What went wrong with nike golf august 2016 nike announced that they were no longer making golf clubs balls. Or bags after almost 20 years but what really went wrong and why did nike fail to succeed okay let's rewind time let's go back to when nike got into golf it started in 1996. they signed tiger woods. For 40 million for a five-year deal in 1997 tiger wins the masters by a record 12 shots wearing nike heart top and pants but actually no nike gear just. Yet in 1998 nike made their first golf ball and in 2000 tiger switches to the nike ball and wins the next.
Four majors the famous tiger slam 2002 nike made their first clubs they made some forged irons forged wedges and the titanium driver and then.
We're going to jump a few years we're going to jump over to 2007 because nike brought out a square driver the sumo driver if you remember that sounded like a big tin cam in 2008. And the masters that year they got first second and third place with immelmann woods and stewart sink incredible year and in 2013 rory macro signed a 200 million dollar contract and then.
2016. the start 2016 nike golf signed tony fenow and brooks kepker and that was full bag all the clubs. And in 2016 later on in the very same year in the august they decided to announce that they were no longer making clubs bags. And balls so before we dive a little bit deeper into what nike did right. But more importantly what they did wrong. So i'll take a little walk down memory lane and play golf with a full set of nike clubs including a nike golf ball now these were supplied to me by my good friends at golfbidder golfbidder is a fantastic company that sells secondhand golf clubs they have thousands upon thousands of high quality secondhand clubs. For you to buy and also they trade in your old clubs definitely worth checking out i've done some great videos with golfbidder in the past if you've enjoyed those videos make sure you smash like if you want to know more information about golfbidder hit the link in the description below [Music] so [Music] [Music] so after playing golf with the nike clubs again have a little walk down memory lane of course the gear is decent i thought the clubs performed really nicely. And it's similar to what i said in my reviews when i tested a lot of these products a few years ago the products always performed nicely never the best in the world in my opinion you know there was often drivers out there that would maybe perform. And hit longer than the nike ones but they were never bad products now even when i took him out on the golf course again i enjoyed hitting the driver i thought it was a really solid driver i loved the irons i thought the irons were really solid. And after even a few years old the club spun like crazy the wedges i enjoyed as well that 60 degree lobways that i had in the back anything with tiger stamped onto it just gives you an error of confidence that wedge was class now again going back to reviews in the past i've never been a massive fan of the nike putter. And that is the same again after playing golf with it it just doesn't quite feel as soft. Or as responsive as some of the other brands and the last point the golf ball certainly the most recent one that i've tested the resin it was just very clicky quite hard. And it was a shame because the golf ball sometimes they made them well. And sometimes they weren't quite as good so one reflection the nike gear performed nicely still and they did again when i reviewed them all those years ago in my opinion no better than taylormade. Or callaway or ping or titleist but never terrible always really solid performance so what did nike do well i made a few little notes first off nike signed some massive names tiger woods rory mcelroy brooks kepker tommy fleetwood michelle wii susan petterson tony fina david davao molinari the list goes on they had an unbelievable stable of fantastic athletes. And their players this is an incredible start won 16 major tournaments that's unbelievable. And possibly even hundreds of tournaments around the world if you had added everyone up another big thing that nike did well is that advertising was amazing their commercials was groundbreaking nobody did it in golf like nike did it at all they had you know tiger. And rory doing adverts together even like football stars like wayne rooney and rory mcilroy collaborating on commercials and ads their social media and adverts were fantastic. And very much nike aimed their target audience as young golfers they tried to make golf cool which is good because it attracted a new wave of golfers there's no question about that. And in 2013 when nike had signed rory they finally brought out a driver that kind of caught everyone's attention the covert driver was fantastic. And really performed well and started to match the performance of other brands out there and all in all nike were on the rise they were doing all the right things. Or making all the right movements making golf a little bit different so what went wrong with nike golf so i've made a few points on what i believe nike golf did wrong. And these are all my opinions i'd love to know your thoughts down below leave a comment to why potentially you didn't use nike clubs. Or if you did what you enjoyed about them i think the first point this is a really important one nike. And it's not their fault were massive in other sports they still are the biggest sports brand in the world. And i bet most people watching this video have owned a pair of nike trainers in the past they're just huge in other sports now the problem with that i think when they started to make golf equipment there was an air of hesitation was like well what the nike know about making golf clubs they're not a titleist who have been in the game. For donkey's years he's a nike they make trainers and sports gear what they're doing making golf clubs i always think that was a big barrier that nike really had to get over i think they started to make the right progress. But it was always going to be a massive obstacle i think the next.
Point then.
Was design these massive superstars now you might think well that can only be a positive. And it can be definitely the problem with it is if those superstars weren't playing well it was often perceived that it was the golf equipment that was hampering their performance i remember when rory signed. For nike 2013 and you know he could have picked any brand in the world i'm sure any brand with 200 million dollars he would have probably signed for and at that point when he first started playing with nike clubs he was playing badly playing really bad golf. And it was. So quick and easy for people to jump on the back of the fat he's now using nike clubs that's the only thing that's now different so the nike clubs got blamed for rory's bad performance when he first signed with him he obviously improved that later on down the line i think another big thing as well. And there's a few samples on the desk here the color the color of the nike golf clubs definitely was not to most people's likings it doesn't matter to some degree how good the performance of a driver is because if you're quite a conservative man. Or woman who actually wants just to be quite subtle and use a plain looking driver head you would probably prefer that over something that's bright blue or bright vol or green lime yellow whatever color it was. And i don't think that matters to even age i think that can be i mean adorability because i know really really good golfers who definitely have the the prowess let's say to pull out a blue drive on the first tee. But they'd still be a little bit hesitant they'd want to just pull out a traditional looking black or grey titleist driver as opposed to something quite as as lavish and nike i think we're trying to tune it in with their youthful spirit their fact that they have these colorways in other areas of sport. So when they brought out these drivers they also brought out trainers in the same colors and they were trying to keep it all uniform. But i never quite worked in golf and that was a real shame i think another thing as well these products i've got on the desk now were the more recent products just before they kind of fell out of making golf clubs. And balls etc but the very first products that nike golf came and brought out weren't great you know the early adopters the nike die hard fan who shot straight to the store to buy nike golf clubs when they first came out and they were. So excited to tear up. Yet the performance lacked the performance definitely was inferior at that stage when nike first started making clubs. So again you've got to really build on that and that took just an awful long time i think another thing that nike potentially didn't learn from other manufacturers. And if i'm honest only other manufacturers have learned more recently it's the franchise of it all i can't tell you how many times nike changed the name of their premium golf ball i mean i i would give anybody i bet if they could name every single premium golf ball that nike brought out now think of that in titleist everyone just knows they brought out the pro v1 probably one probably one x that was it. And they've stuck with that franchise for a long time and only brands like taylormade are just starting to figure that out when they buy bringing out the tp5. And keeping that franchise nike never had that it was different names it was different colors it was different this different that. And you never felt like you were connected to that product. And if it changed well it was very easy just to move on to a new brand which was a real shame. And i think another thing that nike in hindsight did wrong they tried to be a jack of all trades. And a master of none if you think about it nike made everything drivers three woods hybrids driving irons irons not only blades forgiving irons as well big chunky ones i remember the slingshot irons were some of my favorite irons ever then.
Also got into wedges started making putters obviously golf balls bags clothing caps shoes they were doing it all. And that is a big ask that really is to try. And master every single area of a company that's really hard even again i'll use title as an example if they want wedgies made well they've got voki making the wedges if you want putters made they've got scottie cameron's if they want clothing made they go to footjoy nike weren't doing that they were keeping it all in brandon i think that was a really hard thing to try. And master i think overall in hindsight it's very easy to see three years down the line. But there's a few points to what nike potentially did wrong. And was that then.
The demise is that what really ended up then.
Turning off the switch to making a ball. And back so in my opinion that's what i believe nike did right. But also what they eventually end up doing wrong and we may never know why nike ended up pulling out of golf club ball and bag because it happened so quickly august 2016 just went boom we're not making any more and that was definitely a snap decision because i've got a few sneaky images of the club they were planning to bring out at the start of 2017.. And they look great i was excited to see what nike rapture gonna do next.
Because they were just they were just getting there with the product it was close it was just about to maybe take it to the next.
Level. And boom they're out of it so what does this mean. For golf what does it mean. For you guys as golfers i think we i don't we should be concerned. Or not concerned but the biggest sports brand in the world could not succeed by making golf clubs was that because they couldn't maybe sell enough clubs to young golfers potentially was it the fact that actually there's probably too much competition out there you think of all the brands now that are making golf clubs we're nike just like you know what we've got. So many other things going on we don't need to be making all these golf clubs potentially there's a bigger sports family huge. Or should we be concerned should we be concerned that other brands might go down the same line and end up not making golf clubs anymore or on the flip side of that will we ever see nike golf return making golf clubs again i'd love to hear your thoughts down below. So again thanks to my good friends at golfbidder who supplied me the club to take this wonderful walk down memory lane we'll see you next.
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