PING is not your typical golf company. They release products on their own cadence, do not sell clubs through their website, and remain one of the few major manufacturers that are privately owned.
But this is not the strangest thing about them.
Did you know that PING owns a secret skateboard company, Slek? Inexplicably branded under the ZING WRX moniker, Slek specializes in longboards and crossover board kits. Similar to how PING manufactures clubs, Slek does everything in house. They make boards, wheels and trucks.
I’ve spent the last three months trying to get someone, anyone, on Slek to talk to me about what they do and the connection to PING. It has been nothing but cricket.
Seems to me like PING doesn’t care if anyone knows. Or maybe they don’t want anyone to know. Whatever the reason, I haven’t been able to find any information on why Slek exists.
But it exists. And that is reason enough to write about it.
I can speculate for days as to why. Maybe one of the Solheim family members is really into skateboarding? Or maybe PING’s machine is well suited for casting urethane longboard wheels. But the fact that there’s a room on PING’s campus apparently dedicated to world-class skateboarding is a funny sight I can’t get out of my head.
A similar technological story
PING is all about innovation, right? That same “we can do better” attitude has clearly rubbed off on the way Slek designs the boards.
I’m an occasional rider (like once a year), but something about Slek’s patented FLOAT-TEC makes me itch to grab a board and hit the pavement.
Simply put, FLOAT-TEC is a second set of wheels that sit on the front of the board to help you “float” smoothly over cracks, ruts and rough terrain. Slek’s demo video makes it very clear the capabilities FLOAT-TEC offers.
Sounds pretty genius, if you ask me. It’s almost as if the company that never stops pushing the boundaries of performance on the golf course is secretly trying to do the same for skateboarding.
But the similarities between the companies do not end there. Heck, when you buy a Slek board, you have a choice between two bends…care to guess?
Yes. Regular or rigid. Follow the audible gasp.
Okay, I’m a bit hasty with the comparisons. It’s just ridiculous. If I were to give you 10 guesses to tell me which golf club manufacturer owns a skateboard company, PING would not be on that short list.
And that’s why it’s so novel. PING is as traditional as it gets. Owning a secret skateboard company is anything but.
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