2006 Gets An Early Start

Sure, the calendar still reads September 2005. But from a golf equipment perspective, let’s agree that the 2006 model year is off to a brisk and early start. How is it that some of next year’s hottest clubs are already in golf shops by Labor Day?

Back in the olden days (let’s say 1995 for a ballpark figure), new products predominantly were announced at the PGA Merchandise Show in at the end of January. Every major manufacturer would introduce its lineup for the year, making for a golf equipment lover’s dream week. Rumors would build up in the days before the Show, and the companies would spend millions outdoing each other with increasingly splashy parties and golf outings.

Fast forward to 2005. Here we are, a quarter of the year left, and some of the biggest names in the biz are dropping major new products on us. Titleist finally brings the 735CM irons to market after teasing the fanboys for months. Ping revamps its entire lineup, skipping from the G2 era to the G5 product lineup (what happened to G3 and G4? Locked in a warehouse in Scottsdale?). Cleveland unleashes its third 460cc driver of the last two years, and the cool new CG11 wedges. It’s like Christmas in September for gearheads.

So why is Santa coming down the chimney now and not at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on Super Bowl weekend? Things change, that’s why.

The first thing that changed was the Show itself. From 1994 through 1998, the Show grew exponentially each year. So did spending. It cost a major equipment company as much as $2 million to build a huge exhibition area, fly in executives and sales reps from around the country and put on a good dog-and-pony show for the media and golf shop buyers. That’s a lot of money if you’re doing well, and a backbreaking amount if you’re struggling.

Second, the Show’s little sibling – the PGA International Golf Show – heated up. This version of the Show was held in September in Las Vegas, and it grew just as fast as the Big Show in Orlando. The Vegas Show flamed out around the turn of the century, and has since downsized as the PGA Fall Expo. But in its late ’90s prime, the Vegas Show gave the equipment companies proof that early fall was a good time to spring new products on the industry.

Third, the industry itself changed. With the mid-90s golf boom came an increasingly mature and competitive way of doing business. Marketing types started seeing the Show as a cluttered arena in which to launch a new product. Rather than trying to outdo your competition with smoke and mirrors in a direct showdown, why not launch your new flagship products on your own timeline? So companies started pre-empting the Show with early January product launches as a way of making their own space. This had the effect of steadily letting the air out of the Show’s bubble.

The fourth and final shift was a convergence of all the other factors at play. And, of course, money talks. The major equipment companies saw that they were spending tons of money on the Show, they learned that the fall was a good time for launching product, and they wanted to launch products on their own unique stages. So they shifted resources away from the Show. In some cases, as with Acushnet, TaylorMade, and Ping, the companies stopped attending the Show altogether. Instead, they spend the money earmarked for the Show on other means of promotions and to better educate their sales reps on the new products. The companies that still attend the Show greatly downsized their operations, and hardly any of them announce surprise products at the Show.

Now, most of the big new product introductions will come between now and the second week of January. This gives the companies a chance to get all their sales reps up to speed on new products at fall sales meetings, and gives the reps time to sell in the new product to golf shops in advance of the holiday season. The Show still exists, mainly as a big social event. And it is a great chance for a small company to make a splash. But now the beginning of the golf equipment season has shifted forward by four months, and it isn’t moving back any time soon.