It Was The Stitching!

Golf World Monday (subscribers only) fleshes out the rainsuit debacle a bit more and reveals that Sun Mountain and the Pavins met 20 times, and that the embroidery was going to be an issue in Sun Mountain's mind.

Update on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 05:01 PM by Geoff

**Sun Mountain issued this today, click on it to enlarge:

 

Comments

[Petrillo]

The Captainess strikes! Who cares that the waterproofs were no longer waterproof when they had those garish stripes and names embroidered on 'em. She who must be obeyed had spoken and what was Captain Corey to do but say "Yes Dear"

[Used to be former S & T Convert]

Testing would have identified the problem. i don't buy Sun Mountain's story, because if they had really thought stitching was going to be a problem they would have had back-up, non-embroidered, suits on site in Wales in case of problems with the embroidered suits. Therefore PGA officials wouldn't have had to go to the merchandise tent for replacements.

[fatgoalie]

Buy it, I had a (pretty good) deal when I was playing, and they wanted the logo on everything including the raingear.
Zero Restriction would NOT stitch the logos on anything by external flaps due to leaking at the stitching.
It's pretty well known if you play for a living.

We eventually got patches that looked awful. :)

[digsouth]

Geoff, can you cut n paste the pertinant parts of the story... you have to have a PW to access the article. Thanks.

Agreed with FG....

Let met tell you about another situation involving patches. embroidery ... fire suits for race car drivers.

I don't know how they do it now, I have not been involved since the mid 80's, but firesuit manufacturers would tell the drivers that the fire protection is compromised with decoration, and drivers did it anyway, because the sponsors wanted their logoes on the drivers, and the drivers want the money.

Sun Mountain may not be the best, but they don't make junk, and I immediately said that the decoration was the culprit.

No I don't have any affiliation with them, but I did swim in a Holiday Inn pool.

[Old Hornet]

If what fatgoalie said is correct, and I have no reason to doubt him, the CEO of Sun Mountain must be as dumb as a box of rocks. What executive in his right mind would jeopardize the name of his company, exposing it to potential financial damage, just to satify the whim of Captainess ? C'mon, did he actually need the Cup business that bad that he would roll the dice thinking it wasn't going to rain in Wales and Sun Mountain & Leak would never end up in the same sentence ?

I have one word for this tool - DISCLAIMER.

[Used to be former S & T Convert]

If stitching was the only problem and SM knew it, why wouldn't they have non-embroidered suits on site for replacement when the suits they knew would fail, failed.

I heard that the material was water resistant, not water proof, which will work well in a shower but not in a downpour.

Old Hornet is right, Sun Mountain executives would be really dumb to agree to something that they knew would compromise the quality of their product.

[Used to be former S & T Convert]

Apology on the front page of Sun Mountain website:

October 5, 2010

Sun Mountain Sports is very sorry for the way our rain suits performed at the Ryder Cup.

We will apologize to Corey & Lisa Pavin and the U.S. team at our earliest opportunity, and hope they will accept our heartfelt apology for the stress this must have caused.

We are evaluating what happened. Our RainFlex, introduced in 2006, has been extensively and successfully used by over 150 tour players, the 2009 Presidents Cup team, the 2007 and 2009 Walker Cup teams and thousands of PGA professionals.

We believed, as Corey must have, that our RainFlex, built with quiet, stretchable, breathable fabric would be an advantage to the U.S. team. That it was not is a great disappointment. It just was not enough for the torrential rains at Celtic Manor.

Sincerely,



Rick Reimers
Owner, Sun Mountain Sports, Inc.

[fatgoalie]

Without disagreeing about Sun Mountain exposing themselves to this.
A veteran player, and a professional golf organization ordered this stuff?!?!
When I left for 2 Open Championships, I had gear for all 4 seasons, knowing it was
possible to experience them in one round! And that was July!
Showing up in Wales, in the Fall, with weather gear that is not indestructible is the fault of
many, but falls to the person making the final choice IMO. May will see SunMountain now, and think LEAKY, and as close as the competition was, bad raingear, bad bags, not well done.

[GolfFan]

Boy am I glad they solved that - and just in time!

[Old Hornet]

Mr. Reimers letter is the classic not to offend, political, CYA, fall on your sword gem. In one breath he states that RainFlex has been used countless times without incident, in the next it just wasn't up to the task in Wales. Well, I'd say that means the pesky Euro H2O molecule is unique in all respects.

If Corey & Lisa experienced stress, it's because you-know-who preferred style over performance. I don't believe for a second Mr. Reimers sold them down the river. RainFlex, with or without improvements, would never have lasted from 2006 to 2010 if it was garbage.

I'll stick with my Zero Restriction, nothing worse than going to or leaving the pub wet.

[pt]

a. why would you need to meet with them 20 freaking times? thats what a Captain does?

b. they met 20 times and still fucked it up this bad?

c. the Euros suits stood up to all that rain, didnt they?

[Del the Funk]

I can't see where the word "embroidery" is mentioned anywhere in the Sun Mountain letter?

[Media driven]

So the water seeped in through the stitching or embroidery requested by the Pavins? Do we have this confirmed as factual or reported anywhere? It was a fiasco, surely. Haven't seen the GW report yet.

[bs]

If the Rainflex is the same stuff as this http://www.sun-togs.co.uk/products/804 my 4-yr old son has a rainflex jacket.

It's great for his purposes - it's comfortable, it moves well with him, it's breathable, and its quiet. Great for keeping out wind and moderate to light rain. However, in very heavy rain it eventually becomes soaked through, waterlogged, and heavy, and it takes ages to dry. That's got nothing to do with stitching.

[johnnnycz]

Inferior materials + fashion over function = cluster phuck


The fault lies with the captain, not the captainess, Corey (or is it Borey now?) should have grown a sack and said to her "... it can look however the hell you want it to look like honey, but it better keep your victoria's secret silk teddy dry after I wear it under your precious rainsuits for 20 minutes in the master bathroom shower...ok hon? If they're not dry, then it's my turn to pitch 2nite....deal?"

in other words...it's sad but true....when you lose...blame the captain.

[Used to be former S & T Convert]

Interesting interview with Sun Mtn CEO, pretty candid.

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2010-10/golf-sun-mountain-johnson

If he is smart he uses this as an opportunity to introduce new "Works in Wales" product line.

[1000golf]

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[1000golf]

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