Nike Gives Up on Vapor Fly Metalwoods Lineup

By: Tony Covey

As I reported last month, sales of golf equipment in May were abysmal. I'm told June was a bit better, but still not great, so is it any wonder that some golf companies responded with price drops?

That's not totally unusual this time of year anyway, as companies habitually lower prices with the hope that discounts will entice the consumer to help them clear the shelves for new models.

Callaway dropped prices on XR irons and hybrids along with Great Big Bertha and Bertha Alpha series metalwoods. Apart from the upside that comes with feeding a starving discount market, this is business as usual as Callaway prepares for fall launches.

Cobra dropped prices on the F6 and F6+ lines. The drop is a bit early perhaps (the bulk of new Cobra gear doesn't generally hit shelves until after the new year), but not unprecedented.

PING and Titleist, arguably the two most restrained discounters in golf, are doing their respective parts to clear out what's left of the G30 and 915 series.

Give or take a few weeks, all of the above is pretty much business as usual for most golf companies planning on launching new product.

Nike Golf Loses its Mind

Nike, however, just took discounting gear to an entirely new, and arguably uncharted, level. Call it aggressive, call it insane, whatever you call it, it's clear that Nike would like as much of its 2016 metalwood lineup of the shelves as soon as possible.

Here's the breakdown:

• Nike Vapor Fly (originally $349.99) , Vapor Fly Pro (originally $399.99), and Vapor Flex 440 Drivers (originally $499.99) are all now just $149.99 each.
• Nike Vapor Fly Fairway (originally $249.99) is now just $99.99.
• Nike Vapor Fly Hybrid (originally 219.99) is now just $89.99.

For the mathematically challenged, that shakes out like this:

• Up to $350 off 2016 Nike Drivers
• $150 off 2016 Nike Fairways
• $130 off 2016 Nike Hybrids

Nike looks like it's trying to dig its way through the basement, and it hasn't hit rock bottom yet.

Slash it, burn it, kill it with fire. Whatever it takes to get rid of it.

For whatever it's worth, the plan appears to be working. Flex drivers are mostly sold out already, Pro is in very short supply (TGW still has both), and the standard Fly's numbers are dwindling rapidly.

What's the Deal with these Deals

I would imagine that if you purchased a Nike metalwood in the last couple of months (or weeks) you're probably feeling a little bit betrayed, and plenty pissed off. Nike fans crossing over from other Nike sports - and maybe Nike itself - have learned a painful lesson; golf isn't basketball and Rory isn't Michael (or even LeBron).

Good luck getting 70% off a pair of 2016 Jordans.

We all know the deal. Everything (save those Jumpman shoes) goes on sale eventually, but it's rare that anything goes on fire-sale just a bit over 6 months into the first season of its life cycle. On its worst day, TaylorMade never slashed like this.

This doesn't look particularly good for Nike Golf. Actually, it looks terrible.

Transition/Absorption (and weird shirts)

If you've kept up with Nike Golf at all in 2016 you might have noticed that it has been a particularly odd year for the company. The Vapor Fly launch was haphazard at best, the company skipped the annual PGA Show, and its 2016 products never built any real promotional steam.

Nike Golf has spent the season more apparel-focused than ever; emphasizing retro shoes and half-collard shirts that run half a size small to the exclusion of the equipment. A footnote nearly lost among the gooseprint; the new RZN Platinum ball (also priced reduced), which is unquestionably better than anything Nike has done with RZN and has the potential to make golfers finally forget about the Tour D, has received next to zero promotion.

Inside Nike Golf it's been a year of reorganization for the purpose of  becoming more completely integrated into the larger Nike enterprise. Nike golf is transitioning...to what, I'm not quite sure, but this round of aggressive discounts suggests we're in the proverbial thick of it.

The End of Nike Golf Equipment?

There's a persistent annual rumor that Nike is about to exist the golf business. Every year...without fail. According to random internet sources with a demonstrated track record of being wrong, Nike has been getting out of hard goods for the last 4 years, so you know...grain of salt and whatnot. Nevertheless, these discounts have jump-started the rumors all over again, and looking at the numbers, it's easy to understand why.

This time last year Nike's metalwood share was roughly 4%. The latest report shows the company has dropped to 2.3%.

That's a 42.5% decrease year over year. For the world's biggest sporting goods company, that has to be difficult to stomach. Nike has dominated nearly everywhere it has dipped its toes, but Golf remains the elusive exception. In a post-Tiger marketplace, Nike's problem isn't failure to dominate, the problem is simply failure. By no measure a golf equipment industry leader, Nike finds itself sliding towards the dubious ranks of other.

So is Nike really going to take it's clubs and go home for good this time?

I don't think so. Forget about the numbers and the trends. Nike's goal, I believe, is to have absolutely no inventory left on shelves when a new and completely integrated Nike Golf launches an new and completely integrated line of golf products. If cycles hold, that will be early in 2017.

Whatever that product is (and Nike needs a home run) , however, integrated or not, it's going to launch at a deficit as I suspect even the most ardent Nike Golf loyalist is going to to think twice about paying the full ticket price after seeing driver prices drop by upwards of $350 and the rest of the metalwood aggressively discounted. From a consumer confidence standpoint, it's a debacle.

2016 has left Nike Golf with a fairly sizable shiner. The good news is it has a solid 6 months to heal.

Have Your Say

What is your reaction to this latest round of Nike discounts? Are you more likely to try Nike products now that the prices have dropped (SIGNIFICANTLY)? What about next season? Will these discounts change the way you look at Nike Golf going forward?