[TUHS] UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[TUHS] UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[segaloco via TUHS]

Thought folks on list might find this amusing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/177857384642

One of DMRs pages concerned UNIX trademarks/product names spotted out
there in the wild, and while many were quite interesting, I think this
is particularly odd because the product is not only named UNIX but
subtitled "System V JR".  I hardly think that is a coincidence, but
given these are golf clubs...I really don't know what to think.

Anywho, apparently "All American Golf" produced or sold UNIX System V
golf clubs at some point.  Probably not licensed stuff, this feels
similar to the photo of an "OBAMA" backpack with a miscolored Sonic the
Hedgehog on it.  Gotta love bootlegs.

Any weird oddly specific UNIX-related bootlegs in anyone's memories
worth sharing?

- Matt G.

[TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[Dan Cross via TUHS]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:31 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
> Thought folks on list might find this amusing:
>
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/177857384642
>
> One of DMRs pages concerned UNIX trademarks/product names spotted out
> there in the wild, and while many were quite interesting, I think this
> is particularly odd because the product is not only named UNIX but
> subtitled "System V JR".  I hardly think that is a coincidence, but
> given these are golf clubs...I really don't know what to think.
>
> Anywho, apparently "All American Golf" produced or sold UNIX System V
> golf clubs at some point.  Probably not licensed stuff, this feels
> similar to the photo of an "OBAMA" backpack with a miscolored Sonic the
> Hedgehog on it.  Gotta love bootlegs.
>
> Any weird oddly specific UNIX-related bootlegs in anyone's memories
> worth sharing?

Oh that's wild.  I wonder if they were some sort of promotional swag
kind of thing?

        - Dan C.

[TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[Ron Natalie via TUHS]

I think it’s just UNIX SYSTEM JR.    The seller obvious has mistaken the 
V for a JR.

[TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[Dan Cross via TUHS]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:52 PM Ron Natalie via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
> I think it’s just UNIX SYSTEM JR.    The seller obvious has mistaken the
> V for a JR.

I don't know about that....If you zoom in on one of the pictures in
the listing, it pretty clearly looks like a "V" to me. The "Jr" is
printed further down the shaft, in a darker color.

        - Dan C.

[TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[segaloco via TUHS]

On Friday, February 13th, 2026 at 11:52, Ron Natalie via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> I think it’s just UNIX SYSTEM JR.    The seller obvious has mistaken the
> V for a JR.
> 
> 
> 

Here's an off-eBay link of the image: https://i.imgur.com/7fhfzLq.jpeg

It very much is a UNIX System V JR, complete with serifs on the V.  I
can message the seller about the providence but I usually don't get
anywhere with that, these sellers always wind up being junkers that
don't know the slightest about what they're selling.  This is both a
good source of undervalued computing history assets *and* mysterious
objects that nobody can determine the origin of.  It's a tossup really.
Makes me wish there was a more focused market for this sort of thing...

- Matt G.

[TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[Mary Ann Horton via TUHS]

According to Gemini:

Finding that "UNIX" mark on a black graphite shaft usually points to a 
specific era of golf technology. Based on trademark records and 
historical manufacturing, here is who owns (or owned) that name in the 
golf world:


      The Likely Owner: Yonex Co., Ltd.

The most prominent owner of the *UNIX* trademark for sporting goods is 
*Yonex* (a major Japanese manufacturer).

  *

    *The Trademark:* Yonex registered "UNIX" for use in Class 28
    (Sporting Goods). They used this branding primarily in the late
    1980s and throughout the 1990s.

  *

    *The Connection:* Yonex was a pioneer in using *high-modulus
    graphite* (carbon fiber). During that era, many Japanese
    manufacturers used high-tech, computer-adjacent names to emphasize
    the precision of their graphite shafts compared to traditional steel.

[TUHS] Re: UNIX System V Golf Clubs?

[Mark Seiden via TUHS]

not exactly a bootleg, given the legal scope that applies to trademarks, 

regarding the golf clubs, trademark published in 1992:
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74306860
is pertinent.  apparently it was challenged and abandoned within two years.

if you go to 
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results

you can observe the approximately 5 live trademarks for UNIX, Unix, UniX, etc.
and 81 dead/cancelled/abandoned trademarks for all kinds of things.


(i recall with some amusement there was a vacuum cleaner called “VAX” in the UK.)

(and at one point on a visit to kyoto i saw a restaurant that had the bsd daemon as its logo…)


> On Feb 13, 2026, at 11:34 AM, Dan Cross via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 2:31 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org <mailto:tuhs@tuhs.org>> wrote:
>> Thought folks on list might find this amusing:
>> 
>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/177857384642
>> 
>> One of DMRs pages concerned UNIX trademarks/product names spotted out
>> there in the wild, and while many were quite interesting, I think this
>> is particularly odd because the product is not only named UNIX but
>> subtitled "System V JR".  I hardly think that is a coincidence, but
>> given these are golf clubs...I really don't know what to think.
>> 
>> Anywho, apparently "All American Golf" produced or sold UNIX System V
>> golf clubs at some point.  Probably not licensed stuff, this feels
>> similar to the photo of an "OBAMA" backpack with a miscolored Sonic the
>> Hedgehog on it.  Gotta love bootlegs.
>> 
>> Any weird oddly specific UNIX-related bootlegs in anyone's memories
>> worth sharing?
> 
> Oh that's wild.  I wonder if they were some sort of promotional swag
> kind of thing?
> 
>        - Dan C.