Hi Eric,
Thanks for the follow up. Obviously a good, and important, question!
Ian, Camilo and JB are currently under agreement to play FootJoy shoes and gloves so we fully expect them to continue to use our products on Tour.
Ian just tweeted this: "Just to keep all my friends informed, I will be using cobra golf equipment, wearing my IJPclothing, Titleist golf ball & Footjoy shoes."
Good news on Camilo, IJP and JB.
According to IJP's twitter... he said "@Ianjamespoulter Just to keep all my friends informed, I will be using cobra golf equipment, wearing my IJP clothing, Titleist golf ball & Footjoy shoes."
Does PUMA gain access to all of Cobra's production facilities and "plans" for future products? I just am curious how the move from Acushnet will affect Cobra's reputation as an outstanding product, especially as far as drivers are concerned. Does PUMA have to provide new staff or are they "going with the sale" as well? Hopefully this won't equate to a loss of jobs for some of the individuals who work at Cobra!
As stated in the release, it gives them the chance to focus on Titleist,and F.J. I think it's a solid buisness move.
Chris
This situation will surely create a "Silly Season" going forward. Certainly the FJ shoe and FJ glove deals are solid for the year, but will become topical by year end. You didn't mention the headwear at all. This year the "Cobra" branding on the hats, especially Camillo, has had Cobra front, Pro-V1 side, and FJ back logos. I would expect a bit of a change to those maybe?
This is where the whole logo thing gets weird. It's like when Nextel took over from Winston as a NASCAR Primary Sponsor. Over the next 3 years all kind of corporate mergers took place and it resulted in one sponsor, AT&T-Cingular, pulling out over "conflicts" with what is now Sprint. These types of transitions become weird for a bit.
One last point. I saw today in Golf.com where Ricky Fowler emphatically stated "I am a Titleist guy," which I'm sure puts it out there that he's staying put with Acushnet.
Update on the sale of Cobra to Puma:
http://www.golfweek.com/news/2010/mar/10/cobra-set-play-lead-role-puma/