Mizuno irons & the left handed issue

[Lefty0807]

Are there any future plans to offer the HL version of JPX irons in LH?

 

[DennisMiller]

The leftie situation gets even tougher at the low hcp end of the player spectrum. We have 2 challenges - firstly less than 30% of regular golfers play off a single digit hcp (taking that particular leftie group down to a max of 3% of the golfing population). Secondly the Mizuno #grainflowforged process is vastly more expensive to set up than other manufacturers cast process. There's a minimum number of sets we'd need to produce / distribute to meet a similar cost / price as the right handed option.

Not being left handed, I haven't paid much attention to this thread, but my interest is piqued in a different way. With such low percentages of players being left handed in the first place, you mentioned the increased cost of tooling up to make left handed irons. I would guess it's no less expensive to tool up for right handed irons, only that the cost is spread much more thinly across future sales, achieving an economy of scale. (Jeez, I'm a college educated economist and I'm actually using my education???)

My curiosity leads me to wonder, just for the hell of it, what are typical tooling costs when Mizuno makes a new model? How much more for the grain flow forging process than a casting process?

I've just always been fascinated in seeing how things are made and watching the videos online that show how it's done. I don't think I've ever heard the cost of it all mentioned. Inquiring minds want to know... So do nosy people like me...