How an Irish golf firm is going up against household names such as Titleist and Ping
Seed Golf was born in the innovation centre at the South East Technical University campus in Carlow
Golf is big business, so even a small slice of that massive global spend is nothing to be sniffed at.
However, it’s a very tough nut to crack as it is dominated by some massive legacy brands, household names such as Adidas, Titleist, TaylorMade and Ping.
Enter Seed Golf, an Irish company born in the innovation centre at the South East Technical University (SETU) campus in Carlow. It has effectively taken out the middleman and sells direct to golfers with its online sales model.
READ MORE: How a mum from Tyrone turned a dream into a €6.3m beauty empire
Seed founder Dean Klatt told the Irish Mirror how he was inspired to take on the golf giants: “It was a combination of things, my background was in brand management and territory management for international golf brands, I used to do that down in Australia for a long time.
“Then when I moved to Ireland, my wife’s Irish we met here and had kids, I worked with a company called Ogio, a golf bag company. I just noticed that golfers and customers were really open to new brands and to fresh and different products, whereas the retailers tend to be a little bit heavily aligned to the traditional brands.
“So sometimes the consumer doesn’t get to see a wide variety of what’s available, but they’re very interested in the stuff. Then in Covid I started to see that the game was beginning to increase in popularity, the number of rounds played was starting to increase, and in three demographics, younger people, essentially millennials, women and juniors coming into the game.”
Back in 2015, after a round, Dean and a couple of mates got together and decided to do something about high ball prices. Premium tour grade golf balls are expensive.
The guys had tired of all the ‘longest / straightest / best on tour’ marketing hype from the big brands. And as one commented after a particularly rough day, 'losing expensive balls isn't fun'.
They suspected they weren’t the only ones. So, this small group decided to set out and change the way golfers bought their equipment. ‘Great gear, but without all the BS’ is their motto, just solid equipment that performed and didn’t cost a small fortune.
Dean added: “Seed was formed because we wanted to make people as passionate about the game of golf as we are. We also wanted to create golf gear that delivered great performance for golfers like us, and left enough cash to shout your mates at the bar after a round
“Our aim is to make the game more affordable, more enjoyable and more accessible for more people. It’s taken a couple of years to get to this point, but we're well on the way. And believe us – there’s much, much more to come.”
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
