If you watched Golf Channel‘s Fore Inventors Only show last year, you would have seen some “interesting” ideas that the contestants were hoping would be “the next big thing.” While some of the ideas were strange, impractical, or just plain stupid in my opinion, there were a few that were of particular interest to me. The ClubGlider belonged among the latter.
ClubGlider inventor Gary Sherrell signed a licensing agreement with Sun Mountain in 2007 to “perfect, manufacture and distribute the ClubGlider golf travel bag.” That’s a pretty sweet gig as Sun Mountain has been around for over 20 years and the Missoula, Montana company has been pretty innovative when it comes to bags, carts, and outerwear. The ClubGlider and Sun Mountain seem like a perfect fit.
Features
At first glance, the ClubGlider looks like most soft-covered travel cases. It has your thick foam padding to protect your clubs, internal cinch straps to secure your golf bag, various storage pockets and lift assist handles to make it easier to load and unload the ClubGlider from your car.
Where the ClubGlider stands above the crowd is with its innovative “integrated leg set” that helps to eliminate the bending, lifting and handling that those of use who travel with our golf clubs are accustomed to. The legs retract into a molded tray for safe traveling and the caster wheels pivot to make navigating airports much easier. I was pretty excited when I saw this on the show and am quite happy as it looks like several tweaks were made to the original design to make it even better.
The ClubGlider can support quite a bit of weight (up to 100 pounds) as well so you can place some of your extra luggage on top or load up some extra shirts, shoes and golf balls for your golf vacation.
Availability & Pricing
You’ll be able to pick up the ClubGlider in May, 2008 for a suggested retail price of $299.99, although a quick peek shows a pre-order price of $259.99. That’s a fair chunk of change for a travel bag until you consider the convenience, protection, and ease of use afforded to the ClubGlider owner. The ClubGlider will come in color combinations of Black/Black, Black/Royal Blue, Black/Red, and Black/Yellow.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t take a lot of weight for you to really mess up your back. Having worked in the insurance industry for over seven years on the safety and loss prevention side, I have seen my share of back injuries caused by improper lifting techniques and the current crop of travel bags don’t make it terribly easy to lift that heavy weight. Lifting your golf bag and travel cover improperly can really mess up your back, causing you considerable pain and lost golfing time.
I usually have two to three golf trips or business trips per year that necessitate me bringing my clubs to the airport, which is never a pleasant experience. Not only do I worry about how the airlines handle my precious cargo but I also worry about the physical issues that can pop up while having to constantly raise, lift, lower and move a travel case around. The ClubGlider looks like it would eliminate that hassle greatly. Now I just have to hope the airline doesn’t lose it.
Erik’s Take
I met and talked with Gary Sherrell at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. Though Gary may not have won Fore Inventors Only, he’s come out a winner in the end, as his deal with Sun Mountain is win-win-win: Gary’s product was improved by Sun Mountain engineers, Sun Mountain gets to sell a tremendous product, and traveling golfers get to buy a great product.
If you were impressed by the idea on the show, an in-person demo is even more impressive. Several of the design improvements made by Sun Mountain engineers have made a great product even better. The ClubGlider rolls effortlessly. The locking leg mechanism collapses and expands with ease. The padding is incredibly thick and rugged, yet the bag remains spacious enough to carry a full staff bag, two sets of shoes, a few boxes of balls, and more. The extra head room at the top of the bag was a welcome sight, as my current Ogio travel bag is a bit of a tight fit in that dimension.
This bag is all about the gliding, though, and that was the most impressive feature. Though conventional travel bags eliminate a lot of weight with the wheels, the ClubGlider’s legs essentially eliminate all weight and strain. The handle remains at hand level, eliminating the need to bend over and pick up your bag every time you stop, and requires only the lightest of touches to push, pull, and steer the ClubGlider around.
In short, your golf travel bag may transform from one of the most difficult pieces of luggage you’ll ever lug around to one of the easiest. I can’t wait to put the ClubGlider through a full test – we’ll post our review in May.
🙂 yeah saw it on the show as well and wondered how long it would take to hit the market. Bit pricey, the red cap can handle mine a few more years until the price gets better.
Ouch, $260? For that price, I’ll stick with my club glove. Two extra wheels isn’t worth that much in my book. Hopefully this is just the early adopter price of admission.
Having tested it, I can say with a fair amount of confidence you’re missing out. The thing is worth every penny at $299 let alone $260.
My hardshell case stands up on its own and feels like it could survive anything short of intentional destruction by baggage handlers – for less than 1/3 the price of the club glider.
Maybe it will work for some people, but it doesn’t seem like it would be worth the money to me.
I saw the show last season, and I thought the club glider should have won. But alas, its more about how many units you can sell than whether the item is truly innovative and can help people. While it is pricey, I’m sure it will come down over time, and hopefully will save a lot of sore backs. My back takes enough of a beating walking the course!
I’ve played with this thing first hand and can vouch for the value -I think the price is very reasonable, especially given the fact that you’ll be using it for years to come ($250 divided by 10 years is $25/year for an AWESOME product).
Does anyone know if the “Commemorative Limited Edition” is different than the Sun Mountain version that is shipping in May? I was thinking of ordering the former on the website but don’t want to buy just before the new and improved Sun Mountain version is released, especially since one of them would be a gift.
Tedd, the only difference is the embroidery on the pocket. Sun Mountain has graciously agreed to customize all of the orders created on the clubglider website with our own “Commemorative Limited Edition” logo. So the products are the same. We are also offering the ability to personalize your ClubGlider with your name or saying, you can try that out on the ClubGlider website as well and see how it will look on the bag before you even order. Hope this helps and thanks for the support. Gary
I’d love to see a close up of the integrated leg set from the back/bottom of the bag. Those legs and small casters look a little “weak” in the pictures I’ve seen. One issue I run into regularly with my travel bags is wheels that get damaged. Also, small wheels may work great inside the airport, but can certainly be less effective in rough parking lots.
Steve, the customer feedback is coming in check out their reviews and what they had to say. http://www.clubglider.com/news/42/clubglider-customer-reviews-and-new-video
Gary
Watched you and your product on Fore Inventors, congrats on a nice idea (and don’t we all wish we had thought of the suitcase on wheels concept years ago).
As airlines are setting a 50 pound limit before assessing fees, what is the weight of this unit as compared to a “normal” travel bag? Realistically, can you travel with a typical cart bag (as opposed to carry bag) with full club set, shoes, etc., without running over the limit?
Trav
Thanks for the support this entire journey has been amazing and I am very thankful to be aligned with such a great company that produces quality products.
To answer your question regarding the weight of the ClubGlider, we added about 2.5 pounds with the leg and wheel assembly however traveling within the 50 pound limit is not an issue even with a C130 cart bag (Sun Mountain’s biggest cart bag).
Much of the feedback we are receiving from users is that they are stuffing the ClubGlider to the limit and taking a carry-on for the rest to avoid the two bag extra charge at the counter.
Check out this months issue of Golf Digest with Faldo and Azinger they reviewed travel bags and gave ClubGlider a Gold Medal on their “Hot List”.
We just put the latest demo video on our website to show off all the benefits that come with ClubGlider check it out when you get a chance.
Play well,
Gary
http://www.clubglider.com