What is more important to a golf shaft – the materials or the processes?

There are many premium aftermarket golf shaft options out there, and they’re all slightly different.

Some use exotic materials to achieve unique performance, while others get there with the latest technology and techniques. They all have the same goal: making players better.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, co-host Johnny Wunder had Golf co-founders earring Chris Elson and Alex Dee on the show to discuss the company’s latest AO2 wood shafts.

“Your business is—at least for marketing’s sake—it’s a materials business, isn’t it?” Wunder asked the couple. “Everyone has their limits on what a shaft can do. It’s the same shape, it’s usually the same, weight-wise. You have your limitations, your sandbox to plan in. What’s more important, the materials you use or the way you actually use the materials? Or is it both?”

Dee explains this materials are important and even Aretera has proprietary material, but they all have great material.

Aretera AO2 bluewood shaft

The AO2 stands in a class of its own with intelligent design, fine-tuned craftsmanship and meticulous manufacturing. Active in the grip and solid mid-to-top, the AO2 translates premier engineering into shot repeatability. We understand how challenging it can be to navigate the array of variables between swing dynamics and in-game shaft profiles. That’s why we’ve strategically designed the ONLY ONE that attributes the difference between the Blue and Gray profiles—tip stiffness—to simplify the process and enable spin and launch to match a player’s swing type.

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“There’s a lot of similarities now,” Dee said. “So it’s almost like a restaurant. If you want to go get seasoning on a piece of chicken, it’s going to be the same. It depends on how it’s cooked and how you prepare it.”

He said intellectual property in the axle industry is very difficult to police and everyone has similar access to material. This is about the processes used to create a golf shaft and sometimes who creates it.

“I’m going to blow Alex’s horn a little bit here, because there are a lot of people who know how to design axles,” Ellison said. “If I were to give someone a target specification for a certain product, there are many people in the world who know how to create something based on a certain direction of what they want to see.

Aretera AO2 gray wood shaft

The AO2 stands in a class of its own with intelligent design, fine-tuned craftsmanship and meticulous manufacturing. Active in the grip and solid mid-to-top, the AO2 translates premier engineering into shot repeatability. We understand how challenging it can be to navigate the array of variables between swing dynamics and in-game shaft profiles. That’s why we’ve strategically designed the ONLY ONE that attributes the difference between the Blue and Gray profiles—tip stiffness—to simplify the process and enable spin and launch to match a player’s swing type.

View Product

“But Alex is one of the few guys, I believe, that has, you know, it’s a combination of science and art, right? So he’s able to look at things from a different perspective. Incorporating different types of materials, creating, as he just talked about, our energy grid material, incorporating it, using it in different design architectures.

“So it’s a combination of all these things. There aren’t many people who know how to creatively incorporate the combination of design, architecture and material in a way that has an impact on improving performance for the golfer.”

For more from Wunder, Dee and Elson, take a listen Full episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped hereor see below.

Want to overhaul your bag in 2025? Find a convenient club location near you at True Spec Golf.

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