Word: balled
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Investors had good reason to be skeptical. Golf is a notoriously hermetic industry, dominated by a handful of top clubmakers with the advantage of years of tradition and a loyal customer base. Nike signed Tiger Woods before it had so much as a golf ball to put into his hands. But over the past decade, Nike Golf has introduced 10 lines of clubs, 10 series of balls, several styles of golf shoes, and an array of course-worthy golf apparel worn by the 22 swoosh-wielding players on the tour. With the number of golfers in the U.S. flat over...
Even more surprising, Nike's all-out effort has produced some genuine innovation--including the Sumo2, which capitalizes on something called the moment of inertia; the geometric shape minimizes the twisting of the club head during an off-center ball strike, translating into a straighter, longer stroke off the tee. "Nike timed it so well that when they decided to get serious and get into golf equipment, they had the ultimate endorser in Tiger Woods," says Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group. "Then they introduced new technology into the marketplace and really rejuvenated the golf industry...
...separate unit, Nike Golf, with its own staff and, by the happy accident of construction on Nike's main campus, its own rented building a mile from corporate headquarters. It would then take Nike Golf two years to produce something that Woods could use, the Tour Accuracy golf ball, which Woods promptly teed up to post victories at the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championships...
Still, one golf ball does not a golf-gear maker make, so in 2001 Wood hired Tom Stites, a soft-spoken, well-respected club designer. On a wall in Stites' small office at the Research and Development Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, the message "Innovate or Die" headlines the whiteboard that serves as Stites' cocktail napkin of ideas. "I keep my blinds closed," he says with a smile, to keep that valuable piece of wall decoration away from prying eyes. Stites learned his craft from tour-champion Ben Hogan, and when he joined Nike, he arrived armed with...
...today and only 3% of players on NCAA Division I baseball teams. In coming days, you will probably hear sociologists and sports pundits cite those figures as evidence that baseball is turning its back on Robinson's legacy. And so the questions arise: Why are there so few black ball players today? Should there be more...