Are big sporting brands hanging up their golf clubs?

After returning to the Olympic stage for the first time in 112 years and gaining a renewed following in the sporting world, you’d think golf would be one of the main sports on everyone’s lips. But sadly not.

Over the past decade America has seen a decline in golf participants, falling from thirty million in 2005 to twenty-four million players in 2015, causing a headache for manufacturers of golfing equipment. Now sadly, both Nike and Adidas are pulling out from making golfing equipment, concentrating solely on golf clothing and shoes.

Nike and Adidas were latecomers to the golfing market, only starting in the late nineties. Ping and Titleist were already the popular two golfing brands at the time, and still today reign as the best golf focused brands. Nike had hoped for the “Tiger Woods” boom - when they sponsored him, he was using their clubs and wearing their specialised golfing clothing, yet this did not quite have the impact they had hoped for.

Another factor in the decline in golfers is that other sports seem to be taking over in the popularity stakes at the moment, with men’s cycling fastly becoming number one, overriding golf.

Nike and Adidas both feel they are losing money that has strategically been placed into producing their clubs; especially for Adidas who bought TaylorMade and Adams back in 1997. Therefore they want to focus more on other sports, such as basketball and athletics, as these are two sports rising in popularity not just in America but across the globe.

However, things are not all gloomy. When these golfing ‘giants’ do exit the golfing market this will open a gap for smaller, independent, golfing specialised businesses to shine through, without having to compete so much against the giants in the golfing industry. Why not make the most of these underdog businesses, that have been honing their skills and specialities for decades? 

Photo by Mike Flippo/Shutterstock.com