If there have ever been two phrases joined at the hip in golf, they are “direct-to-consumer brand” and “cult following.”
Well, I don’t know about “ever,” but you get the idea.
And if any DTC brand out there has the fastest-growing cult following, it’s the Turku, Finland-based Takomo. Since its launch in 2001, the brand has earned a reputation for its minimalistic Scandinavian design and its low prices.
Like many DTC startups, Takomo’s first offerings were what can be considered open-mold adjacent clubs. Those would be standard offerings from an Asian supplier with Takomo-specific tweaks, additions and specifications.
And low prices.
But it’ s 2026 now and Takomo is growing up. Today, the company is launching three revamped, upgraded, renamed (sort of), and recategorized (also sort of) iron sets, all with greater input from its internal design team. Takomo still rocks its minimalistic design vibe but the company is leveraging its growing internal design capabilities with a new manufacturing partner.
And the price? It’s not quite as low as it used to be (what is?) but the value remains solid.
Let’s take a look.
The new Takomo MKII irons: Same thing, only different
Again, sort of.
Let’s start by getting the nomenclature out of the way as it represents Takomo reshuffling its deck slightly.
First, Takomo is replacing its original (and best-selling) game-improvement iron, “Iron 101,” with the new Iron 101 MKII. The “MKII” represents Takomo’s second generation.
Got it? That one’s easy. Now for the hard part.
Takomo’s old player’s distance iron set, “Iron 101T,” is being replaced with an upgraded set, Iron 201 MKII.
Note the subtle yet distinct numerical shift with an alphabetical deletion. Now pay attention to the third iron, as there will be a test at the end.
Takomo’s old, forgiving forged cavity-back, “Iron 201,” is being replaced with the entirely new-from-the-ground-up Iron 201T MKII. Additionally, Takomo is giving the 201T MKII its own newly christened club category: “player’s precision.”
The new 101 and 201 MKII are cast, hollow-body irons, and look virtually identical to the irons they’re replacing. When minimalist design is your calling card, that’s inevitable.
“The simple answer is that it plays into our design philosophy,” Takomo Head of Product Teemu Laine tells MyGolfspy. “When you keep things minimalist, you can’t expect a huge difference in models.”
The curveball is the 201T MKII. It’s also a cast, hollow-body club. It carries the same DNA as its MKII brothers even though it’s replacing a forged cavity-back.
“There are definite visual similarities,” says Takomo Chief Marketing Officer Sean McCullum. “We want to keep them tied together because one of the things players love about the Takomo brand is this clean, minimalist design aesthetic.”
What’s new, what’s different
Perhaps the biggest change in the new MKII series is Takomo’s supplier. After breaking into the business with a Chinese manufacturer, Takomo is now using a Taiwanese supplier with a factory in Vietnam. It’s the same partner the company chose for its recent driver and wedges.
“There’s no big, sexy, brand-new tech that we can put a snappy name on and trademark to run in ad campaigns,” says McCullum. “What we have done is switch manufacturing partners to increase the quality.”
“The casting process has improved to remove impurities from the steel,” adds Laine. “The final product is a lot more consistent iron to iron and set to set. It’s not something you’ll notice with the naked eye but it’s a big deal for us because we don’t want to compromise on quality.”
Another change for Takomo is that all three iron sets now feature variable-face thickness in the mid and long irons.
“What we’re trying to achieve is a larger sweet spot in the longer irons,” Laine explains. “The idea is to make toe or heel strikes more forgiving and boost off-center strikes a little bit.”
As all three sets are hollow-body, sound and feel can be a concern. Takomo chose not to fill the cavity with foam or urethane, instead opting for strategically placed hot melt to dampen vibration.
“We don’t want to over-tech stuff just for the sake of putting it in,” adds Laine. “We want to keep it simple. Everything that’s in the head is there for a reason.”
About that “player’s precision” iron …
The new 201T MKII is the most intriguing of the new trio. Takomo says it bridges the gap between a player’s cavity-back and a player’s distance iron: longer and more forgiving than the former, more compact and – hold on to your Cheerios, kiddies – weaker-lofted than the latter.
“Culturally across our workspace, pretty much everyone on the team here is anti-loft jacking,” says McCullum.
Torch and Pitchfork Nation won’t have much to say about the 201T MKII. You’d need a heart of stone to complain about a compact hollow-body with a 47-degree pitching wedge and a 34-degree 7-iron.
“There’s this blank space with a ton of golfers who are amazing ball strikers who don’t need a ton of workability but still value forgiveness,” says McCullum. “They could fit into a player’s distance iron but they’re good enough to prefer a thinner sole, shorter blade and thinner topline, and they’d like a little distance help.”
The new Takomo 201T MKII is trimmed down, sleeker and cleaner than the forged cavity-back Iron 201 it’s replacing. The hollow-body construction gives it a muscle-back blade look. The 4- through 7-irons feature a tungsten bar in the sole to lower CG and add forgiveness. The 8-iron through pitching wedge have a lighter steel bar for a higher CG and more spin control.
“We wanted to make the head smaller and the sole thinner,” says Laine. “But we still wanted the CG low for optimized ball flight and still get enough spin for a better player, even though it’s a hollow body.”
So, a compact player’s distance iron that spins? We can say right now the Takomo 201T MKII won’t win any distance contests. However, “long and forgiving enough with descent angle and spin” might just make it a unicorn.
Thinking final thoughts on the new Takomo irons
If Takomo were a mainstream OEM, changing nomenclature the way it’s doing with the MKII series would totally freak out retailers. But since it’s a DTC brand, Takomo doesn’t have that problem.
“Better to do it now rather than wait until the next round of upgrades in three or four years,” says McCullum. “A little head-scratching now is way better than mass confusion and re-education later.”
The naming progression makes sense if you think of university class levels. The 101 is Intro to Golf. The 201 is Advanced Golf while the 301 would be Graduate Golf. When you sell online, these distinctions are important.
Despite its commitment to Scandinavian minimalism, Takomo did find it necessary to add at least a little cosmetic differentiation to the MKII series. The 101 MKII, for all its hollow-body forgiveness, looks a lot like the 201 MKII. To differentiate, the 101 features a sandblast texture on the lower pad portion of the backside. The 201 is sandblasted on the upper portion of the backside. The 201T isn’t sandblasted at all.
“Now, when we discuss the club and the super-subtle differences in appearance, we’ll be able to teach our customers what kind of club they’re looking at,” explains Laine.
Again, when you sell online, these distinctions are important.
As to where Takomo is going, these second-generation irons represent a key milestone. Four years ago, Takomo was a startup. If we apply the crawl-walk-run analogy, Takomo made it through the crawl stage and has been walking. The new iron launch shows the company is starting to put a little pep in its step.
“Our database of information looks quite different now than it did four years ago,” admits Laine. “That’s going to play into our future development.”
The new Takomo MKII irons: Specs, price and availability
All three Takomo MKII iron sets are cast, with faces made from thin 17-4 stainless steel. The new 101 MKII has shifted a bit from the previous generation. Takomo has dropped the 4-iron and added a gap wedge as standard. The 201 and 201T both feature 4-iron through pitching wedge.
At launch, you can choose either the KBS Tour or KBS Tour Lite as your shaft with a Lamkin Crossline grip. Takomo will be adding graphite options (it says “soon”) including the Mitsubishi MMT and the True Temper Denali. Additionally, the company expects to finalize a deal with True Temper sometime this summer to add Dynamic Golf and Elevate shafts to its offering.
Like everyone else, Takomo is raising its prices slightly this year, between $60 and $90 per set. The new 101 MKII irons run $579 (5-GW) while the 201 MKII is $649 (4-PW).
The new 201T MKII iron set is $679 (4-PW).
The post These Three New Irons Sets Show Takomo Is Growing Up appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
