We made it to Episode 74 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. In this week's episode, I interview my good friend Keenan Philips, Brand Manager for True Temper Golf Shafts.
The #1 Shaft in Golf, and the most trusted name in golf shafts worldwide. True Tremper is played by more professionals than all other shaft brands combined. True Temper is the brand that brought you Dynamic Gold, Project X, Aerotech, Hzrdus, and Accra Shafts and is a must in any golfer's bag.
We made it to Episode 74 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. In this week's episode, I interview my good friend Keenan Philips, Brand Manager for True Temper Golf Shafts.
The #1 Shaft in Golf, and the most trusted name in golf shafts worldwide. True Tremper is played by more professionals than all other shaft brands combined. True Temper is the brand that brought you Dynamic Gold, Project X, Aerotech, Hzrdus, and Accra Shafts and is a must in any golfer's bag.
Today we play golf.
Speaker 2:Let me show you how we do it in the pros.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Welcome to behind the golf brand podcast. I never missed with the seven iron a conversation with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs behind the biggest names in golf.
Speaker 4:My friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course. I lived on the driving range
Speaker 3:From pro. You
Speaker 5:Should learn something from each and every single round you
Speaker 3:Play to fun from on and off the green.
Speaker 6:Why would you play golf? You don't play it for money. Just
Speaker 3:Let me put the ball in a hole. This is behind the golf brand podcast with Paul liberatory.
Speaker 7:What's up guys, Paul from golfers authority. Welcome to behind the golf brand podcast. This week. I have a long time friend of mine, Keenan Phillips from true temper sports. Keenan's been around. Keenan's been on a lot of podcasts. Keenan's cool. I was telling Keenan earlier that like I was all excited cause I heard him on a TX G podcast and I was like, I know he did podcasts with those guys and a general and I was like, I need to get him on the show. Um, but true temper. You guys know who they are. If you don't, you don't have probably good clubs. Um, because true tempers in, like I just tell him keen I'm like, you guys are like gold standard man for a lot of stuff. So like they make phenomenal shafts and it's not just like one shaft line or like one type of shaft. Like they make chefs from like, you know, iron shafts to hybrids, to, um,<affirmative> to drivers. Um, and then also they own a lot of companies too, which is kind of cool because you see a shaft company that'll only have like, oh, we only own this, this we're just this company. And with, with true. Um, I mean they have lots of companies under their belt, so it's kind of cool to see a company like this and a lot of Midwest values and you know, you know, like I think it's cool. So without further ado, welcome to the show.
Speaker 8:Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Lot of, uh, lot of stuff going on for the truths and for family and, uh, it's fun to fun to be able to make it all happen. I guess
Speaker 7:What's funny is like, you guys are a big company, you know, like people don't realize how big you guys are. So what I guess kind of like, what do you guys make? I guess, what sports are you in? Let me start there. What sports are you guys in? Cause I know it's not just golf.
Speaker 8:Yeah. So we have our golf division, uh, which obviously I work in and so we have true temper as a brand project X a and Aerotech um, so a really cool thing about that is, you know, we can kind of separate those brands. They all make specific types of products for specific players. Um, so that's a really cool, uh, advantage we have, I guess, from, from that sense and from an R and D sense as well. Um, and then for other divisions, we have a baseball division that just got started a year and a half ago. So that's anything I didn't that<inaudible> all the way up to BB core, which is high school college. Um, so obviously being here in San Diego, which is where I'm located, this is our R and D facility for all, uh, our composite materials. Um, so kind of being so end of, uh, you know, composite R and D it just made sense to really expand those fields. That's where baseball came from. And also our hockey division. I mean, we've been making hockey sticks for 20 years. We used to make'em for other companies that would brand them as their, their own stick. Really.
Speaker 7:I didn't
Speaker 8:Know that we did. So it got to the point where it's like, why, why are we doing this? Let's just make our own
Speaker 7:Yeah, we're, we're, we're white labeling for somebody else.
Speaker 8:Exactly. I mean, it was stuff that was getting played in NHL, you know, winning Stanley cups as well. So it was high quality stuff.
Speaker 7:Like who are you making it for? Like what companies back
Speaker 8:Then?
Speaker 7:Do you even remember? Let's say east in
Speaker 8:No, I think it was combat and Reebok. Maybe I think were the two. I, I know one of those is correct. One of'em might not be correct. Um,
Speaker 7:That's cool.
Speaker 8:I'm not a big hockey guy. So, uh, I grew up in Texas. We don't, we don't do hockey in west Texas. So we have our hockey dealer, which is great.
Speaker 7:You do north stars. Come on.
Speaker 8:That that's right. That's right. That that's five hours away. That's as close as it gets<laugh> to,
Speaker 7:To love. Yeah. Cause you're in Austin. Right. So that's like,
Speaker 8:Yeah, I
Speaker 7:Grew up, it's a long drive.
Speaker 8:Yeah. I grew up in, which is
Speaker 7:Oh, Lubbock that's. Yeah. That's
Speaker 8:Like metal, nowhere. Yeah. Um, but our hockey divisions great. That's where we're almost, I guess, a tieless tailor made a Calloway, a ping we're, you know, an OEM in a sense, we make sticks gear, uh, you know, padding, uh, skates, all the above there for hockey and then our lacrosse division as well, which is a few years old. Um, once again, being Texas, I don't do that much, but other cross divisions really grown over the past year and a half specifically. Uh, and so that that's been a fun one to watch grow and just those younger brands watch develop, uh, has been really, really cool.
Speaker 7:I didn't know that. And Globes. Yeah. Holy crap.
Speaker 8:I know we got a little bit of it all there, so we do it all on hockey for sure.
Speaker 7:<affirmative> so like my kids play lacrosse, like lacrosse is getting big. Um, at least in the, at least in Arizona, I know it is getting the west coast. I know it's like a Eastern kind of sport, I guess, but like, I didn't realize how big it really was getting out here. And then, especially in California too. So my kids started like a year ago and like, dude, that's like jet sport that part's hard. And like, yeah, what I like about it is they are running the entire time, which is great.
Speaker 8:That is true. So a lot of, lot of cardiovascular exercise
Speaker 7:There, dude, my kids are so drenched and sweat. Like the top of their hair is wet. Like the tip top of their head, like, you know, they're sweaty when that happens. Right. That's
Speaker 8:Impressive too. That the dry heat.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Like it's not like a humid day. It's like nighttime, it's like 70 degrees out. Right. And they're like, and they're like full of energy and like, they go to bed right away at night. I'm like, oh, this is the best sport in the whole world. Yeah. Um, I don't know. I think lacrosse is cool sport. So like where did you, where did you guys, what sport did you guys start in?
Speaker 8:Uh, golf. So we've been making golf shops since 1902.
Speaker 7:For real. I didn't know that.
Speaker 8:Yeah. That's in true temper sports. I guess we were used to be American fork ho uh, long, long time ago before anyone knows. And uh, so it was 1902. And then, um, you know, when Hickory was still going on, we, this was all our, our steel manufacturing at the time we, we got into the golf, uh,
Speaker 7:The golf, where were they based at back then?
Speaker 8:Uh, Geneva, Ohio.
Speaker 7:Oh, wow.
Speaker 8:Yeah. And so,
Speaker 7:So true. Temper has been around for a long time.
Speaker 8:We, we have been so a lot longer and people realize, um, I think the first steel shack we made was like 19 20, 30, 19 27 around there, late twenties, early thirties. Uh, so that's kind of when that transition from Hickory to steel really started happening happening. Um, and then 1964 moved the plant down to Amory, Mississippi where it's located still to this day. Uh, so we make,
Speaker 7:Oh, and that's for, and that's for all the metal for all the steel Shafta clubs are steel shafted shafts.
Speaker 8:Yep. But steel, shafted shafts, they all come from Amory, Mississippi, uh, still a hundred percent on, which is really cool.
Speaker 7:So that was like your bread and butter initially, I would say like was steel shaft, right? Oh yeah. Because, because like, listen, like what I think is so cool about this company, right. It's like true temper. Like you guys have dynamic gold. Right. Which is like, mm-hmm,<affirmative> literally the gold standard. And then you have like, AMT is your shaft. Right. Elevates your shaft. Like, and those are all steel shaft and it's a lot. Right. And then you have the Aerotech line.
Speaker 8:Yep.
Speaker 7:Which that's for hybrid. Right?
Speaker 8:Uh, yeah. So Aerotech all graphite. Uh, so that's like fuel fiber, uh, technology around it. So that's really cool stuff we have. And then project decks and ACRA. I mean, we got a lot going on. Like I<laugh>.
Speaker 7:So before we get the whole company, so like, I wanna more about you first. Right. So where'd you grow up at Texas
Speaker 8:Lubbock, Texas. Yeah.
Speaker 7:Um, what did your parents do in Texas? Like, was your like what's in Lubbock? I
Speaker 8:Don't even in, yeah. So Texas, Texas little
Speaker 7:State
Speaker 8:University. So I was born in Austin, uh, moved to Lubbock when I was, I guess like a year<affirmative> or, or whatever. So I grew up there until high school. My dad worked for Texas tech, uh, university. Uh, he was the chief information off chief technology officer, I
Speaker 7:Think. Oh,
Speaker 8:Wow. For information officer, something like that for the health sciences center, uh, Texas tech, uh, moms, occupational therapist graduated high school. They always wanted to get back to Austin. They luckily let me finish the high school though. Yeah. Where I kinda, you know, had all my friends, we had a solid base there. Um, and I ended up going to college at the university of Texas as well, which is in Austin. So I just kind of worked out that way. Uh, so folks still live in Austin. Uh, I went to Texas.
Speaker 7:No, are you, you're not, you're not a golf pro though, right? Like you didn't
Speaker 8:Correct.
Speaker 7:Did you play golf in high school? Like on a team or were you just like normal? Like everybody else who put their dad?
Speaker 8:Uh, yeah, I played my, I played baseball growing up.
Speaker 7:That was your sport.
Speaker 8:So my, that was my sport. Uh, I played baseball all through high school. My dad played golf at college and Baylor. Oh wow. So he played, so I always played growing up. It was always really kind of
Speaker 7:Close. Yeah. It was like something you did with your dad, but it wasn't like, oh, I was training every day to be a golfer. Oh yeah. That wasn't me. You could tell about score
Speaker 8:<laugh> no, yeah. Not, not at all for me either. And so it's just something we enjoyed doing and then really got into it, especially, uh, in college with buddies and uh, with my folks living on a golf course in Austin, getting to play with them more and more and got to the equipment side with funny enough kinda Ricks and, and Peter Finch videos back in the day. Uh, which obviously now they're humongous. But at the time they had 20,000 describers when I was watching
Speaker 7:It. Yeah. Rich Gill hit like 2.2 million. Like it's the biggest Dover.
Speaker 8:So I remember yeah. Sitting there whatever it was sophomore year college, just like watching these videos and my like, what are you doing? I was like, oh, this is so cool. He's hitting the new SLD R or whatever. Yeah. And we had Golfsmith 10 minutes away from us for him to,
Speaker 7:Oh, that's right.
Speaker 8:But yeah. So the equipment thing I just kind of was yeah. Got into it all at the right time. And luckily,
Speaker 7:So did you like geek out on the equipment? You're like, oh, this is cool. Like that's what you
Speaker 8:Yeah. Gearing up for sure.
Speaker 7:So you went to college and you just to play like golf with your friends and like, whatever. Like how, how good are you? Like eighties, seventies? What do you shoot?
Speaker 8:Uh, so I'm a four is my hand out like
Speaker 7:Crap, dude.
Speaker 8:You're good. Five it's one of those.
Speaker 7:No wonder do you want me to come play golf with you? You're gonna kick my. Like is no I don't. Is that gonna be a contest?
Speaker 8:I don't, I don't play a lot actually. I think last year I played like 22 rounds.
Speaker 7:Uh that's what people think. Right. They're like, oh, you're the golf, you golf stuff. You play big golf all the time. Like, no man, like it's like, it's like, there's a, I don't know. I wish I did that.
Speaker 8:I'm super inconsistent. I can go shoot 75 or 85 and not really be surprised by either. Um, just luckily, like I said, with my, my dad playing at a pretty solid base and uh, between him and my mom fairly, uh, athletic, I guess, which helps, uh, as well in the hand eye from baseball on that motion of swinging, I still kind of fight the, the baseball swing a little bit every now and then. But, uh, it was a,
Speaker 7:Did you ever, did your coaches ever tell you when you were a kid playing baseball or to your dad, like, oh, you shouldn't be playing golf because he's a messed up. His baseball swinging. Cause my could coach today, all the time to my son, like, oh, he shouldn't be playing golf it's they literally say that to us all the time. I'm like really, dude, no, it doesn't he's nine, like
Speaker 8:Doesn't and I played growing up. I mean I played like 10 times a year, maybe so. Oh yeah,
Speaker 7:Me
Speaker 8:Too. I wasn't, it wasn't gonna mess up my,
Speaker 7:I put like Twilight rate, you know, it was like, I mean, Twilight rate was like$5. Right. But it was like 115 degrees out in the shade, but it was like, I don't care. I paid five bucks, you know, whatever. It's like something to do for four hours or friends. Um,
Speaker 8:And I got more into it kind of late middle school, early high school, uh, really middle school, I guess, uh, with buddies cuz then they played in high school. Uh, and I was kind of more focused on baseball then for sure. But it was just some, did you play
Speaker 7:Baseball in high in college or
Speaker 8:No? Uh, I didn't. So, uh, I,
Speaker 7:Did you get hurt? Did you burn
Speaker 8:Out? Probably could've I burned out. Yeah. I played my whole lot. I probably
Speaker 7:Super out. It's not, I, what if this being fun doesn't matter.
Speaker 8:And the 5:00 AM workouts is not my thing and I knew that going into it and I wasn't even gonna act like it was gonna work for me. I like my sleep and I'm not waking up at 5:00 AM five times a week to work out. So, uh, I, I got into the school I'd always wanted to go to, um, and just enjoyed it from there.
Speaker 7:So what did you major in?
Speaker 8:So I majored in sport management, uh, with a business, uh, minor as well. So, um, I always sporting, you know, the sports industries where I wanted to end up. I didn't exactly know the route I gonna take for that. Uh, but I, I kind of, I trusted myself, I guess, in the sense that it's not really a field that it's not say, you know, like accounting or finance, you know, where you have a, a job, like right outta college, that's gonna, you know, pay well and you have good career lined up basically for you. Uh, yeah.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Like, you know what it is like, I don't know, like I'm a little older than you obviously. But like people think like, oh, you know, you gotta have a traditional career path. Right. Whatever that is. And it's like, that's even true anymore. So it's like, you know, I went, went to law school. I went to how many years of school I go to law 12. I go 19 years of fricking school dude. And like my like parents will tell me like, oh, my son wants to be a YouTuber. And I, and like his dad was telling me the other day about this. And I, he was like, I told him not to, I think it's stupid. And I was like, why'd you tell him that like, I know YouTubers make way more money than you do, man. Like, yeah,
Speaker 8:Go for it. That's the thing,
Speaker 7:Go for it. Like do learn about business. They're gonna learn about all kinds of cool stuff, technology
Speaker 8:Like
Speaker 7:Being creative. Like why would you not? That's like a, I mean,
Speaker 8:Especially at that age, like if they're enjoying that as a hobby, I mean, it teaches you yeah. Creativity, you know,
Speaker 7:It gives them confidence. Right? Like I it's ballsy to do that. Like, I don't know, like my did, my kids said to me other day, well like that the other day, like two months they're like dad helped us make a YouTube channel. And I was like, sure. You know, like I have the team. So I'm like, yeah, I'll do it. So then I like surprised them and like, they didn't know I was doing all this stuff. So like I went and like created a kill channel for'em. I got like graphics made for'em like the, all the, it looks like all legit. Right. And then I like, they're like, they're really Pokemon cards. Right. Like that's what they're totally into right now. So like, we have a whole Pokemon channel now, just my kids. Like we have like no subscribers, but they have so much fun with it and I record it. Yeah. And
Speaker 8:That's all
Speaker 7:Matters. And I'm like, and like they're but when like watching them being confident, like it's cool, man. Cuz like, I wasn't that confident when I was 12. Like, and it's like, I don't know. I just think,
Speaker 8:Oh especially 12. That's like the middle school years. Yeah. No chance,
Speaker 7:Dude. That's like the worst years of your life. Like yeah. I think, I don't know. I think that's that's when kids were cool at elementary school and they become jerks and junior high and then they like become somewhat cool back again. High school. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 8:Having changes is for sure.
Speaker 7:So I don't know. I think like that's like me too, like I did traditional stuff and like looking back, you know? Yeah. It's great that I did it, you know, but it's like now this time it's like kind of knowing, not go, you don't have to go a traditional path. Right. Like, oh, I wanna become a finance major. Cause like knowing people I know who went into finance, like I know tons, July finance degrees. Yeah. Did they ever practice finance? No, not in a million freaking years. They went into sales, you know like, no, they make more money in sales. They do in finance. So
Speaker 8:I know it's funny. I took the, I was gonna go to law school. So I'd studied for the LSAP, like whatever, five, six months, the day before the worst, the day before my exam, like I'm doing some last second. It's like nine o'clock. I'm trying to get to bed early. Like some last second prep work. Uh, in the way our, we had a, we had a house, six person house, my senior year at college, no way worked was the bathroom, my door, whatever kind of shared the door to the bathroom, unfortunately. And so my buddy was coming in to get ready for bed. And I turned to him like right before night before else at, and I said, yeah, that I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna law school. And I just, I decided then and there, I just, I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I didn't wanna do it. And I still took the test the next day. They just fine. And didn't apply anywhere and never thought you
Speaker 7:Heard my L that story, you heard my L that story. So like you should law school story. So like I used to be a pilot and then like I stopped being a pilot because it was, I got burned out essentially. And like, it was post nine 11 and all this stuff. So I decided to go to law school and like, my wife was pregnant and she was like eight months pregnant, I think. Yeah. Like eight, seven months pregnant. And so, so I I'm Oww the lawn one day and I'm like, I I'm gonna go be a lawyer. I don't even know why I came in my mind, but it did. Right. So I come in the house, I'm gonna go be a lawyer. She's like, all right, go for it. So I had to go figure out what to do. So I went and did like the LSAT course. Right? Like you take a course, you know what that's like, whatever spent a thousand dollars on that. Right. All the books and like, you know, it's all. Right. Right. At the top, it's just a bunch of. Doesn't mean anything in life. And so like, you're going through all these pretest, like how smart are you really in, you know, vocabulary, like stuff doesn't even matter. Right? Yeah. I mean, I guess it does, but you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, it's the dumbest test. So then it's like, why is, are math equations on here? Like when do the lawyer do math? Like I never did. In my eight years of practice, I did, I did math on a calculator. And if I couldn't do that, I would give it to a CPA. I'd be like, I'm not doing this. Right. Like, so The deal was though, like if I failed the LSAT or did bad, then I wasn't gonna go to law school. Well, then I ended, I took the LSAT the day before my son was born. Right. So I took the LSAT on a Saturday. My son, my first son was born on the Sunday. Right. And I didn't even know if I passed or not. I was glad to be done with it. And I was gonna be a dad. Right. So like, and then, you know, you find out like five, six months later or whatever, you need to get your score, whatever your score is. Like, you need to be like above a one 50, essentially you to get to law school or you're not gonna to good law school. And then like, you know, I did. And I was like, okay, I guess I'm gonna be a lawyer now. And that's kinda like my help. I mean, there's a lot of studying you. You didn't miss out anything. Let me tell you, you know, only guy that talked to in the last, like probably month that said, oh yeah, I like, I had a guy. I actually had the guy who started birdie ball. Right. The founders, CEO, birdie ball on my show. And he's so funny. He emails me and he goes, I don't know, somehow he knows a lawyer or was a lawyer. And he goes, he's like, oh, you have something both in common. We both did two. We did, we both did, were in law school for at least two months. So he quit law school two months into it. Cause he's like, this is stupid. I'm not doing this anymore. Right. Like, and so it's like find the right reasons why you do something is I it's important. Right. Yeah. In life. Yeah. So you
Speaker 3:Decided
Speaker 7:To take the LSAT and then what'd you do?
Speaker 8:Uh, after that? I obviously, like I said in the morning, before and the night before decided I'm not gonna go law school. So applying there. Yeah. Well with my, so your
Speaker 7:Parents.
Speaker 8:Oh yeah. And they like, okay.
Speaker 7:After the you're like, oh, I really wanna do this.
Speaker 8:Yeah. They're like, right. That's, you know, really what you wanna do type of thing. There's about the whole thing. And yeah. Um, with my degree plan, either an internship to graduate and, you know, being the gear nerd I was is, you know, oh, what do I wanna do? So I really kind of thought about it for the next few weeks and like, well, I wanna work in the golf industry somehow. I didn't any way shape or form didn't know anyone that worked in it early. And, uh, I didn't know really what it meant to work in the golf industry to that extent. But I was like, okay, well I wanna do this. So I started, you know, trying to look up, you know, uh, internships available for,
Speaker 7:You know, your senior at the time
Speaker 8:I was, so this was like semester everything. Yeah. Uh, really, uh, down to the wire here, need to make it happen.
Speaker 7:Like I need to find a job graduating in may and I'm gonna move back with my parents and I'm gonna be that guy who doesn't have a job.
Speaker 8:So I'm, I'm, I'm figuring it out, looking it up. And, uh, you know, something that kind of dawned on me with something or my marketing professors and had said, and, uh, an example he'd given, which was, you know, uh, obviously you're always marketing yourself. And an example he gave was a former student who had come to him for advice on a, he wanted to work for Nike. Uh, and he told him, he is like, well, this, you know, reach out to them about yourself. If I don't care, if there's a posting or anything, just reach out about yourself, you know, about who you are, you know, kind of what you stand for, uh, your background and, you know, just how bad you want. You want the opportunity to, to, to work for them, an internship, an internship perspective, uh, um, and whether or not this store was made up or not. I don't know. But the story goes that he reaches out to them, gets the internship, so moves to, uh, wherever Beaverton, Oregon, Oregon. Yeah. Uh, and has an internship then gets hired on after. And so I'm thinking about this too, I'm thinking about how can me for the golf industry. And so I reached out to true temper on their contact form on their website actually. Cause they had nothing posted. Couldn't really find a lot of things posted in the golf industry for an internship for
Speaker 7:Why did you choose true temper?
Speaker 8:Uh, it is funny enough.
Speaker 7:It's a million golf brands. So I wanna know why.
Speaker 8:Yeah, well, sir, I, I could find some stuff for like Taylor made Calloway. Tideless some companies like that had at least one posting
Speaker 7:Yeah. Job or with something you're not qualified for. It's like gonna engineer.
Speaker 8:No, it was, it was like nothing I really wanted to do type thing. And so, um, maybe not going with an OEM, I was like, maybe I can at least get a response, you know, get,
Speaker 7:What year was this?
Speaker 8:A communication started 2017. And so, uh, I, I reach out and I get a email back actually probably a week later, um, from the senior VP marketing at the time saying, Hey, you know, we'd like to set up a, an interview for you. Uh, we liked your, I guess, you know what you had to say balls? Uh,
Speaker 7:I mean, like for reals that's no, that that's true. Like,
Speaker 8:And so
Speaker 7:You put yourself out there for a job. It doesn't even exist.
Speaker 8:Yeah. And so, uh, I had the interview got brought on for the summer and got hired on after that. Uh, and it's funny. I still have the, my first boss who retired that, um, that Christmas that I got hired on, she printed off for me, my contact form, uh, email that's cool. Which is like two or three times. Yeah. Two or three paragraphs long. And so, uh, I might have today, but yeah, pretty unique story got super lucky and fortunate and uh,
Speaker 7:You never know. Right? Like you never know when you fill out that contact form, like sometimes you think that it's gonna go in some void, right. Like, yeah. And then you don't know if like a company really is gonna do anything like that. Like when I was in college, like I went to college at Purdue. Right. And so I wanted move back to Arizona and, but it was like, and I was in aviation. So like I, but I knew if I wanna be a pilot, like I need to have a job right. To afford to go to flight school. So I was like, I'm gonna work a Boeing. And like I knew nobody there's a Bo Boeing was here. Right. The patchy helicopters here. And so like, I did the same fricking thing, dude. Like I like met a lady at a conference who worked at Boeing and we became friends. She wasn't even in Arizona, she was in St. Louis. And so like, I just told her I was interested. I wanted, I wanted to do. And she was really nice. She's like, well, I have a name of some guy in Boeing in, in Arizona. I'm like, okay, cool. So for a freaking year, dude, I was like, emailing this guy, talking to him like once a month, just tell him I'm interested. Like, I didn't know who this guy even was. Right. Like, oh, any kinda help you give me whatever, be cool, dude. Yeah. Finds out he was the vice president of the company. I didn't even know that. Right. And so like all of a sudden I get a call one day from Boeing and they're like, um, so, and so recommended you for an internship. They even had an internship program. And so they're like, we wanted to have you come in for an internship. And so I guess that was like the first intern they had in like 15 years. Right. It was me and two other dudes. Um, and only because this guy like knew I was really interested. Right. And I wanted work there and they, and I, and when they interviewed me, it wasn't like, they're interviewing me for like a job. They're like, oh, it was two different departments. And they're like, oh, which one sounds cooler to you to be in like, literally that's what happened. And I like, I don't care. I'm happy to be there. I mean, I'm sure make an hour. I made 20 bucks an hour, which is a lot of money back then, you know, it was like, you probably even born yet. Dude know you probably were, but you probably got baby. So it was like, and I was like, oh, I was the richest person in the world, 20 bucks an hour. Like I think minimum and wage is like six at the time, you know, five. So I was like, oh, hell yeah. But the same thing though, you put that out there, like, you don't know, I met so many cool people at brands, but like, like filling out a contact form I'm brands I liked and I respect it. I was like, Hey, I just like to talk to you guys about working together potentially like that, like finds out. It's like I made some really good friends that way that like were, you know, the VP of communications or not communications or something. I don't know. That's that's a cool story, dude. Yeah. So then do you have to move to Memphis then? Or what?
Speaker 8:Yeah, so two and a half weeks after graduation moved to Memphis, which is where the headquarters is. And,
Speaker 7:Uh, that's an adjustment five years.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Austin, Memphis. But, uh, it was good to me. And, uh, five years later moved out to San Diego.
Speaker 7:So what are you, what, what are you, what is your role? I guess? True.
Speaker 8:Yeah. So I'm manager.
Speaker 7:You gotta change your name. I don't know. I
Speaker 8:Know, I know. I know. True,
Speaker 7:True tempers
Speaker 8:Sports, true temper sports, uh, some manager of product marketing. So I do all the product marketing for us, uh, for
Speaker 7:All the lines,
Speaker 8:Uh, golf for golf. Okay. Yeah. So just for golf, I only really work in the golf division. Um, and then, or developmental tours. So anything that's not Korn ferry or PGA, so college and younger. Oh, that's cool. Uh, I, I head as well. So, uh,
Speaker 7:So all, so is there somebody else that has to manage tour players? The tour relationships, I guess you
Speaker 8:Say? Yeah. So we have a Korn ferry rep and then we have, uh, four or five guys on a PGA tour.
Speaker 7:Uh, cause you guys are traveling all the, like every weekend, right? Like they are, they're gone the season. They're gone the whole time.
Speaker 8:Yep.
Speaker 7:Cause you have a lot of guys using your stuff, right?
Speaker 8:Yeah. So about 70% in the irons and about 80 in the wedges, it's like 77 in the
Speaker 7:Seven's insane dude. Like you the most, you, the market share of professional players using your stuff for a reason. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 8:We're super fortunate from that, that standpoint, especially, you know, from the fact that being a chef manufacturer, as opposed to a bigger OEM, like once again, one of the club, uh, club manufacturers, we don't pay any of the players' player stuff. So,
Speaker 7:Uh, I learned that last week from Fuji and I didn't know that, like, I didn't know, like, like they don't sign shaft deals. Right? Like they it's just like an OEM, like a Titleless or whatever, but the shaft that's why like shafts and respect them so much that companies, because it's like, you, you're not, it's different, harder for you.
Speaker 8:Yeah. No.
Speaker 7:And they use it for a reason for performance, not cuz they're getting paid 10 million to use it it's because they wanna win. Like mm-hmm,<affirmative>, that's what you want. Right. I mean, that's it, I mean, wouldn it, I think it's harder for ball companies cuz like, oh, which ball company it's, it's gonna be the same OEM that makes your clubs. So it's, you
Speaker 8:Know, than not
Speaker 7:70%. That is insane. Yeah. So okay. When it comes to iron shafts, right? Like the true temper, like the dynamic goal, is that like your big, their biggest one? Oh yeah, it probably
Speaker 8:Is. Right. So I think on tour dynamic goal, let's see Don Phil is like 154 players, dynamic gold and project X alone makeup, 50 low, 50% of our 70%. Uh, so I think it's like 55% between those two. Um, and to put that in perspective on tour, I don't, uh, so dynamic the goal averages, whatever it is, like 35 to 40%, uh, of players in play in our irons project.
Speaker 7:That's like one of, one of two essentially like yeah. Is using your, your, your shaft project by choice by choice. That's the key word
Speaker 8:I know. Like,
Speaker 7:And then
Speaker 8:It's, I it's insane. Like even for us internally, I think we get numb to it sometimes. And then outside of those two models, no other model on tour or even averages 10%. I think our next, the next highest from anyone is like us with AMT, uh, or excuse me, even averages 10 shafts, not even percent, uh, from a specific model. I think our next is AMT, which usually gets like seven or eight and play a week and LZ a T and L LZ at like seven and eight. But uh, yeah. So it's crazy from P
Speaker 7:It's. I mean, I just love it. I think it's like the coolest thing in the world. Honestly, I just do, because I think like it's an uphill battle for a shaft company. Right. Cause you're just, you're not different than the guy who's selling t-shirts right. Like you wanna wear my shirt. Cool. But like, that's my choice. Oh wait your titles brand. Sorry. No, it's like, oh you're using our shaft because you like our shaft, number one, you probably use our shaft, your entire life. Right. Or one of our shafts, you already know it's safe, you know, it's gonna help you win games and you're choosing it over somebody else because you have a choice in who you want to use. Not who's paying money to you because at the end of the day you wanna win. Right. That's all it comes down to. Right. So it's more of a performance question, not like, oh, does this chap look cool on my golf club when I swing it right. Or something,
Speaker 8:Which is usually how I pick for
Speaker 7:Me. That's what I mean. That's what's I paint my dynamical black. I spray paint it. I don't
Speaker 8:Yeah,
Speaker 7:No,
Speaker 8:Get you some powder cut once. That'd be just as easy.
Speaker 7:Well, that'd be cool. What if I did like rhino guard on it? That'd be pretty redneck. Yeah.
Speaker 8:That would be, yeah.
Speaker 7:That would never break. That'd be super heavy. Yeah. Um, so is there different types of dynamic gold though? I thought there were different. Oh, that's right. But I thought like I'm thinking something else. We have
Speaker 8:A mid also now on tour. Uh, so we have like dynamic gold dynamic goal, like seven it's, a little heavier little stiffer dynamic goal, 1 21 0 5 95 and then dynamic old, mid on tour right now as well. But uh,
Speaker 7:What is, what is the elevate?
Speaker 8:So our elevate line started probably about three years ago, three and a half years ago. Um, so we had two, we had elevate 95 elevate tour. So 95, obviously just being that 95 gram that lighter weight, softer higher launching steel shaft. And the tour part really trying to give us, uh, kind of 120 gram. So usually if you see 120 to one 30, that's more of a, a tour weight, um, to give us kind of a tour weighted shaft that was still relatively tips off, help get that ball in the air and spend a little more for a player. Um, so our elevate line usually, uh, is gonna be lighter weight relatively to say dynamic goal that 130 grams. Um, and it's always gonna be just on that softer side to really try to help get that ball in the air a little more. So it's great for recreational golfers,
Speaker 7:Which one? Elevate elevate.
Speaker 8:So if it's a lot of recreational golfers,
Speaker 7:Well what about AMT? What's what's that's like, I'm trying to notice the differences. Like what kind of, yeah, I guess I'm trying to educate, right? Like, okay, what SHA is the right kind of SHA or what kind of person does that make sense? Yeah,
Speaker 8:So AMT, we have three, we have AMT red, which is gonna be a lightweight one, AMT black, which is mid lightweight and AMT to white. So what AMT stands for is as sending mass technology and what that means is as those iron ends get longer. So you go from say like, say, you start your nine iron. Once you move your eight iron, that's gonna be three grams lighter than the nine iron. Then that seven iron's gonna be three grams lighter than the eight iron, that six iron's gonna get lighter. So it progressed. So he gets lighter to set with the idea being, you know, if you have a player who really hits their, uh, shorter, their scoring clubs, you're gonna want more weight usually for control and accuracy. And if you have a player that hits those well, but sometimes struggles with their longer irons. Usually looking at that AMT set where it gets a little lighter there can help them get that ball in the air a little easier, help them swing a little quicker, get a little more distance with those.
Speaker 7:So who's that made for, is that more like a better recreational player slash tour player?
Speaker 8:Uh, for AMT white, for sure. Cause that one, the white is essentially a dynamic gold in the nine iron pitching wedge. So that one starts at 130 grams there and then gets slider throughout the set. Um, and then AMT black goes from 95 and like a four iron. So one 15 and sandwich wedge and then AMT red is 95 and uh, four iron and goes up to like 1 0 6 ish. Um, and their wedge. So AMT red does
Speaker 7:So with the project X cuz this is what I think mm-hmm<affirmative> I love these things, man. They're working so cool. Like the smoke, like that's a, I mean just a cool like tell, tell, like what's the story with project X when it came to like initially you did the iron shaft, right. And then you started moving into the driver shaft.
Speaker 8:Yeah. So we, uh, we acquired row precision, uh, who owned rifle, project X, all that early two thousands. Um, and so project X, the steel shaft, just project X has been around for about 20 years now.
Speaker 7:Yeah. For a long time, right?
Speaker 8:Yeah. It's a really unique design there. Uh, so it's step with shafts, which one looks really cool. Um, and just performs well for certain players as well. And then our, our graphite side, we, uh, um, had brought project X into the graphite realm and kind of the late two thousands early 2010s. Um, and you know, it was doing okay. It was hit or miss, uh, really not until our hazardous line, uh, came out when project X graph kind of exploded from, for us from a wood shop. We, and
Speaker 7:That was, it was the first project X, was it black?
Speaker 8:Yeah. So we had project X, uh, black and project X blue. Um, and then we had like a PX V 52. We had a few other models,
Speaker 7:Smoke, smoke, super popular.
Speaker 8:Yeah. I mean, smoke does great for us. So we got our hazardous flying, which in gen two was hazardous smoke and gen three hazard of smoke RDX. Um, and we're hoping to have a, a gin four potentially, uh, by the end of the year, start to, to blossom a little bit.
Speaker 7:I just think they look normally they're amazing Shas but I think they look so cool. Like just, they just look badass. That seems I can describe it. You know, like whoever came up with a design, you know, whatever that is like. Yeah. I don't know. I just think they're, I think they're phenomenal. Yeah.
Speaker 8:I mean the branding behind it, everything you got the hazardous diamond there that holds a specs that, uh, that that's our flagship line for sure. For project fix graphic.
Speaker 7:So what, one of the one did the graphite shafts come out then? Seven 15? You said 17.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I think original. So the project X hazardous line. So hazardous the original,
Speaker 7:Yeah. Hazardous
Speaker 8:Than 2015.
Speaker 7:Yeah. Like, I mean they all look cool. There's not one that doesn't look cool. So then with the, now what just came out though, wasn't green and red just came out.
Speaker 8:Yes. So we just had RDX red and RDX green come out, uh, for us. So we completed our, our RDX line of hazardous. That's kind of G three for us. We have four
Speaker 7:Products. What was RDX on for,
Speaker 8:Uh, I think it was short, like Redux, so like, uh, more than anything. So just obviously just a, kind of a newer generation.
Speaker 7:Um, oh, so there's like, so by looking back at the history, right. Like, so then like there's just a plain old hazardous, right. Nothing clean, but like there's hazard yellow, green, blue, whatever. Right. And then gen two would be
Speaker 8:The smoke,
Speaker 7:The smoke series. Right. And then gen three is the RDX series mm-hmm<affirmative> and all you're really doing is just slightly tweaking the design. Right. I mean, correct. It doesn't matter what shaft you have. They're all great shafts. It just, it's just different developments that you're adding features, I guess, to the shaft. Right?
Speaker 8:Correct. Whether it's newer materials, uh, whether it's newer technologies, uh, but most of the structures like say original black and smoke black and RDX black. Those are gonna be minor tweaks along the way. Uh, from PGA tour feedback from, you know, our, our OEM partners from, uh, club fitters on, you know, kind of some of the softer flexes that don't necessarily get play on the PGA tour. So we don't get feedback from like a five, five, so regular flex. Uh, so we take all that into consideration to, to really try to make that best possible shaft as the game of evolve.
Speaker 7:So there might be a new generation coming out some point soon. Not soon. Yeah. Gen four. Technically. Yeah.
Speaker 8:So Jim four, at some point
Speaker 7:I'm assuming. Yeah.
Speaker 8:Uh, yeah,
Speaker 7:But smoke just came out, smoked green and red.
Speaker 8:Oh yeah.
Speaker 7:RDX just came out like at Christmas time. Right. Or like November.
Speaker 8:Yep. Smoke green and red around November,
Speaker 7:Just smart. And then we had timing,
Speaker 8:Smoke, Smoke black. Yeah. I mean, it just ended up per perfect that
Speaker 7:I know when you told me that in November, I was like, I'm like, dude for holidays, like what the hell?
Speaker 8:Yeah. As, as the marketing guy I'll take. Yeah. Yeah. That was a plan all along. That just happened to be that way. But uh, yeah. Cause we had original black come out the previous October. Um, and then blue was around, uh, this I, uh, last year, a little before that was around January. Oh really? PGA show. So, um, the land that RDX line's really, uh, expanded and grown, but when you look back at it from now with the original RDX black it's, uh,
Speaker 7:But look how far it's common, like seven years. Like it, it feels like it's a mainstay already. You know what I mean? Mean like you look at like, it's like a Mitsubishi tenancy. It's like, oh yeah. You know, like, it's almost like, you know, it's a well established shaft, right? That's like, it's not a fly by night shaft. You know what I mean? Where it's like, oh yeah. Somebody came with a new shaft. Oh yeah. I've never heard of it. Oh, it's a good, good Shaf. Yeah. Haven't heard of it, you know? Uh, yeah,
Speaker 8:No, that's our, our, that's our flagship product. That's our flagship brand for sure. On that side. I mean, if you see that hazardous branding going forward, you
Speaker 7:Can go right away. You can see a million miles away on that Shaf man, the way it stands out, like the yellow on the black or the white on the black or the green on the black, like it just stands out so well, like so clear, there's not a bunch of, you know, like making look all pretty and crazy. It's like, it just stands out. But if you guys have just been cooling, the graphics, you'll put it like on the inside the hazardous, you know, like where it it's just brilliant. Like whoever that was this brilliant, great. Market's,
Speaker 8:It's clean all around.
Speaker 7:It's super clean and it looks like, I don't know. It looks freaking and it's, AFIN, it's a phenomenal shaft. Um, so then you guys bought ACRA, right? Mm-hmm<affirmative> like, what year was that? That was like 18, 19, 19,
Speaker 9:Probably
Speaker 7:I believe. Right.
Speaker 8:I, yeah, I'm trying to remember when I did the press release for 19 of, uh, it was like July, so July, 2019 around there.
Speaker 7:So then what, what, why did you want to buy ACRA?
Speaker 8:So we had always had a great relationship with ACRA.
Speaker 7:Yeah. That's what I heard. Like they always talk great. Like I remember cause I used to work with Akra too. And you guys were like, but, and you guys did you guys like did stuff together already? Right. Kinda a thing. It wasn't like
Speaker 8:They're a distributor basically. So PGC the Akra and Kingston, they have this great shipping warehouse. And so for our aftermarket dealers. Um, so I mean, by aftermarket anyone, that's basically not, you know, a big
Speaker 7:OEM OEM or
Speaker 8:Yeah. If you're going to a shop or something or Superstore, you're going to get fee. Yeah. We're gonna get fit. Um, that buy shafts individually, they would chip'em all out for us. And they'd done that for, you know, a handful of years at this point. So we were really close with them. Uh, and so that was really, it just made sense is
Speaker 7:Pre COVID. This wasn't like a COVID this, this was like a year before COVID.
Speaker 8:Yeah. And so it just made sense to bring them on board since we were already so tight knit. Um,
Speaker 7:And you got bigger name, bigger market share bigger.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Yeah. More bigger R and D budget and, and all that. So it was really, I
Speaker 7:Think its cool
Speaker 8:Bringing them on as opposed to that's when you, yeah, it was like
Speaker 7:A buyout, like yeah. It was like, Hey, should be cool. You guys should come, we should let us buy you. But te you know, like you guys make good stuff, let's do stuff together kind of thing. Yeah.
Speaker 8:So that's yeah. So use our resources and uh, you know, help each other here. So it was, it made perfect sense.
Speaker 7:So where is the R and D done for you guys then?
Speaker 8:Is it, uh, so all our graphite, R and D is done here in San Diego. So we have a like little irons, 15 feet away from me, uh, Amory, Mississippi. So that, in that, in Memphis. So they're about, well, a,
Speaker 7:A tech where's ATech done at,
Speaker 8:So Aerotech, uh, for all the graphite parts we'll do here and then to get'em wrapped in the steel fiber technology, uh, that we have to source so cool. Um, elsewhere. So that one, just the R and D process for that takes a little longer to get that then steel, fiber wrapping done. Uh, but it, any graphite structures get done here.
Speaker 7:So with the acro line is like, they make really great Shas, but it was more for like dealer high end, custom fitting. Like, so they're a niche market, I guess you could say
Speaker 8:They're always fitting concepts. So we, with the ACRA stuff, you know, we don't have to hit a, a specific meat of the bell curve. We can kind of pick a, a player profile or a, a fitting concept or idea we really wanna elaborate on, that's harder to tell in a mass market, but the club fitters and, uh, you know, to the people that are knowledgeable about shaft in general, and that are fitting these people, they know how to use that. Profit
Speaker 7:Know how to use the technology to, to
Speaker 8:Exactly get them the right where that brand really just blossoms and is for the past. I mean, for 15, 20, it's been, I mean, their relationships to, uh, with the ACRA brand specifically in qu bids is, uh, it's, it's been huge for us and yeah. Bringing those product.
Speaker 7:It's a different market, I guess. Right. It's it is. Yeah.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Cause I, we, I
Speaker 7:Mean, I was use, I was hitting, like I got the TZ five TZ, six mm-hmm<affirmative> chefs, like when they first came out and that's still, I think I'm not using'em right now. I took'em out. Cause I'm, I don't know what I'm using now. Actually I'm getting refitted right now. So I don't even know what, I don't even have my clubs. I don't pick'em up till tomorrow. So I, I can remember we put what we chose. Um, but because I should say like, oh yeah, we, we took true temper. Um, um, I think I did,
Speaker 8:Oh, drop the bag.
Speaker 7:I took the whole bag. It's like, but I bought it. I didn't get for free. Um, I honestly don't remember cause I had my clubs in like two weeks, so I don't remember what I chose. Yeah. Um, it, what happens too is you kind of choose something and within the fitting guy, like says, well, actually this is what you should use based on your profile. And then they like put you into something, you know, whatever that is. Um, but is ACRA making. So like the last was the last stuff that they made for ACRA. Was that the TZ five and TZ six? Or did they, is there something new that's come out since then?
Speaker 8:Yeah, so we just had the new TG five and six. Uh, they're rolling out right now. So they're getting the dealers. So there's a new TG, five and six. Uh,
Speaker 7:Oh, there is
Speaker 8:Kind of a Chrome version. Um, like the TX G boys did a video on it that posted this week that came out really good with Gavin, uh, Robertson. Um, it's yeah. So similar kinda ideology. So once again, not trying to reinvent the wheel, they're up 10% lighter. So they really hit those true, like 50, 60, 70, 80 gram weights that are on the shaft. Um, and just some new materials and uh, few new technology bits kind of
Speaker 7:Hitting that. So where are the, where are those made at?
Speaker 8:Uh, so the acro stuff's made at our facility. Uh, so for thatt line specifically in certain chefs and the acro line are made different places. Um, so some aro product is made in, uh, our China facility, which we've own for 20 years when we bought grapho. Uh, so we acquired graph Loy in the early two thousands as well. So we've had that facility for 20 years. We own it. It's not like some other manufacturers that, you know, have to kind of rent out space in a graphite manufacturing facility overseas. Uh, that's a big advantage for us and then other, uh, some of, uh, other AC products is made in, in Japan. So just kind of, depending on the, the product,
Speaker 7:Let's go ahead and know that.
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 7:So I guess like for this coming year, like what's, what's happening with, um, true temper, like what are you guys gonna be doing? Is there new stuff coming out? You get some new, a Shaf, right? Yep.
Speaker 8:So yeah, some new a stuff's coming out. Obviously we had the, the Newtz five and six that I mentioned, uh, you know, last year we had the new, uh, tour Z RPG. So the new TZ RPG line from ACRA two come out, uh, which kind of falls into that TZ family, um, from the true temper project tech side, a few new steel products fi mid has been floating around on tour for about a month and a half now has done really well for us, trying to get some more parts through the lab to maybe hopefully bring that to, to consumers, uh, this year at some point, but that's been a really cool one to see blossom on tour. So dynamic gold, mid tour issue there. Um, and then project deck, we got a, we got a few things up our sleeves still on the steel side. Uh, uh, one part specifically I'm excited for on the field side this year. Um, and then to new graphite towards the end year for project X as well.
Speaker 7:Um, you guys didn't know this, but Keenan's YouTube famous cause<laugh> he, uh, he does all the videos or he used to do all the videos for Tru bur, which I think is freaking cool as hell because I know much work it takes to do that. Thank you. Um,
Speaker 8:Yeah, I'd
Speaker 7:Like send own channel. That'd be cool channel. You've the shafts. If you like keen in and shaft channel,
Speaker 8:You just K Shaf. I'd get some interesting robot comments, just automated comments on
Speaker 7:You. Just get some random comments of, I know of like and run paid traffic to it. So you're like, oh, people following me, it's like running an ad. Um, so what, let me ask this, this question, cuz Keenan told me before the show and I didn't realize he did all the work cause that, so like when did the YouTube videos you were doing? Are you still doing'em now for, for the company?
Speaker 8:Yes. So it's just been, so we were talking about
Speaker 7:Not the last couple weeks obviously, but
Speaker 8:I moved out here a few weeks ago. Um, travel a lot at the beginning of the year with usually the junior stuff I do with events there and then also having to, you know, not direct that makes it sound weird, but shoot the videos and I'm kind of coming up with the concept as I do it and then edit it afterwards. Um, the editing process is what takes a bit of time to get it just right.
Speaker 7:So, so
Speaker 8:We're looking to bring on a video editor, which we hopefully are to be able to put out more content, uh, this year on that YouTube channel, But they're fun to do. I enjoy'em. So,
Speaker 7:So like how do you shoot those videos? Are you just standing front of a green screen or what,
Speaker 8:Yeah, this, yeah. In the midst office we had a green screen, uh, and a small
Speaker 7:It's cool. You did a really good job, man. Like for Real's like, thank you. That's a lot of work. And like you did a really good job of it. You know what I'm saying? And were you shooting that by yourself in this like scripting it out or what
Speaker 8:The tripod and just kind of go with it
Speaker 7:And then edit the crap out of it whenever you signed it dumb. I
Speaker 8:Mean that's yeah. Usually I know, like, so the good thing about being the one, I guess I'm figuring out how I'm gonna say it beforehand. Or like, usually as I go, I'll be like,
Speaker 7:Oh, that's hard. That's the hardest part.
Speaker 8:And so I can edit it in accordance to where, uh, and you'll see, as the videos have kind of progressed, they've gotten better from a quality standpoint, but also from, I like to almost finish the thought and then cut to the next one. I feel from an engagement standpoint, it's not necessarily that I'm stopping there because I messed up it's that I finished that thought and I I'm trying to cut to that next segment to really, I don't know, keep the engagement exciting. Um,
Speaker 7:Just cause like you guys, did you guys even have, um, any content before that or not really? Uh,
Speaker 8:We did. So we had some older, true temper school videos from years ago, uh, that we had done, I think there's still maybe a couple left on there just cuz they had a lot of views, so we kept them
Speaker 7:Up back in the day.
Speaker 8:Yeah. Um, but once again, those were underdeveloped and just, uh, not, not at the level that we as a now for what we put on there would wanna, you know, would wanna post if that makes sense.
Speaker 7:I, well, I think it's cool because number one, a lot of brands are not even doing like, no one's doing that man, to be honest and like that you guys are made a conscious effort to do it and that you did it is really cool because I know much time it takes. I mean, you guys have like, like you are the star. I mean literally Keenan is the banner holding about 400. Shats
Speaker 8:This hand. That is not my idea. That was not my idea.
Speaker 7:I love it. I think it's awesome.
Speaker 8:I think it, I think it says new videos weekly on there, which is far from the truth, but that was the goal at one point. It's true for a little bit, but Yeah.
Speaker 7:I mean I think honestly I think you did a really good job at it and I think it's cool. And it's like you guys, I mean, you guys have 6,000 subscribers dude. Like that's a little less than me. So I mean like, and that's you guys just making videos on like different Shas you're making and like this know, whatever, like, I don't know, there's not a lot of manufacturers making YouTube videos and if they do like, I mean it's the big boys and those are all just big advertisements, right? Yeah. Like,
Speaker 8:No, I think the whole thing about what I wanted to channel to be for us was so was right when could hit obviously just stuck at home for a long time, like, you know, a little more free time than usual for some work stuff. I really wanted to get into learning how to do more video editing and video shooting. Uh, you know, it's something I understand chaps are really confusing. Uh, especially when you have four brands
Speaker 7:It's so confusing
Speaker 8:And so anything I could do or we could do to help simple that for the consumer or something to look up, um, just to put that information out there, cuz as we mentioned earlier, we are the number one Shaf and golf. We are the leader in our field. We should be the ones, you know, helping spread this knowledge to people, uh, in a, in a place where people can come to, you know, really learn more about golf shafts in general. And the last thing I wanted it to become was like, you had a walking advertisement. I didn't want it to be like, oh Hey, go buy this. I wanted to really just talk it through and you
Speaker 7:Know, like a normal person like explaining it. Like you could literally no joke, bro.
Speaker 8:You
Speaker 7:Could have your own YouTube channel. You could have like your Keenan does shafts. Like no, it had to be all your shafts, obviously, you know, chef. But like honestly like you're educating people on Shas but if you're not doing it away where it's like, oh, why thing's so awesome. You should buy it. Look at these really cool animations, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's more like,
Speaker 8:And I've been a, a firm believer like when we did, it's funny Paula, who we just hired doing the past couple tour reports for us. But we used to do tour port every week or we still do. And after when, and even some of the YouTube videos, I'm a firm believer in, uh, you know, if something is genuine from a content standpoint, like if you see me mess up or laugh or whatever that,
Speaker 7:Oh, like my wife opens a garage door, like during a podcast,
Speaker 8:It's something that's. So I think that is the best content possible. That's what keeps it away from being that, that corporate push or the go by this push is just, Hey, I'm right here. This is me. I, if I messed up saying this, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 7:I get people like that. You get the naysayers to be like, oh, you used that's the wrong tool to use when you did the, the, the blah, you know, you should have gotten a, whatever were to test to that out. I'm like, well, I don't have$20,000. So like, they'll go do that. Like this is all average people. Like yeah. If I, if I, if I compare a to B and a to B are literally the same price now it's like, and they do the same thing. It's like, okay, which one's better. Well, it depends on what features you. Like, I don't tell you like that's
Speaker 8:No, I, I think for content and even like, it's funny people I follow buddy and I were talking about in the office yesterday, like, who's your favorite? Like Twitter follower for like NFL stuff or whatever. And I brought up, this is really a tangent, but I brought up mean Akins. Like I love following Meakins. I think she's hilarious. I think she's so sincere and genuine. And for me, um, when a brand or a person can come off that way, the content is just so much, so much better. It's something I enjoy a lot more. It's just relatable.
Speaker 7:You don't feel like you're being sold
Speaker 8:You. Yeah. Right. I mean it's yeah. I just, I want to inform you on the product and if it works for you, that's great. If it doesn't try one of the other,
Speaker 7:I mean it's definitely working.
Speaker 8:Yeah.
Speaker 7:I think it is. I think what you're doing is working. Um, I think it's cool. You actually doing it. I think it's really cool. You're doing almost by yourself, right? I mean, like you're recording it, you're writing the script right. Then you're, you're editing it and you're uploading it. Like that's everything dude. So, and you guys have a lot of products, so it's not like some short little video about
Speaker 8:A lot of products. The good thing is, I guess I write all the copy for the products. So I know what I'm gonna, all the points are. So that makes it easier.
Speaker 7:You're not bullshitting people either. Like, oh, what does this thing do? Okay. What's a technical thing. I, a Bob that we're talking about right now, that makes it sounds so cool. Like you just know what it does. Um, and you're just talking about it. Like, this is what's, this is how we designed it. This is what we're supposed to be. This is how it's supposed to help you. Here's what you need to know about it. You know, it's not like, like, you know, some rocket ship, you know, graphic of, of Shaf flying or something. I don't really know. Yeah. So I think it's cool. I didn't really realize that till the day. Well, I know I saw it yesterday. I saw it like two days ago when we were emailing back and forth. And then I was like that Keenan in these videos. And then like, I was like, oh, this is really cool. So then I don't know. I had to give you a shout out for the, so you guys need to follow true tempers, uh, YouTube channel as Keenan's
Speaker 8:On it. Yes, please. One thing more content is to come. We have actually a fair amount shop that we just I've been traveling a lot moving. And I don't, I finally talk to my boss out of me having to edit everything. So
Speaker 7:Do editors or expensive. They're so expensive.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I
Speaker 7:Know. I mean, you can find somebody to do it. I mean, if keen could do it for free, they can find somebody
Speaker 8:That's right. That's right. But no why? No. I think you're doing a good job more this year. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 7:Um, we should do a video together. That'd be fun. I could be like, teach me about the shaft. And then when
Speaker 8:You come up with San Diego
Speaker 7:Yeah. I'll use, I'll use some other shaft and you're like, oh, that's a piece of crap. You should use this shaft. You should do that. That'd be freaking funny.
Speaker 8:<laugh>
Speaker 7:Well, I am excited to have you on the show. I'm really finally glad I haven't talked to Keenan like seriously, like two years, like we email probably a couple times a year, just uh, maybe, maybe six times a year. Sometimes a year. Yeah. But like I only talked to him, so it was really cool to have it on the show today. They found time and his busy, uh, schedule, because he just moved from Memphis to, to San Diego, which I'm jealous about. Um, and we talked about that for like a half hour before the show today.<laugh> cool. San Diego is, but he doesn't even know where to go get food at yet. So I'm
Speaker 8:Still figuring it all out.
Speaker 7:But you guys honestly true. Temper makes the best stuff. I mean, honest. They make the best shafts. Um, you guys need to definitely check out he's YouTube channel. Let's just call it that right now is and that's. Um, but then also, you know, find if you guys looking for new Shas seriously, don't look that far check out, um, true temper and they make a lot of cool stuff. As you know, like seriously they have like what, five or six Shaf brands here. I mean, so it's
Speaker 8:Like, yeah. So there something in the line that works for you and we try to make it that way where each product has a specific purpose. So, uh, if you trying to figure that part out, I, this is not a plug for the YouTube channel. I try to describe those, uh, well, enough to where you can figure out which one worked best for you. But if not our customer service team is always, uh, always pretty responsive.
Speaker 7:What's crazy. Like they have this graphic on their website and it's from like 2020, 2021 tour winning to tour wins. What'd it say? 83% of the tournaments you guys won, like your shafts were used to win the tournament. That's insanity. Like no OEM company can say that nobody. Right? I mean, mean not that high. So, I mean, that just tells you like the quality and that the players are, are wanting to use that product for a reason. Like there's a reason for it. It's not just hype and they're not like they're paying'em 10 million a year. Right. It's like they wanna win, which I think is the coolest thing. So, um, where can they, where if, if I wanna buy true temper shaft, what would I do? Like if, if you're a person out there.
Speaker 8:Yeah. So you can check out our online distributors. Uh, so you know, you go to golf works, you have other online distributors as well. That's always a good place to go. Uh, you know, if you wanna go golf, galaxy sporting as those places, um, or if you wanna go get fit, you can go to our, uh, dealer locator on our website. So tree temper, sports.com and find it true temper performance fitting center near you.
Speaker 7:Ding. There you go. Well, thank you for being on the show. Uh, thank you for all the support you guys have given us over the years. Um, and I wanted to see you this summer that we talked about and do some content. So, um, I will see everybody in the next episode.
Speaker 8:Perfect. Thanks Paul.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf brand podcast, you're gonna beat me a golf stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfers authority.com. Don't forget to like subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you win, stay out of the beach and see you on the green.