Does anyone know how much it actually costs to make a club these days?

I just found this article , and found it interesting and somewhat in line with what I estimated the costs given my limited engineering experience making consumer products.

It would be interesting to hear what everyone thinks a MP-69 costs to make versus a Callaway Apex MB or any of the cast clubs for that matter. . .

I'm not surprised. The same goes for any premium brand product. Still not as bad as the clothing industry, the labor costs for those $60 Nike polos is literally pennies.

Is there a manufacturer that makes high quality clubs that doesn't spend all this money on tour player endorsements?

I knew distribution and advertising was the majority of their expenses on clubs, but I didn't know by how much.

Note to self: Get into the golf business golf manufacturing business.

Tour Edge.

Or if you dont mind clone type designs, Gigagolf.

Agree  Like any product out there, as long as enough folks are willing to pay their inflated prices then the prices will keep going up.  I am as guilty as anyone for spending too much money on clubs.  I am now at the point where I look for used first or old generation (year before) new clubs and save half of what I would pay if it were a new release club.  There is no way a driver than came out last month is that much better than one that came out just a year ago.  Its marketing BS that these manufacturers thrive on.  If that were the case, I should be driving the ball over 400 yards now per what Taylormade and others have marketed with all of their driver releases over the years (each one should add 15-20 yards).

Just about any certified club-maker.  AND the clubs will be custom fitted to you.  AND you get exactly the configuration you want.

But they will not be cheaper than off the rack.

The raw materials aren't the only cost.  The huge casting and forging machinery is VERY expensive and maintenance intensive. Its all added in to the price.

The article had lots of figures, but had an underspecified model (left out key variables) in explaining the cost breakdowns.

You have research and development, and then you have the casting and forging expenditures.

Next, you have to time your manufacturing schedule so the new clubs hit the market at the right time.

As for the current arms race in golf gear, shorter product life cycles triggered this. But, it came at an expense. TaylorMade had a rough 2014, as did parent company Adidas.

• Adidas had a very disappointing retailing year hawking World Cup-related merchandise.
• Golf division TaylorMade upset a lot of the retailers by continuing to pump new club models into the market every few months. And, the flood of new  2014 TM stuff was late arriving in retail stores.
• Dick's was tightly aligned with TaylorMade, but got caught with a backlog of TM merchandise. Dick's then fired some 500 in-store PGA pros to help make up for the shortfall. Dick's bought Golf Galaxy several years ago, and I can't tell how insulated GG is from the Dick's troubles.

As far as marketing goes : If you produce differentiated merchandise (upscale / special features), you spend advertising $$ to remind your current customers how wonderful your driver, or putter, are. You want them to buy more TM or Callaway clubs in 2016.

Also, all those machinery costs are included in the article's estimates of prodution costs of around $10 a club for most irons and wedges, $15 a club for higher end irons, $27-65 for titanium drivers, etc.  The truth is there are also lots of costs involved in marketing and selling these products, which account for much of their higher end price.

It is thus possible sometimes to still get good quailty, by buying some of the best of the lesser known brands, which often don't do lots of advertising, have staff players, or sell product through big retailers with high markup.  But you have to be careful and do a little research. Some cheap brands are certainly also more cheaply made.

But some smaller brands like Acer, Alpha, Gigagolf, Pinemeadow, seem to use decent quality components and manufacturing and have pretty good reputations amongst those who have actually tried them.  And for a little more money, there are also several quality component brands available only through independent clubfitters, which also aren't spending lots on marketing.