Yep, you learn that headline accurately. The brand new Vessel Carbon Assortment stand and cart baggage promote for $1,999.99 every.
I’m positive you’ve questions. These questions is perhaps 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 assume.
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 fascinating 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 shortly. 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 remainder, as they are saying, is historical past.
The entire Carbon Assortment factor goes again to 2023. To have a good time Vessel’s Tenth anniversary, Shaw launched the unique Carbon Assortment: the primary golf baggage made with a novel carbon-fiber material referred to as Omniflex. Developed by the Washington state-based firm Carbitex, Omniflex is a powerful, sturdy and intensely gentle materials utilized in athletic sneakers.
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 material, it’s just a really, really cool golf bag,” Shaw tells MyGolfSpy. “It’s more weatherproof, it’s a little lighter and it’s going to last a long, long time. That’s why it has a lifetime warranty. If anything breaks down, we’ll take care of it. It’s a bag that’s meant to last.”
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 contains a 14-way prime whereas the Lux Professional bag has a 15-way prime. Each baggage characteristic magnetic pocket enclosures (Shaw calls the luggage “magnetically luxurious”) and a chrome badge marking Vessel’s Thirteenth anniversary.
“There was no way we could have come out with this product when we first opened,” says Shaw. “Everyone would be like, ‘You guys are crazy.’ People still say we’re crazy but we’ve gained trust over the years. Our customers know that when Vessel comes out with something like this, they know we put our heart, soul and energy into it. I’m very grateful for that trust.”
No person buys this stuff, proper?
Mistaken.
At any time when one thing exterior of what we’d contemplate “reasonably priced” comes out, it triggers our price-gag reflex. Nonetheless, when individuals will purchase a Montblanc Jimi Hendrix Restricted Version fountain pen for $4,300 (severely, it’s a factor), two grand for a golf bag isn’t so loopy.
“The last time we did this, it was for fun,” says Shaw. “I was like, ‘Who is going to buy a $1,600 golf bag?’ For the first month we had it out, it was our best-selling product. There are people who want something no one else can make, that they can’t get anywhere else.”
The Vessel Carbon Assortment might 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 a lot of innovation in the golf bag space,” says Shaw. “There are a lot of copycats. It’s easier for people to follow than to lead, so there’s not a lot of innovation. We want to stay in the forefront of that.”
The latest rise of synthetic-leather premium golf bag sellers bears that out. Right this moment, yow will discover loads of baggage much like a Vessel at a cheaper price level. That’s merely the best way of the world which is why innovators hardly ever stand nonetheless.
“I’m always looking forward to what’s next,” says Shaw. “As soon as the Player V was launched, I was already geeking out over getting to work on the Player VI and pushing what’s possible.”
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 people.
“When I was in manufacturing with my dad, I helped companies make bags that came out of the gate for $1,500,” says Shaw. “People loved the bags but they didn’t trust the company enough to spend $1,500. We’ve been around for 13 years now and we’ve built that trust.”
Enterprise 101 dictates that you could’t simply throw open the doorways on Day One and say, “Here’s my $2,000 golf bag,” and anticipate individuals to succeed in for his or her bank cards. It doesn’t work that approach. To spend that sort of money, clients need to know who you might be, and you must construct a sure stage of name gravitas.
Which, apparently, takes 10 to 13 years.
The 2025 Vessel Carbon Assortment is on the market beginning as we speak. 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 will also be bought individually for $245.
For extra info, go to the Vessel web site.
The submit Why $2K For This Vessel Golf Bag Isn’t As Loopy As It Sounds appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
