TaylorMade Golf Drivers

Developing a Successful Signature Look

CLIENT: TaylorMade

INDUSTRY: Sports

SERVICES: Strategy, Design, Engineering, Prototyping,

During our relationship with TaylorMade golf, we helped design and develop dozens of their products, including many of their top-selling drivers. Unwilling to follow the competition, TaylorMade wanted to develop a signature look that would set them apart. They enlisted our designers to shape their drivers’ aesthetics and make them more appealing to professional and amateur golfers. We collaborated on innovative features like the unique “Movable Weight Technology” that redefined customization. The launch of the 300 Series driver was so successful that it helped catapult TaylorMade to the #1 driver on the PGA tour. With each generation of drivers that followed, from the r500 to the r7, TaylorMade retained the #1 spot and increased sales over 400% since 1999.

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300 Series

This challenged the industry idea of “one-driver-fits-all-player-types”. The 300 series drivers are designed and engineered to match the three most common swing styles identified by the TaylorMade R&D team. The 300, 320, and 360 Ti are designed with different body shapes, weight distribution, lie angles, and shaft lengths that are all optimized for a golfer’s unique launch conditions. This series of drivers put TaylorMade in first place on the PGA tour.

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500 Series

Building on the 300 series technology, TaylorMade focused their engineering efforts on maximizing the driver performance. They innovated the inverted cone face and swing weight system that promoted consistently longer tee shots, and increased the head size to 400cc. Priority Designs built on the visual equity of the 300 series and placed design emphasis on the weight in the sole, signifying the difference in each club’s weight distribution. This club helped to keep TaylorMade as the “Number one driver on the PGA Tour” and was also named “Driver Of The Year” in Golf Digest’s 2004 Equipment Review.

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R7 Series

Priority Designs and TaylorMade collaborated to make the industry’s first driver with movable weight technology (MWT). Through research and observation, the teams understood that consumers and professionals were using lead tape to adjust the performance of the club head. MWT gives the golfer the ability to quickly and easily change the head’s CG location to affect ball flight by redistributing 24 grams of discretionary weight in a variety of ways. While the average driver delivers a single set of launch conditions, the R7 quad delivers six, allowing the player to choose the one that generates maximum distance, accuracy and work-ability. Within a month of its launch, the R7 Quad became the fastest selling metalwood in America. MWT was incorporated into the R7 425 Quad and R7 460 drivers. Two years after its launch, the 100th worldwide tour win is recorded by a TaylorMade MWT driver.

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R5 Series

Understanding that golfers tend to slice the ball, Priority Designs and TaylorMade brainstormed the R5. Two versions were designed and developed in this family: the D and N drivers. The D driver has more weight placed toward the heel and a “pull-heel” design that combines to help golfers hit a draw (or minimize a slice). The N driver has the weight distributed more evenly between the weight ports and a more pear-shaped head design to allow additional workability to golfers who like to shape their shots. Both clubs were 450cc.

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R7 Draw Series

Continuing the theme of minimizing slice, TaylorMade and Priority Designs combined to create a golf club that promotes a draw (or soften a slice) for golfers with accuracy issues when using their driver. This asymmetrical club design was a radical departure from the market norm at launch.

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R7 SuperQuad

Priority Designs and TaylorMade designed the R7 SuperQuad to have a maximum-sized 460cc head with four movable weights. This created an unsurpassed balance of power, distance, forgiveness, and customization to the golfer.

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R7 CGB Max

This club has a dual crown design technology which encourages a high launch angle spin-rate promoting a greater distance. The design of the candy red crown combined with the PVD face made an industry icon.

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Burner Series

The Burner series contains “Superfast technology”, where the design is a sleek, bullet-shaped head to generate faster swing speeds for greater distance.

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Japan Series

Priority Designs immersed ourselves in what influences golf driver sales in Japan and designed luxury golf drivers that were appropriate for the marketplace. Color variations that are localized to the consumer promoted TaylorMade’s connection with their customers.