BOMB: Cue up the music—another one bites the dust.
Well, not exactly. But Mizuno and Bettinardi putters are severing their exclusive arrangement after the end of this year. Of course, that makes you wonder if Mizuno will want to remain in the putter business at all. This makes them a fairly solid 0-for-3 in the desigher-label putter department, having in the past had Scotty Cameron and T.P. Mills designed lines.
Bettinardi will be coming out with a new line of putters this fall under the Bettinardi name. Good for him. But it also underscores that although some companies have actively tryed to follow the Titleist-Scotty Cameron model by attaching designer names to their putter lines (see Kia Ma and TaylorMade, Bobby Grace and MacGregor to name a couple), fact is it is a difficult proposition to succeed at unless you are willing to dump a lot of resources behind it. That not only applies to big-name designers, but for those stadium full of little guys looking to break into the biz as well. Brands such as Odyssey, Ping and Titleist are just too strong in the putter area for a single person to make much of a dent, regardless of the name stamped on the club.
GOUGE: Oh, really? How's Stephen Boccieri doing with his Heavy Putter brand, and its latest innovation the Mid-Weight? No, he'll never threaten Odyssey or Ping, but there's room for new, out-of-the-box ideas. Same with the team at SeeMore. And the folks at Yes! are still churning out good ideas.
But you're right about the puttermaker-big manufacturer partnerships not working. The reason it works for Scotty Cameron and Titleist is because of Titleist's vast numbers on tour. That's obvious. If you don't have those numbers, it really wouldn't matter if your designer partner was Michelangelo, Vera Wang or I.M. Pei. The only company that might have a similar opportunity is TaylorMade. But it's only going to happen for TaylorMade if every one of their staff players starts using a Kia Ma. You look down the list of Titleist players, and I can think of only one who's not using a Cameron (Zach Johnson and his SeeMore). I mean when a name staff player like Retief Goosen opts for a Tiger Shark instead of a TaylorMade Rossa Kia Ma putter, you've got issues when it comes to corraling your tour staff.
But none of that means designers large or small, including Tiger Shark, don't have technologies worth examining. I think the problem with golf consumers is they aren't willing to step outside the usual places unless someone literally grabs them and shakes them and then holds their hands and physically walks them to the store and shows them what a better idea looks like. Point is, they shouldn't miss out. I'm not sure designer-labels work, but I'm pretty sure solid thinking works. That's why those brands are having success on the professional tours.It's worth serious consideration. Even for a label chaser like you.
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