The brand new Vessel Carbon Fiber Collection are limited-edition golf baggage which might be actually, actually cool.
However 5 will get you 10 these baggage are going to make you actually, actually mad.
They shouldn’t however odds are they’ll. Right here’s why.
The Carbon Fiber Assortment includes a stand bag and cart bag for $1,595. The Employees bag goes for $1,695. And there’s additionally a driver head cowl that’s a relative discount at $245.
Vessel is sort of upfront in saying it actually doesn’t know who the shopper shall be. It simply is aware of there gained’t be quite a lot of them. That’s the entire level behind a restricted version, in any case.
Vessel Carbon Fiber Assortment
“I actually don’t know who’s going to purchase a $1,600 golf bag,” admits Vessel founder and CEO Ronnie Shaw. “I don’t know if folks will purchase it however we simply needed to create one thing actually particular that nobody else can do.”
That’s the best way it’s with restricted editions, particularly commemorative restricted editions celebrating a milestone. On this case, that milestone is Vessel’s tenth anniversary. So you may simply think about Vessel gifting simply as many of those baggage to particular shoppers and enterprise companions because it sells to golfers. However as particular as Shaw says the Carbon Fiber Assortment is, it’s additionally “proof of idea.”
“We need to put out a bag with essentially the most unbelievable materials we will discover.”
That materials is a carbon fiber cloth known as Omniflex. In golf, you discover carbon fiber in all the pieces from shafts and metalwood crowns to Stealth driver faces. It hasn’t been used a lot in golf baggage as a result of, properly, why would you?
Vessel, nonetheless, is teaming up with a Washington State-based firm known as Carbitex, the makers of Omniflex, to convey carbon fiber to a luxurious golf bag.
What Is Omniflex?
“It’s a extremely robust, extremely sturdy materials that’s additionally extraordinarily mild,” says Carbitex Enterprise Growth VP Clark Morgan. “It’s a utilitarian attribute that carbon fiber has in spades.”
What makes Omniflex totally different will be present in its identify. It’s a really mild and versatile carbon fiber cloth that can be very robust and really sturdy. The fabric is utilized in different sports activities tools, most notably in Lionel Messi’s soccer cleats on the World Cup. Collectively, Vessel and Carbitex have found out a manner to make use of Omniflex in a golf bag to make it stronger, lighter and extra sturdy.
Nonetheless, that does beg the query: How a lot lighter, stronger and extra sturdy does a golf bag have to be?
“It’s a luxurious to have,” says Shaw. “Is it a must have? No, probably not. However it’s one thing nobody else can achieve this it’s how we will push the boundaries of what’s doable.”
Vessel is utilizing Omniflex in a number of elements of the bag instead of polyurethane (PU). In a product launch video, Vessel exhibits a strip of Omniflex lifting a 41-pound weight and staying utterly intact. A chunk of PU lifting the identical weight stretched like a rubber band.
“When PU begins to stretch, the integrity of the bag begins to go down,” says Shaw. “In our bag, we linked the highest and the underside with a carbon fiber piece. So irrespective of how heavy you load the bag, nothing will ever stretch.”
Suppose Idea Automotive
Should you’re nonetheless desirous about storming the fort, possibly attempt pondering of the Vessel Carbon Fiber Collection as an idea automotive. Vessel is doing this to show it might probably make Omniflex work in a contemporary golf bag, and to see what’s doable.
“One of many heaviest areas of the golf bag is the backbone,” explains Shaw. “The world behind the principle deal with is normally bolstered with possibly 4 layers of PU. Now that we all know the way to work with carbon fiber, you’re going to see a brand new assortment sooner or later that may change these 4 layers of PU and backing with one strip of carbon fiber.”
This venture has been within the works for greater than two years and is actually a restricted version. Vessel is making solely 560 stand baggage, 250 cart baggage, 150 workers baggage and 450 head covers. Every one shall be individually numbered.
Vessel is a high-end luxurious bag firm. Imagine it or not, the posh market is surprisingly underserved. However this value level is virgin territory. Once more, many of those baggage will little question be bought as items for shoppers or as a collectible. Whether or not any golf bag is value that form of cash isn’t even a consideration.
“The worth is a mixture of our premium materials and our tenth anniversary,” says Shaw. “You possibly can’t discover it wherever else neither is anybody else doing something like this.”
What’s within the Vessel Carbon Fiber Assortment?
The Vessel Carbon Fiber Assortment options three baggage plus a commemorative driver head cowl. The Participant III Carbon Black stand bag is the Carbon Assortment’s model of MyGolfSpy’s 2022 top-rated stand bag. It options six full-length dividers, a number of pockets, waterproof zippers and anything you may consider in a bag promoting for $1,595. There’s even an inside valuables pocket with a mixture lock. It weighs simply over six kilos.
The LUX Cart Carbon Black cart bag options 14 full-length dividers, has much more pockets and storage in addition to that valuables pocket with the mixture lock. The cart bag additionally sells for $1,595 and weighs simply over seven kilos. Its non-Carbon Assortment brother finished a close second in MyGolfSpy’s 2022 cart bag testing.
The PrimeX Tour is a brand new Vessel workers bag mannequin designed solely for the Carbon Fiber Assortment. It has a six-way divider, weighs just below 10 kilos and sells for $1,695.
The $245 head cowl options Omniflex carbon fiber aspect panels with an artificial leather-based back and front.
A Decade For Vessel
I hope everybody has calmed down sufficient to understand the Vessel Carbon Fiber Collection is not one other perceived brick within the wall preserving the typical people out of the sport. And it’s not additional proof that golf producers are uncontrolled.
It’s only a one-off luxurious merchandise to have a good time Vessel’s tenth anniversary.
“I’d be mendacity if I advised you we’d be the corporate we’re as we speak,” says Shaw, who began working in his father’s golf bag firm when he was 10 years previous. “I assumed I’d be again in China making golf baggage. This has been an unbelievable journey and past my wildest desires.”
A brand new backpack with Omniflex is due within the subsequent month or so and Shaw says Omniflex will finally discover its manner into different Vessel merchandise. Will it wind up taking on the golf bag business? Who is aware of? It comes all the way down to a really sensible query: How a lot stronger, extra sturdy and lighter does a golf bag actually have to be?
“That is the beginning of one thing that Carbitex and our workforce can do collectively sooner or later,” says Shaw. “That is our first venture. Our baggage maintain up the best way they’re, nevertheless it’s pushing what’s doable.”
For extra data on the limited-edition Vessel Carbon Fiber Assortment, go to the Vessel website.
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