It’s next to impossible to identify the current top-selling direct-to-consumer golf ball brand but I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest it was Snell Golf that was first to effectively reach the masses with the message that golfers don’t need to pay big OEM prices for quality performance golf balls.
Spoiler alert: That’s still true with the new Snell MTB Prime and MTB Prime X golf balls. We’ll get to those in a minute but feel free to skip ahead if you’re not interested in how we got here.
Kicking in the door for DTC ball brands
Dean Snell’s pedigree as a co-inventor of the Pro V1 and numerous TaylorMade golf ball technologies brought credibility that others in the DTC space lacked–and the market was ready.
Timing, as they say, is everything. “We stepped into it at a decent time and created a niche,” says Snell.
Whether Snell is the largest DTC brand, I can’t say. That it’s beloved by many golfers for its quality products and sensible prices is inarguable.
It’s the reason Snell’s golf business was thriving, growing 30-40 percent per year. Until COVID hit and absolutely kicked Snell Golf’s ass.
Golf’s Rare Covid Victim
While many golf businesses thrived during the pandemic, Snell Golf took a hit and a hard one. It’s not that demand wasn’t there (everybody had demand) but between supply chain issues (most notably with ionomer, the material used in the mantle layers of urethane-covered balls) and TaylorMade’s acquisition of Nassau Golf, the factory that produced Snell MTB and MTB X, Snell Golf didn’t have much of anything to sell.
If you’ve tried to order Snell balls lately, chances are you haven’t had much luck. A shipment of Snell balls was supposed to arrive in June 2021. It didn’t arrive until December, which in some respects was fortunate. If the balls had arrived on time, it’s likely Snell wouldn’t have had any inventory for all of 2022.
Despite the near-total lack of inventory, by some small measure, I supposey ou could argue Snell has been lucky.
Unlike several others, it wasn’t kicked out of TaylorMade Korea (formerly Nassau) and Dean hasn’t closed the book on having Snell Golf balls produced by TaylorMade in the future.
Snell says the communication with TaylorMade has been excellent but the realities of the market are such that TaylorMade has to choose between making enough of its own product to satisfy demand or keeping Snell fully stocked.
Understandably, it chose itself. No hard feelings on Snell’s end.
The situation hasn’t been ideal but, in the long term, it may prove to be a blessing.
A Snell Golf Reset
The unwanted downtime has provided Snell with an opportunity to reset and rebrand.
The reset involves Dean Snell doing new material research for the first time since stepping out on his own. It also includes working to qualify new factories so his company won’t be at the mercy of a single supplier and the supply chain will be less of a concern moving forward.
“I lived that nightmare and it hasn’t been fun,” says Snell, “but it gave us a chance to step out, figure out what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.”
The process of developing two new balls hasn’t been easy and the product Snell has received from some factories hasn’t always met Snell’s quality standards. “They made some stuff for us that’s just awful.”
To ensure the product is what Snell fans expect, Dean has worked extensively with his factories to develop and implement processes, procedures and reports to ensure higher quality standards moving forward.
It has taken effort, to say the least.
To date, Snell has qualified two factories (the MTB Prime and Prime X are produced in different facilities) and the company is close to qualifying two more.
Quality, capacity and, to an extent, redundancy are all part of Snell’s plans moving forward.
Short version: Dean hopes to never run out of golf balls again.
Better for Everyone
Dean declined to be specific about whom is making the Snell MTB Prime and MTB Prime X but it’s a safe assumption that the factories produce balls for other DTC brands. With that, the likelihood is that processes and procedures Dean helped implement at his factories will ultimately benefit his competitors and, by extension, consumers.
That’s fine with Dean Snell. “We’re not trying to take over the world of golf balls.” If golfers end up with a higher quality product because of it, Snell sees that as a win.
Rebranding
The first thing you’ll notice about the Snell MTB Prime and MTB Prime X golf balls is the new logo. There are plenty of things golfers love about Snell Golf but the logo hasn’t often been one of them.
Snell believes the new logo is a bit more aggressive and has a younger vibe to it.
“I’ve always felt the logo thing was overblown a bit but it’s not lost on me that some brands are purchased almost exclusively because of their logos. Regardless, the rebrand is an improvement.”
The packaging has been updated as well. Again, simple, but also cleaner and more modern.
Snell MTB Prime Golf Balls – Two Models
The Snell Golf MTB Prime lineup will launch with two models. While that part is familiar to fans of the Snell brand, part of the objective for the MTB Prime family was to create more separation between balls and make it easier for golfers to identify the Snell model that is right for them.
Both the MTB Prime and MTB Prime X are three-piece balls. They’re differentiated by trajectory, spin and feel.
According to Snell, both MTB Prime models feature low spin off the driver. The standard MTB Prime will fly lower and spin a bit more off the irons than the X. It’s the softer of the two balls with early measurements on our gauge suggesting low- to mid-80s compression.
The firmer X is designed to fly higher with moderate spin in the iron game. Ballpark compression is in the mid-90s on our gauge.
As is practically mandatory, Snell says both models offer outstanding greenside performance.
332 Spin-Matched Dimples
While both models feature a 332-dimple pattern that’s not in and of itself proprietary to Snell, Dean made some changes to the dimple depth and edge angles to create what he calls a spin-matched dimple pattern. The idea is to tune the aerodynamics to better optimize the trajectory to match the spin characteristics of each model.
It’s what every golf ball brand should do but not what every golf ball brand does.
In what amounts to a departure from the previous models, the Snell MTB Prime and MTB Prime X covers are TPU injection molded as opposed to cast. Dean Snell is a long-time advocate of cast urethane covers but the reality is that there are only a few factories in the world capable of producing them. The change was likely one of necessity. Most golfers won’t notice a difference.
Snell MTB Prime – Different Colored Covers
Cover pigments vary slightly between the balls as well and that’s by design. The MTB Prime is a cooler (softer) white while the MTB Prime X has an ever-so-slightly warmer hue. The goal is to use slight color variation to convey the feel of the golf ball. It’s an odd thing but, yeah, I’d say the X looks firmer, for whatever that’s worth.
Snell MTB Prime – Where They’re Made
As noted, the MTB Prime and MTB Prime X are produced by different factories. We haven’t identified the factories yet but we do know that standard MTB Prime is coming out of China while the MTB Prime X is made in Taiwan.
It’s certainly going to be interesting to see if our Ball Lab testing reveals any significant quality differences between the two.
Snell MTB Prime – Pricing and Availability
Given all the talk of inflation and rising OEM prices, you might expect small brands to follow suit. That’s not happening at Snell. From Day 1, the company’s mission was to improve golf and give back to the consumer who pays for golf balls.
That hasn’t changed.
The MTB Prime and MTB Prime X Golf balls are $32.99 a dozen. Five-packs of the MTB Prime and MTB Prime X will sell for $149.95 (29.99/dozen).
The company is in the final stages of tweaking the color before submitting to the USGA but yellow versions will be added this summer.
Asked if there was anything else he’d like to add, Dean Snell’s final words were, “It’s good to be back.”
The Snell MTB and MTB X are available for pre-order now. The new balls are expected to ship to golfers the first half of the month.
For more information, visit SnellGolf.com.
