and see if they can generate some expanded interest. If the clubs are as good as they say they are, the general public will soon follow.

 

That's my $.02!

[dcorun]

I agree with the replies so far in that Wilson needs some PGA, Nationwide, Champions or LPGA recognition. I recently found a Wilson Dx2 ball in the woods (looking for a friends not mine) :crazy: and started playing it. It performed so well I went out and bought some. They have always made good products and their huge in baseball and tennis so, all they need is a couple of big names to play the equipment and look out. Example is how well Nike is doing on tour this year. Everyone will want a Sasquatch soon.

[sigmamason]

Wilson has some good products, but the fat shaft killed them. They went fat shaft crazy with irons, woods, and putters...it was a niche game improvement product and it turned off their traditional audience...golfers that wanted a traditional look to their irons and woods.

those golfer went shopping with Titleist and Mizuno and haven't returned.

Now Wilson has the TX4, good ball, no advertising and sits on the shelf, the Fi5 and Pi5 are great irons that perform just as good as Nike, tm or Mizuno, but no advertising...

Their drivers: Pd5 and Dd6 are solid and just as long as anything else, but no advertising...

Outside of Padraig and Jesper (who doesn't use the woods), they have little or no tour presence.

They need to increase their tour usage especially in the ball and iron dept, get some young guns ala Cobra to push the irons and woods, get some club pros again to push to the country club types (see Titleist and TM for that blueprint) and then release the almighty "tour-only" products to really get the ball rolling...

[mr_divots]

I agree with the replies so far in that Wilson needs some PGA, Nationwide, Champions or LPGA recognition. I recently found a Wilson Dx2 ball in the woods (looking for a friends not mine) :yahoo: and started playing it. It performed so well I went out and bought some. They have always made good products and their huge in baseball and tennis so, all they need is a couple of big names to play the equipment and look out. Example is how well Nike is doing on tour this year. Everyone will want a Sasquatch soon.

Eureka! That's it! :crazy:

 

OEM's just need to put more of their product in the woods for us to find! ;)

 

Who needs a marketing strategy when you have literally MILLIONS of wayward tee shots hit every day??!!

 

So simple, it's Brilliant! :)

[spencer0071]

I agree that Wilson needs to do a better job marketing their products. When I have bought new equipment over the past few years, the pro shops did not have very many Wilson products to choose from. If they had more instock I may be playing Wilson Staffs today. I did buy a Wilson Staff Hb5 hybrid last year to play around with. I did not care for a hybrid club, nothing aginst Wilson but the Sonartec Md was much sweeter. We tend to associate certain brands with certain items. Taylor Made: Drivers, Callaway: Fairway Woods, Titleist and Ping: Irons, Wilson Staff: 1970's. They need to create an identity for 2006 and beyond. Younger players that will win on the tours, marketing and creating buzz or the cool factor are all great ideas, but they need to have a superior product to do this. Does Willson Staff make a superior product? I believe that they make a superior ball. I have been playing the Wilson Staff Tx4 for the past year and I just love them. I like them more than Pro V1/X, B330/S, One Black/Platinum and Callaway HX 56/Tour.

[rok78]

Combination of tour exposure and word of mouth buzz. Wilson needs to get A product, ANY product and get some buzz going by having tour use. Then if you release a few strategically placed demos on sites like this and the SandTrap for reviews that have substantial readership by people who actively know a lot about equipment. They are able to then spread the word to their friends who aren't as much in the know and that creates some word of mouth.

 

Also, need to get a product that performs and put it in every single head-to-head equipment review/testing possible, because that creates buzz as well.

 

Wilson has tradition on its side so I think it just needs to come up with a clear marketing plan, focus the product to that plan (or vice versa) and get the word out.

[BarryMCokiner]

I had a set of Wilson PI-5s but it took an act of Congress to get the correct set and the Flori-Duh rep. had a bad week that day... I used them for a good long while but they were by far the best clubs I hit at the GolfWeek Golf-Fest in Orlando a year ago, last... If you are on a budget I'd look at the PI-5s...

[xxio]

Young guns . Follow what Cobra is doing. I would love to go back to Wilson. I played Progressives for the longest time. Unfortunately over here the prices are MSRP.

[8602081]

Last year, I had my golf bag stolen out of my truck.

 

I had Wilson Deep Red II tour irons and Wilson Wedges..

 

I loved my wilson irons, so I bought the same irons on Ebay (made sure it wasn't mine originally). I also bought Wilson Staff Dd6 driver around the same time. They are great, build quality is great..

 

I heard that the newer irons are great also..

[katbird]

Still have some Smartcore Balatas that I loved...and still play smartcore PDs since I can find them with the FATSHAFT hat that my wife likes as my nickname (Mr. Wilson and Fatshaft makes her smile)

 

...I love my Wilson FORGED RM sandwedge...

 

My take on Wilson's lack of acceptance is the unclear distinction between the consumer/kmart division and the pro lines...I just picked up another RM wedge that I guess isn't forged (isn't stamped forged on the hosel) even tho it's a Robt. Mandrella wedge...new club lines have gotten good comments on-line, and look forward to trying the new wedges, but haven't seen them in any stores here in SoFla...maybe I'll just try one from that auction site over there....

[SirShanksAlot]

Young guns . Follow what Cobra is doing. I would love to go back to Wilson. I played Progressives for the longest time. Unfortunately over here the prices are MSRP.

 

Ya I agree with the idea of young guns. Cobra pretty much nailed it too... their young guns are paying off huge. I think the only trick to this approach is finding the "right" young gun... you don't want to go and dump all of your cash into guys that might end up on the Nationwide again.