Your opinion on best DTC irons?

PedronNiall · July 19

On 6/29/2025 at 4:18 AM, borker said:

Sadly, +1

I love the idea of a DTC. Love to support a business trying to break in vs the big guys, putting their skin in the game, etc. It isn't easy, I imagine, to start a golf equipment company when even some very large names have called it quits (Nike) or have dwindled down to shells of themselves (Adams, Hogan, etc). DTC usually has better customer support, the owners themselves are available to speak with, have easy configurations with a lot of choices online and offer lower prices for new stuff than OEM. I especially want to support Sub 70 being that I have a connection to them as I was raised about an hour away.

But how can a DTC even compete? Social media flooding and YT creator affiliation is so obvious as to be a major turn off for me. DTC like Takomo are like late-night infomercials. I can at least feel, see and try 7 or 8 big brand OEM's at local golf stores. I can try putters, etc. A iron doesn't need much R&D but how can a DTC even compete in feedback, testing, multiple pro types they can afford to scrap, etc? Also, DTC look like cookie-cutter designs picked from a AI CAD or something.

My last nitpick with DTC may sound pompous, but the world revolves around "brands" and status. Golf is no different (and may be worst than average actually). To the 99% of players not on GolfWRX, a DTC is a knockoff club. I recently demo'd Sub 70 irons and had them with me for a round with my golf group. My golf group are the successful c-suite types with decked out golf bags of newest clubs. One of them noticed the Sub 70 clubs and asked me what they were with a quick "ohh" after explaining they are a DTC golf company. My son's 15yo friends sort of chuckled and brushed them off when I showed them the demo irons. Sure, play what you want, who cares what others say, but both times it was annoying (and sort of embarrassed) having to explain the idea of DTC clubs and I felt like was using nothing other than a cheap knockoff (while the 15yo's had new Callaway's).

I actually have in my garage a full Maltby iron head set I planned to build and try out to see how they perform. They actually look better and feel higher quality than any other DTC I have seen in person. Let my son have them as he doesn't care. But I am conflicted on just returning them. Ebay, Golf Galaxy pre-owned, the sales forum, etc just are a way better value and choice over DTC IMO. You can find 2-4 year old lightly used sets for half off or more from new OEM and often still cheaper than DTC.

PXG is a MAJOR DTC success story. But what got them to that point was being able to get into stores and getting a tour presence, so they rose quickly and weren't strictly DTC for long.

Some DTCs use great foundries to supply them, some don't. Some like Sub70 and Maltby do serious R&D on their heads, some don't. Like all things, you get what you pay for. Much of the cost for Callaway, Ping, and others is in paying their playing staff and running ads. Yes, some of the cost is a result of related facilities, but not enough to actually push up the overall production and pipeline total much beyond that for DTCs. That's why you see brands like Srixon, Mizuno, and Wilson in between, because they have slightly more overhead than most DTCs, but not so much to start touching $2k for a set of irons or $700+ for drivers like Taylormade or Titleist.

There are also DTCs like Toulon that go above and beyond anything the big OEMs do in terms of design and sourcing, being one of the few shops anywhere still selling Japanese forging for their irons.

If you're in a circle where brands matter that much then DTC options probably aren't going to be your wheelhouse, but that's a shame considering in some cases they massively exceed their cost in terms of value, often include state-of-the-art design and materials that most big OEMs haven't begun to implement, and in some cases are truly beyond anything you can get from OEMs from a build and customer service perspective.

WristySwing · July 19

On 6/29/2025 at 4:18 AM, borker said:

Sadly, +1

I love the idea of a DTC. Love to support a business trying to break in vs the big guys, putting their skin in the game, etc. It isn't easy, I imagine, to start a golf equipment company when even some very large names have called it quits (Nike) or have dwindled down to shells of themselves (Adams, Hogan, etc). DTC usually has better customer support, the owners themselves are available to speak with, have easy configurations with a lot of choices online and offer lower prices for new stuff than OEM. I especially want to support Sub 70 being that I have a connection to them as I was raised about an hour away.

But how can a DTC even compete? Social media flooding and YT creator affiliation is so obvious as to be a major turn off for me. DTC like Takomo are like late-night infomercials. I can at least feel, see and try 7 or 8 big brand OEM's at local golf stores. I can try putters, etc. A iron doesn't need much R&D but how can a DTC even compete in feedback, testing, multiple pro types they can afford to scrap, etc? Also, DTC look like cookie-cutter designs picked from a AI CAD or something.

My last nitpick with DTC may sound pompous, but the world revolves around "brands" and status. Golf is no different (and may be worst than average actually). To the 99% of players not on GolfWRX, a DTC is a knockoff club. I recently demo'd Sub 70 irons and had them with me for a round with my golf group. My golf group are the successful c-suite types with decked out golf bags of newest clubs. One of them noticed the Sub 70 clubs and asked me what they were with a quick "ohh" after explaining they are a DTC golf company. My son's 15yo friends sort of chuckled and brushed them off when I showed them the demo irons. Sure, play what you want, who cares what others say, but both times it was annoying (and sort of embarrassed) having to explain the idea of DTC clubs and I felt like was using nothing other than a cheap knockoff (while the 15yo's had new Callaway's).

I actually have in my garage a full Maltby iron head set I planned to build and try out to see how they perform. They actually look better and feel higher quality than any other DTC I have seen in person. Let my son have them as he doesn't care. But I am conflicted on just returning them. Ebay, Golf Galaxy pre-owned, the sales forum, etc just are a way better value and choice over DTC IMO. You can find 2-4 year old lightly used sets for half off or more from new OEM and often still cheaper than DTC.

PXG is a MAJOR DTC success story. But what got them to that point was being able to get into stores and getting a tour presence, so they rose quickly and weren't strictly DTC for long.

Not to mention Parsons was one of the richest men in the world at the time too. I am huge PXG fan, but they are not DTC anymore in the true sense of the word. They are a blend of DTC and their original launches, being back to very expensive and difficult to try out if you don't live in a major urban area/near a course. DTC to me means online only, maybe the odd fitting day. I love my PXG irons, my second set of them. They feel incredible, are super long, and for my hack swing are very straight. I can't ask for much more.

To the OP's question though, New Level are really nice, I had a set of those before too. Are they earth shattering and miles better than everything else? No absolutely not. It's a forged cavity back iron that every other company has. It just happens to be a bit cheaper than others at full retail. I second the poster on page 1 that said if going this route, you're much better going to a PGASS, 2nd Swing, etc and trying out their used section. You'll be able to at least hit the clubs, see what they look like, and get a pseudo fitting by someone. Not saying that can't happen with DTC, but it is much harder to do for most of us.

TallGuy90 · July 19

DTC prices are really creaping into OEM territory. I have had Sub70, Takamo and Maltby. Sub70 have really performed well across the board. That said, since they got rid of the 60 day guarantee I probably will just stick to used clubs

Edited July 19 by TallGuy90