TaylorMade’s accessories team constantly looks for ways to push the envelope with creative concepts that generate conversation. Look at recent limited releases and you’ll notice they’ve gone well beyond the friendly confines of specialized headcovers tied to Tour events. The ideas have run the gamut, from classic comic book phrases and Dia de los Muertos covers to collaborations with General Mills (Cinnamon Toast Crunch) and Vessel. No idea is too big.
Big ideas have to start somewhere, and in this particular case, TaylorMade’s best ideas started with food. Indeed, food-specific golf balls were selling better than almost every specialized item the company churned out.
“We realized that some of the ones that sold the best were food-related,” Mike Fox, senior director of product creation for TaylorMade’s golf ball category, told GOLF.com. “Sushi ball, pizza ball, things like that. We couldn’t figure out why balls with food attached to them sold better than balls tied to Muirfield or the U.S. Open.”
TaylorMade x Pac-Max pix balls
What Fox and the team eventually learned was people were willing to acquire items tied to their passions. Initially, it was food. In recent years, TaylorMade started to push the nostalgia button with Galaxian-esque covers and New York-style pizza accessories. Passions have continued to fuel future creations.
“We’ve gone into the collaboration space more in recent years,” Fox said. “But a collab is very different than licensing. We intimately work with a group to develop products. Licenses are a little more like, hey, what’s a brand that has a lot of energy or has a large following where it’d make sense to license their logos?”
During a brainstorming session, the idea was floated to contact Namco and see if they’d be interested in doing a licensing deal around Pac-Man, long considered one of the greatest video games ever created.
“If you ask people if they’ve heard of Pac-Man, there’s a 98 percent chance they know it,” Fox said. “It has that kind of brand recognition across all ages. That’s today, even if you’re talking about young kids. That’s incredible awareness for something that’s that old. Few things are that popular. It’s sold over 43 million games in the space.”
Unsure if Namco, Pac-Man’s developer, would be a willing partner, TaylorMade reached out to inquire to their licensing group and received an immediate response: They were game.
“I’m not even sure if it was a day,” said Fox. “Normally these brands will ghost you for a bit or not respond if it doesn’t make sense. This one was quick. There was tons of back-and-forth between our team and Namco, but it was more about how we were going to use their logos and the equity they’ve built up over the years. This wasn’t a collab where they were helping us create the items. That was all our team. But it was still an extensive process.”
Hoping to hit the “golfing core” — Fox called it those in their 40s, 50s and 60s who grew up playing Pac-Man — TaylorMade created a deep lineup of products around Pac-Man and the Ghost Gang, better known as Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde. The list of Pac-Man products includes pix golf balls, alignment covers, headcovers, ball markers, headwear and golf tees with the Pac-Man characters.
It’s easy to look at the items and wonder if TaylorMade’s team slapped the characters on them and called it a day. After all, it’s a licensing deal; not a full-on collaboration. However, plenty of hours went into making sure these covered popped and justified their hefty price tags.
For example, the eyes of each ghost on the pix ball all have to point toward Pac-Man on the cover. It’s a small but important detail that can be missed if you’re not paying close attention.
“We learned about that during the design process,” Fox said. “The eyes of the ghost have to be pointing a certain direction because they always have to be looking at Pac-Man. On a pix product, Pac-Man is in a different place, so it’s something you have to take into account. Just really interesting details we didn’t know about Pac-Man when we first started. We did have some discussions during the process with [Namco] about whether the ghost’s eyes were in the right place on each product.”
As expected, TaylorMade’s Pac-Man collection didn’t stay on the shelves for long. As of writing, the alignment stick cover, ball markers and snapback hat were already sold out. Fox expects the rest of the collection to be gone in the next 48 hours. The good ones never last long.
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