KBS GOLF SHAFTS
KBS doesn’t pay any tour player to use its products, so why is the brand so popular?
t’s late November 2020 and a top-five PGA Tour pro is gushing over his new clubs in a social media video post. He’s quick to point out his KBS Tour 130 iron and wedge shafts to the camera. Then in March, he’s telling the media that the shafts give him versatility and feel that he can’t find anywhere else.
His sentiments are not isolated. In fact, at any PGA Tour event, roughly one third of the field uses KBS shafts in their clubs. Yet none of the 300+ tour pros worldwide who rely on the brand every week get paid to play it. They just really like the shafts. Evidently amateur golfers do, too, as KBS has surged in popularity over the past few years.
“It’s pretty cool,” says Kim Braly, director of research and development at KBS. “We’ve made a dent in a world that was long dominated by other brands and we’re now the second largest stock shaft company in the world. It’s been a great story.”
He should know. KBS is an acronym for Kim Braly Signature. The affable Braly created the line in 2008 as an offshoot of FST America Corporation – a relatively unknown company that, back then, only produced low-cost shafts. That was until it debuted the KBS Tour Series, featuring the most advanced steel shaft
technology at the time. “We had incredible success quickly,” recalls Braly. “And the models worked – good products speak for themselves.”
Since then, KBS has set the benchmark, with its steel shafts coming as standard in top golf clubs and offered in every club company’s custom department.
While the brand has become a relatively recent success, Braly is no overnight sensation. He’s worked in golf since the late 1970s. His father – a former veterinarian and World War II pilot – invented a sand wedge and hired Kim to work for him.
“My father patented frequency matching,” Braly recalls (‘the’ golf standard that determines the correct flex for each club in a set), in a quest to make performance consistent from one wedge to the next. “I was the guy in the back room, trying to figure out how to make it work.
And that’s where I got my basis for shaft knowledge. There was absolutely nothing in the library about steel golf shafts, only hickory. I tried to learn as much as I could with what information was available. Quite frankly, I just started over, testing what was out there and trying to figure out a norm – and there was quite a discrepancy.
“There was a whole lot of learning early on, figuring out how to frequency-match clubs and landing on the correct ratio of how much stiffer each shaft should be than the one before it in a set, in order for them to match. Mathematically, we were able to figure out that each iron clubhead in a set should weigh approximately 7g more than the one before it.
“Knowing what that meant to frequency, plus the shaft length being half an inch shorter from one club to the next, we did some maths to come up with what we felt would be the right stiffness gradient – how stiff they are in between clubs – in order to match.”
Gaining tour validation
Eventually, the Braly father-son team tested shafts with tour pros – a trial-and-error process accomplished through “blind testing, giving them clubs of different stiffnesses and letting them pick out the ones that felt the best. We did it over and over. If we hadn’t, I’d never be able to do what I do now. I had to start from the absolute bottom in golf shafts.”
Because there are still no flex standards in golf today, a frequencymatched set of irons will feel and perform similarly throughout, making your game more consistent and accurate.
KBS is currently the only manufacturer to offer shafts for every club in the bag, with dozens of shaft models. Many of them are steel – the
“At any PGA Tour event, roughly one third of the field uses KBS shafts”
sector in which the brand staked its claim. But recently, KBS has also debuted graphite shafts into its array. And the brand’s “Player Driven. Tour Proven.” motto directs the future.
The team follows a formula of: getting tour pros to try the products through a slew of company reps at tour events; establishing KBS as a household name among club manufacturers; and selling its shafts at the best golf shops in the world.
“Anything from teaching pros to the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour to the European Tour to the LPGA Tour, we have multiple reps out there,” says Rhett Taylor, director of marketing. “Our reps get our name out there and get our shafts in people’s hands. So it does help that we’ve had big-name players getting us publicity by playing our products, but at the same time it’s a lot of grassroots and groundwork. To not pay somebody yet have them use our products is a testament to the brand and what we make.”
Amateurs can access the interactive fitting system on the company’s website. It’s truly among the best out there and is very intuitive. Essentially, it asks golfers specific questions about their current shafts and game, then suggests which of its products to play. Officials tout its accuracy, says Taylor: “We know it’s hard to get fitted without going to a professional fitter, but all of our shafts are built around getting fit so much that we have to have a fitting system. We’re not just taking a guess. We’d rather have you go through the steps of seeing what shaft could work for you because we offer such an extensive line of shafts.”
The company can retro-fit and retrobuild, too. Once you get fitted and order your shafts, you can send in your clubs and KBS will reshaft and regrip them for you.
No stone unturned
The company also works closely with PGA club pros – the network recommending products to golfers in the pro shop, during lessons and in fitting bays. KBS even offers PGA members and club builders a programme called the KBS Education Centre to teach them about the brand’s products inside and out. PGA pros who complete the programme qualify for retail credit and a certificate.
Another unique way KBS is marketing its products to consumers is via high-end KBS Experience retail studios. Currently in Carlsbad, California and a brand-new location in Tokyo, with others to follow, each store includes: high-tech, launch monitor-armed fitting bays with course simulators; multiple clubhead brands and every
KBS shaft offered to mix and match; putting greens; a lounge replete with couches and coffee machines; and a full Kbsbranded array of products for sale bearing the company’s renowned red and black logo.
The goal is to give golfers a glimpse into the company’s world. KBS also sells logo’d products on its website. In the online Custom+ programme, golfers can also order shafts by choosing a colour, finish and colour-customised logo that’s heat-transferred on.
Ultimately, shaft aesthetics mean nothing unless the product performs. That’s where KBS shines. “Our machinery was designed specifically to make nothing but golf shafts, utilising state-of-the-art technology that allows for much tighter tolerances,” says Braly. “The product is premium due to our testing and manufacturing, to make sure when you buy KBS, you’re getting the best.”