Equipment News: - Posted 9th July 1998

Poor demand for Tiger Woods product lines

Associated Press

Portland, Oregon. - A year ago, no one was predicting lukewarm sales of Tiger Woods signature products.

But Nike Inc.'s long-awaited Tiger Woods line has fallen far below par.

Sales of the Tiger Woods signature shoe, which retails for between $225 and $250, have been particularly slow.

"It just plain flat was a total disaster," Jerry Offerdahl, owner of four Nevada Bob's Discount Golf shops in Oregon, told The Oregonian. "We're already closing them out."

Retailers blame high prices, the shoe's offbeat style and Woods's relatively poor performance on the PGA Tour this year.

"All the Woods stuff is so gaudy," said Ryan Kleinjan, of Golf America in Egan, Minn. "It's easy to sell a 13-year-old. But the 40-year-old lawyer is turned off by it."

The tepid consumer reaction is a stunning setback for Nike, which thought Woods' appeal was so universal that he would be the next can't-miss endorser.

Nike signed Woods to a five-year deal worth almost $40 million when he became a professional in late 1996. Now some question how effectively Nike has used Woods.

In his rookie year, Woods was a phenomenon, including a record-smashing win at The Masters. Wherever he went, PGA Tour ticket sales and television ratings skyrocketed.

Even Nike chairman Phil Knight, a man not given to hyperbole, predicted Woods would "change the way people view the game of golf."

Nike made the decision to go beyond a mere signature shoe and develop an entire Tiger Woods product line. But the company's designers faced a tricky set of demographic and style questions.

They could have played it safe and fashioned a traditional look. But Nike had something in mind, sources told The Oregonian, more like the fire-engine red high-tops that Michael Jordan wore onto NBA courts in the mid-1980s.

Depending on who's doing the talking, the Tiger Woods signature shoe -- the Air Zoom TW -- is either sleek and elegantly modern or downright ugly.

"The design was a little radical," Offerdahl said. "It didn't take us long to realize the shoes looked good on one guy -- Tiger Woods."

"It looks like a bowling shoe," griped another retailer who asked to remain anonymous.

A dozen retailers from California to Minnesota to Delaware agreed that the Tiger line of footwear has been disappointing. Nike's Tiger Woods apparel line has done better in some locations. But there, also, some retailers feel Nike got too aggressive on price by charging $54 and up for polo shirts.

"The apparel is real slow," said Darcy Taylor of International Discount Golf in Modesto, Calif. "It's a lot of money for a little Swoosh."

The company introduced the Woods line, which includes golf shoes and apparel, in February. Starting in April, Nike's golf unit was hit by management departures, which may or may not be related to the performance of the Tiger Woods products.

Bob Rief, former general manager of the unit, left the company about two weeks ago. He would say only that the parting was "amicable." Four other Nike golf managers left in the last three months.

Until recently, Nike's big investment in golf looked like a rousing success. The Beaverton company's golf sales jumped from $35 million four years ago to about $200 million in the fiscal year that ended May 31.

The lackluster showing of the Woods line adds to growing questions about the value of athlete endorsements. Some companies are paring back on their relationships with athletes in the belief that few are worth the money.

Woods, however, remains a power to reckon with, said Bob Dorfman, a sports industry expert with Foote Cone & Belding, a San Francisco ad agency. "I don't think this is the end of his viability as an endorser," he said. "He's a young guy. The reality of golf is, nobody wins all the time."

Indeed, Woods remains one of the most popular figures in sports.

Rob Correa, vice president for programming at CBS Sports, said that in the Nissan Open in March and the BellSouth Classic in May, two tournaments in which Woods was in contention on the final day, CBS's ratings were up 31 percent and 68 percent, respectively, from the year before.