Why $2K For This Vessel Golf Bag Isn’t As Loopy As It Sounds

Yep, you learn that headline accurately. The brand new Vessel Carbon Assortment stand and cart baggage promote for $1,999.99 every.

I’m certain you’ve gotten questions. These questions could be distorted by incredulity or another knee-jerk emotion however that doesn’t imply these questions shouldn’t be answered.

The primary query is pretty apparent: Who the hell goes to pay $2,000 for a freaking golf bag?

Extra individuals than you’d suppose.

Query Two is the logical follow-up: Why the hell would somebody pay $2,000 for a freaking golf bag?

As a result of they need to.

Query Three is the attention-grabbing one: What the hell makes a golf bag value $2,000?

The reply to that one will get into the very ethos of Vessel as an organization.

The Vessel Carbon Assortment: What offers?

Vessel was based 13 years in the past by Ronnie Shaw, {an electrical} engineer by coaching however a self-proclaimed golf bag geek by nature. Shaw comes by that geekiness truthfully, having labored in his father’s Taiwan-based bag firm Zonson since childhood.

Shaw opened up store in Carlsbad, Calif., and began making high-quality baggage for OEMs, notably NIKE. When NIKE exited the golf world in 2016, Shaw needed to pivot rapidly. Vessel began crafting baggage for PGA and LPGA Tour gamers, just by Shaw going to tournaments and asking gamers if he might make them a bag. The unique Vessel Participant bag quickly adopted. The remaining, as they are saying, is historical past.

The entire Carbon Assortment factor goes again to 2023. To have fun Vessel’s Tenth anniversary, Shaw launched the unique Carbon Assortment: the primary golf baggage made with a novel carbon-fiber cloth referred to as Omniflex. Developed by the Washington state-based firm Carbitex, Omniflex is a robust, sturdy and very mild materials utilized in athletic footwear.

These first Carbon Assortment baggage featured 25 p.c Omniflex materials, particularly reinforcing high-stress areas such because the backbone, deal with, and strap connection factors. This new Carbon Assortment, for Vessel’s Thirteenth anniversary, is 75-percent Omniflex.

“With all that carbon-fiber materials, it’s only a actually, actually cool golf bag,” Shaw tells MyGolfSpy. “It’s extra weatherproof, it’s a bit lighter and it’s going to final a protracted, very long time. That’s why it has a lifetime guarantee. If something breaks down, we’ll care for it. It’s a bag that’s meant to final.”

The 75-percent answer

The 2025 Vessel Carbon Assortment options two baggage: a 75-percent Omniflex model of the Participant V Professional stand bag and a 75-percent carbon model of the Lux Professional cart bag. The Participant V Professional bag encompasses a 14-way prime whereas the Lux Professional bag has a 15-way prime. Each baggage function magnetic pocket enclosures (Shaw calls the luggage “magnetically luxurious”) and a chrome badge marking Vessel’s Thirteenth anniversary.

“There was no manner we might have come out with this product once we first opened,” says Shaw. “Everybody can be like, ‘You guys are loopy.’ Folks nonetheless say we’re loopy however we’ve gained belief through the years. Our clients know that when Vessel comes out with one thing like this, they know we put our coronary heart, soul and power into it. I’m very grateful for that belief.”

No person buys these items, proper?

Incorrect.

Each time one thing exterior of what we’d take into account “moderately priced” comes out, it triggers our price-gag reflex. Nevertheless, when individuals will purchase a Montblanc Jimi Hendrix Restricted Version fountain pen for $4,300 (significantly, it’s a factor), two grand for a golf bag isn’t so loopy.

“The final time we did this, it was for enjoyable,” says Shaw. “I used to be like, ‘Who’s going to purchase a $1,600 golf bag?’ For the primary month we had it out, it was our best-selling product. There are individuals who need one thing nobody else could make, that they will’t get anyplace else.”

The Vessel Carbon Assortment will likely be a everlasting, small-batch providing within the Vessel catalog. Consider it as an idea automobile, an area for Vessel to load up a bag with all of its newest improvements. Following the Tenth-anniversary baggage, Vessel began including Omniflex carbon-fiber strips to its customary choices to make high-stress areas extra sturdy.

“There’s not plenty of innovation within the golf bag house,” says Shaw. “There are plenty of copycats. It’s simpler for individuals to comply with than to steer, so there’s not plenty of innovation. We need to keep within the forefront of that.”

The latest rise of synthetic-leather premium golf bag sellers bears that out. Immediately, you will discover loads of baggage much like a Vessel at a lower cost level. That’s merely the way in which of the world which is why innovators hardly ever stand nonetheless.

“I’m at all times trying ahead to what’s subsequent,” says Shaw. “As quickly because the Participant V was launched, I used to be already geeking out over attending to work on the Participant VI and pushing what’s doable.”

The Vessel Carbon Assortment: Two grand is a matter of belief

Vessel has spent the higher a part of a decade constructing belief in its merchandise. For some, Vessel stays a too-expensive answer to an issue that may be solved for half the worth or much less. For others, it’s a 10-year answer that they’ll get pleasure from proudly owning.

Completely different strokes, totally different of us.

“After I was in manufacturing with my dad, I helped corporations make baggage that got here out of the gate for $1,500,” says Shaw. “Folks liked the luggage however they didn’t belief the corporate sufficient to spend $1,500. We’ve been round for 13 years now and we’ve constructed that belief.”

Enterprise 101 dictates which you can’t simply throw open the doorways on Day One and say, “Right here’s my $2,000 golf bag,” and count on individuals to succeed in for his or her bank cards. It doesn’t work that manner. To spend that sort of money, clients should know who you might be, and you need to construct a sure degree of name gravitas.

Which, apparently, takes 10 to 13 years.

The 2025 Vessel Carbon Assortment is on the market beginning at present. Every bag comes with a limited-edition 20-inch Vessel Thirteenth-anniversary magnetic golf towel in addition to a Lux Carbon Embosse headcover.

The headcover can be bought individually for $245.

For extra info, go to the Vessel web site.

The publish Why $2K For This Vessel Golf Bag Isn’t As Loopy As It Sounds appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

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