At the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon yesterday, Nike Golf introduced their full 2014 line of equipment and apparel during their Innovation Event with Paul Casey and Jhonattan Vegas dropping in. The equipment includes the brand new VRS Covert 2.0 family of drivers, as well as fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges, golf balls apparel and footwear in addition to the new Method Mod Putters they announced a couple of months ago.
The VRS Covert 2.0 driver was the main attraction last night. It is bigger, faster and longer than last year’s Covert, the world’s first driver to feature High Speed Cavity Back technology. This year’s model is even more forgiving to players, giving them more distance, faster ball speed and adjustability/customization to meet the needs of every golfer. The High Speed Cavity Back technology has been redesigned with “Fly-Brace technology” that ties the sole to the crown. This stiffens up the rear portion of the club so more energy is transferred to the face at impact resulting in greater ball speed and up to six yards of distance gain over the Covert. It also redistributes weight to the heel and toe to allow for increased distance and more stability across the face of the driver.
The Covert 2.0 has already been in play with several Nike Touring staff, including Rory McIlroy, Kevin Chappell and Nick Watney. More improvements over last year’s model include a larger, re-engineered NexCOR face and the FlexLoft adjustability, which allows golfers to customize loft and face angle positions, essentially giving them 15 drivers in one. The redesigned NexCOR incorporates variable face thickness for a faster, hotter face. The FlexLoft system allows golfers to adjust lofts from 8.5 to 12.5 degrees while independently changing face angle positions to optimize their desired launch and spin conditions for maximum distance and accuracy.
Both drivers will have standard Mitsubishi Rayon Kure Kage shafts – in the Tour version, players will have the Kuro Kage Silver 60 graphite featuring Titanium Nickel fiber in the tip section to create more stability and lower spin. In the Standard version, the Kuro Kage Black HBP Graphite 50 shaft offers a higher balance point allowing for higher swing speeds without adding shaft length. Both drivers will be available in stores on January 31, 2014 – $299 for the Standard and $399 for the Tour.
Like the VRS Covert 2.0 driver, the fairway woods also feature the High Speed Cavity Back technology and has more or less the same upgrades as the driver. The VRS Covert 2.0 hybrids incorporates Nike’s new “Linear Transition Design”, which allows for progressively smaller clubheads and increasing face heights. The VRS Covert Forged irons were also introduced and follow up on last year’s model – they feature the NexCOR faces paired with a lower centre of gravity due to the Cavity Back design. The new VR X3X Toe Sweep wedges were also introduced and are an improvement on the VR Forged wedges from last year. These new wedges were designed with wider soles toward the toe and X3X groove technology which will help golfers create consistent shots with better ball flight and increased spin on the greens.
There is also the new second generation RZN golf ball, featuring Speedlock RZN core technology, designed to deliver more distance, better feel and a more consistent, stable ball flight than ever before. The technology features an interlocking core design that interconnects with the compression layer to form a tighter bond and helps promote better energy transfer through the layers at impact. This eliminates the slipping that normally occurs between a traditional, smooth-surface core and the outer layer and promotes faster ball speed, longer distance and more stability into the wind.
Nike Golf is also treating their apparel for golfers as equipment these days as well – take a look at some of the photos below and you can expect what the pros will be wearing this coming season, including the new Nike Lunar Clayton golf shoe, one of our favourites from this event! We’ll have more in depth posts for all the new products soon!
Source: Nike
