Updated on August 21, 2026 • 4 min read
VA Composites is celebrating its 10th anniversary, marking a decade of developing composite golf shafts engineered around performance and professional club fitting.
Founded by Victor Afable and headquartered in Pinehurst, North Carolina, the company has grown from a self-funded venture into an international golf shaft supplier with approximately 400 authorized fitters and dealers.
VA Composites also maintains OEM relationships with several major golf equipment manufacturers, including Callaway, Titleist, Ping, TaylorMade and Cobra.
The company says its next phase will focus on research and development, fitting technology, international expansion and new composite shaft products.
Composite Engineering Meets Custom Club Fitting
VA Composites has built its business around the relationship between golf shaft design and professional fitting.
Rather than treating a shaft as a universal component, fitters evaluate characteristics such as flex, torque, weight and bend behavior to match equipment more closely with an individual golfer’s swing.
VA says its shafts are independently profiled for bend, torque and deflection characteristics, providing fitters with repeatable data when selecting and configuring equipment.
“What started as a passion for engineering has become an incredible journey,” Afable said. “We’re thankful for every golfer, fitter, dealer, and partner who believed in our vision.”
Over the past decade, the company’s products have been installed in thousands of golf bags through fitting organizations, independent club builders and premium golf retailers.
Carbon Fiber and Prepreg Drive Shaft Development
Composite materials are central to VA’s product development.
According to the company, its shafts incorporate materials including 40T carbon fiber and T1100 prepreg sourced from Japan.
Carbon fiber composites enable golf shaft designers to control properties such as mass, stiffness distribution and torsional behavior through material selection and laminate architecture.
For golf equipment, this means engineers can adjust the structural characteristics of different sections of a shaft rather than relying solely on overall shaft weight or nominal flex classifications.
VA’s portfolio has expanded to include shafts for drivers and other woods as well as irons, hybrids and putters.
Current product families include RAIJIN BLACK, RAIJIN 2.0, SLAY, DRAGO, VYLYN, BADDAZZ, BADDAZZ GOLD, SYNYSTR, SYNYSTR CB and NEMESYS.
SYNYSTR HL Planned as Next Product Addition
The company is preparing to expand its portfolio with the upcoming SYNYSTR HL.
VA has not provided detailed technical specifications for the new shaft in its anniversary announcement, but positions the product as the next addition to its performance shaft range.
Development is being accompanied by continued investment in fitting technology intended to help dealers identify appropriate shaft configurations for individual golfers.
“Every shaft we build starts with the same question: how do we help this golfer play better?” said Heather Shook-Afable, president of VA Composites.
Pinehurst Headquarters Expands
VA Composites has also expanded its headquarters in Pinehurst with a new media production facility.
The space will support video, podcast and social media production focused on golf shaft engineering, products and the fitting process.
The investment reflects a broader effort to explain the technical considerations behind composite golf shafts directly to golfers as well as professional fitters.
As VA enters its second decade, the company says further investment is planned across R&D, fitting technology, product development and international market expansion.
For the composites industry, VA’s 10-year milestone provides another example of how advanced carbon fiber and prepreg materials are being applied beyond traditional aerospace and automotive structures, with laminate design and material selection used to tune the performance of sporting equipment.
Bruce Zhou is the Founder of Jota Machinery, where he leads the development of equipment for flexible packaging and advanced composite materials. With experience in composite processing since 2011, his work is centered on practical engineering, product reliability, and building long-term value for manufacturing customers worldwide.
About Bruce Zhou