The golf business has changed dramatically in the last ten years. The game has seen dramatic growth on many fronts; the demographics have expanded to include groups that, just a decade ago, would never have considered playing the sport.

Ideally, this would mean the rising fortunes of all involved, but this increase in attention to the game has been seen the concurrent development of two phenomena: a deluge of cheap imported knock-offs, and the rise of the internet which in turn has given those copies a safe-haven to find a customer base. The golf business has turned into a triad of Innovators, Imitators and Imposters.

In the strata of the golf business, the major players sit on top; with solidly branded goods that players immediately think of when they think of golf equipment, these companies are positioned in such a way that they are going to be successful no matter the pressures from below. Often these companies align themselves to a "Play It Safe" mode, playing the Imitators rather than acting as the Innovators that their positions of power should allow. They will often wait for companies with great ingenuity to make the advances in design and then co-opt or acquire those designs for their own ends.

At the bottom sit the knock-off companies, the cheap imports that arrive hourly by the container-full to ports around the world. The goal of these companies is simply to churn out and place as much garbage as the market will bear. These companies are the Imposters, doing no real work of their own but building products that steal wholesale from the work of others. These companies, you will never find represented on Lounge19.com.

In the middle are the Innovators. These are companies whose strengths lay in product development and design enhancement. These are companies-companies like Heavy Putter who showed many players that a head with greater mass means a truer line-that have a passion for building a better game through design.

Often, though, the average player never hears of these companies. So thin is this middle that it's often overshadowed by the glare from above and out-shouted by the din from below. It is these companies, the people at Nickent or Simpac, companies that are accorded great accolades but little mass-market attention, that Lounge19.com is here to help.

Among our prime purposes at Lounge19.com is to create a platform that lets you, the Innovator, connect directly with consumers. As the Whole-in-One Community grows, supported by our own mass and multi-media marketing efforts, the Members we serve, true Golf Enthusiasts, will have the opportunity to see your products in action. They will see your products ranked by other Members, they will get to participate in discussions about the merits of each new innovation. In short, we want to get your goods into the hands of people that consume them from top to bottom and then tell all of their friends. Your Charter Membership gets you in on the Ground Floor.

And it doesn't stop there. Your Charter Membership will mean you're fully integrated into "The Lounge." You will become one of our Certified Storefronts, with a strong, featured E-Commerce presence within the L19 Marketplace; one of the Lounge19.com's Signature Suppliers. As we roll-out new features and benefits, your company will be among the first offered the opportunities to capitalize.

We know that we will not be successful unless you are successful. If you are one of golf's Innovators, we want you to be a part of the Whole-in-One Community today.