Titleist has not had an exclusive shaft deal for a long time. Year's ago they had a shaft manufacturer produce shafts for them with Titleist markings "made for" but they were still high quality shafts. Now days all their shafts are directly provided from the shaft manufacturers and assembled at the Titleist factories. The ones that are standard priced are the ones that they have negotiated a "normal" cost from those manufacturers. The ones that are available with an "up charge" are specialty shafts that the shaft manufacturers will not wholesale without an additional fee. These are the same shafts you would by directly but Titleist uses their high quality inspection and assembly process to stand behind the warranty therefore only sells assembled clubs. If you use a different shaft that you have added the SureFit adapter to, there is no warranty from Titleist if the shaft breaks and your clubhead gets damaged flying down the fairway. Hope this helps. Cheers.