Dick’s Sporting Goods Acquires Top Flite

Dick’s Sporting Goods has acquired Top Flite from Callaway. Dick’s previously had acquired MaxFli (from TaylorMade) as well as other second tier players such as Nickent and Walter Hagen. They also in recent years have bought Golf Galaxy, which in turn had bought component club designer GolfWorks.

I wonder what Dick’s will do with the brands they’re buying. They’ll sell equipment with the semi-famous names, of course, but what of that equipment? Does Dick’s have its own research and development program (did they retain GolfWorks’)? Will they buy existing designs from some independent group and rebrand them? Or will they just sell existing designs until the bloom is off the rose, then fold the name altogether?

The press release really doesn’t tell us anything:

PITTSBURGH, April 4, 2012 —Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE: DKS) announced today that it has completed the purchase of the intellectual property rights to the Top-Flite brand from Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY), adding to its portfolio of exclusive offerings. The intellectual property rights acquired include all Top-Flite trademarks and service marks world-wide.
“Top-Flite is an established innovative brand that is trusted by golfers at every skill level,” said Edward W. Stack, Chairman and CEO. “Through this acquisition, we’ve added a strong, highly recognized name to our portfolio while gaining a valuable competitive advantage in the golf market.”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from GolfBlogger Golf Blog

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading