What are Direct To Consumer brands? NEW Costco Kirkland Signature Irons | Show & Tell Golf Reviews

The new Kirkland Signature Irons seem to be the hottest iron on the market, selling out at virtually every Costco. We wanted to shed some light on exactly what Direct To Consumer (DTC) brands are and the positives and negatives that come with them. One thing is for certain, some DTC brands make some COOL looking clubs!

#kirklandsignature #costco #golf

Content:
0:00 – Kirkland Signature Irons and DTC Brands
13:55 – Bettinardi Wedges
15:32 – LAB Golf Putter

Segment from The Loggerhead Golf Podcast Episode 34.

Is that good lead us into Show and Tell y now miles why did you put these on the screen I say well we know the one on on the left the the Kirkland it’s had a lot of news recently right yep yep I mean

Biggest thing so we we did a in our show in last week we talked about the Kirkland iron release and how it’s sold out and how they’re flipping for e on eBay right now $800 we didn’t they were announced last week they hadn’t sold out yet last week oh well they’re they they

Sold out in like a week later you they’re sold out and now people are flipping up for we and we posted they we posted a two-minute clip that got a little bit of flack and and this is where I think we need to clear the air a

Little bit right because we said nothing but positive things about what this Kirkland iron is going to provide to the consumer right and I think a lot of maybe things I said were misconstrued about directed consumer Brands so now I want to kind of kind of talk about

What’s the difference between us Club fitting snobs right and direct to Consumer Brands um the direct to Consumer brand you got the thing I noticed you generally have one option and then with us you have countless options I mean the biggest thing the easiest way to put it

Is that direct consumer Brands they’re going from Factory to their company or or from their company’s website to a single Factory and shipping directly to you there’s very little advertisement there’s very little marketing and into the club itself and there’s very little I want to say R&D process but it’s a way

For the company to cut out a lot of cost that they don’t have to put into their irons so they do make it a great option and into purchasing a a well performing Club yeah I mean my golf spy has done tests with various different companies

Um I don’t know if they have they done a Tacoma test yeah they actually spent a lot of time with Tacoma and then swag golf every uh summer series they did Tacoma was there with clubs too yeah um that being said is there a way for the

Customer to hit them before buying them nope it’s a big game most of the time there’s not yeah and and and that’s the thing and that’s where I I don’t I don’t think director consumer companies are bad themselves I just think that it’s tough I mean for how often we get people

That come in our store that want to buy something they’re like well how do I know it’s right for me we’re like right that’s exactly what a fitting will do there’s not a possible way to do it with with these type of Club cons I say and I mean from a club fitting

Standpoint even if you don’t change shaft right so you let’s say that head and shaft are static how important is play length and lie angle really important I mean what’s the bottom of the golf club interact with the I mean it it determines well it determines

Strike location you know what kind of I kind of jokingly said that since jpx 923 was my number one selling or number one Club I fit into um I probably fit that person into two degrees upright and plus half an inch because the seemed like

That was a lot I had to change to get the strike location to be correct for a lot of my my golfers I had fit for now if you buy that golf club and it’s coming at stockling and stock L angle and I know that most of people I fit

Were two degrees upright and plus half an inch not a single one of them can fit into either one of those two irons just right off the bat whether the sh’s perfect not come now here’s where I’m gonna kind of bridge the gap a little

Bit right they can come to us and get fit into those specs because again we’re not pushing a sale directly out of a fitting so you know you can need x100s at plus a half inch two degrees upright and a lot of the director consumer companies you can go on their website

And order the clubs at those specs now the Kirkland clubs you cannot you cannot um I’ll also say this majority of the clubs that you get from a director consumer are not a forged body now sub 70 makes an awesome forg Club they also make it in raw different finishes but um

A lot of other clubs you might bring it into a shop like us and tell us hey can you bend it hey we might be able to bend it a degree but it’s going to have memory and it’s going to go right back I think Cass is going to want to go back

But I I would always say there’s nothing wrong with buying direct to Consumer nothing wrong with trying to save a little money here and there right however don’t just pull the trigger on a set of golf clubs on a website because you think it’s a good

Deal how many times we see people come to the shop and they have golf clubs they bought because it was a good deal and now they’re contemplating changing shafts or having do something to make those golf clubs fit them or perform the way they want them to so I made a

Comment last podcast about how the the the performance is not there and they break and people like how do you know that like because I constantly have to come in and do fittings for existing irons that a customer bought that didn’t know anything about them and he’s waned me to perform a miracle

Surgery on a set of clubs that is just not possible and then also when I tell somebody to reshaft clubs it’s around $100 a club I would say on the cheap end at least $70 a club yeah for a fairly well priced shaft so like reshafting has

Gotten a little bit of expensive so when you only spent $110 on the club head director consumer and then you spent now you’re reshafting it at another $100 on top of it the expense increases quite quickly and before you know it you’re in there it’s just expensive here’s there’s

A reason why direct consumer brands are still around they work yeah they work I mean Iron technology has not really changed as far as when it comes to players iring it’s been technology has been very minimal as far as what a CB does and what an MB does for how long

Wouldn’t you agree K I mean look at Daniel Burger yeah one of the best iron Strikers is using a set of irons from 2011 yeah yeah so and this is thing this is always relative because ultimately at the end of the day the only person that

Needs to like their golf clubs is the person playing them is the person playing them right so it’s not my job to tell you if your clubs are good or not but don’t come here and tell me to coma irons are better than Taylor Made and Callaway on what basis can someone make

That statement I can’t make the statement on the other way but I know one company pays Millions but two companies pay millions and millions and millions of dollars into R&D into quality control into the materials they use so yes even though new set of irons now are getting up there MH there’s a

Lot of stuff in the back end so there’s a lot that goes into that that goes into that um now the nice thing what was our number one iron this year mauno mauno how much are those a called $137.50 a seven piece set is under $1,000 yeah so like and that’s the thing

It’s not that we we we only have St like you have to have $1,000 I mean you can get a great fully custom built with a custom shaft from Tour Edge Golf for 90 bucks a club yeah like that’s that’s insane there are options options and

This is where I say if you want to go to direct consumer R I’m all for it just maybe come in and get fit well I that’s the point I was trying to make is that um when I was saying never just go to a website and just buy something without

Really doing your research I would strongly encourage every golfer to go and see a professional whether it’s a a PJ professional that you you work with on your golf swing or you’ve worked with at local pro at a golf course someone who can give you some information about golf clubs that you

Can trust and and then to take that step further I would strongly encourage you to get fit if nothing else for your play links and line angles yeah static measurement yeah and and the reason why that that way you know you can at least start to get a golf club that’s set up

In a manner to where you can have some success with see that’s where like with the directed consumer Brands Tacoma does a better job and sub 70 than most others because they at least allow you to change these items before you order the clubs I say and and well sorry you’re

Good um you know the Hogan well the the last iteration of the Hogan golf company did that as well too see and that’s like where it gets interesting is like one of our um you know things that we read is about Hogan and how they were good Hogan

Wasn’t just direct a consumer though they had four various Outlets through big box stores where you could go in and get fit so it’s not really direct consumer and sub 70 has fitting accounts Across America where you can go and get fit so even though they’re semil listed

As direct a consumer it’s not a true direct to Consumer because there’s still options of you testing that club before you buy well it’s like this it’s not none of them are really technically direct they’re all made because you’re not buying that golf club from the

Factory that made it correct I was going to say well the fact the factory that makes these clubs are actually a factory that’s been building clubs for you know almost a hundred years and they’re coming out of a factory that actually knows what they’re doing so like that’s

Why I’m not saying it’s the quality it’s just the fact that a lot of these clubs are actually coming out of the same Factory so when to come on the website say it’s a u made in Finland or Sweden what yeah it’s a it’s a specific type of

Design it’s like well what does that mean yeah um I mean what is it exactly oh it’s a Scandinavian mindset well using the Kirkland as a not really to pick on it but if you look at it you can pretty clearly tell where that design

Came from p79 a p790 and I would say it’s the the two generations ago p7 it has like speed foam in it it’s the exact design of it right so it’s and this is where I’m going to say like to to the performance wise they are going to perform they’re probably going to

Perform pretty good equally as good as any other but that being said it comes at a much lower price point doesn’t it yeah so I guarantee you there’s been some Corners cut somewhere in that process material Shaft or I was going to say and shaft is what I was going to

Pick on next and when you made the comment last week where he said these are going to break I don’t know if every I think everyone thought the club heads are going to break but what we’re talking about is the shaft is probably going to break CU what is an Elevate 115

Shaft I know we had an elev that’s never like R rare I’ve never seen an Elevate 115 I’ve seen Elevate 85s 95s and a 105 I’ve never seen a 115 which was probably made four so my guess on what the Elevate 115 is this is total speculation but I’m gonna

Still go with it because I know how speculation podcast right I know how um True Temper what they’ve been known to do with half of their shafts that they offer are um we’re a premier dealer of True Temper too this seconds yeah essentially they didn’t pass quality

Control for the shaft they were making so that’s probably a relabeled s300 and r300 that didn’t pass quality control to be an s300 or an r300 or dynamic gold s300 damic gold r300 so like the dg10 that came in two light correct yep you know that’s a good okay so I I bring

This point you the shaft’s not a a true and I bring this point because this is I think the easiest way to kind of compare spending $700 on a set irons to maybe the the going going from this to maybe the hot metal right all right let’s see

If we can bridge the gap a little bit what’s what’s the difference between an X100 and a tour isue X100 Kyle CPM and two and a half grams of weight so that little bit of extra money that you spend into the Tor issue X100 is because that

Shaft goes through a process to making sure every shaft is the exact same weight it’s also and the exact same Toler CPM so the tolerance is it’s as tight as it gets like the the when you just get the regular x100s which is a fantastic shaft yeah there might be a

Little bit of Tolerance there and then that and that goes for any brand of we’re we’re picking on that one cuz it’s the most common one but the tour issue X100 uh it’s a it’s a matched set cor it’s a matched set and they have a

Variance of I think it’s what two or three grams yeah and then in a that’s from the four iron shaft to the wed shaft not shaft to shaft and then in a like regularly labeled Dynamic gold X100 that is not a match set they go into a

Barrel and they’re just picked when they get put together for a set of shafts and then there’s a variance of what I think around I think 8 to 12 grams in those shafts well I think that’s what was kind of cool about all of us well most of us

Going through the dynamic gold certification is how the S400 came about and how the s300 was made it’s the S400 was uh oh shafts and then they had a couple thousand of these shafts laying around look what happened now it’s the best wet shaft ever yeah you know it’s

It’s and that’s a thing so ultimately cuz we’re this is our Show and Tell not just a um we’re just ranting now direct consumer Brands I’m going to say birdie yeah I think they serve a purpose in society like in the golf Society I would

Say um well I guess Kyle I mean like I said last week I’m not going to change my mind it’s going to be par yeah Cu uh we we can spend 15 minutes complimenting this stuff and it’s going to be again uh there’s a chef I watch he goes cook it

The way you like it not the way I’m cooking it right right it’s it serves its purpose of getting someone into golf at a reasonable price point so that when they’re either a ready to graduate or B reshaft their set they’ve got the budget

Saved up to do that so it’s it’s a good Bridger at a little bit of a sacrifice yeah and and I would say on that sacrifice is I truly can’t say a club that you’re not allowed to test or demo or or get fit for yourself is better than something that’s actually fitted

You you have no way to know no one can tell you that yeah for you right um I’ll say I’ll stick with mine birdie I think it’s good for the it’s good for the golfer that wants that wants that option like I said I think golf needs more economical options I’ve

Got I I trust me part of me like I would love for the big oems to come down on price a little bit Yeah but at the same time when they’re paying professional golfers a $100 million do contracts I hate to say it it’s not going to happen

Yeah I know you know we want that more than anybody y birdie but do your research yep these look familiar I like the way these turned out when we uh got finished this is a good looking turned out to be a really good looking build yeah so this was our wedge raffle

That we did um I’m such a big fan of like customizing ferals things like that since I rebuilt irons this past weekend I put some new ferals on Chang changed up the vibe a little bit and you know I think it’s just a it’s a cool option I

Think as far as these wedges go other than ones in our fitting Bay I’ve never hit a bet nardy wedge so I’m looking forward to maybe hearing from uh whoever won them how how they perform he him I’m blanking on his name what’s his name miles David David I thought yeah I

Couldn’t remember his name but I called him but I know David stoked about him so um but definitely look looking forward to seeing how how he thinks they feel out in the golf course have flushed we built the thing also also also when we build them yeah they’re 100% disp I say

We we built them to the specs he wanted the length and L angles I was going to say I I liked how obviously we picked the stuff out but like the the color coordination between the ferals and the grips I thought turned out really good the Acura TZ wedge shaft is a really

Cool shaft with the chrome finish on it it looks like steel but it’s it’s composite it’s graphite I’m ready for these new wedges to come out next year because I have a set of those shafts that I’m waiting to put into something yeah this was a cool overall package and

A set of wedges for 10 bucks wasn’t a bad deal so flush yeah a$1 th000 set of wedges for $10 so heck yeah that that putter what a what’s a group of turtles called oh it’s a uh bail it’s a bail that’s a bail of turtles right

There um Cal you have the floor about this thing yeah so this was a special project we did for Daryl the owner of loggerhead I worked with a team at lab um when I was at Windham championship I got to spend some time inside the ropes

With Adam Scott and on the bottom of his putter lap had put kangaroos I was like well the kangaroos are cool but I think the turtle would look really good and uh fast forward I did a fitting um got Daryl this Putter and I reached out to

Our inside Sals rep and I was like hey I know you guys normally don’t do this but uh is there any way possible that we can do something a little bit cool with the bottom I said if you can do it for Adam Scott you can do it for us little guys

Too and uh yeah they like I was not afraid of asking that stuff no so uh we went kind of what you can’t see in the photos they also have a new TPT shaft that’s developed specifically for their putter so this is kind of like the Taj Mahal of

Lab Putters in the sense of specs but um this was a cool project turned out good CU it’s not overly uh like the turtles are just on the bottom so the top Line’s still clean yeah so I say it’s a cool little um detail you wouldn’t always see

For sure yep I mean it it’s it’s a flush I’m I’m I’m getting me a la putter eventually so perfect well if you guys haven’t already like And subscribe we’d like to thank you for taking time out of your day all year to listen to us uh

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