Delays Hit the Golf Industry

i think social distancing during a round has fallen by the wayside...i'm seeing less of it pre/post-round as well.
While true, not exactly the porous focus of the article :ROFLMAO:;)
 
Great read @Jman. I wonder if in a few years the public will get the full story of exactly what ended up at the bottom of the sea with respect to golf product. I’m sure it’s known inside golf circles, but I would be curious.

I have mixed feelings about the recent golf boom in general. On one hand it’s always great to grown the game and get more people out. More players means more incentive for companies to create and build and offer services. But on the other hand getting tee times is a brutal task these days and the incidents of seeing poor etiquette, slow play, and just general douchbaggery have increased to the point where I am playing less golf these days. Hopefully this evens out to level over the next few months.
 
Interesting that grips were holding up a lot of builds. Having been on Golf Prides website recently I noticed they are still out of stock on a lot of their product. That container ship losing all that cargo was huge.

Thanks for the insight that was a great read @Jman
Interesting read!
The shortage of grips stood out to me too. I would have assumed it would be the heads/shafts holding things up.

It would seem to be a dangerous plan to change anything based on this years numbers so it makes sense that manufacturers will have to stay the course and consumers will have to be patient. :oops:
 
Great read @Jman. I wonder if in a few years the public will get the full story of exactly what ended up at the bottom of the sea with respect to golf product. I’m sure it’s known inside golf circles, but I would be curious.

Its far less interesting than one would imagine. I have the inventory, at least I believe I do. Less hard goods than some believe, but a number of components and bags. Especially from 1-2 companies.
 
Very good write up James. Super interesting how the game is changing and growing because of a pandemic. It'll be interesting to see if this keeps up as we come out of it.
 
Don’t forget people buying with all the extra free income created with the stimulus checks. Like getting free clubs!!
 
Great write-up JMan! I wonder how much of different items were on the ship. It's not a surprise to any of us looking to order new equipment this year!
 
Based on the article there is a bit more there. Waiting on certain components, daily changes, etc.
I work in manufacturing, though not sporting goods. We had a lot of similar supply chain issues, and still do.
 
Great article again @Jman. In my former business dealing with production and manufacturing managing incoming raw materials to produce x amount of finished goods per daily schedule. Then along comes COVID and all of its impacts on people and business. Now an influx of golfers wanting and buying equipment. Would be so frustrating as an equipment company so much business and not enough product or components to build product. I would have pulled out all the white hair I have left.
 
Good write-up. The equipment angle is interesting because there's probably enough equipment sitting in garages and basements to put a set of sticks in every person in North America. But shiny & new...

Really interesting will be the perspective on courses. Still getting more rounds played with tee times 10 minutes apart? Trying to keep rounds around 4 hours on courses packed hackers new or recently returning to the game? Surely with tee times in demand there will be some supply issues and unfortunately prices will increase, just check out the grocery industry (remember $8/lb ground beef?)
 
I "accidentally" ended up in a golf store.

That accidentally happens to me too often.

Will be interesting to see how resale market affected. For most golfers a recent edition club can work fine especially if one can test either in store or over time. Nice article thanks

The resale market was hot last year. Things on eBay were up across the board with very limited supply. I can't imagine it's any different right now, but I have not been looking.
 
Good article James. Test of patience on both ends is a good way to put it. Tough. Especially if you order, ya know, grips with your set. :LOL:

Or an A wedge. That send to hold up every order for me.
 
I’ll split a giant submarine with you and we can go container diving
I know how to operate one, so if you are down with splitting 3 ways...I am in! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
I’ll split a giant submarine with you and we can go container diving
I gotta believe there is money to be had in picking up loose containers!!! Had a buddy who was aboard a Coast Guard Cutter off of FL (mainly for drug interdiction). When out on the ocean, they'd get called to deal with containers that fall off ships because they're hazardous to ship traffic (many of them float at or just below the surface).... So they'd head on over and shoot 'em up with their deck guns (50 cal. i'm guessing) until they sank....
 
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It is so interesting how a few (lots of )containers can have such an impact.
 
Awesome read, thanks Jman!!

I work in biopharm manufacturing/development and we are dealing with massive supply chain issues. The main issue is demand has sky rocketed for many chemicals, equipment, consumables, and raw materials due in large part to the demand from Companies manufacturing Covid vaccines and tests. The whole world runs on tight supply chains so it was hard to adapt to this increase.

I wonder how much of this bleeds into golf manufacturing. I don’t know much about the manufacturing of golf equipment but I would assume they use a lot of the same materials that have crazy lead times now. Given the challenges noted in the article it’s pretty impressive how well the golf industry has done with keeping equipment coming. Glad to see the industry booming and overcoming these challenges.
 
Good article! I know i ended up cancelling an order for new irons b/c the wait time kept increasing, and when the new season started I decided I could use my current clubs for another year. If the new irons had shipped in time, I would be using them, but the waiting gave me time to decide I could go without for another year.
 
Basically this can be said for the supply chain of almost everything in the world right now.

Take a small segment of it that impacts a lot of other things. Seed sales (garden seeds) are up in my company 70% over last year-which was up about 200% over the prior year (Covid broke).

So that impacts a lot of things. Peat Pots. Already gone, sold out. Unable to procure more.

At this point all those without canning jars are putting in pointless gardens if their purpose is to procure a long term food supply.

There are exactly zero canning jars available for the 9th largest purchaser of them in the US. Our usual company, Ball, has put its efforts into making food cans, etc. We can get nothing from them. We are a local and locally owned company. There is another local company that we did a ton of business with last year that now won’t.

Production is down. Demand is about 270% of what it was 2 years ago. If you have a garden and you see canning jars m, buy them then and there.

It’s impacting everything to a certain degree. Food manufacturers that used to have 60 SKU’s of a product line are tightening it to their top 25.
 
Will be interesting to see how resale market affected.
Oh, that's easy: The prices for used clubs are often so high the incremental difference for new is almost inconsequential.

E.g.: When I was in a Golf Galaxy late last summer I asked a sales guy what they had in used wedges. They had two on the rack, and the prices were scarcely less than what I'd been looking at brand new. I've vaguely been trying to put together a new driver for one of my neighbors--just for grins. Something in an X2 Hot or newer head in 13.5° loft and a shorter senior flex shaft. Even trying to buy the head and shaft separately, I can't do it economically.
 
Great article James! Very enjoyable and informative read.
 
Great write-up! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.
 
Being in logistics my previous life, I can't begin to tell you how many times a few minor hiccups to component/product can influence the shipping times. This is even more obvious since a lot of the manufacturers/suppliers/raw material producers have gone to JIT (just in time).
 
Great article. It explains a bit of the madness.

I figure there were some naysayers in regards to the FIFO, FILO, LIFO, LILO, JIT, and whatever other manufacturing and warehousing processes I'm forgetting (my accounting class was years ago and I forgot most of it...). I would guess that a lot of OEM companies use JIT... and COVID really put a serious crimp into those supply lines

FIFO inventory method - First in First Out - First items added into inventory are the first ones removed
FILO inventory method - First in Last Out - First items added to inventory are the last ones removed
LILO inventory method - Last in Last Out - Last items added to inventory are the last ones removed
LIFO inventory method - Last in First Out - Last items added to inventory are the first ones removed
JIT manufacturing - Just in Time - manufacturing and warehousing process where the materials or product arrive just in time so money isn't lost in inventory sitting around on shelves not doing anything.
 
I gotta believe there is money to be had in picking up loose containers!!! Had a buddy who was aboard a Coast Guard Cutter off of FL (mainly for drug interdiction). When out on the ocean, they'd get called to deal with containers that fall off ships because they're hazardous to ship traffic (many of them float at or just below the surface).... So they'd head on over and shoot 'em up with their deck guns (50 cal. i'm guessing) until they sunk.

That... Sounds like the coolest job ever
 
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