Hopefully the deal works out well for both parties. First thing that comes to mind though is the confusion in naming. The company is named Clash…an Axiom disc name, although OOP. A plastic blend named Steady…current DGA putter, and disc named Mint…current manufacturer.
Honestly even though the link is to Clash's website, at first glance of the pic I thought Nikko signed with Mint. Disc stamp has that larger than anything else.
Obviously a company with just a couple discs will have to let him play mixed bag. It sounds like they're interested in Nikko's input on future molds, which I think would be mutually beneficial as long as the relationship stays on good terms long enough to get that far.
One year and six figures seems pretty huge for a brand new company. Any of our European friends here have any insight on the company? Their website mentioned being in the same area as some of the plastics manufacturing for the old Nokia phones, but doesn't say specifically they were involved in some capacity.
I still can't wrap my brain around why he hasn't partnered with Gateway. From my understanding they've been busy with the Covid boom also, they're looking for all kinds of employee hires. I'd imagine any extra cash is going into expanding capabilities like a lot of other companies have done, so there might not be a lot of extra money sitting around for a guaranteed contract. That's ok, make it a higher cut for disc sales then…would potentially be a gamble for Nikko but I don't think anybody would argue that promoting Nikko like crazy would be less effective than their virtually nonexistent current marketing. Let him continue to play open bag…take the couple actual Gateway molds he does bag, do a big run in a nice plastic blend, take the time to design a dope stamp, and they'll sell.
They've always had the best baseline putter plastics, and the wizard, magic, voodoo, and warlock are all legit putter molds depending on what you're looking for. Their premium plastic blends are now on par with everybody else…seems like they're finally away from individual runs of whatever leftover mystery plastic they could buy for cheap. They've got a couple of legit faster putter/approach type discs as well as a solid mid lineup. Their drivers were always a crap shoot though between random retoolings and mystery plastic blends but I think they've got things where they want them and have left everything alone for the last couple of years.
Definitely enough newer players out there who don't know anything about the older Gateway inconsistencies, a solid push to establish themselves again would probably help out a lot. Obviously Discraft was a lot bigger than Gateway at the time, but they did the exact same thing when they signed Paul and Paige…breathed some fire into a company we all thought had peaked. No doubt Nikko has some fire to breathe, and his impact won't be as large as Paul's but would definitely be a boost for Gateway.
