Golf Shops Are Being Homogenized, Says Nancy Haley

Second in a three-part series

Nancy Haley still considers Tehama one of the top brands in the golf industry, but as she winds down a career in which she built that brand, Sport Haley, Izod G and others, she is concerned with one particular trend in the golf industry.

“I have to say, watching over the last year what’s happened to the golf industry, it’s been disturbing to me after being in the golf industry for 22 years to see how things can change,” she said.

Haley estimates that huge megabrands that offer equipment, apparel, shoes, as well as products across the sporting spectrum have two-thirds of the apparel pie in the golf industry, while smaller companies that focus strictly on apparel might have one-third.

“That’s what’s kind of cool about the golf industry,” she said. “We’ve always had a real diverse offering of products that the consumer could say, `Wow, look at all these different things we’ve got.’

“What’s going to happen is all the golf shops are just going to become homogenized,” she said of fewer brands in stores, but admitting that retail outside of golf is much the same.

“When Home Depot came into the market and they offered everything for a better price, all the little hardware stores went away,” she said, adding that the same thing could happen with golf apparel brands that were once industry leaders.

”When some of the large megabrands came into the industry, they have a lot of consumer confidence and it’s really easy for a megabrand to come in and squeeze the little guy,” she said.

That’s not easy to take for an industry veteran.

“I think the thing that was most surprising to me and I’m not the only one – I talk to a lot of different companies that are in my shoes,” she said.

“When times get tough, for all the years that we have supported our customers, it was real easy for them to say, `I feel kind of safe with Nike,’ or `I feel safe with adidas,’” said Haley, adding that the economy magnified the situation, but didn’t cause it.

“I just thought there would be more support in a small industry like this for the brands that have supported them for so many years and I’m not just talking me. I think you would hear that from anybody,” she said.

“I don’t have anything against Nike and adidas. It’s the way things happen in the world today. All the consumers like those big mega Home Depot type things. It’s the consumers’ own fault if all the neat little special stuff goes away,” she said.

“We knew the economy was bad and we knew sales would go down, but what we got tired of hearing is those big brand names thrown in our face, so personally, I don’t have the energy to fight it anymore,” said Haley.

The golf industry’s focus on megabrands is one reason that Haley took to Canadians Steven Banks and Gord Peters, who have a philosophy similar to her own about the future of Tehama, which they now lead into the future.

That topic will be the focus of our final blog in this series tomorrow.

Related Posts:

• How’s Your 2011 Season Going?
• Do The Holidays Resonate More In Golf?
• Let’s Talk To The People Golf Needs