The ball market is unique in that it is the ultimate consumable in the game of golf. Each year while the large brands continue to innovate, there are a myriad of direct to consumer products that hit the space and many times are a logo ball with some flashy marketing. That isn’t Seed Golf. To understand this company that is like new to many readers, it is important to start at the top and that is with the founder, Dean Klatt. Where did the brand come from, and probably just as important, where did he come from? Dean expands.
“That’s a long story.
I worked with Cleveland/Srixon back in Australia for about 20 years, and my business was acquired as part of the deal when Srixon purchased Cleveland.
I moved to Ireland not long after that (my wife is Irish) and started working with a couple of ‘mid tier’ brands in the UK & Ireland. One of those brands was Kikkor Golf… one of the first ‘casual’ shoe brands for golf. James Lepp was the founder, and as a younger guy, was a big believer that a DTC/internet strategy would be a key part of Kikkor’s success. I was from a B2B background, and wasn’t convinced we could sell golf shoes online at the time (size issues, returns etc). Turns out James was right… we sold more pairs of Kikkors online than wholesale.
I then started working with OGIO, and part of my role was to set up their UK/EU web operation. Again, the same thing happened. Online sales for OGIO were very strong, yet at retail we would struggle to get floor space. We’d be getting knock-backs or negative feedback, and it was very hard to break the strangle-hold of the major brands at retail.
At that time (pre covid) a lot of the industry data coming across my desk was showing that the number of rounds played was actually starting to increase for the first time in quite awhile. If you dug a little deeper, you could see that was because there were more younger people coming into the game (juniors, millennials) and more women.
I felt there was an opportunity to target golfers who were looking for brands more aligned with their personal tastes/views, and also target the emerging market with a modern golf brand, sold direct via the internet.
My experience with Kikkor & OGIO led me to believe that golfers were very open to new brands and were actively looking for new products outside of the ‘big 5’. So when combining those two ‘trends’, I felt there was a market need for an authentic, modern, digital-native golf brand.
That brand was Seed Golf
(Seed is slang for golf ball on the pro tours back in Australia and Asia… a good mate of mine used to caddy professional, and would always ask me when we played together ‘what Seed you using today?’ It always stuck with me, and I thought it was the perfect brand name for this new venture)
The other industry info that wasn’t widely known at the time was that golf ball design & performance had plateaued for the regular golfer. While new ball designs were being developed and released, they were targeted at improving very specific performance characteristics (generally, for faster swinging tour pros). Golf ball performance is heavily regulated by the USGA and R&A, so we hadn’t seen a big jump in performance for the regular golfer since around 2000 (think Pro V1 introduction).
Much in the same way the Ping Anser shape become ubiquitous in putter design, the original patents for that type of ball design were due to expire and therefore come into ‘public domain’, meaning the basis of any (and all) modern three piece ‘tour’ grade balls was about to be widely available.
This, effectively, created a leveling [of the] playing field. There’s a performance line that, if you can reach it, means you can produce a ball that performs as well as the market leading brands.
Our interest is in designing for regular golfers, not tour pros, so that’s where we focused our efforts.”
We mentioned this earlier, but must go into a bit more detail. The direct to consumer golf ball market is constantly evolving, but often times, not in the way you would expect. Every few years, someone has a few drinks with their friends and says “Why are we paying $50 for a dozen of balls, when I can order something like it for $15 overseas and we can sell them for less than the pro shop”. This is reality. I have been there during these conversations and a few months later, they are picking out packaging and creating Facebook and Instagram ads telling you the same message, but using catchy phrases like “Stop paying for their marketing”, etc.
Back in 2015, nearly a dozen of direct to consumer golf ball companies found themselves in the golf ball Legal-Go-Round over intellectual property infringement. Most have gone away from that battle, however, here we are in 2022 and some new ones such as Sugar and Piper appear on the scene and most have virtually no technical knowledge of the golf ball at its core (pun intended). They buy a blank product, sometimes one that is a decent golf ball, have it manufactured, labeled and voila, a new brand is here. This isn’t what Seed Golf is doing. In fact, it is the opposite. What made them go the thorough testing route vs the cheaper way of slapping a logo on something? Dean Klatt explains.
“Coming up with the idea was easy. The difficult part is coming up with a ball that plays as well as market leading ball(s). Having worked a little in product design with Cleveland and OGIO, there was never any doubt we would develop our own products. It was just something I’d always done, though as Seed was the first time I’d developed a golf ball, it was a long process.
In the end, we were very lucky.
Early on in Seeds development, a government trade body here in Ireland called Enterprise Ireland got involved and suggested we base ourselves at the Institute of Technology in Carlow. There’s a rapid prototyping design lab here on campus (DESIGNCore), that could CAD design a ball for us, then 3D print a sample. The Department of Aerospace Engineering (ENGCore) is located in the building next to us, and has a wind tunnel on site. So we could design a ball, 3D print a sample and then test the aerodynamics all on site. For a small company like Seed, it was amazing to access all those resources, and really helped give the brand credibility early on.
We also worked closely with our manufacturing partners in Taiwan, who helped with some of the chemical and mechanical engineering elements, and with DuPont who provide most of the raw materials.
Once we started to get to prototype phase, we tested with real world golfers… just regular golfers, mainly here in Ireland, who’d test the ball and give us feedback. We ended up running just over 800 tests before launch.
Once we started getting down to final prototypes, we then tested on a swing robot in the US comparing performance to the market leading balls. We’re fortunate to have a good working relationship with the guys from Tour Edge, and they’d run tests for us on their robot whenever we needed it.
Once we were happy with the overall performance, we launched. That was back in 2017, and we haven’t looked back. We now have customers in 42 countries, our first design (SD-01) was selected to be the ‘Official Ball of the PGA EuroPro Tour’ and we’ve opened operations/warehouse in the UK and the USA this year.”
Despite being so different from the previously discussed white label products, Seed Golf does have one area that is similar. They are not proclaiming “better than what is on tour”, but are talking about price. Their goal was a simple one, in theory, but not so simple in execution. To create a ball that works for golfers that would cost less, without any sacrifice in performance. They test. Constantly. In fact during our last video conversation, Dean had a testing facility directly behind him while he answered my million questions on product. Sometimes I just can’t help myself, I am a golf nerd at heart and love talking about technology. We asked Dean what makes their products different and who are they for?
“The main thing here is they’re not really different… our mantra is ‘same performance, half the price’ and that’s what we try and offer.
We looked at the three leading ball designs, and tried to develop a Seed that would play just as well for regular golfers/regular swing speeds. I think a lot of golf brands get a little lost in all the ‘tech’ talk for the sake of a marketing angle, and forget that at the end of the day, the balls need to perform for the average golfer. And that’s really what we are trying to do with Seed. Our main aim is to make balls for the 98.5% people who aren’t PGA Tour pros.
Ideas like ‘The Jack’ come from our own experience, and what we thought would help golfers like us with certain areas of our games. We were flattered when Taylor Made picked up on the idea and offered something similar with their Stripe model this year.”
Seed Golf has been successful overseas. In a number of different areas both in sales and their subscription model. In the US market, the subscription golf ball segment has always kicked off with a bang and fizzled out. This is something we constantly discuss here and wonder why? Is it because people play less than they think they do? Is it because we are worse golfers than we think we are, meaning you don’t want to have a plethora of something you don’t think you will need, and then always end up buying from the pro shop due to being bare? On paper and in theory, the golf ball subscription makes all of the sense in the world for any avid golfer. Can Seed be the one that changes that and makes it more accepted? Dean expands.
“Subscription is an interesting one. We also sell Seed without a subscription, but the golf ball is the perfect product for the service… we all use them, we all lose them so, if you find a ball you like, why not sign up for a regular delivery? We took the view very early on, that if we were to offer subscription, then there should be some benefit to the customer for signing up. For us, the subscription program is all about the customer. It’s all managed on our site, and the customer has complete control of the service. They can change or pause or cancel whenever they want. There’s no commitment or contract to continue, there’s no exit fees to cancel, so we just tried to make it as easy as possible to use. We also make sure that subscribers get our ‘lowest price always, from your first dozen’ which basically means you always get the best price, even if you only buy a dozen at a time. It’s more convenient, and you can swap and change if you want to try a different model, or switch to yellow in winter etc. Ideally, we’d like to expand the service and make it more user friendly. We’re working on adding a vending machine delivery component, whereby you have the option of picking the balls up from a vending machine rather than home delivery (a lot of our customers travel to Spain & Portugal in the winter, and it’d be easier to pick them up when you get there than carry them out with you on the plane) or have an option of having them delivered right to your locker at your home club.
Without offering some sort of benefit or improvement (either value or service) then there’s no real reason to sign up… I’m not sure the majors really understand that aspect of Subscription.”
Seed as a company has not stopped with golf balls. The expansion into accessories is underway and they have started with golf bags and tees. Based on Dean’s experience that seems like a fairly natural fit. In Europe, they also have gloves and umbrellas, and our hope is those make their way here as well. What made them expand to other items? Dean Klatt explains.
“Just from our experiences here in Europe. Seed has developed a very loyal following of users, who expressed interest in buying other products from Seed. With my past design experience with OGIO, golf bags was an obvious one (and it was a lot easier to develop than the balls) and the gloves & umbrella come from our need to have products that help us play here in Ireland. The weather here can be patchy at best, so we often find ourselves playing in the wind and the rain. We needed a glove that could handle that, and still feel like a proper, tour quality glove in the dry. Same with the umbrella. It needs to keep the rain off during a ‘soft’ day and not blow out in an Atlantic squall. That’s where the ‘Full Irish’ idea comes from… products that are designed to handle the full range of Irish weather conditions (rain/sleet/snow/wind/sun). We’re working on an outerwear line now also, as we feel we there’s an opportunity top do something similar for that category as what we’ve done with golf balls.”
Moving from the past and history to the present is one of the most fun parts of creating the Brand Story features. What does the future hold for the company? We asked Dean to share.
“Is this where I write ‘global domination’?
In all seriousness, our aim is to continue quietly doing what we’ve been doing, keep designing and developing interesting, high quality products that offer great performance and even better value for money. We’d like to replicate the success we’ve had here in Ireland in new markets like the US, Canada and Australia. Seed is the #1 DTC ball in the Irish market, and not far away from that in the UK also. The US is a different story though, and we’re still the ‘new kid on the block’ over there. Hopefully, over the next couple of years or so, we can find a similar audience for Seed globally. After that, who knows?”
During each of our Brand Story articles, we learn, we experience, we try. Seed Golf seems to be doing that very thing and putting an effort into it beyond what most would believe. Going beyond the normal fun messaging, with products that they believe in, and that they know golfers will believe in when given a chance.
For more information on any of the products we discussed here or to jump into giving them a try, check out their website at www.seedgolf.co.
Will a subscription service work? Only if you have determined this is the ball you want to play for the year. I don’t think it’s for me personally since I’m always trying new things but it definitely could work for some.
Love that subscription cost is the same for 1 month vs. 3 months. 2 months is probably about right for me to go through a dozen balls though and these are cheap compared to the top dogs.
Would you do the subscription? Otherwise I think $35 for an unknown product essentially is a bit much
Interesting side note. So did I. When I learned otherwise, I really pursued learning more about it. I got a chance to speak with Dean early on before this story took shape and one of my first questions was "is this an open source ball with a logo" and he kind of chuckled and said no, and explained what was happening directly behind him in the office with testing.
Probably not, unless I found an option that I settled on and felt like I had a handle on how often I’d need a reboot.
That being said, signing up for the subscription and then altering/canceling it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it meant saving some money.
It’s easy to get jaded on those types of balls. I thought his “let’s have a drink and make a golf ball company” story was pretty funny.
I dont often share this type of stuff, but this is in fact a true story that took place a while back. I was contacted by someone that said they were starting a ball company. They asked to meet and I happened to be in their home state on some other travel. We met for lunch, and they proceeded to tell me how their regular jobs were all about importing and sourcing goods and they were going to do the same for golf balls. These balls were labeled "77". I asked some simple questions about cover materials, spin rates, and then asked about compression and it was as if I asked them the quadratic formula mixed with duponts secret recipe. Complete blank stares about how compression relates to speed and spin, etc. They knew absolutely nothing about golf balls. They wanted to be "insta-famous", not a business. They wanted to be cool with fun slogans and marketing. They were making nothing, knew nothing about the product, just that it was a good ball and they could get them landed for cheap. The three friends that did this came up with the idea after running out of balls at the turn and spend $55 in a country club pro shop. I explained that the golfer (our audience) is more discerning now than ever and that is why so many of these companies fail. We parted ways after he left me with the lunch bill, which I laughed over and they did come to market.
I got calls once a year about why are they not selling and how they were trying to live on 20% margins and have a garage full of golf balls. I offered some advice, but that was it. I won’t comment on the brand, but it is the same story I have heard a dozen times. Many times you read the DTC websites and you can tell its the exact same story. See the brand new ones like Piper, Sugar, etc. The tech is simply regurgitated from the manufacturer, because often times its just wrong and the product is what it is.
Its not different in clubs either, but thats a different story altogether haha. The main issue I have is it does sour the message of a new company like this one coming with a product where they do test.
On another note… after seeing the graphics in the article and visiting their site, I can’t say that their aesthetic makes me think of anything close to higher end. Purely personal preference. But if I came across their site and info in the wild, I’d probably pass it right by.
The most popular tour balls from the major brands are all about $50 a dozen. $35 is quite a bit cheaper. Averaging that out at 10 dozen a year which is fairly standard its $150 savings.
That doesn’t mean it’s a better ball, nearly free or anything else. But I do think comparatively cost wise it’s pretty darn good at the stand alone price point.
Amazon effect. Blech.
Really good to see they do their own developing and testing. That makes me more interested.
Its also interesting to see the lack of excitement for the subscription model. Maybe my current experience of being about out of golf balls is coloring my judgement but sure would be nice if a dozen showed each month, knowing I can pause if the stockpile gets too big.
It was also interesting to see how being part of a tech incubator basically, really paid off to help them launch. I’ve always wondered about how impactful those types of programs can be. Nice to see if paying off in the golf space.
The subscription model I personally think will hinder them stateside, but, there’s only one way for them to know for sure.
Also still hope to see them refine the logo a bit, but I still plan on giving them a go.
Agree that the logo isn’t my favorite. However, I think the “Jack” alignment aid is pretty sweet. Years ago I wouldn’t have liked it, but that type of thing has really been normalized.
You know, that’s a great conversation point as I too remember when companies first started making the alignment setups on golf balls more…visible…and there was some real push back out there.
I may have made fun of soccer ball golf balls. Now I’m pretty sure I love them.
Hahahaha! I’ll never admit that I love them. Never.
They don’t even offer free shipping? Thats a huge miss.
Nope … have to spend $100 for free shipping
$100 spend gets free shipping. I think that is becoming the norm as we move forward with the rising cost of shipping.
To the subscription thing, I believe it will become much more normal in the future. I have said my share on it, that I believe it is not as successful here as elsewhere because golfers don’t think they are as bad as they are. We lose more balls than we think in other words. Then run to the pro shop to reload, otherwise there isnt a ton of reasoning why pro shop golf ball purchases would be as high as the are.
Yeah, once I add shipping the dozen came to $38 a month with the subscription. I am not opposed at that price but want the performance to be there as the cost delta isn’t enough at that point.
That said, the alignment aid is interesting and if I like the ball I could still see signing up, but it would be a combination of differentiators, price being one of them but not the sole reason.
I can see the subscription model as super handy, but really only if it is a ball you truly like, and if you are going through them. If you are playing a ton, and losing a lot of balls, this could definitely save you the time of heading to the store to grab balls.
Really though, if I am going to get balls at retail, I am shopping for other things, and that is a lot of the experience that I guess I would miss out on with the subscription. Its not like I get to a real golf store often, maybe 1-2 times a year, but I want to try clubs, check out clothes, see whats new…. and then grab some balls to round out my purchases.
It may be but at $35 a dozen plus $9 shipping I’ll just go to the local store and pickup a dozen that is a known product. Subscription models may be the future but for now this pricing just doesn’t work for me personally. If you want people to try your product you need to give them a reason. Maybe I could jump at trying a dozen at $35 out the door but I’m not doing a subscription on an unknown product to save a few bucks regardless if I can cancel at any time or not
Thanks for the read. Shouldn’t you be white knuckle trolling people on twitter like the normal?
Im sure our editor @GolferGal will take this feedback and file it where it belongs.
I’ll give you an SD-02 so you can get a feel for them. I *think* i have one left.
solid 3rd post in 9 years man. Top notch stuff here
What was the point of that post? If you don’t like it get your golf content somewhere else.
I am not sure I would go for the subscription. If shipping was included I would think about it. I don’t lose many balls I haven’t bought any balls this year I am working off the three dozen I got as gifts at Christmas time. At $44 including shipping I might be inclined to buy them locally.
Yes to this.
Cheap ass….
Asa creature of habit I wouldn’t be opposed of a subscription, but I have probably around 3-400 golf balls laying around right now that I need to get rid of. It’s a stupid fetish or addiction (still don’t know which).
Dear THP,
Do not judge all Bay Area people based on this ridiculous post. We all aren’t complete D-Bags. Although we have found one here.
Dear @JB – Thanks for continuing to bring bring content for those of us that love the game and the community your site brings.
Dear @willo ‘the Glen, from your name it looks like youre in SJ. We are better than that. Be better.
I think next time I run low on balls, I will reload with a Red AF box and Green AF box from Seed, then see how those game. If they’re good, I can order a bunch and the DTC savings will really kick in.
I have not encountered any as of yet but I have feeling as their popularity has grown that changes.
Really cool to see the deep dive here and it’s refreshing that they aren’t just throwing their name on something they know nothing about. Being #1 DTC ball in a country (Ireland) perked my ears up. That area knows their golf so the product must be doing something right. Those bags don’t look half bad either!
Great read JB!