PEAK GOLF
VANCOUVER, B.C.
Peak Golf has two locations: one on Fourth Ave. that’s open year-round, the other store, in North Vancouver, is open April-September.
The Fourth Ave. store has a unique dynamic. Because of its location, with several high-end shops close by, there’s a different vibe to the golf store.
“We find apparel is very demographic,” says Peak Golf owner Roger Cosgrave. “In Vancouver, we sell J. Lindeberg; we sell Peak Performance quite well – that’s a great brand for us. Travis Mathew, adidas, Oakley, Nike – they’ve all done really well in our Vancouver location. We’re dabbling in Galvin Green; we’ll see how that goes.
“In outerwear, we do really well with Sunice and Peak Performance and sprinkle in the price point of adidas.
“In our North Shore store, the higher price points to some degree don’t work. We tend to do better with things like Nike and adidas, with a more moderate price point.
“Here in Vancouver, it’s very different. It’s probably a wealthier demographic. It’s also that we’ve got a proliferation of country clubs here. We get a lot of wealthy tourists that cruise our strip. We’re on one of the nicer retail strips in Vancouver.”
In drivers, Cosgrave says: “It’s always been kind of a big three story: PING, TaylorMade and Callaway, in that sort of order for us.
“We dabble in Titleist, certainly targeting more the better players. For a large portion of our recreational players, G400 Max was a great story last year.
“We’ve already sold some M6 product; the EPIC Flash seems to be getting some traction as well.”
GAPR has already sold well.
As for wedges, Cosgrave says: “Based on the unbiased reviews, I think PING will have a good year with the Glide 2.0. Vokey will probably continue to do well for us. Plus, there’s Cleveland and Callaway. We sell a lot of recreational golfers that Cleveland platform, the CBX. Mack Daddy’s been really strong for us; Mizuno, too. There seems to be more breadth to the wedges than there is in the driver or fairway business. It goes from like three brands up to five or six brands for us.”
In putters, Cosgrave says: “I think the putter that will kill it will be the Sigma 2. That adjustability element gives it a huge edge. Odyssey has done well for us in the blade/mallet styles, but has kind of died off a bit for us is the two-ball. Scotty, will sell some, not a ton. Our go-to putter for price point the past three years is the Cleveland, the HB collection. $150, $160 with a nice grip; we hit a broad market with that price point. Not everybody wants to part with $500 for a putter.”
In golf balls: “The field has levelled. Pro V is still strong, but it’s not heads and shoulders above everything else for us. TP5 is doing well. Chrome Soft, too. We just brought in Snell. In mid-range balls, sprinkle in Velocity, Q-Star and Supersoft – we sell tons, it’s ridiculous. On the women’s side, we do great with Bridgestone and Srixon.”
The store has coloured golf balls from Callaway and Noodle and plans to bring Wilson in.
In shoes, ECCO sells well, so does New Balance. Anything from adidas with the Boost insole sells.
Says Cosgrave: “Two shoes I think will also do very well with us will be the FootJoy Flex and the Fury.”
PING bags are No. 1. Bag Boy is also a hot seller. Clicgear B3 also wells well. The shop also has Ogio and different brand bags which golfers match up with their clubs.
In hats, Cosgrave says: “We sell a ton of Travis Mathew – their fits and their styles are really good. We sell Titleist hats beyond belief. We sell a lot of J. Lindeberg logo hats. Past that, it’s the brand guy looking to match the clubs.”
In gloves, it’s FootJoy, Mizuno and PING, with some TaylorMade.
SAXX underwear sales are huge. “We can’t keep it in stock.”
IBKUL clothing could be just what women golfers are looking for.
Says Cosgrave: “Their garments are known to be cooling, 50 UPS long sleeve,
great colours and pattern; they’ll wear it golfing, walking, cycling. That’s
what I’m finding with a lot of the women’s business. It’s crossover. Women can
wear their Lululemon clothes on the golf course. They’re looking for
versatility. They don’t strictly want a golf shirt.
“Our older demographic buy the brands they’re used to for years. Cracked Wheat or Jamie Sadock, or whatever. A lot of the younger gals getting to the game are looking for something that’s a little more athletic, a little more crossover.
“Guys will buy golf shirts and they buy golf shorts. Guys are different.”
NIAGARA GOLF WAREHOUSE
St. Catharines, ON
A golf store is finally recognizing plenty of us have big heads.
Niagara Golf Warehouse co-owner Tony Haney says: “A lot of guys with big heads come here for their hats. XL/XXL seems to fit everybody with a giant melon. We’ve got a lot of hats in that size. Under Armour is really, really popular.”
Asked about drivers, Haney says: “Right now, the Titleist TS2 and TS3s are really, really hot. We’re getting some press with the Cobra F9; we’re getting a lot of people excited about coming in to try it with our fit days.”
The store emphasizes fitting.
“We custom fit everything,” says Haney. “We never try to pigeonhole anybody into anything, Me, if it’s irons, the first one I’m going to is Mizuno. I think they’ve got every option covered; a quality, quality product. Any type of player, we can absolutely fit them into a Mizuno product. The new M5 and M6s have gone over really well; the Apex Pro has really started to get strong.”
It seems with an early golf season in store, golfers in the area are getting excited.
“You get any sort of sunshine out here, people definitely have the itch,” says Haney.
“We did the Niagara Golf Show, the 23rd and 24th of February, and it was the largest- attended show we’ve ever done.”
In wedges, sales have been strong for Vokey and Callaway.
In putters, the PING adjustable is getting plenty of buzz. Then there’s Odyssey, Scotty Cameron and the Spider.
As for golf balls, Haney says: “A lot of guys are coming in and buying the AVX, in yellow, People are gravitating toward it. As for value balls, the Supersoft is a great option, with the Srixon Soft Feel a go-to.”
In shoes, Skechers and New Balance have been hot; FootJoy has also been solid.
In clothing, Haney says: “Under Armour is always a go-to brand for us. We sell a lot of it. We always do some close-out stuff. We have some Chase 54 in here at great prices. The ladies love it because I’ve collectioned it. I’ve done outfits in sizes; you not only get a skort, you get a shirt and an outerwear piece and they match up. A lot of ladies still like the Lopez as well.”
In golf bags, PING and the TaylorMade stand bag sell well. The store also does low-priced bags like Cleveland, Jazz and Datrek.
In watches and rangefinders, Haney says: “We’ve got Garmin and Bushnell. The S10 sold a bunch around Christmas. I have the ION2 Bushnell. The V4 Shift seems to be the most popular range finder.”
The store also sells a lot of licensed sports products. Things like NHL and NFL head covers, towels and poker chip ball markers.
In gloves, Copper Tech is hot right now.
GOLF GALLERY,
TORONTO ON
The store is a shrine, a labour of love, for owner Parrish Palanica. The sign on the front of the store says, Custom Built Golf Clubs, Repairs, Collectibles.
There are plenty of older clubs on display – a blast from golf’s past.
The store sells a lot of used equipment and does a lot of repairs.
“I have a lot of customers that want to spend $500 or $600 and start playing golf,” said Palanica. “They don’t want to spend $2,000. That’s where I fall in niche-wise.
“Price point is huge. Most of my customers come in and say some of the bigger, boxier stores don’t have what they want, it’s too expensive or the employees don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Golf Gallery sells antique stuff and there are a lot of old clubs. But the used equipment they carry is in terrific shape.
“We don’t carry crap,” says Palanica. “The stuff is new.”
As for the older equipment on display, he says: “It’s a bit of a time warp. You can go back in time here. Once in a while a guy will come in and buy a Persimmon driver.”
G410 irons sell well. Tour Edge Exotics is another line that’s popular.
In putters, PING and Odyssey always sell. In wedges, it’s PING.
The store sells a lot of Bridgestone golf balls.
“Tiger’s selling more Bridgestone balls than he ever did Nike balls for some reason,” says Palanica.
The shop does not stock apparel, maintaining its focus on equipment.
“I’m an equipment guy; I always have been,” says Palanica. “I’ve never been interested in clothes or shoes. I’ve always been in repair and I’m a fitter. Nobody else does what I do anymore.”
In golf bags, it’s Bag Boy – the store sells a lot of them.
The store also sells plenty of junior equipment, mostly Tour Edge and PING.
GOLF CENTRAL
Halifax, NS
Asked about driver sales, Golf Central’s Patrick Logan says: “It’s early in the year but we’re doing quite well with the EPIC Flash as well as the M5 and M6.”
When the companies throw words like “jailbreak technology” and “twist face” around, customers listen.
Says Logan: “The catchphrases work. You get people coming out wondering what it is and what it’ll do for them.”
In irons, the store has so far done very well with Callaway, TaylorMade and PING.
There haven’t been a lot of wedge sales yet.
In putters, Logan says: “Lots of people looking at putters. Odyssey still works well for us; everybody knows the name. And there’s PING with the adjustable putters.”
In men’s clothing, he says: “It’s early for us, but we’ve always done well with adidas, Antigua and Under Armour. In women’s, we sell a bit more in the plus-size; that adds a lot of options. The form-fitting clothing works great for some of the players on tour, but that’s not what we all look like.”
In shoes, he says: “We always do well with FootJoy. New Balance has done quite well with lots of width options. Adidas has done well for us, too.”
Last year, the store added eWheels, something you can add to your current cart and it turns it into a remote-control cart. It was a huge success as far as sales go.
Adds Logan: “Through one of our distributors, we bring in a lot of head covers for putters and drivers. We do a Nova Scotia logo, a Cape Breton one. It’s great for people around here or even people who are visiting. It’s something you can’t get anywhere else.”
