Nike Golf

[misty_mountainhop]

Not found a Nike product I've ever liked. A lot is down to appearance and, where clubs are concerned, that translates to confidence for me. The original Nike blades at least looked nice enough but since those days, there've been plenty of other suppliers I'd rather spend my money with. Drivers? No. Definitely not. Some of the balls have been decent enough but there's always been someone I'd rather buy from. Clothes? Maybe. I guess maybe shoes are they only thing I'd seriously consider and even then they're often ruined by garish graphics.

[Jeremie Boop]

  misty_mountainhop said:

Not found a Nike product I've ever liked. A lot is down to appearance and, where clubs are concerned, that translates to confidence for me. The original Nike blades at least looked nice enough but since those days, there've been plenty of other suppliers I'd rather spend my money with. Drivers? No. Definitely not. Some of the balls have been decent enough but there's always been someone I'd rather buy from. Clothes? Maybe. I guess maybe shoes are they only thing I'd seriously consider and even then they're often ruined by garish graphics.

Not sure why some of the drivers from Nike look bad to you, the one I have is very traditionally shaped and is black. I would say it looks nicer than most other drivers lately. It's an older model though. I also actually like the the red of the new covert driver. I don't like the drivers with a lot of extra graphics or flashy colors like taylormade/amp has put out recently.

[Nutter]

  misty_mountainhop said:

Not found a Nike product I've ever liked. A lot is down to appearance and, where clubs are concerned, that translates to confidence for me. The original Nike blades at least looked nice enough but since those days, there've been plenty of other suppliers I'd rather spend my money with. Drivers? No. Definitely not. Some of the balls have been decent enough but there's always been someone I'd rather buy from. Clothes? Maybe. I guess maybe shoes are they only thing I'd seriously consider and even then they're often ruined by garish graphics.

Exactly what I've been trying to say

[Jeremie Boop]

titleist 913d3 nike vr2 pro

Yeah, that nike driver looks horrendous compared to the titleist

[misty_mountainhop]

  Jeremie Boop said:

Not sure why some of the drivers from Nike look bad to you, the one I have is very traditionally shaped and is black. I would say it looks nicer than most other drivers lately. It's an older model though. I also actually like the the red of the new covert driver. I don't like the drivers with a lot of extra graphics or flashy colors like taylormade/amp has put out recently.

I'm not sure I said they all looked bad. It's a tough ask for Nike in the driver market though - for me, I'd probably look at Titleist first up. TMAG seems to have caught a wave with the RBZs (whatever is said about the daft name) and I'd probably look at even, say, Mizuno's offerings before I looked at Nike's drivers. The Covert sounds like an interesting idea but I'm not interested in a red driver, at all.

I admit to some bias here too - I just don't really care for Nike's marketing stance etc. If they had a killer product, I'd be daft not to look at it but to my mind, they barely compete with other equipment that's out there, let alone have a stand-out product.

Fortunately, people have choice - some friends have (and like) Nike gear but it's not for me.

[misty_mountainhop]

  Jeremie Boop said:

titleist 913d3    nike vr2 pro

Yeah, that nike driver looks horrendous compared to the titleist

Hey ho. One club does not a portfolio of quality make.

[Maddog10]

Their clothing line is very nice, I love my Nike Dri-Fit shirts. In high school golf, I also used Nike balls and wore their shoes, though I quickly left their shoes for Foot-Joy. IMO, the comfort level of their shoes wasn't even in the same ballpark as Foot-Joy, and that is based off of walking 70+ holes per week... However, I recently decided to give their shoes another chance after about 6 years with Foot-Joy and picked up a pair of Lunar Controls, which thus far have proven to be very nice/comfortable. I notice some people complain about the width and I can see where that would be a valid argument if you don't have a narrow foot. My foot is narrow with a fairly high arch and the Lunar Controls fit me nicely.

I also no longer play their balls, and have switched to Titleist. I tried just about every ball in their lineup and liked most of them okay, but I've yet to find one that I am willing to replace the Pro-V's with.

I can't comment much on their clubs. I had a Nike driver as a freshman in high school but replaced it with a Taylormade R5, which I'm still using today. That's the only Nike club I've owned.

[Dave2512]

Not crazy about the Nike balls but I have a bunch of clothes and though I don't use their equipment I would. I seriously considered it when I was in the market. I can get away with golf polo's and shorts at work so my golf clothes are basically my every day clothes. Thing I like about the Nike line is it can be as understated as you prefer. Today I have on grey shorts and a black long sleeve polo. With one small swoosh on the cuff you wouldn't know it's golf duds. Their golf polo is also the template for team wear, Nike tennis, Nike street etc.

[GaijinGolfer]

  PirateJim said:

So far as the clubs, I've not found any from Nike that get my interest up, but clubs are so personal that it's not at all surprising that there are folks that love 'em.  I like some of their clothes too, got a Nike bathing suit that is my favorite, and it is coming the time of year that my Nike sweats will be coming out of storage.

The thing about Nike is that they are huge, and they seem to have a commitment to being a major player in most aspects of sports equipment.  I'm looking at the Nike web site, and under the "Sports" toolbar heading there are six major categories and five, um..., minor? categories listed. (The difference being that the major categories have neat graphic images, the minors are just listed in text on the next line down.

1 - Running

2 - Basketball

3 - Football

4 - Soccer

5 - Men's Training

6 - Women's Training

and then....

Baseball, Golf, Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Tennis

Glad Golf beat out Skateboarding, but I think this probably suggests where the priorities are when people sit around the board room allocating money for product research and development.  Just one person's opinion, but I would expect more focus on trying to keep up with the competition's innovations and with marketing ploys (should we paint our drivers a different color this coming year?).  Most of their innovation will probably come in shoes and clothing rather than clubs.

As oppposed to the, "innovation" of Titleist and Ping?

[rehmwa]

  Jeremie Boop said:

titleist 913d3    nike vr2 pro

Yeah, that nike driver looks horrendous compared to the titleist

Hey - there's my initial driver - liking the VR ii's

but the Limited editions are a step up from the pros

[Jeremie Boop]

  rehmwa said:

Hey - there's my initial driver - liking the VR ii's

but the Limited editions are a step up from the pros

I got mine off ebay for 65 bucks, they replaced the project x shaft with a kuro kage 60g stiff shaft after it broke at the adapter. We'll see if it holds up fine.

[rehmwa]

  Jeremie Boop said:

I got mine off ebay for 65 bucks, they replaced the project x shaft with a kuro kage 60g stiff shaft after it broke at the adapter. We'll see if it holds up fine.

My STR8 fit was also a clearance buy.  Just about the 1 year mark, the ProjX (6.5) broke at the adapter and they replaced the shaft with the (SWEET) Mitsu Ahina (Stiff).  Shortly after that the head developed a rattle (happens after a shaft swap).  At that point, they just gave me a new one (Limited = no funky adjustable hosel feature which I don't use, and I get the Ahina.  They also matched my grips for free).

I prefer the Limited for sure.  So I ended up quite ahead on the game.

No issues with the fairways or hybrids.  Frankly, with the two issues on one club, I'd have been down on the driver, but the manner of response and fix impressed me.

I have a spare VR ii wrench I don't need...

and, YES, It's a very clean look at address for sure.  They should have taken the silly sticker off before taking that picture.

[Jeremie Boop]

  rehmwa said:

My STR8 fit was also a clearance buy.  Just about the 1 year mark, the ProjX (6.5) broke at the adapter and they replaced the shaft with the (SWEET) Mitsu Ahina (Stiff).  Shortly after that the head developed a rattle (happens after a shaft swap).  At that point, they just gave me a new one (Limited = no funky adjustable hosel feature which I don't use, and I get the Ahina.  They also matched my grips for free).

I prefer the Limited for sure.  So I ended up quite ahead on the game.

No issues with the fairways or hybrids.  Frankly, with the two issues on one club, I'd have been down on the driver, but the manner of response and fix impressed me.

I have a spare VR ii wrench I don't need...

and, YES, It's a very clean look at address for sure.  They should have taken the silly sticker off before taking that picture.

I actually got lucky and got the wrench and head cover with mine, one of the few that I have seen sold with those.

[bradsul]

I use the VRPro II 4H and the VR Pro Ltd 3W and 5W (Ahina shafts) and I absolutely love them.  I used them all this season to great result.  I decided to try the Covert driver last week since they just dropped below $200CAD at Golf Town.  I wasn't sure about the cavity on the driver but I love the red head and shaft combination.  Turns out I hit it incredibly well too so I have that driver in my bag now as well.

As others have mentioned I don't care much for the balls and I haven't tried the irons, but I definitely like the clubs have tried.

[nick1998bunker]

Surprised no one has brought up bext years driver. Looks exactly the same to me

[PirateJim]

  GaijinGolfer said:

As oppposed to the, "innovation" of Titleist and Ping?

I think it is fair to list both of those as having track records of innovation in the golf industry that are admirable. Innovation, IMO, isn't directly linked with scheduled new product releases or the sometimes gimmicky modifications companies introduce that create product differentiation. My point, however, wasn't to bash Nike in the way some others here seem to be. What I was trying to say is that golf isn't at the heart of the Nike organization the way it likely is for many of the other industry leaders like Titleist and Ping. That doesn't mean their products suck, but I don't think true innovation is as likely from them as from companies that have golf at their core.

[nick1998bunker]

I think a good comparasin between nike and wilson. Both put less money into golf than other parts of the business but both keep a pretty good reputation and produce clubs up to par. I mean they obviously both sell pretty good I guess mizuno could be added to that list even though their irons sell better but they only are good at forged irons

[cart7]

I've owned to pair of Nike shoes, one, a pair of sneakers and a pair of golf shoes.

I had the same problem with both of them, the soles started peeling off the bottoms of the shoes.  Still lots of life left in both pair except for the soles coming off.  I wound up gluing them back on but that didn't last long.  Wound up trash canning both of them and vowed to never own Nike shoes again.