NiceBallz - Play Ballzy

In addition to being a lot of fun, it’s interesting what else you can observe at your local demo day.
 
A few days ago NiceBallz had the good fortune of checking out a local ‘Demo Day’ put on by a municipal course we enjoy playing. We knew we’d have a date with all the big stars: Callaway, Taylormade, Nike, Ping…and other belles of the ball like Nickent and Cleveland. 
 
The prospect of all those clubs, all the nifty mix-and-match driver/shaft/head combos, all the sales pitches.  It made us woozy with golf gadget lust.
 
And it delivered…even after 18 holes @GolferWriterGuy and I (along with another member of our group) were tuned up and ready to swing some new sticks! While the tinkering with clubs was predictably fun, I was left with a more lingering impressino of some unintentional reinforcements of perceptions I’ve had of the brands present:
 
- Callaway: The biggest tent (umm, overcompensating?) with the best spot on the range. The staff members were friendly enough, I guess, though they did carry a bit of the ‘above it all’ air. In short, every aspect of their setup from their reps casual sizing up of each person who dared approach their massive spread, to the prices associated with their products they came off as ‘upper east side’ residents of the demo day.  While many of their clubs and technology were impressive, the general vibe was not as much.
 
- Cleveland: Much smaller tent with an unassuming younger staffer manning it. He was exceptionally laid back and friendly overall. In addition to going out of his way in answering our questions he showed great patience while I drilled him on some of the iron and driver selections.  In most every sense they come off as the underdog amongst some of the other big brands (e.g. Callaway, Nike) but it’s a role that suits them and made them come off well on this day. 
 
- TaylorMade: If a tent and the rep inside could exude confidence just by their presence it was the TaylorMade crew.  With their driver technology still generally viewed as the industry leader…they carried themselves with the same self-assuredness.  Where Callaway’s tent bordered on arrogance…TaylorMade’s presence just came across as that jock in high school who was cocky enough to be named All-Conference, but still popular enough to be voted homecoming king.
 
- Ping: A hipster ’tude.  If Callaway was the big budget movie opening at your local theater, Ping came off as the independent film opening the same week that would get the Oscar nods.  Not a testament on the merits of one club over the other, simply the ‘vibe’ and presence put out by the reps themselves.
 
- Nike: Possibly the most disappointing presence. The tent was manned by an incredibly friendly and willing-to-help staffer…who also was a familiar sight to NiceBallz staff as he mans a local driving range we visit. In short, he’s probably not the first guy we’d run to for advice on flex strength and kickpoints. It overall gave the impression that Nike feels pretty self-assured of their place in the golfing world, especially as long as one Eldrick Woods is around. Too bad. They can (and should) do better.
 
- Nickent: There at the end of the range, next to the push carts that were on special sat the primary wallflower of the day. We harbor no prejudice when we say they definitely acted the part of the ugly stepsister.  Quiet, non-engaging…content and happy just to have been invited.  We practically wanted to push them out of their tent to engage the various passersby.  
 
Granted, these were all very isolated impressions from one (incredibly savvy and observant) person.  It was intriguing, though, to see how the various brands came alive at the customer level.  Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes just being what they are. 
 
Did we buy anything?  That’s a subject yet to be covered (once we somehow break the news to our significant others) but all in all we had a lot of fun and highly recommend attending demo days in your area if it isn’t a practice of yours already. 

Do our impressions of some of the big brands seem familiar to what you’ve experienced?  Are they way different?  Let us know in comments or on twitter.
 
-Hack
 
Hack expects @GolferWriterGuy to up the ante on their weekly matches soon to generate the revenue needed to purchase the set of irons he clearly has fallen head over heels for from the demo day.  You can follow both at http://twitter.com/NiceBallz and http://twitter.com/GolferWriterGuy.