In line with this new focus, Nike Golf will transition out of equipment – including clubs, balls and bags.
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‘We will achieve this by investing in performance innovation for athletes and delivering sustainable profitable growth for Nike Golf’.
They already sponsor the likes of 14-time major victor Tiger Woods and 4-time major victor Rory McIlroy.
According to a public filing from Nike on July 21, Nike Golf generated the least revenue for the company among its major segments. Reached by phone, Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, said he and Tiger were aware this announcement was coming, and that he will begin searching for a new clubmaker for his famous client.
“Tiger and I have had multiple conversations about what we’d do, and we have an organized plan in place”, Steinberg said. However, the company has always struggled to gain traction with its hard goods, particularly its golf clubs and balls, which, while played by the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, never gained mass appeal compared to the likes of Callaway Golf, Titleist and TaylorMade Golf.
Nike is scaling back its golf operation in a major way. “He and I have discussed at length the plan for that, and feel comfortable with what we’re going to do going forward”.
He changed to the Nike irons at the American Express Championship in Ireland in 2002, one week before the Ryder Cup, and then gradually added the fairway metal, the driver and, finally, the putter in 2010.
Nike Golf insists the famous “Swoosh” will still be prevalent on the world’s biggest stage, the company reaffirming in its press statement its desire to continue to sign golf’s top athletes to flaunt the brand.
“I don’t know exactly what it’s going to mean for contracts, but it’s pretty likely that this time next year I won’t be playing Nike clubs”.
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