Golf wear at TSG – and my blurb on pricing…

Demand for clothes…

Due to many requests from customers and vistors to Tourspecgolf, we’ve begun our little experiment at carrying golf clothing. We’ve actually been getting many requests for golf wear over the years but to be honest we never decided to make a commitment to clothes because it is probably the one most difficult product to carry. So many different brands and styles and models and sizes make it very hard if not impossible for an online retailer like TSG to stock. As it is here in Japan, clothes sell out far faster than clubs. They are made in far smaller numbers and are always spoken for by many of the big golf equipment chain stores around Japan.

High prices, yes.

That said, we’ve decided to work with our accounts here in Japan to start slowly with a limited amount of clothing to see how things go before expanding to more styles and models and brands. One big negative of carrying clothes from the Japanese market is price.  To those of you who don’t realize (and this is probably most people), TSG does not dictate the prices of our products in the pro shop. The Japanese market does. Several factors make Japanese gear, whether it be clubs or clothes more expensive for those outside Japan.

Firstly, the Japanese market is simply more expensive in the first place. Yes, consumers here in Japan paying 750.00- $1000.00 for a driver and 1200.00 for a set of irons is common place. But because of this, manufacturers are able to take advantage of Japanese consumers willing to spend by keeping the genral MSRP very high in Japan. This cycle allows brands however, to take back much of its earnings and place them into manufacturing processes and premium materials and design. All this leads back to higher priced gear in a higher priced market place all controlled by the manufacturers.

Oh when will the Yen fall??

Another factor, especially recently, has been the super strong yen. We have tried hard not to raise prices even though we function in US dollars and have seen the yen strengthen by over 10% in the last year alone.  The weak US dollar and strong yen limits our pricing ability but we still try our best. (and remember we do have a price matching policy).

So if you see the new clothes in the shop and proclaim they are costly, which they are, please keep these factors in mind. Japanese golf gear comes at a cost (if you find Japanese market clubs crazy cheap somewhere else and I mean prices too good to be true, I am sorry to say they probably fake – and it would not be the first time a customer has left us to find a set of new irons at a fraction of our pricing and below even our costs only to find out they were fake but that is another post for another time).

Mizuno and Tourstage to start.

So back on topic. We’re going to see how this goes and I will try my best to track down good deals on clothes. Summer collections are usually the best deals because they use the least amount of material for manufacturing while winter collections feature thicker materials and more jackets and long sleeves and sweaters which simply cost more. We’ve started off with a few products from Mizuno and Tourstage and I may add some LeCoq Sportif and Srixon tonight as well.  Stock is limited and many sizes are already gone but I tried to add products that actually had sizes left. If all goes well we can add items like DWD and Adidas Japan down the road as well. Keep in mind that sizing is indeed different. I am a US Small but I wear a Japan Medium which for some brands (since there is no standard) I even find a touch too big for me. So while it is safe to say that sizes are APPROXIMATELY one size smaller please refer to the sizing charts (in centimeters) that I have posted in each listing.

Check out some of the new clothes in the new Mens Golf Wear category here and if you have any questions about sizes or features or even brands you are interested in you can email me and as always I’d be happy to help out.