Written By: Tony Covey
How do you improve the #1 Driver on Tour?
You could make it more adjustable. You could offer a bevy of zero upcharge shaft options. You could make it sound and feel better.
You could even make it longer.
Or, using the TaylorMade logic, you could make it available in a second color.
Seriously. That’s what TaylorMade is going with. SLDR is now better because of an alternative paint scheme.
TaylorMade is calling the White SLDR The Other #1 Driver.
I thought that was Callaway’s Big Bertha.
If I had written this article two and half weeks ago, none of you would have any trouble believing that today’s announcement that TaylorMade will be releasing a Limited Edition version of their SLDR driver was just another in a growing line of killer MyGolfSpy April Fools gags.
I assure you it’s not.
The SLDR White is real. This is happening.
The only thing that’s surprising about the SLDR White is that it took TaylorMade this long to do it.
Rumor Becomes Reality
Rumors of the SLDR White date all the way back to 2013 (soooo long ago, right?). Well ahead of the PGA show we hear rumors – I’d almost call them confirmations – from two separate credible sources that TaylorMade would be announcing SLDR White at the PGA Show. Wouldn’t that have been something? Almost nobody of any repute announcing anything at the show anymore.
When I started digging for answers late last year, TaylorMade representatives were understandably cagey about the topic. And while nobody has really come clean on the topic, my belief is that TaylorMade had every intent of announcing the driver at the PGA show, but ultimately decided to push it back. Whether the delay was to clear the stage for Hack Golf or to simply wait for a more necessary or advantageous time to push forward, would be speculative on my part.
Since I don’t have any problem speculating, I’m going to suggest it was probably a little bit of both.
What is SLDR White?
Fortunately, TaylorMade has made this particular section insanely easy to write.
SLDR White is exactly the same as the existing SLDR. It’s available in the same lofts (9.5°, 10.5°, 12°, and 14°). The stock shaft is exactly the same (Fujikura Speeder 57), which explains why the price point is exactly the same ($399) too. You still need to #LoftUp.
What’s different…in fact the only thing that’s different, is the color of the paint.
Now in fairness, offering up a different colorway and calling it Limited isn’t exclusively a TaylorMade thing. Cobra has done it for the last several years. Generally Cobra’s releases appear more purposeful (Orange like Rickie, or Green to celebrate a Major Championship), they often upgrade the shaft, and generally Cobra is pretty forthcoming about how many they’ve actually produced, but the ultimate purpose is basically the same.
Golf companies create clubs, even limited ones, because they want to sell more clubs.
How Limited is Limited?
What is different is that when Cobra (and most other companies) release limited offerings, they tell you exactly how limited the product is. For now anyway, TaylorMade isn’t talking numbers.
TaylorMade’s SLDR White is a Limited Edition, and we’ll all just have to take their word for it.
My guess (and it’s just that) is that they are in fact producing less SLDR Whites, but given how deep we are into the SLDR lifecycle, and that fact that everyone (including TaylorMade) is growing more sensitive to retail inventory levels, that’s not so much limited as it is logical.
Produced in Logical Quantities doesn’t have quite the same draw as Limited Edition though, right? So Limited it is.
Why White? Why Now?
At some point TaylorMade may talk about how a segment of golfers really missed the white crowns of R1* and RocketBallz series drivers. While I’m certain there are guys that really do love white (I think it’s cool), there’s a whole lot more to this than caving to the quiet demands of a small market segment.
Those 4 very simple words (if you consider SLDR a word) came from the mouth of a TaylorMade representative several months ago. Let’s put them in context.
Whether it was to fight off a surging Callaway, or to make the financials look better after the late start to the 2013 golf season, TaylorMade took a shot with the R1 Black. When that didn’t produce the entirety of the desired result, TaylorMade released SLDR early…way early.
SLDR was originally slated for launch in early 2014 as the first complete reimagination of TaylorMade’s flagship driver since R7. It was to be the celebration of a decade of adjustability. It should have been the latest and greatest competing on equal footing with Callaway’s Big Bertha series.
Instead TaylorMade used it (and later JetSpeed) to make a late season financial push.
SLDR has been an unquestionable success. It’s one hell of a badass driver.
Despite being among the oldest in a new line of flagship drivers on the shelf it has so far been able to hold the #1 spot (retail sales). That’s no small feat, but the undeniable reality is that through aggressive marketing, and a very solid product, Callaway has been able to take a chunk out of TaylorMade’s lead.
Even as the footsteps get closer, SLDR has to live.
If they’re going to compete on equal footing, TaylorMade almost certainly has to get back on schedule. That means major product releases happen in the Spring. You can’t continually release new product at the end of the golf season when your major competitors are all on a Spring schedule. You’ll eventually lose.
If you squeeze product lifecycles down to 6 or 8 months, you’re going to piss off the consumer in substantial numbers, and eventually you’re still going to lose.
The conundrum for TaylorMade is that quality and performance in golf equipment is often (too often) associated with newness. The latest and greatest is always better than what came before it…even 4 months before it. We’ve said it countless times. If the goal is to compete, and to win, year in and year out (and it absolutely is that at TaylorMade), you can’t succeed with the oldest product on the shelf.
Unfortunately replacing SLDR now isn’t an option (at least not a good one). SLDR has to live. And it probably has to live for the rest of the 2014 season.
So if TaylorMade is going to retain its crown as the #1 Driver in Golf, they’re going to have to continuously come up with creative ways to keep an aging product fresh.
So far that’s exactly what they’ve tried to do.
A Very Clever TaylorMade
My opinion; TaylorMade made a pretty big mistake releasing SLDR when they did. With spring finally here, they’re running at a clear disadvantage. With the exception of Titleist, everybody has newer product.
That said, to TaylorMade’s credit they have done an absolutely masterful job of keeping SLDR as fresh as is reasonably possible considering the less than ideal circumstances.
They made LoftUp a story unto itself, and have been relentlessly telling, and retelling it.
When the original lure of SLDR started to fade, they released the 430.
When that story ran its course they made a story out of the 14° offering.
Just about a month ago they offered up the SLDR guarantee. Love it, or your money back. No questions asked.
And just as we’re beginning the golf season in earnest, and consumers are finally starting to spend real money, TaylorMade is rejuvenating SLDR for the 3rd time by offering up the SLDR white.
It’s SLDR, SLDR, and more SLDR. Tweak it, keep it fresh, but don’t change it.
That’s what they’ve done so far, and my guess is they’re not done yet.
Final Thoughts
I have absolutely no issue with TaylorMade releasing the SLDR White. Actually, I’m kind of happy to see the return of white, even if I’ve believed from the moment it disappeared that white would be back.
It would be easy to chuckle at this release and call it what it is (and it absolutely is TaylorMade digging in as best they can to fight for market share). It’s certainly fuel for the fire of the TaylorMade haters out there, and I suppose this time around that’s more fair than it has ever been.
For the rest of you…TaylorMade fans, and those uncomfortably riding the fence, I’m optimistic (but far from certain) that SLDR White could further signal TaylorMade’s commitment to do what needs to be done. I think they may just ride it out this time.
SLDR has to live. It can never be seen as the discount/budget alternative to flagship offerings from Titleist, Callaway, and even Nike. There can be no price rollbacks this season – not with this driver.
White or no white, if TaylorMade is willing to absorb whatever hit that comes from having an old driver on the shelf, and lets SLDR live for the duration, it would go a long way towards restoring the faith of the consumer, and fighting the growing perception of TaylorMade as golf’s discount brand.
If they don’t…no matter how much they want to talk about TRUST, there really won’t be any left to discuss.
The TaylorMade SLDR White Driver is available at retail beginning 5/2.
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