Industry Notes: April 29, 2011

The royal wedding caught a lot of attention early today, but with that over early by North American time, it’s all about another milestone for Nike Golf with the launch of its new premium 20XI golf ball in Canada. Stewart Cink, the 2009 British Open champion, Canadian Stephen Ames. 2010 RBC Canadian Open champ Carl Pettersson, Richard Finch, Lucas Glover, Matt Haines, Kevin Kisner, Justin Leonard, Jamie Lovemark, Pablo Martin, Francesco Molinari, James Morrison and Michelle Wie are among the Nike players to put the 20XI into play. The 20XI replaces conventional rubber with new resin material for longer distance and better control. There will be two versions, including the 20XI-X (distance) and the 20XI-S (spin). For more information, see click here, here and here … Tommy Armour III, Russ Cochran and David Frost are the latest to sign on for the second Montreal Championship to be played this summer at Club de golf Le Fontainebleau. The Champions Tour event will take place June 30 to July 3 … The B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation and the FORCE Society for Kids’ Mental Health have been selected as the local community charity beneficiaries for the RBC Canadian Open, to be played July 21-24 at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver …  Paloform will be title sponsor of the Ontrio PGA’s Head Professional/Assistant Professional Championship. Paloform creates fireplaces and modern fire pits. This year’s event will take place June 14 at Sunningdale Golf and Country Club in London, Ont. … Tournament Sports, based in Waterloo, Ont., is looking for a territory manager for golf, figure skating and curling products in Eastern Ontario, the Ottawa Valley and Northern Ontario. For more information, contact Gary Pollock at gpollock@tournament-sports.com

Bridgestone’s Big Boom Theory

Bridgestone Golf, with products distributed in Canada by Tournament Sports, has e-mailed consumers who provided the company with addresses during a ball-fitting program to coincide with the launch of its Boom Club website at www.bridgestonegolf.com.

As the program continues, Bridgestone says it has collected the e-mail addresses of 85 per cent of consumers it fits, with a goal of reaching 95 per cent by the end of 2009.

The collection of e-mail addresses will allow consumers to access their personal data on the Boom Club site, allowing them to not only review that data but compare it to other ball-fitting consumers nationally and PGA Tour professionals.

The Boom Club also allows consumers to track their scores, review detailed data about their rounds and check out new products, PGA Tour information and a new blog produced by Bridgestone Golf.

The site is also available to non-fitted consumers, who will go through an online ball-fitting session and have full access to the Boom Club upon completion.

Antigua Continues Its Long-Term Relationship

The Antigua Group Inc., recently announced a four-year extension to its licence agreement with Tournament Sports Marketing of Waterloo, Ont.

The extension continues an 18-year partnership in Canada between the two companies.

“We are extremely proud of our long term partnership with Tournament Sports Marketing and their principle, Mr. Kim Bauer,” said Antigua president Ron McPherson.

“TSM has done a fantastic job in Canada with the Antigua brand since 1991 and, over the past several years, we have worked together on the Nancy Lopez brand in Canada, as well,” he added.

Different Distributor for Tour Edge

Tournament Sports, based in Waterloo, Ont., has discontinued its licence to distribute Tour Edge products in Canada.

“With consolidation of the golf industry, both at retail and the manufacturing sector, the branded men’s club business has become increasingly difficult,” said Kim Bauer, president of Tournament Sports.

“As part of our medium term business plan, we have elected to rationalize our golf brands and refocus resources on our core golf product lines of Antigua, Bridgestone and Nancy Lopez Golf,” added Bauer.

The Tour Edge licence was due to renewal in September. Tour Edge will now be distributed in Canada by Golf Trends, while Tournament Sports sells its remaining Tour Edge inventory on close-out.

Fall Fashion Preview: Antigua

“We’ve got two interesting matchable pieces that have been successful for us that we will continue this fall. The names of them are Vortex and Motion.

They’re two matchable overtops that are great for tournaments or event business and a cool weather environment.

The Vortex is a long-sleeved pullover and it’s a quarter-zip placket and it’s a Desert Dry moisture management. It’s a colour block with insets along the sides and it has a very contemporary, fashion-forward look.

The fabric is a Baby French Terry, but it’s got a very smooth hand. It’s not quite a jacket and it’s not quite a shirt. It’s in-between. You would use it as a layering piece.

Motion is a little bit heavier for a colder day. Again, it’s a matchable.

It’s a full-zip front. It’s a Desert Dry moisture management. It’s a polyester fabric and again, it’s got the colour block with jersey insets on the side.

It’s got a very interesting texture to it. It’s got a little bit of reflective features to it on the pockets and the back tail and it’s got a hidden elastic cuff, so it’s very good in the cold weather.

That’s another one available in men’s and women’s.

Those are our two new pieces. They merchandise with our Performance fashion pieces, but they also work great as essentials too.

We have, in our men’s Performance fashion collection, a long-sleeved piece. It’s called our long-sleeved Torque.

It’s a polyester, spandex, Desert Dry moisture management, long-sleeved underlayer garment, so it’s designed to wear underneath our outerwear pieces.

It’s not a compression piece, so it’s designed to be comfortable, yet tight enough on the body that you can still comfortably put, say, another golf shirt on top of it or an outerwear piece or both, so that’s been another good layering piece for us.

We have some other long-sleeved pieces, too.”

Sharon Krieger, Tournament Sports (Antigua)

Do You Pass the Female-Friendly Test?

A couple of press releases of interest came through recently, one being that Nancy Lopez Golf and Lady Precept golf balls, both handled by Tournament Sports, will contribute proceeds from the sale of select products to the battle against breast cancer.

The other announced that EWGA-Canada (Executive Women’s Golf Association) and Callaway Golf Canada were hosting an event today at The Club at North Halton in Georgetown, Ont., to help “demystify” women’s golf, which you wouldn’t think is necessary in this day and age.

The fact that Callaway and Tournament Sports, as well as other companies, have women-specific golf products is a step forward in itself from the days when women often used their husbands’ cut-down clubs to play.

It was that evolution that made Sandra Post’s time as Jazz Golf so enjoyable. The winner of the 1968 LPGA Championship is a free agent now that Jazz has been acquired by Goliath Golf, but she is still a recognized spokesperson for women’s golf in this country. Read more

Fractured Friday Thoughts from a Tumultuous Week

Some fractured Friday thoughts on a week that has been dominated by news of the swine flu outbreak that caused both the Canadian Tour and Nationwide Tour to postpone events in Mexico, believed to be the country of origin for the virus.

Mexico is urging its citizens to stay home, while shutting down non-essential government services in an effort to contain an outbreak that could be on the verge of being a pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.

Meanwhile, Canadian Tour commissioner Rick Janes reported that the exodus of players and officials from San Luis Potosi, where this week’s tournament was to be played, was running smoothly and everybody was expected to be outside of Mexico by today at the latest. Read more

Lopez Golf Names New Managing Director

Sue Gallagher has been named managing director of Nancy Lopez Golf, a division of Tournament Sports, based in Waterloo, Ont.

Gallagher is a graduate of the retail management and merchandising course at Sheridan College and started her career at Sporting Life as a soft goods manager before starting her own agency, which represented brands in the ski, running, tennis and golf businesses.

Gallagher was most recently a co-owner of Cutler Sports, which distributes European women’s apparel, bags and shoes. Her responsibilities there included managing relationships with vendors, key accounts, product development and design, national trade show set-up and sales force recruitment.

“She has a wealth of experience in both the retail and agency side of the industry,” said Kim Bauer, president of Nancy Lopez Golf. “Her success in building Cutler Sports’ brands has provided her with unique insights and experience in the women’s golf equipment and apparel industry.

“Her role will include marketing, product development, execution of sales force recruiting and training, key accounts servicing and management of our grassroots programs such as Golf Fore the Cure,” added Bauer. “Sue will lead our U.S. initiative as well as participate in the Canadian market with our management team.”

Gallagher can be reached at 1-866-649-1759.

Pre-Shows Mood is Calm, but Cautious–For Now

This was written the morning after debates between Canadian party leaders and American vice president candidates devoted significant chunks of time to an economy that is taking people on both sides of the border, and all over the world for that matter, on a stomach-turning roller-coaster ride.

That very same day, the Toronto Stock Exchange fell a dramatic 814 points to finish below 11,000 for the first time in over two years, wiping out more than $100-billion in stock value in the process while the loonie dropped to its lowest level in a year and a half.

Along with this comes a warning about severe drops in commodities, which means that even oil-rich Alberta could start to feel the effects of a sputtering economy that has already hit the Canadian manufacturing heartland of Ontario hard.

All of this scary stuff comes about three weeks before Halloween and with Canadian buying shows about to get underway in just over a week in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ottawa. Read more