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Check out Como!Come!'s new Promo Video for 2010 featuring their image golfer Kayoko. Beautiful swing, beautifully shot video... funny captions and great style! We've got some cool new items coming soon from Como!Come! So look for them in the pro shop!

[See post to watch Flash video]

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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It was a rainy day today in Tokyo but it was not enough do dampen my visit to Shinagawa where I went to visit the Dance with Dragon 2010 Collection Preview with Master Sasaya from Gold's Factory. Next years DWD collection has a Star Wars theme as you can see in the poster behind Master Sasaya and I. The Star Wars theme song played in the background as we spoke with DWD staff about their new collection, signing top Japanese Pro Shingo Katayama and how Dance with Dragon will take golf enthusiasts to where no golfer has gone before!

The large staging area was filled with racks of DWD clothing. Clothing is always the major focus of DWD especially for a summer collection where clothing sells the most. The displays had both the coming Spring Collection and Summer Collection and Dance With Dragon showed off its usual bright colors and daring designs for both men and women. Since TSG is now selling clothes and looking to slowly expand their golf wear offering we really wanted to pick out some of the hot items at this DWD preview launch. As always, the new caddy bags stood out with awesome design and quality. I have already decided I am getting one for the new season though a certain master also told me that he would have his own caddy bags in the new year... decisions decisions!

Other standout items included new Dance with Dragon putter grips to go along with their sticky wood and iron grips. There will be two new styles of putter grips and 6 different colors in all.  Dance with Dragon has a close relationship with Iomic and these do look very similar to Iomic's new Absolute putter grips.  The camouflage grips look very cool!

As always Dance with Dragon is releasing some of the best looking caps in golf. I own a few already and I can say they fit great and are always top quality. They have several new caps including integrated magnetic ball markers in a couple of their models. The white and black one below is definitely one I am targeting for the new season.

Finally comes the clothes. They have some really hot stuff for next season and a lot of it is definitely influenced by top Japan pro Shingo Katayama who will be wearing all of this collection. From very stylish polo shirts, to slick solid colored pants, to the brightest checkered pants, there is something for everyone, men or ladies.  This simple D and DWD logo is going into my clothing rotation for sure.

I took  quite a few pics for everyone to check out. Dance with Dragon is by no means cheap, in fact it is one of the higher priced premium golf wear brands. One thing you can be sure of is getting high quality one of a kind golf wear. You can bet that nobody in your golf club has the same clothes as you do if you are wearing DWD. Look for the new collection to make its way into the pro shop in coming months!

Check out the pictures!

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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Demand for clothes...

Due to many requests from customers and vistors to Tourspecgolf, we've begun our little experiment at carrying golf clothing. We've actually been getting many requests for golf wear over the years but to be honest we never decided to make a commitment to clothes because it is probably the one most difficult product to carry. So many different brands and styles and models and sizes make it very hard if not impossible for an online retailer like TSG to stock. As it is here in Japan, clothes sell out far faster than clubs. They are made in far smaller numbers and are always spoken for by many of the big golf equipment chain stores around Japan.

High prices, yes.

That said, we've decided to work with our accounts here in Japan to start slowly with a limited amount of clothing to see how things go before expanding to more styles and models and brands. One big negative of carrying clothes from the Japanese market is price.  To those of you who don't realize (and this is probably most people), TSG does not dictate the prices of our products in the pro shop. The Japanese market does. Several factors make Japanese gear, whether it be clubs or clothes more expensive for those outside Japan.

Firstly, the Japanese market is simply more expensive in the first place. Yes, consumers here in Japan paying 750.00- $1000.00 for a driver and 1200.00 for a set of irons is common place. But because of this, manufacturers are able to take advantage of Japanese consumers willing to spend by keeping the genral MSRP very high in Japan. This cycle allows brands however, to take back much of its earnings and place them into manufacturing processes and premium materials and design. All this leads back to higher priced gear in a higher priced market place all controlled by the manufacturers.

Oh when will the Yen fall??

Another factor, especially recently, has been the super strong yen. We have tried hard not to raise prices even though we function in US dollars and have seen the yen strengthen by over 10% in the last year alone.  The weak US dollar and strong yen limits our pricing ability but we still try our best. (and remember we do have a price matching policy).

So if you see the new clothes in the shop and proclaim they are costly, which they are, please keep these factors in mind. Japanese golf gear comes at a cost (if you find Japanese market clubs crazy cheap somewhere else and I mean prices too good to be true, I am sorry to say they probably fake - and it would not be the first time a customer has left us to find a set of new irons at a fraction of our pricing and below even our costs only to find out they were fake but that is another post for another time).

Mizuno and Tourstage to start.

So back on topic. We're going to see how this goes and I will try my best to track down good deals on clothes. Summer collections are usually the best deals because they use the least amount of material for manufacturing while winter collections feature thicker materials and more jackets and long sleeves and sweaters which simply cost more. We've started off with a few products from Mizuno and Tourstage and I may add some LeCoq Sportif and Srixon tonight as well.  Stock is limited and many sizes are already gone but I tried to add products that actually had sizes left. If all goes well we can add items like DWD and Adidas Japan down the road as well. Keep in mind that sizing is indeed different. I am a US Small but I wear a Japan Medium which for some brands (since there is no standard) I even find a touch too big for me. So while it is safe to say that sizes are APPROXIMATELY one size smaller please refer to the sizing charts (in centimeters) that I have posted in each listing.

Check out some of the new clothes in the new Mens Golf Wear category here and if you have any questions about sizes or features or even brands you are interested in you can email me and as always I'd be happy to help out.

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

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There are so many great brands to chose from when it comes to golf wear and accesories. Fashion is a huge part of golf. Some people swear by the brands they play and look like a sponsored pro. Others wear and use accessories they like regardless of brand association. Me, if I like the way a cap or shirt looks, I get it regardless if I am playing a club associated to that brand. How about you? Take our poll and add a comment on the clothing and accessories brands you like!

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.

 EMAIL

I'm short and usually dress like a bum but I love golf clothes almost as much as I love golf clubs. Here in Japan even a very unstylish guy like myself, can become rather stylish (so I would like to think) with the many cool clothing brands here. The clothing market in Japan for golf, is probably as crazy as golf clubs themselves or in fact even worse. Most clothes sell out in weeks and are very tough to get because manufacturers make such limited amounts. Prices are not cheap but you get what you pay for and that's good looking and good quality clothing.

The fierce battle for clothing stock has been one of the reasons why we have been hesitating to carry clothing at TSG. It's hard to keep all sizes and colors on hand and if you don't it's hard to get any at all. But alas, customer demand and our desire to give everyone a shot at these cool brands has let us to into formulating a new clothing strategy.

We're looking at starting off with a few select brands since there are so many good ones. I've chatted with a few members of TSG and there have been requests for brands like Pearly Gates which I really love but is just ultra expensive and always selling out. We're probably going to start with the following brands:

Le Coq Sportif
Munsingwear
Adidas Japan
Mizuno Japan
and maybe Dance with Dragon if they can actually keep up stock for us.

If you have any suggestions or requests for brands just make a comment here.

Now if only nice golf clothes would lower my golf score, then they would be perfect. (^_^)

Tario (aka gocchin) joined Tourspecgolf back in 2008 after spending over a decade in technology and business operation roles at a major Canadian financial institution. Before joining TSG and following his dream of moving to Japan, Tario and Chris (aka Tourspecgolfer) hit it off though their similar passions for Japanese culture. Chris hired Tario to manage TSG online operations, sales and marketing. While those are Tario's primary responsibilities, he has also taken up the role of blogger and custom club tester and fitter along the way. Tario's hobbies include golf (of course), gadgets and technology, cars, Japanese pop culture and idols, photography, sweets and walking the dog.