NIKE GOLF – Going Crazy With Tons of Golf Patent Apps!

Want to see more golf patents…go to Golf-Patents.com

NIKE PATENT #1 – Adjustable Face Stiffness

Lots of interesting club face adjustability patents being applied for in the past couple years, mostly done by Titleist. Although a couple weeks ago Nike got in the mix as well.  They have actually had 4-5 really interesting golf patent applications in the last couple months…today we will show you 2 of the latest to be applied for. This patent app is titled “Golf Club Head or Other Ball Striking Device Having a Reinforced or Localized Stiffened Face Portion”

Patent Description

“A ball striking device, such as a golf club head, has a head that includes a face configured for striking a ball and a body connected to the face. A brace extends from an inner surface of the body or from a perimeter weight system to a contact point on the rear surface of the face. This brace may extend from the sole or a sole oriented perimeter weight member to the rear surface of the face. The brace applies force to the face (at least when the face is flexed by a threshold amount) such that the area of the face surrounding the contact point has less flexibility relative to other areas of the face located away from the contact point. The brace and club head may include structures that allow one to control and customize the force applied to the face.”

Yada…yada…yada. We won’t bore you with the rest of the god awful patent attorney language.  Basically the golfer will have the ability to use multiple types of stiffening rods in woods and irons to provide more force to the face in a particular area(s).  The rods would have different stiffnesses or flex characteristics, different lengths, different materials and different hardnesses.  Here is a picture to help.

PROS

• Could provide golfer or fitter with adjustable ball flight (rods are different materials & stiffness)
• Can change the spin rate
• Also could alter feel
• Guys with higher swing speeds might like it…could help from faces not caving in

CONS

• Off center hits could be impacted more then usual
• Loss of distance if correct rod is not used
• Breakage of parts inside head could be an issue
• Too many choices will most likely cause confusion for many golfers
• Would change CG depending on which type of rod was used

NIKE PATENT #2 – Adjustable Face Chambers

This next patent app by Nike Golf is pretty interesting and somewhat similar in regards to face stiffening to the 1st patent we showed above.  They simply changes the rods with multiple bladders that can be filled with viscous types of liquid.

Patent Description

“The head may include one or more stiffening elements or other structures contacting an inner surface of the face, to provide locally increased stiffness to particular areas of the face. The stiffening element includes a chamber adapted to contain a viscous substance. The viscous substance can be selected and inserted into the chamber to create regions of increased stiffness in desired locations, leaving other regions of the face to have increased flexibility as compared to the stiffened regions.” Read full application: nike patent

PROS

• Could provide exact COR’s to multiple places on face…possibly making almost entire face hot.
• Could provide golfer or fitter with adjustable ball flight
• Can change the spin rate

CONS

• Would be next to impossible for USGA to make ruling on COR limit with all the variables of materials and locations of bladders
• Hard to determine where to place bladders.  Golfers do not always contact the ball in the same place so it would be ineffective just as much as it was effective for the average golfer
• Hard to determine final swing weight of club depending on how much viscous material is inserted or removed

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