Bridgestone TourB line

[Joey East Coast]

New drivers, woods/hybrid, and irons out. 

 

http://www.bridgestonegolf.com/product/clubs

 

Wish they stuck with the True Balance putters.

[808nation]

Looking good

 

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[GolfSpy Barbajo]

Look for a blog post on the release soon...

[Orange Hog]

Love me some Bridgestone and those X-CB irons look absolutely amazing but there's no way I'm dropping $1200 on a set of irons.

[GolfSpy Barbajo]

And here it is....

 

https://www.mygolfspy.com/first-look-2017-bridgestone-tour-b-metalwoods-irons/

[JudgeSmails]

They make some great looking irons, I just wish some stores carried them so it was convenient to try them out

[jayjay0808]

Gorgeous clubs, price point just seems out of sorts. I know this is probably trying to hit the PXG market a bit but I can find clubs that will perform the same or better for a fraction of the price

[jrmull]

They make some great looking irons, I just wish some stores carried them so it was convenient to try them out

My sentiments exactly! I would already have tried out some of the J 15 irons and wedges, have they been readily available.

[numberonecoog]

So Taylormade goes super expensive, Bridgestone goes super expensive. Luckilly some manufacturers are not losing it. Heres to you Ping,Srixon,Callaway

[hckymeyer]

So Taylormade goes super expensive, Bridgestone goes super expensive. Luckilly some manufacturers are not losing it. Heres to you Ping,Srixon,Callaway

And Cobra!

 

The irons don't seem too out of sorts.  $1200 for a nice set of forged clubs is pretty much in line with the competition.  The driver, fairway and hybrid prices are pretty out there.  At those price points I understand it's not for the average consumer, but even a rich idiot has to see that you aren't going to see much (if any) improvement with a fit $700 driver compared to a fit $400-$500 driver.  Plus Bridgestone doesn't have the PXG premium brand appeal.

 

It's an interesting choice for Bridgestone.  Instead of trying to fix their distribution and availability for the masses they've decided to go ultra premium and make them even harder to find.  We shall see I guess...

[numberonecoog]

I dont get the logic. No one buys our stuff. Lets make it harder to get stuff. Bad logic to me

[Jiro]

These clubs look good but I like the looks of the j15 cb and jgr cb better than this cb.

 

Maybe this Endo blade is to try and convince a certain golfer who just signed up to use their balls to also sign on to use their irons?

 

 

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[Zeasy]

And Cobra!

 

The irons don't seem too out of sorts. $1200 for a nice set of forged clubs is pretty much in line with the competition. The driver, fairway and hybrid prices are pretty out there. At those price points I understand it's not for the average consumer, but even a rich idiot has to see that you aren't going to see much (if any) improvement with a fit $700 driver compared to a fit $400-$500 driver. Plus Bridgestone doesn't have the PXG premium brand appeal.

 

It's an interesting choice for Bridgestone. Instead of trying to fix their distribution and availability for the masses they've decided to go ultra premium and make them even harder to find. We shall see I guess...

You're also getting premium exotic shafts. Callaway's $500 epics come with made for callaway versions of popular exotics. Price isn't that out of line with that in mind.

[Fireinthehole]

I like the looks of the J15s, price not being an issue i would probably game a j15 cb/mb combo over either of these

 

 

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[GolfSpy Barbajo]

We talk a lot here about companies like Bridgestone needing to do a better job of getting their product on the shelves - but it's not that easy to do. It's not like their sales team can just snap their fingers and presto, they're on every shelf in every store in America. Retail space is at a premium, and retailers stock and display stuff that moves. The big movers get the most space, and the big movers that pay for it get the premium locations on the floor.  

 

As big of a company as Nike was, their equipment never really occupied much space in most retailers. Our local Golf Galaxy would have a ton of TaylorMade and Callaway on the wall, followed by PING, Titleist and Cobra, and some Mizuno. Nike has less than 3 feet of wall space for their iron sets.

 

With this move I think Bridgestone is saying its retail offerings will be the JGR irons and woods, along with the J15 wedges. These products fit the larger end of the market - the SGI and GI player (although the wedges do truly rock!). They weren't getting anywhere in this channel with their better player products - it's the smallest market segment and it's also the most crowded - all the big guys who already have the shelf space also have really good offerings for that market segment.

 

So the old adage applies: if you keep doing what you've been doing you're going to keep getting what you've been getting.

 

I don't see this distribution model with the Tour B line as an effort to sell more clubs. If anything, they'll probably sell fewer clubs, but they'll make more money doing it.  At that point, it's not a game of volume, it's a game of margins. 

[Jiro]

We talk a lot here about companies like Bridgestone needing to do a better job of getting their product on the shelves - but it's not that easy to do. It's not like their sales team can just snap their fingers and presto, they're on every shelf in every store in America. Retail space is at a premium, and retailers stock and display stuff that moves. The big movers get the most space, and the big movers that pay for it get the premium locations on the floor.

 

As big of a company as Nike was, their equipment never really occupied much space in most retailers. Our local Golf Galaxy would have a ton of TaylorMade and Callaway on the wall, followed by PING, Titleist and Cobra, and some Mizuno. Nike has less than 3 feet of wall space for their iron sets.

 

With this move I think Bridgestone is saying its retail offerings will be the JGR irons and woods, along with the J15 wedges. These products fit the larger end of the market - the SGI and GI player (although the wedges do truly rock!). They weren't getting anywhere in this channel with their better player products - it's the smallest market segment and it's also the most crowded - all the big guys who already have the shelf space also have really good offerings for that market segment.

 

So the old adage applies: if you keep doing what you've been doing you're going to keep getting what you've been getting.

 

I don't see this distribution model with the Tour B line as an effort to sell more clubs. If anything, they'll probably sell fewer clubs, but they'll make more money doing it. At that point, it's not a game of volume, it's a game of margins.

I think you are right, retail is just brutal.

 

Bridgestone is a massive company and could easily try to buy their way into more market share if they wanted to but as we saw with Nike, that is a hard thing to do. You can only invest so much money before stock holders start getting impatient. Maybe trying to build a niche as a more premium brand will work better for them. They have a good reputation with their balls to build off of.

 

An interesting case study would be how these companies with other interests besides golf (Bridgestone, Nike, Mizuno, Wilson) have handled themselves in the industry. Why has Mizuno been able to find more success than the others in equipment share?

 

 

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[GolfSpy Barbajo]

An interesting case study would be how these companies with other interests besides golf (Bridgestone, Nike, Mizuno, Wilson) have handled themselves in the industry. Why has Mizuno been able to find more success than the others in equipment share?

 

 

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The Wilson end of that has already been done, from our end anyway...

 

Wilson, Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Part 3

[Joey East Coast]

Assuming you can buy individual irons from these sets somewhere/sometime, I would possibly go that route. 

[hckymeyer]

You're also getting premium exotic shafts. Callaway's $500 epics come with made for callaway versions of popular exotics. Price isn't that out of line with that in mind.

I haven't seen a shaft list from Bridgestone, and Callaway isn't the shining example of zero upcharge shafts in the industry.  But there are quite a few real deal no-upcharge shafts available from Cally, TMaG and Cobra.  So unless Bridgestone is including things like Graphite Design and Oban I don't see a huge price difference there.

[Zeasy]

As of right now, the only stand out is the Diamana BF. That's a $350 shaft at no charge. Options seem limited, though

 

[GolfSpy Barbajo]

I haven't seen a shaft list from Bridgestone, and Callaway isn't the shining example of zero upcharge shafts in the industry.  But there are quite a few real deal no-upcharge shafts available from Cally, TMaG and Cobra.  So unless Bridgestone is including things like Graphite Design and Oban I don't see a huge price difference there.

 

 

Here are the standard driver options for Tour B...

 

 

 

And the standard iron options...

 

 

Again, Bridgestone's approach here is weird.  These are no upcharge options only for Tour B, but they're not the only no upcharge options - if that makes any sense.  Bridgestone says any shaft in their offering is also available for Tour B -- most are no upcharge but a few will be.  These shafts are the ones that will be in the Tour B fitting cart.

 

A full listing of shaft options should be available on their website.

 

Nothing is ever simple with Bridgestone...

[hckymeyer]

Not much that blows me away with that list and justifies the $700 price point.  Then again I'm not exactly the target demographic.

[Miboy62]

Like the look of the Tour X irons.