I was a Nike staff professional. The look of the clubs was always what made the clubs difficult to sell to older golfers. I would say in general Nike clubs were more forgiving than they looked, but they never quite got the distance of competitors especially Taylor Made. Good players are willing to give up some distance for feel, consistency, and either forgiveness or workability. The average player only cares about distance. A huge setback was Tiger Woods’ sex scandal which happened just before the launch of Victory Red. Nike had to cancel a huge marketing campaign they had with Tiger and as a result didn’t market that equipment as thoroughly as planned. Then by the time Vapor came out, I feel like they had already decided they were giving up.
@@boganpainter1638 new golfer here i have the vrs ( victory red speed ) irons and I really love them they are in my bag and I really love them distance good ( my new 5 irons loft is between my old 4 and 3 irons ) it make them go farther and are so forgiving I would not change them for anything at the moment
That's odd unless your just a Tiger hater which is cool I'm not judging... The Victory Red line was launched in 2010 with the blades launching in 2012.... The Tiger Scandal was in late 2013... I'm calling BS... I work in the industry....
@@infiniteflight9553 The original Victory Red irons launched for the UK/US 01 November 2008. The Victory red pro combo irons launched in 2010. Tiger's scandal happened in 2009. Actually, happened right around the time of the '09 PGA Championship.
@@infiniteflight9553 I am talking about when it was discovered that Tiger was cheating on Elin and he wrecked his Escalade into a tree when she hit him with a 7 iron. That happened Thanksgiving 2009.
I don't know who your "inside engineer" source was but if he is real I was his boss. It troubles me he wants to hide. I take issue with some of the reasons you have used in the video for the failure of Nike Golf. My name is Tom Stites. I was the director of R/D product creation for 14 years at Nike Golf. I saw myself on one of your clips in this video. To say we didn't invest heavily or enough in R/D is simply wrong. We had the best engineering testing and prototype equipment possible. We hired a number of super designers, engineers and CAD specialists from Titleist, Callaway and TM. We had the best people. Our Nike clubs were used to win dozens and dozens of PGA tournaments including every major multiple times. Bad clubs are not used to win PGA tour events especially the majors. It was not all just Tiger either. Several Nike Golf consumer clubs won the Golf Digest Club Test several times. A number of us at Nike started our golf careers working for the man Mr. Ben Hogan. We knew what good clubs were. Your piece got something right however. Margins for clubs are very different than soft goods. Investing in soft goods yields more profit than clubs. A new group of top big Nike executives (cooperate types from Nike Europe) were promoted in the later years of our golf club business into the chain of command. These soccer types looked down on us from the corporate mountain. Real golf sport visionaries like Phil K. Bob W. and Cindy were pushed out or stepping back/gone. The new top Portland folks wanted to take a easier margin route than clubs. This same group of executives (who decided to exit clubs) also took big Nike in other directions that now we know since has been less than beneficial to the Nike stock price. My retirement account has suffered greatly since they took over. I hope it soon turns around. I hear they are bringing back some real deal former employee visionaries. I hope it works. For golf clubs at that time Phil Knight stepped back and away and let these folks step in and pushed to make decisions like "kill golf clubs". I don't blame him for stepping back to enjoy life but for clubs I really miss a visionary leader like Phil. He knew that clubs made Nike a complete golf company and he knew the value of winning major championships with Nike clubs. WE DID IT! He said to always do the right things and the money will follow. Some those put in later management forgot that and surrendered to margins and didn't stay the course to excellence. Think about it- CPR, Slingshots, Pro Combo and SQ products (and others) made golf easer for many folks. I will forever be proud of what our team did at Nike Golf. I am gut shot sick 2 years after my retirement it was shut down.
Hi Tom. I reached out to you on linkedin and tried to get an interview with you to hear your side and then, once you responded, I never heard back from you to schedule the interview. I reached out to probably about 60-70 ex Nike Golf related people, and only one responded willing to talk and so I only had one perspective who I do believe was telling me the truth (or at least his opinion, which I didn't have enough information to believe he was flat-out wrong). I wish I could have brought up more perspectives, yours included, but again because of my limited reach, I had to play the hand I was dealt. Please feel free to reach back out to me on LinkedIn and maybe we can set something up as a follow up to this video if there is more to this story than I was able to originally dig up.
If you're gut shot sick about Nike, I imagine you know exactly how Ben Hogan and Gene Sheeley felt. To me, that's an even bigger tragedy (if you really are Tom Stites, you should know, wink-wink, nudge-nudge). And you also know there were some real clunkers put out there with the Hogan name on them. But the right Ben Hogans are still the grail.🏆⛳
Unlike Ben Hogan, a name which can be sold to anyone with enough money, Nike Golf died inside a monolith. Fans of the game will never forget how great the equipment actually was. It was a hard sell, though, even with TW on top of the world. I wonder how it would've faired had TW come along in the 80s opposed to the 2000s, when his personal life would've been less known ala MJ.... Ya'll made great sticks, Tom. Both with the swoosh and w/ BH. Thanks.
I left a similar comment a few months ago on one of your earlier videos, dude please keep making these and no matter what you’re gonna end up eventually getting the exposure that you deserve. There aren’t many golf UA-cam channels that really dive into these kind of things like you’re doing, and I guarantee you if you stick with this, you’re gonna be one of the main state challenge channels for a long time.
I still game my Nike Vapor Pro irons 4-PW. Everybody still loves them. Whenever I’m having a lesson the golf pros always love to stop and have a look at them. There’s something about Nike clubs that gets everyone giddy when they see them.
That’s part of why I love the blades I picked up so much. Yeah, they are hard to hit but it also makes me focus more and now I’ve got a real conversation starter as well. I’m proud to play these clubs, even if the pros in the comment section tell you I have no right playing them😂
Nike Lab was awesome. I feel we really missed out on so many innovative golf clubs and balls with the exit of Nike. But Ping, TaylorMade, PXG, LAB are making good stuff. And I love the Pro V1X Left Dash. We have no idea what a unicorn Left Dash is.
Hi. I used to work for Nike building custom clubs. It wasn’t at the Oven but at facility in Memphis, Tn. We would build out all the custom orders from anyone getting a Nike clubs. I worked there from 2010-12. If Tiger played sales would go up. When he wasn’t playing sales would plummet. Rory did nothing for club sales. I built clubs for Chris Paul, Kordell Stewart, and Phil Knight himself.
The first golf clubs I bought were Nike sling shot irons. I played well with them. The driver I bought was nike also, and it definitely could have been better. That was in Tigers Prime, and he got me playing golf. I don't play with nike clubs now, just the shoes. Lol
I loved their first driver they produced. The forged 400cc driver is still one of my favorites. The Pro Combo irons were pretty good and pushed other manufacturers to start offering combo sets. Before that you had to go to a custom club builder to get a set like that.
Having covered the industry for 15 years, during which I was there at the launch of Nike Golf, and visited The Oven in Fort Worth, I can say Nike was serious about golf to a certain point. But Mark King, the former CEO of TaylorMade, said it best. Phil Knight spent $500 million on a venture he knew would fail but it didn't matter because he had the most famous athlete in the world promoting his company (Tiger Woods). It didn't hurt to have Michelle Wie, either, as she's a very good ambassador. Nike lost hundreds of millions on golf but the company grew exponentially. Golf failed as a standalone business but it was an excellent marketing move on the corporate level.
Great video. I played a lot of golf over the past 20 plus years. Even in Tiger's heyday, other than a few tiger fanboys, I rarely saw anyone with Nike clubs, esp. irons. They did have some some good models; IMHO, The sumo square hybrids were one of the best ever made, esp for new players. Their early clubs were lousy; unfortunately, even as they got better later on, they could never escape that stigma. And once tiger, do the injuries and other other circumstances stopped dominating and became less visible on the tour in the 2010's, they were DOA
Ive played nike sv tour wedges for a long time (56/60), tried to replace them many times but they feel so good to me and have so much playability. have to hit ebay every few years to replace one.
As someone who is just starting golf this was a great insight into Nikes clubs, especially after being in the second hand market for my first set of clubs I was always told to stay clear of Nikes golf clubs, can definitely see why they're no longer making clubs now. Great video man!
as an ex-soccer and basketball player, I know that flashy really works for cleats and shoes in those sports, so I really liked the flashier look of nike clubs. however, my college soccer coach used to complain about how we all wore brightly colored cleats and "back in his day if you wore anything but black, you were gonna get a few hard tackles from the other team". Golf has a huge, older audience, and they tend to hate flashy xD great video, super interesting to hear all of the reasons of why they pulled out
Used the CPR game improvement clubs and SQ Dymo2 driver since 2003 - Made me a mid handicap player. Best clubs ever - forgiving; will miss them. Replaced this year with TaylorMade Sim2 Diver and Iron set; but kept one Nike CPR hybrid and Nike wedges. I'll always have a Nike club in my bag.
Really insightful to mention their baseball equipment. I didn't take their gear seriously when I grew up playing baseball. Made it hard to take them seriously when I got into golf.
I still play with the VR irons . Love them. I did buy a new TM driver though and gained 30 yards. 🤯 Couldn’t believe it. I’ve been looking for Nike clubs online, I didn’t even realize they stopped making clubs. 😂 🤦♂️
I've been gaming the SQ Driver and VR cavaity backs for 15 years. Just broke 75 with them for the first time this month! The CCI Forged are also money.
I Still have a VR Forged Pro Combo Irons that I game a few times a year, I love that there is slim to no chance of anyone else gaming the same iron :). Granted, I would have to club up from my usual gaps with the Ping i230.
At the end of the day, if they're not making money then unlike Adidas that had to sell TaylorMade, Nike just stopped making equipment. I continue to use Nike equipment to this day. People didn't like the color scheme which I liked because it was different. They catered to a younger player. Their limited edition drivers with the exception of the Vapor Speed that had the volt colored club head had black club heads. I have all 3 limited edition drivers. As far as your 3 iron, probably needed a 3 hydrid. I play the VRII Pro Combo 5-Pw. They feel so soft on a well struck shot and a not so well struck shot. Forgiving for a forged iron.
Caddied a few months back for an ex-Nike golf executive. He said that Nike tried to be too innovative while also dealing with a very different market place. Most Nike goods are sold through chain stores/ online, etc. Golf, especially back then, was very individual outlet driven, (Pro shops attached to clubs), and Nike weren't prepared to develop these one-to-one relationships, with the specialised fitting and customisation that goes with it. Essentially the golf equipment business was at odds with their other goods business model. He said he totally understood the final decision to pull out, but was frustrated as he felt the product was actually excellent by the end.
The R&D of Taylormade, Callaway, Titleist and Mizuno have been decades of information that they’ve compiled to push the Golf clubs’ tech envelope. Callaway for example was the first to introduce metal driver woods with a bore through shaft in the 90s. The beginning of a trend still present today. Nike jumped in the arena thinking they can just pour money into a department and a superior golf clubs will just be made. Big mistake! They forgot to make clubs for consumers that majority play with a high handicap. That’s where Callaway and Taylormade focused their objective. Results is what you see today where both control the majority of the golf club market.
I started golf in 2015. First used dunlop graphite shafts. Now i use 2 sets i got 2nd hand. A set of nike ignite and a set of nike sumo sq. No regrets and i don’t see myself upgrading anytime soon. It’s in the indian, not the bow.
I’ve worked at golf shops when Nike first started with clubs and it was a big deal. It was basically Tiger’s clubs. At the time, I was playing Mizuno MP14’s which the Nike blades were modeled after and Tiger had them with a mix of MP29’s. Nike clubs garnered lots of interest, but when it comes to clubs, there are the big 4. Titleist, Ping, Taylormade and Callaway. Nike failed to grab a piece of the market because they were trying to compete with those names, instead of selling at a much lower price point or a much higher one, like PXG. I eventually ended up with an entire bag of Nikes right up to when they decided to give it up.
great video. i'm still sad nike left. i was able to buy nike clubs in their later years and love them. still play vr forged pro combo, and og flex driver because of how muted it is
i still play my vapor speed irons. they dont go as far, but i love the feel and sound they make. and as i got into golf as a kid during the tailend of the tiger era, it just makes me gravitate towards them. plus i think they look pretty cool (but im a gen z so)
Great video. I’ve always thought it was the worst thing Rory did signing with them. Admittedly he did win a major with them but how many more would he have won in his prime if he had signed with someone decent?
Nice vidéo ! Happy to see se have the same talent at golf 😅 i was lucky and found some nike vrs irons and I really love them they are cavity back but they are hot and a lil forgiving
Its funny that this video popped up on my recommended. I just bought my first set of clubs and had to have nike clubs. Sasquatch machspeed driver, vaporfly 3+ wood, vr forged pro combo 2 iron, vaporspeed 4-pw, and a ignite 003 putter
The yellow SQ set of clubs as a kid is still for me the best looking I’ve seen. Growing up watching Tiger I thought Nike were top tier in golf but I realized later on that wasn’t the case.
i got a full nike bag and i feel like it’s a goldmine. it’s took years to build but i finally did it everything looks stunning too for the age i could never give them up i can’t hit anything as pure as nike irons
As my coach put it (when advising me to switch my Nike fairway woods instead of upgrading my irons) - there's a reason Nike don't make clubs any more. I.e. they weren't as good as for example Taylor Made for woods. I did love my SQ 13 driver though - loud, yes. Forgiving, also yes. (Not as loud as the Callaway FTI!!!)
I had a SQ driver for a while because the salesman at a demo day took my information before letting me test the clubs, and then delivered one to the range operator and claimed that I had ordered it . I still needed a driver and took it to help him out. I liked hitting it, but it must have spun like hell because the ball would take off great and look great but when I got to the ball I'd be 20 yards short of my usual distance.
The woods always were junk, but the irons, not bad. When my kid started playing at the same time Nike went under, I got him a set of irons for super cheap. Very forgiving and the feel and distance weren't bad.
Nike has never been a quality hard goods company. They’re a shoes and soft goods company. They had the same issue when they bought Bauer and came out with Nike branded hockey equipment. The hard goods made by Bauer (even when owned by Nike) was high quality but the hard goods made by and branded as Nike wasn’t on par with Bauer, CCM, or their other competitors. Similar to what you pointed out with bats.
I thrift for clubs quite a bit I have a few sets of nike irons ..i love them i actually have the slingshot hl 5 hybrid in my bag..things so nice launches super high spins on receptive greens
I’m pretty sure Phil mickelsons comments were in respect to the fact tiger was still using steel shafted driver and woods. It wasn’t so much about the head.
I was always a Nike club player. Just finally moving from my Nike clubs in the past two years. I feel it never got the respect for the clubs because of the "traditionalist" golfers in reference to the phil comment though, it was because Tiger was still playing g stell shafts and everyone was moving to graphite. So, yeah, Tiger was not turning over immediately to those shafts. So, his distance suffered, but not his wins.
I have a set of Nike ignite irons I bought real cheap off eBay some years back and while I can play them I dont particularly care for the feel of them I’m definitely in the novice category so my hits are quite inconsistent and the sweet spot on the ignites is just too small for me to be effective with however when everything comes together and you do make contact with the sweet spot on them man the ball absolutely rockets my fil really likes them so I’m gonna give them to him and grab a new set that’s more beginner friendly
my irons are Nike only set ive ever bought/owned.... some VRS Forged i got for under $200.... i still play most of them, though i replaced the pitching wedge with a Mizuno MP32 and the sand wedge with a TM Hi Toe... im not at all a Nike fan, im not a Tiger Woods fan either... i jsut bought them because they were reasonably priced and they felt good when i hit them., and i hit them better than others mostly... id honestly rather own Callaway or TM or Ping and all my other clubs are a variety of those
I once went to a try-out day at a local course where every company had their full complement of clubs and fitters. My standard line walking up to each was, "Let me try your most forgiving clubs." Nike's game improvement clubs were unhittable for a novice golfer. Ping, Callaway, and Wilson were so much better.
It's funny nike gets out of golf just about 3-4 yrs before the game starts to blow up. They made a few pretty good irons and wedges. Some decent putters and one or two decent wood offerings that's about it.
Gamed the Slingshot TOUR irons until this yr (yes WAY too long), but still use their CPR rescue 3/4 hybrid. Bought the Ignite driver which was TERRIBLE. Tried and tried to make that work but it got dumped after half a season for never finding the fairway.
I was a Nike staff professional. The look of the clubs was always what made the clubs difficult to sell to older golfers. I would say in general Nike clubs were more forgiving than they looked, but they never quite got the distance of competitors especially Taylor Made. Good players are willing to give up some distance for feel, consistency, and either forgiveness or workability. The average player only cares about distance. A huge setback was Tiger Woods’ sex scandal which happened just before the launch of Victory Red. Nike had to cancel a huge marketing campaign they had with Tiger and as a result didn’t market that equipment as thoroughly as planned. Then by the time Vapor came out, I feel like they had already decided they were giving up.
@@boganpainter1638 new golfer here i have the vrs ( victory red speed ) irons and I really love them they are in my bag and I really love them distance good ( my new 5 irons loft is between my old 4 and 3 irons ) it make them go farther and are so forgiving I would not change them for anything at the moment
That's odd unless your just a Tiger hater which is cool I'm not judging... The Victory Red line was launched in 2010 with the blades launching in 2012.... The Tiger Scandal was in late 2013... I'm calling BS... I work in the industry....
@@infiniteflight9553 The original Victory Red irons launched for the UK/US 01 November 2008. The Victory red pro combo irons launched in 2010. Tiger's scandal happened in 2009. Actually, happened right around the time of the '09 PGA Championship.
@@infiniteflight9553 2013 is when he came out publicly about dating Lindsey Vonn.
@@infiniteflight9553 I am talking about when it was discovered that Tiger was cheating on Elin and he wrecked his Escalade into a tree when she hit him with a 7 iron. That happened Thanksgiving 2009.
I don't know who your "inside engineer" source was but if he is real I was his boss. It troubles me he wants to hide. I take issue with some of the reasons you have used in the video for the failure of Nike Golf. My name is Tom Stites. I was the director of R/D product creation for 14 years at Nike Golf. I saw myself on one of your clips in this video. To say we didn't invest heavily or enough in R/D is simply wrong. We had the best engineering testing and prototype equipment possible. We hired a number of super designers, engineers and CAD specialists from Titleist, Callaway and TM. We had the best people. Our Nike clubs were used to win dozens and dozens of PGA tournaments including every major multiple times. Bad clubs are not used to win PGA tour events especially the majors. It was not all just Tiger either. Several Nike Golf consumer clubs won the Golf Digest Club Test several times. A number of us at Nike started our golf careers working for the man Mr. Ben Hogan. We knew what good clubs were. Your piece got something right however. Margins for clubs are very different than soft goods. Investing in soft goods yields more profit than clubs. A new group of top big Nike executives (cooperate types from Nike Europe) were promoted in the later years of our golf club business into the chain of command. These soccer types looked down on us from the corporate mountain. Real golf sport visionaries like Phil K. Bob W. and Cindy were pushed out or stepping back/gone. The new top Portland folks wanted to take a easier margin route than clubs. This same group of executives (who decided to exit clubs) also took big Nike in other directions that now we know since has been less than beneficial to the Nike stock price. My retirement account has suffered greatly since they took over. I hope it soon turns around. I hear they are bringing back some real deal former employee visionaries. I hope it works. For golf clubs at that time Phil Knight stepped back and away and let these folks step in and pushed to make decisions like "kill golf clubs". I don't blame him for stepping back to enjoy life but for clubs I really miss a visionary leader like Phil. He knew that clubs made Nike a complete golf company and he knew the value of winning major championships with Nike clubs. WE DID IT! He said to always do the right things and the money will follow. Some those put in later management forgot that and surrendered to margins and didn't stay the course to excellence. Think about it- CPR, Slingshots, Pro Combo and SQ products (and others) made golf easer for many folks. I will forever be proud of what our team did at Nike Golf. I am gut shot sick 2 years after my retirement it was shut down.
Hi Tom. I reached out to you on linkedin and tried to get an interview with you to hear your side and then, once you responded, I never heard back from you to schedule the interview.
I reached out to probably about 60-70 ex Nike Golf related people, and only one responded willing to talk and so I only had one perspective who I do believe was telling me the truth (or at least his opinion, which I didn't have enough information to believe he was flat-out wrong).
I wish I could have brought up more perspectives, yours included, but again because of my limited reach, I had to play the hand I was dealt.
Please feel free to reach back out to me on LinkedIn and maybe we can set something up as a follow up to this video if there is more to this story than I was able to originally dig up.
If you're gut shot sick about Nike, I imagine you know exactly how Ben Hogan and Gene Sheeley felt. To me, that's an even bigger tragedy (if you really are Tom Stites, you should know, wink-wink, nudge-nudge). And you also know there were some real clunkers put out there with the Hogan name on them. But the right Ben Hogans are still the grail.🏆⛳
Unlike Ben Hogan, a name which can be sold to anyone with enough money, Nike Golf died inside a monolith. Fans of the game will never forget how great the equipment actually was. It was a hard sell, though, even with TW on top of the world. I wonder how it would've faired had TW come along in the 80s opposed to the 2000s, when his personal life would've been less known ala MJ.... Ya'll made great sticks, Tom. Both with the swoosh and w/ BH. Thanks.
Bro has no source.
Nike R & D people were fantastic, just not as fantastic as Callaway and Taylormade.
I left a similar comment a few months ago on one of your earlier videos, dude please keep making these and no matter what you’re gonna end up eventually getting the exposure that you deserve. There aren’t many golf UA-cam channels that really dive into these kind of things like you’re doing, and I guarantee you if you stick with this, you’re gonna be one of the main state challenge channels for a long time.
Not only is Robby one of the best golf channels now, he’s also one of the best Barcelona fan channels too
I still game my Nike Vapor Pro irons 4-PW. Everybody still loves them. Whenever I’m having a lesson the golf pros always love to stop and have a look at them. There’s something about Nike clubs that gets everyone giddy when they see them.
That’s part of why I love the blades I picked up so much. Yeah, they are hard to hit but it also makes me focus more and now I’ve got a real conversation starter as well. I’m proud to play these clubs, even if the pros in the comment section tell you I have no right playing them😂
Are you kidding? All good golfers I know like mizuno, titleist and Wilson and hate Nike
@@columkennwho you know is not who he knows … I can gather a group of people that won’t like the 3 brands you mentioned… doesn’t mean they are trash …
Nike Lab was awesome. I feel we really missed out on so many innovative golf clubs and balls with the exit of Nike. But Ping, TaylorMade, PXG, LAB are making good stuff. And I love the Pro V1X Left Dash. We have no idea what a unicorn Left Dash is.
@@columkenn There are pros still playing a Nike driving iron, man. I don't know of any non-putter club that's older on the tour.
Hi. I used to work for Nike building custom clubs. It wasn’t at the Oven but at facility in Memphis, Tn. We would build out all the custom orders from anyone getting a Nike clubs. I worked there from 2010-12. If Tiger played sales would go up. When he wasn’t playing sales would plummet. Rory did nothing for club sales. I built clubs for Chris Paul, Kordell Stewart, and Phil Knight himself.
I worked at Nike Golf when Nike shut it down. I really miss that job and the people at The Oven.... still play those clubs.
The first golf clubs I bought were Nike sling shot irons. I played well with them. The driver I bought was nike also, and it definitely could have been better. That was in Tigers Prime, and he got me playing golf. I don't play with nike clubs now, just the shoes. Lol
I loved their first driver they produced. The forged 400cc driver is still one of my favorites. The Pro Combo irons were pretty good and pushed other manufacturers to start offering combo sets. Before that you had to go to a custom club builder to get a set like that.
Having covered the industry for 15 years, during which I was there at the launch of Nike Golf, and visited The Oven in Fort Worth, I can say Nike was serious about golf to a certain point. But Mark King, the former CEO of TaylorMade, said it best. Phil Knight spent $500 million on a venture he knew would fail but it didn't matter because he had the most famous athlete in the world promoting his company (Tiger Woods). It didn't hurt to have Michelle Wie, either, as she's a very good ambassador. Nike lost hundreds of millions on golf but the company grew exponentially. Golf failed as a standalone business but it was an excellent marketing move on the corporate level.
Great video. I played a lot of golf over the past 20 plus years. Even in Tiger's heyday, other than a few tiger fanboys, I rarely saw anyone with Nike clubs, esp. irons. They did have some some good models; IMHO, The sumo square hybrids were one of the best ever made, esp for new players. Their early clubs were lousy; unfortunately, even as they got better later on, they could never escape that stigma. And once tiger, do the injuries and other other circumstances stopped dominating and became less visible on the tour in the 2010's, they were DOA
I still hit a Nike Ignite driver and love it! I tried/ Demoed all the new drivers this year and decided to stay with my decades old Nike Ignite!
Loved my SQ machspeed irons when I started playing. The covert driver was the shortest club I ever hit!
Ive played nike sv tour wedges for a long time (56/60), tried to replace them many times but they feel so good to me and have so much playability. have to hit ebay every few years to replace one.
Still rocking a few of the solid clubs they did make. Love these videos about Nike Golf history.
As someone who is just starting golf this was a great insight into Nikes clubs, especially after being in the second hand market for my first set of clubs I was always told to stay clear of Nikes golf clubs, can definitely see why they're no longer making clubs now. Great video man!
This has the potential to be the Golf version of Baseball Doesn't Exist. Keep it up these videos are amazing.
Great video man keep it up!
as an ex-soccer and basketball player, I know that flashy really works for cleats and shoes in those sports, so I really liked the flashier look of nike clubs. however, my college soccer coach used to complain about how we all wore brightly colored cleats and "back in his day if you wore anything but black, you were gonna get a few hard tackles from the other team". Golf has a huge, older audience, and they tend to hate flashy xD great video, super interesting to hear all of the reasons of why they pulled out
VR pro blades are still my favorite irons and I still use them. No other iron looks as good looking down on than those.
Used the CPR game improvement clubs and SQ Dymo2 driver since 2003 - Made me a mid handicap player. Best clubs ever - forgiving; will miss them.
Replaced this year with TaylorMade Sim2 Diver and Iron set; but kept one Nike CPR hybrid and Nike wedges.
I'll always have a Nike club in my bag.
This is a great video. Love the insight!
James! The man himself! Thank you!
Really insightful to mention their baseball equipment. I didn't take their gear seriously when I grew up playing baseball. Made it hard to take them seriously when I got into golf.
This is easily one of the best new golf channels, loving the content so far! And your narration is really good too
I still play with the VR irons . Love them. I did buy a new TM driver though and gained 30 yards. 🤯 Couldn’t believe it. I’ve been looking for Nike clubs online, I didn’t even realize they stopped making clubs. 😂 🤦♂️
vrs are pretty sweet
ditto
I felt seen when hit a massive slice off the tee, en route to a 109. One of us! One of us! 😀
Their woods at the end were phenomenal… it took me 8 years to replace my covert tour woods. I don’t think anyone’s made as cool clubs since Nike.
Cobra blues were cool
Victim of marketing. Obviously Titleist and TaylorMade and Mizuno etc had better clubs
I've been gaming the SQ Driver and VR cavaity backs for 15 years. Just broke 75 with them for the first time this month!
The CCI Forged are also money.
I've never seen this channel before, but the opening juxtaposition of the old Nike club on the world's oldest course made me LOL
I have a set of nike vapor woods and I love them. They have a very unique sound when you hit it right. Love the Fubuki shafts too.
first set of irons were the Nike Slingshot 4-Sw, current Iron set is Nike Pro Combo 3-Pw, absolutely love them.
Love my Nike 3 wood
Still use it now
Thanks great work team Tom
I’m astonished. You don’t have more subscribers. This video is very very well done
The VR blades are as good a blade as any out there. The Pro Combo sets they built were also top notch.
This was an extremely well articulated video brother, keep it up!
Thank you Jess!
I Still have a VR Forged Pro Combo Irons that I game a few times a year, I love that there is slim to no chance of anyone else gaming the same iron :). Granted, I would have to club up from my usual gaps with the Ping i230.
cheers, from fellow vr forged iron player.
Make that 3 of us gentlemen I still use them to this day
The original ProCombo irons were amazing. I played the OG version for years in competitive golf. Also, the Ignite 460CC driver was pretty good.
2nd year golfer, currently playing Nike Pro Combo irons and love them. Also using a Covert 2.0 driver but havent swung anything else for comparison
I still play Nike NDS irons. Love'em
I play victory red blades. They’re awsome.
Plot twist that i was hoping you would mention. TW irons were actually Miura custom irons that were restamped with Nike logos.
At the end of the day, if they're not making money then unlike Adidas that had to sell TaylorMade, Nike just stopped making equipment. I continue to use Nike equipment to this day. People didn't like the color scheme which I liked because it was different. They catered to a younger player. Their limited edition drivers with the exception of the Vapor Speed that had the volt colored club head had black club heads. I have all 3 limited edition drivers. As far as your 3 iron, probably needed a 3 hydrid. I play the VRII Pro Combo 5-Pw. They feel so soft on a well struck shot and a not so well struck shot. Forgiving for a forged iron.
I guess you still think the internet is a fade.
How do you only have 7k subscribers! Awesome video through and through! -- Flowed well and editing was great!
Caddied a few months back for an ex-Nike golf executive. He said that Nike tried to be too innovative while also dealing with a very different market place. Most Nike goods are sold through chain stores/ online, etc. Golf, especially back then, was very individual outlet driven, (Pro shops attached to clubs), and Nike weren't prepared to develop these one-to-one relationships, with the specialised fitting and customisation that goes with it. Essentially the golf equipment business was at odds with their other goods business model. He said he totally understood the final decision to pull out, but was frustrated as he felt the product was actually excellent by the end.
The R&D of Taylormade, Callaway, Titleist and Mizuno have been decades of information that they’ve compiled to push the Golf clubs’ tech envelope. Callaway for example was the first to introduce metal driver woods with a bore through shaft in the 90s. The beginning of a trend still present today. Nike jumped in the arena thinking they can just pour money into a department and a superior golf clubs will just be made. Big mistake! They forgot to make clubs for consumers that majority play with a high handicap. That’s where Callaway and Taylormade focused their objective. Results is what you see today where both control the majority of the golf club market.
Such a underrated channel you WILL blow up soon
I started golf in 2015. First used dunlop graphite shafts. Now i use 2 sets i got 2nd hand. A set of nike ignite and a set of nike sumo sq. No regrets and i don’t see myself upgrading anytime soon. It’s in the indian, not the bow.
Great video! I have friends that still play Nike wedges that probably should have been replaced 10 years ago.
I’ve worked at golf shops when Nike first started with clubs and it was a big deal. It was basically Tiger’s clubs. At the time, I was playing Mizuno MP14’s which the Nike blades were modeled after and Tiger had them with a mix of MP29’s. Nike clubs garnered lots of interest, but when it comes to clubs, there are the big 4. Titleist, Ping, Taylormade and Callaway. Nike failed to grab a piece of the market because they were trying to compete with those names, instead of selling at a much lower price point or a much higher one, like PXG. I eventually ended up with an entire bag of Nikes right up to when they decided to give it up.
great video. i'm still sad nike left. i was able to buy nike clubs in their later years and love them. still play vr forged pro combo, and og flex driver because of how muted it is
i still play my vapor speed irons. they dont go as far, but i love the feel and sound they make. and as i got into golf as a kid during the tailend of the tiger era, it just makes me gravitate towards them. plus i think they look pretty cool (but im a gen z so)
Nike VR Pro Combos - fav set of all time. Never understood why golfers didn’t gravitate towards their hard goods. Irons and wedges were really good.
I played a set of their irons and driver-3 & 5 wood for a couple years, loved them.
That was a great watch! Thanks for sharing.
I still have the VR Pro Combo irons in my bag. A beautiful looking and performing set.
still play my 2016 vapor fly pros. love them to death. got them reshafted and they're just like brand new again!
No way does it cost Nike $20 to make a shirt. I’m guessing $5.
$5?
I feel like its closer to $0.50.
@@TurkeyMaze You could be correct!
Best irons I ever owned Nike covert 2.0 forged. Sold them when Nike stopped making clubs. Should never have got rid of those.
Great video. I’ve always thought it was the worst thing Rory did signing with them. Admittedly he did win a major with them but how many more would he have won in his prime if he had signed with someone decent?
High quality content, keep it up and you will get the success
Im still currently using the Nike VR-S X irons and I absolutely love them
Nice vidéo ! Happy to see se have the same talent at golf 😅 i was lucky and found some nike vrs irons and I really love them they are cavity back but they are hot and a lil forgiving
Just a couple of scratch golfers here 😅😂
Its funny that this video popped up on my recommended. I just bought my first set of clubs and had to have nike clubs. Sasquatch machspeed driver, vaporfly 3+ wood, vr forged pro combo 2 iron, vaporspeed 4-pw, and a ignite 003 putter
I heard that when Tiger left Titleist to Nike, all Nike did was put a Nike stamp on the Titleist irons. True or not true? Awesome video thanks.
there are a lot of rumours. Sergio and Rose playing Miura irons with TM logos, TW also playing Mizuno irons with nike logos
The contract did not force him to play nike clubs, so he did go back to 975d a few weeks since the first driver nike made sucked.
Well, Titleist just copied Mizuno MP29's and renamed them 681T's, so it's not like it's unprecedented.
I have still have a set of 3-pw Vapor pro irons.... TT x100 shafts. Absolutely love the irons 💯
The yellow SQ set of clubs as a kid is still for me the best looking I’ve seen. Growing up watching Tiger I thought Nike were top tier in golf but I realized later on that wasn’t the case.
super fire video hope this goes viral
i got a full nike bag and i feel like it’s a goldmine. it’s took years to build but i finally did it everything looks stunning too for the age i could never give them up i can’t hit anything as pure as nike irons
Great video! Just bought some old Nike vapor fly irons and then this popped up haha
Love it man! Enjoy them
Very good, precise presentation! Thank you!
As my coach put it (when advising me to switch my Nike fairway woods instead of upgrading my irons) - there's a reason Nike don't make clubs any more. I.e. they weren't as good as for example Taylor Made for woods. I did love my SQ 13 driver though - loud, yes. Forgiving, also yes. (Not as loud as the Callaway FTI!!!)
I had a SQ driver for a while because the salesman at a demo day took my information before letting me test the clubs, and then delivered one to the range operator and claimed that I had ordered it . I still needed a driver and took it to help him out. I liked hitting it, but it must have spun like hell because the ball would take off great and look great but when I got to the ball I'd be 20 yards short of my usual distance.
The woods always were junk, but the irons, not bad. When my kid started playing at the same time Nike went under, I got him a set of irons for super cheap. Very forgiving and the feel and distance weren't bad.
The Nike Sumo woods were phenomenal. I still use them to date.
Nike has never been a quality hard goods company. They’re a shoes and soft goods company. They had the same issue when they bought Bauer and came out with Nike branded hockey equipment. The hard goods made by Bauer (even when owned by Nike) was high quality but the hard goods made by and branded as Nike wasn’t on par with Bauer, CCM, or their other competitors. Similar to what you pointed out with bats.
I loved my Nike driver it was amazing and it was a sad day when the shaft broke a few years ago. I never tested any other clubs of theirs.
If my shaft or head breaks I’m going to repair it or replace it with a used EBay Nike because I love my Nike driver so much.
Pound for pound , the Slingshots were one of the best irons I’ve ever used.
I remember the first time someone in our golf group teed off with the Sasquatch driver. It was unanimous laughter all around as soon as we heard it.
Excellent video, glad I came across your channel.
This inspires me to be a golf content creator
It really is this easy. You don’t even have to understand terms like sunk cost to use them properly
I thrift for clubs quite a bit I have a few sets of nike irons ..i love them i actually have the slingshot hl 5 hybrid in my bag..things so nice launches super high spins on receptive greens
I have Nike irons that I bought for my first newer irons. I really love them as a newer golfer
Excellent informative video, thank you 😊
Very interesting. Excellent video!
I’m pretty sure Phil mickelsons comments were in respect to the fact tiger was still using steel shafted driver and woods. It wasn’t so much about the head.
I have SQ DYMO driver and I've always wondered what was up with it being so loud, makes sense now xD
Why would Mickelson be in hot water? He wasn't sponsored by them...
I still play a Nike VRPro driver. Very solid, reliable driver,
I love nike stuff. I'm still playing with the vapor driver and 3 woods.
I was always a Nike club player. Just finally moving from my Nike clubs in the past two years. I feel it never got the respect for the clubs because of the "traditionalist" golfers in reference to the phil comment though, it was because Tiger was still playing g stell shafts and everyone was moving to graphite. So, yeah, Tiger was not turning over immediately to those shafts. So, his distance suffered, but not his wins.
Great video. Subbed.
I have a set of Nike ignite irons I bought real cheap off eBay some years back and while I can play them I dont particularly care for the feel of them I’m definitely in the novice category so my hits are quite inconsistent and the sweet spot on the ignites is just too small for me to be effective with however when everything comes together and you do make contact with the sweet spot on them man the ball absolutely rockets my fil really likes them so I’m gonna give them to him and grab a new set that’s more beginner friendly
my irons are Nike only set ive ever bought/owned.... some VRS Forged i got for under $200.... i still play most of them, though i replaced the pitching wedge with a Mizuno MP32 and the sand wedge with a TM Hi Toe...
im not at all a Nike fan, im not a Tiger Woods fan either... i jsut bought them because they were reasonably priced and they felt good when i hit them., and i hit them better than others mostly...
id honestly rather own Callaway or TM or Ping and all my other clubs are a variety of those
Second iteration of hypervenom 2 was the real goat
Nike came to golf too early
??? You got to explain that one
@@alanaasacatanddogrosamcdos5315golf is more mainstream now and would probably do better in todays market
@@alanaasacatanddogrosamcdos5315 Look where the looks and marketing are now, its exactly what Nike was doing in the 2000s and 2010s
8:06 over-enthusiasm I’m sure was the only thing the old guard frowned upon about Tiger
The ONLY thing?? 🤣
Can't speak for their clubs, but as a high handicap beginner, I really like the feel of the Nike mojo balls compared to some of the bigger brands.
I loved the video!!
I once went to a try-out day at a local course where every company had their full complement of clubs and fitters. My standard line walking up to each was, "Let me try your most forgiving clubs."
Nike's game improvement clubs were unhittable for a novice golfer. Ping, Callaway, and Wilson were so much better.
The VR-S sgi irons were fine
It's funny nike gets out of golf just about 3-4 yrs before the game starts to blow up. They made a few pretty good irons and wedges. Some decent putters and one or two decent wood offerings that's about it.
Tiger Should have rocked the Sasquatch square
Gamed the Slingshot TOUR irons until this yr (yes WAY too long), but still use their CPR rescue 3/4 hybrid. Bought the Ignite driver which was TERRIBLE. Tried and tried to make that work but it got dumped after half a season for never finding the fairway.