In this week's episode, I interviewed my good friend Patrick Keegan, the Founder of Field Day Sporting Co. Field Day, which was created to positively impact the community and share what they can with the people around them. All of their products are crafted with great attention to detail, taking inspiration from sporting greats, American icons, and apparel they've broken into and lived with for years. In 2024 they will be exhibiting at the PGA Show in January, and available for wholesale for golf retailers.
In this week's episode, I interviewed my good friend Patrick Keegan, the Founder of Field Day Sporting Co. Field Day, which was created to positively impact the community and share what they can with the people around them. All of their products are crafted with great attention to detail, taking inspiration from sporting greats, American icons, and apparel they've broken into and lived with for years. In 2024 they will be exhibiting at the PGA Show in January, and available for wholesale for golf retailers.
Today we play golf. Let me show you how we do it in the pros. 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. My friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course, I lived on the driving range from Pro Talk . You should learn something from each and every single round. You play to fun from on and off the green. Why would you play golf if you don't play it for money? Just let me put the ball in a hole. This is Behind the Golf Brand podcast with Paul Libert tore . What's up guys? Welcome to the Behind the Golf Brand podcast. This week I have my good friend Patrick Keegan from Field Day Sporting. Good Co . Hope I said that right? Or does we call it field day here? They make some really, really, really nice apparel. Um, and the reason why I have Patrick on the show day is not wanna talk about Field Day, but how he got to starting his own brand because he's worked for pretty much the most iconic, really golf brands out there in the last 10 years. And it's really fascinating and I think it'd be cool to hear his story and hear all these brands grew and, and you're just gonna have a really good time today. So Patrick, welcome to the show. Thank
Speaker 2:You Paul. Excited to be here. So
Speaker 1:Where are you located?
Speaker 2:I was thinking about interrupting your intro, but I didn't,
Speaker 1:Should have , I would've <laugh>, is that something I don't really know.
Speaker 2:I'm an hour southwest of Chicago. We're in our hometown , um, in Morris, Illinois. My wife and I both grew up here. It's a really cool place. Sanctuary kind . Is
Speaker 1:It like, is it farmy out? Is it farmland out there still?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very rural. Um, we're the county seat of kind of rural Illinois here in the north central part of the state. So we've got a lot of taste and um, and culture and cool things going on that a lot of the surrounding smaller towns are supporting. You know, we're supporting the groceries and all the different things, but it ,
Speaker 1:It's definitely , oh , like you're the big town in the little town area pretty much, right?
Speaker 2:We're the big , big town, but it's, yeah, we have I think 15,000 people in our town, so it's still pretty tiny, but we're an hour door to door from the city so that we still have access to civilization.
Speaker 1:So like I grew up kind of near you a little bit. Like we're, I'm from the southwest suburbs where my family is. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . So like , uh, Oak , Oak Lawn, Payless Heights.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You
Speaker 1:Know , um,
Speaker 2:We're the suburbs of
Speaker 1:That , suburbs
Speaker 2:Of that. We're the suburbs of that. So yeah,
Speaker 1:You're further , you're like another, what, 30 minutes? Probably 25 minutes south southwest or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right .
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yep .
Speaker 1:I love that area. I don't know , I haven't been back in like 10 years. My wife keep , and I keep on saying we wanna go back and bring our kids there and like do it, but like, and most of our family's still there, but, or my family's still there. It just, just getting back
Speaker 2:There.
Speaker 1:I don't know , in the summertime. So many good memories, dude.
Speaker 2:It's super wholesome here. Um, there's just something about it. I've lived in New York. I lived on the West Coast. When you come back to Chicago, there's something about like the air here even , um, especially out where we're at. Like the air is sweet, it's got this just kind of like I
Speaker 1:Know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Wholesome feeling to it. I don't know .
Speaker 1:Do they have like all those, when I was a kid, like my grandparents, my grandfather was a farmer out there too. And like, he used to take us to like, we , there always used to be these like roadside, like stands, people selling their produce. Do they still do that? Is it all of
Speaker 2:Every Saturday our , yeah, we have , we have a farmer's market off the highway. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just remember that
Speaker 2:We're like a Norwegian area . We're a very Norwegian area . So like Pring law , if you remember that, you know, a lot of fruit and vegetables we're , we're corn fields all around us, but, you know, Norwegian baked goods and it's farm farmland for sure.
Speaker 1:I love that . I love it . I , I know exactly what you're talking about. And those , those, those summer nights are like, you know, in the eighties kind and there's like lightning bugs everywhere and
Speaker 2:Just
Speaker 1:Like, yeah. I , I don't know . I like, that's, it's very memorable to me, so I love
Speaker 2:It . Yeah . I mean, not to jump the gun, it's different , but like, really, like everything we're doing is inspired by that kind of feeling, like that childhood feeling of what you're explaining, like the summer nights and the lightning bugs. Yeah .
Speaker 1:Our childhood. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I guess you're right. Yeah. Not the , the , the, you know, sands technology childhood
Speaker 1:Yeah. Pro pre 2000, right? Like that
Speaker 2:Kind of childhood
Speaker 1:Where you went outside at night and played till 10 o'clock at night. 'cause it was like still light out Right. In Illinois at least. And yeah .
Speaker 2:Yeah . Yep .
Speaker 1:I remember this .
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's like Kevin Arnold, wonder years good old
Speaker 1:Americana. Yeah ,
Speaker 2:Good old days.
Speaker 1:Small town
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 1:So, okay, so you grew up there, you said, and then are you a golf pro?
Speaker 2:I'm not a golf pro. Some days I wish I was a golf pro, but my dad was, my dad was a golf pro in our hometown here at our little, he
Speaker 1:He was , was that , was that his job?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was the director of golf , uh, you know, golf pro to director of golf to basically running everything at our local club here that's been around for a hundred years. In, in Morris called Morris Country Club. Now
Speaker 1:How far was that from where you lived? Like down the street ?
Speaker 2:Everything's five minutes here. I mean, that might be an exaggeration, but everything's five minutes. It's , uh, it's, yeah, right down the street, two minutes from home for me. You
Speaker 1:Who taught you how to play golf? Your dad?
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I, I developed the best part of my game for sure through my dad. We had some years, you know, it's hard to, it's hard to grow up with your dad as your instructor or your dad as the, as the person you have to listen to, especially when it's something that you love. You know, dad as a coach is not al always easiest. So he sent me to a few people. There's a, there's a few folks in the Chicagoland area that he trusted that he said, okay, I'm done having this argument. You gotta go see Billy or John or whoever it was. So , uh, and then I smartened up and I listened, listened to him, and I got a lot better. So,
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you realized your dad knew you talk he was talking about Right ?
Speaker 2:He knew what he was. Yeah . As it turned out,
Speaker 1:It's not just your dad. Right? Like it's,
Speaker 2:I hope he does , I hope he doesn't watch this because I'm finally admitting it. But yes, <laugh> no .
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is too, that you become a parent, you're just like, you know, because like all you do the same stuff, dude , even though you try not to, I mean, you don't do it as bad, let's put it that way. But you still, you still, you're hardwired for that, you know, like you've been
Speaker 2:<crosstalk> . Well, the problem is too, is that he wasn't only like a great player himself and knew the golf swing, but he's a retailer. You know, he was an old school golf pro, so he owned his own shop at the club. And so he's still telling me what to do <laugh> 30 years later. But , uh, you're
Speaker 1:Like, dad , come on
Speaker 2:Still . I still, I do listen, I do listen. He's got some, he's
Speaker 1:Like, you gotta buy those bell bottoms. And you're like, no , no , no , no , we're not doing that. He's like, no, they're really, are they still striped pants? You know, because they look like the , like the ones that , uh, Rodney Dean , he
Speaker 2:Stays outta that part. He stays outta that part.
Speaker 1:<laugh> . It's probably where you got your eyes, right? You're like, oh yeah, I want a new , I wanna do fashion like that. Like the ,
Speaker 2:I'm trying to get him to , I'm , I'm trying to get him to wear Sands Belt again. I'm trying to get him to , to ditch the belt and go modern old school, you know? But he's now, he is scared to do it when really that's what he grew up on. So, but yeah, no, he's more so like, we have a bar in our store. So he ran the club and ordered inventory, obviously for the restaurant, for the, for the golf course. Like, and they really did everything. So , uh,
Speaker 1:He literally ran everything. Like he ran. It was , he was a gm, like he did everything
Speaker 2:More . Yeah, Morris Country Club is a really special place. Like , uh, you know, your hometown club is always like that for you, I think. But it was, you know, incepted in 1924. So next year is their , uh, centennial, which is super cool, but it's a little far away from everything in Chicago to have like, true prestige. And it's only 6,000 yards. So, you know, it's a working class club, but it's really well maintained. The staff does an amazing job they have for a really long time. And , um, he was kind of part of turning it into what it turned into, I think, over time, with help of a bunch of really tasteful members. So because of that though, they didn't have the opportunity to hire an assistant pro, you know, they went through GMs a lot because they couldn't pay guys enough who really were great. So superintendents the same, you know , we got a lot of guys that came from Rich Harvest in an assistant role or something, or you know, a local great club. And then we were a stepping stone to show what they could do, and then they went to Olympia Fields or to whatever the next thing was. So he just played a lot of , he , he juggled a lot, I think, in between things and learned a little bit of all of the different pieces of the business. So , um, now I'm learning that that's what you have to do when you, and you're in business, I guess. But he still steps in and helps me order my beer for the store and stuff like that when I , I need to be designing golf shirts and not running the bar part of the store, which I , uh, decided was a good idea to do. So
Speaker 1:Is he retired now?
Speaker 2:He would tell you he is retired, but he teaches like nine, 10 hours a day. Crap . He's away. Crap . My mom would love for him to hang it up.
Speaker 1:Never . He likes to , I'll
Speaker 2:Never . He to help . He likes to help people. Yeah, he likes to help too much. So
Speaker 1:Dude , he'll go , he'll be going crazy. Like seriously, like being stuck at home. <laugh> , you know, when he went the golf course teaching? Yeah, right. Like, come
Speaker 2:On, he's good. I'm getting paid with the golf course. So he keeps Yeah. Yep . And make his own schedule . So , so everybody deserves to keep , I think so .
Speaker 1:So growing up, you probably got pretty good as a , as a player, right? I'm assuming like , yeah .
Speaker 2:Were you like scratch ? I had some really good years . Yeah, I had a couple years where I was plus , um, but I just, you know , realized really like what it took to be that next level of good. Um, I had a college golf scholarship, but I decided whatever the fallback plan was, wasn't good enough to want to spend four years studying something that I didn't love. So I ended up going to fashion school and hanging it up. And I way more appreciate the game because I'm not competing. I think everybody that that knows me and has played with me would agree that I , uh, I've won our club championship at our club and I, I won an event here in Chicago called the Tournament of Champions, which is like the club champions event where you , all the club champions are invited from the CDGA region. And that's cool . Um , I just had a good summer and I won that too. Um, but I don't enjoy, I don't enjoy the stress of my life's stressful enough. I don't really need to stress out about something that I love. I'd way rather go out with like persimmon woods and a stroller and push my son and play six holes and fiddle around and screw around. So, so
Speaker 1:Are you still plus, or what are you right now? What do you say?
Speaker 2:Um, I think my handicap probably says it, but I haven't posted score in a very long time. Don't play me , uh, with that index <laugh>, I , that's some about, for sure . <laugh> .
Speaker 1:Like one time , like, I remember because I'm like, I never really did my handicap till this last like year. And I think I was, I got down, I'm like a 16, I'm a 15 right now, right? I was a 24 last year. So it's like I'm going down fast. Wow. And then I, then I played a tournament and it kicked my, right? And it posted all those scores. It was a hard course. And all of a sudden, like, mm-hmm , <affirmative> the next thing you know, your handicap's up a little bit, right? Because you're like, what the hell? You know, because you played like, you know, however many rounds of golf Well with kids , kids
Speaker 2:Too . I mean, if you go, if you go out and have six, seven good rounds in a couple weeks because you got to play a lot, or you went on a golf trip and you finally like, got a little feel and then you go home and you don't play for a month because you know you're dad and, and then you go out and have to play to your handicap in something else. It's just not sustainable. <laugh>.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a hard reality.
Speaker 1:So. All right . So then where'd you go to fashion school at ?
Speaker 2:I went to the Illinois Institute of Art downtown Chicago. Did
Speaker 1:You live downtown?
Speaker 2:I did not live downtown. Um, I lived in Wheaton Live , uh, rented a little townhouse in Wheaton and took the train in every day , which was really cool. Um, I was a little, the metro I was down the way from, yeah, yeah. Metro West. So I went , I went through, you know, like, not Oak Lawn, but I went through Oak Park, I went through Elmhurst. Oh ,
Speaker 1:I've been on that road . I've been down that , yeah. Does that , does that go by Napperville too, that same line, or is that
Speaker 2:No different, different line. I don't know enough about it, but I know it's not that line, but it's ,
Speaker 1:Uh , I remember that
Speaker 2:It's the original track that would've gone to the gates of Chicago Golf Club. That's the Metro West Line. So I feel like through osmosis, I was just like maybe doing the right thing, whether going to art school or, you know, trying to , trying to be part of golf in some capacity. So,
Speaker 1:So you went to art school and then, like what, like what made you wanna go to art school? Um , or go to fashion school? Because I only know like , um, a couple people that did that. I think it's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I loved it. Um, but it was only for one reason. And , you know, I , I was gonna design golf clothes. I was very much so the minority in fashion school of guys that were designing A and B, anybody that would wanna want , would've wanted to design men's wear , you know, all my classmates were doing bridal and wanted to be on the runway. Yeah, yeah , yeah. So I was different. Um, that's cool . And I think that helped me probably get a job, but the only reason that I, that I ended up there was to design golf clothing. And it all came from growing up in my dad's shop and having access to product probably, you know , and being around it. But I'm just like any other nineties kid, I think. Uh, and from Chicago , um, sneaker culture and like as I got into high school things like Hype beasts and Highsnobiety and all these like fashion blogs and things that were covering culture and street wear and sneakers and all these things. Not necessarily surrounding golf, but golf was happening with it too. Uh, Marty Hackle, like one of my total, you know, icons , uh, and now a really good friend of mine, I talked to him on the phone last night, which is just so full circle. And I reminded of it every time we talk that, like, remember when I was chasing you or on the PGA show and, you know, trying to just have a conversation with guys like that. And , um, now I'm getting to bounce ideas off of them about my line , but people like Marty and like Greg Monfort who runs Golf Threads blog, tho , all of those things were just coming out when I was in high school. So I had access, I guess, to what was going on on tour, what people were wearing , um, what was happening in the industry. And at the same time, I was helping my dad buy for his shop. So as a , I mean, a very interesting position to be in, I guess as a 15 or 16 year old kid. And the fact that I even had the interest in versus what all my friends were spending their times doing , uh, was pretty unique probably. But , um, you know, all those things, all those, all those like media channels gave me, and people gave me the opportunity to soak up that information and figure out that it's actually like an industry that I could be a part of. So that's why I decided to do it. I sat down with the Admi admissions Council at a little school here in Joliet called St . Francis University, university of St . Francis. Um, it's a little private , uh, school with a great golf team. And they gave me a bag with my name on it, which was like the , you know, it was like signing day, like we were talking in our chat before we got on here. Um, uh, I put the hat on, I signed my name, and then they wanted me to declare, Hey, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna study? Basically like, what are you gonna do the rest of your life? And it was a card, you know, kind of like that. And it had 150 different things on it that I couldn't find myself doing ever. And I, I remember having a conversation with my mom that night, like, I don't know, maybe I'll be a teacher 'cause I could teach golf. Maybe I, maybe I do that. I , but I don't wanna do any of this stuff and I don't think I like golf enough to wanna go play to do become an instructor. Yeah. Yeah. So I had some serious soul searching to do, I think. And um, I went to the PGA show, which I went to in a stroller, so I was always going, but I went with maybe a , like a little bit of a different , um, thought process in mind that I needed to figure this out. And at the time it was like the convergence or like the crux of the industry where things were changing and all these little brands were popping up the coolest things ever from a standpoint of like what , uh, had, had been happening the 10 years prior . So like Travis, Matthew and G four and Link Soul and Seamus, and there was a little brand , um, which is not a little brand anymore called Links and Kings. It was bought by Titleist. And um, I remember a brand called Tom Morris that , you know, some things worked , some things didn't. Yeah . Jones was at the precipice of all this beginning. Yeah , they were all brand new. And it was at the time that there were other really big brands in the market where like Ralph Lauren and RLX were super hot, and Luke Donald was world number one. And Puma had Ricky and Lexi Thompson, and they had a DJ and a slide into a ball pit in their PGA show booth. And these things that, like , I wanted to just be a part of , um, so, you know, small niche purist brands that we're finding a new area to kind of , um, dive into, I think probably based on , uh, pa some brands paving the way previously, like in Ashworth or something that became very big. And , um, the industry changed and they were, it was like possible to, to bring that aesthetic back. And then, you know, kind of the really performance driven , uh, tech pop culture brands that were bringing golf into the marketplace that might've not focused on golf previously. So I think it was just good timing for me, but that's totally the reason. I mean, long story short, but totally the reason that I decided to do it, that I thought, gosh, I wanna, I wanna be around this.
Speaker 1:When you decided to go to , um, art school slash fashion school, like you had already had experienced a lot of that through Dad, right? Like you've experienced , uh, you know, the apparel side of golf and seeing the style of golf and, you know, all that. Like, that's what kind of motivated you to like actually go forward and be like, Hey, this would be kind of cool to actually do this, right ? Yeah,
Speaker 2:Yeah. I had a total foundation. Um, and it , you know, growing up you think you wanna be on the PGA tour and then you start to like really have to decide how you're gonna spend your time. And yeah, I , I didn't realize it maybe at the time when I was at that age, but I, I definitely had some schooling in advance of making that decision. So, you know, he, he gave me the opportunity to , to crack into it and the network to do it too, because I was able to go to the PGA show and instead of going and sitting down and saying, we want a pre-book spring and we want these skews, I was able to say, oh, by the way, I'm in fashion school and this is my portfolio. Do you wanna see my, some of my designs? I'd like to work for you someday , <laugh>.
Speaker 1:So , which I think is like really smart and cool because I think, I mean, that was always, I think what helped me in life too, is when you show interest in what somebody else does and you like say, look, I really wanna do this too. I would love to have , you know, and then they actually, like, they wanna talk to you about it, right? Because they did . They like, I , I feel like that that that always works. It always works because
Speaker 2:How many people , well , they didn't realize
Speaker 1:They were , think it's cool what they do, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 2:They didn't realize that I was selling to them . Like we were there to buy the line and I ended up selling to them . But one of my stories with that, it's really cool, I ended up working for this guy for a lot later and I'm sure we'll talk about it, but I went to the Ralph Lauren Booth 'cause I thought that their stuff was the best in the space. And I loved everything that , uh, I love , I modeled my golf swing after Luke Donald . So like, he could do no wrong in my eyes. And obviously just class and taste and everything that that brand embodies . Um, I spent a ton of time in their booth just, they were probably so annoyed that I was in the way because I just wanted to be around it. 'cause it was so cool. And a guy by the name of Charlie Schafer was the designer. And I was just hanging around in the booth. And then eventually throughout the week we had a , an appointment with my local rep here in Illinois who, his name was Tracy Lick . He was a super nice guy to me. Uh, I used to shop in his garage that he'd sell me his old samples. Like those are some of the things that I did to get into this space, or at least surround myself with the industry. And so we had an appointment later in the week. He wanted to show us the line, and then he said, Hey, you know what, I think Charlie's here . You do , do you like to meet him? And of course, I have my iPad, I'm ready to like, if I have a chance to show somebody that I would like to do this, I'm doing it. And uh, you know, squeaky wheel kind of thing. And so he took us into this, we went through this kind of maze and then through the booth and outta the booth and through the show and out And you've been to the Orange County Convention Center? So like one of the side rooms are out
Speaker 1:Yeah. On the side . Yeah .
Speaker 2:Ridiculous . So we're, yeah, I'm 17 and I'm following this guy bobbing and weaving through Golf Pros in Navy Blue Blazers and Nike Shocks. And we get out of this show and there's , uh, you know, the concession stands and off the side of the concession stands are all these like really high-end hospitality white rooms where they set up the actual selling rooms. So these big brands that have all this awesome buzz and the DJ in the booth they like, so the reps can actually go sell and get some work done. So we got out there and we walked in and Charlie is sitting at this table off to the side, and I don't know if he'd even know this story, but he was sitting off to the side. And another guy that I ended up working for later also is Spencer Bass, who was his assistant , um, was with him . And they were showing Ryder Cup product to Tom Watson. And I, it was like a , this is your life, you know, kind of moment. And , um, Tracy's like, ah , maybe now's not a good time. <laugh>. So we left and stood outside for a while, and then Tom left. And you know, Tom Watson's like as timeless of a human as possible and just , uh, he is the , the consummate. So he walks out and gave a wave and everybody was waiting to say hi or, or just like brushed his shoulder. And so we went back in and I got to meet Charlie's hand and his whole design team was there. And I got to flip through my, my designs and um, like those were the moments that I think that I realized that I could actually, like, not only was there a job there, but that I , I was really different I think in the whole sense that there weren't many people that wanted to play
Speaker 1:College . They wanted to do that. I really wanted to do that . They were like , I really wanted , if you wanted to do that, it was like, oh , I'm gonna do that as a stepping stone to do something else. Like, no, that's what I want to do.
Speaker 2:No, I really wanted to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, it's, it was interesting. I was different, I think because I played competitive golf. I wanted to be a competitive golfer, and then I really figured out what I wanted to do and I was obsessed with it, like seriously obsessed with it . So
Speaker 1:I'm crazy. So, yeah . You , so you went to, is fashion school four years? I don't know. Is that normal or
Speaker 2:Is it longer ? Uh , it typically, yeah. Yeah, it's a , it's an under, I mean, it's your undergrad. It's a bachelor's in arts, so it's a four years. I finished in three. I had some college credit through high school and um, just same money went on because I was not trying to spend time in school. 'cause I knew what I wanted. You
Speaker 1:Wanted well work. I was not gonna wait .
Speaker 2:Yeah , you wanna I was , yeah . I was not gonna waste .
Speaker 1:Yeah , you get a piece of paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like I said, there was nobody in school that was like me. Um , I mean, there were some really talented people, but nobody was , um, doing what I wanted to do. So it was just hard to, I had a couple instructors that were very inspiring that I loved being around, but that was about it. And they knew like, you gotta go and that . I had a couple good friends that are doing cool things in the industry. Um, one of the girls actually wanted to design for Barbie, and now she's designing for FootJoy. So there are jobs in golf. Um, but they , that is not what they would've wanted to do at the time when <laugh> when we were there. So I was ready to move on.
Speaker 1:So do you think it would've been different if like you went to like , uh, LA Art School, you know, like the LA Fashion school, like, because it's more West Coast like, or New York, you know, where or, or that's just like how it was back then? Or is that it still is too , where people
Speaker 2:No,
Speaker 1:Are not wanting to do that. That makes sense. I think ,
Speaker 2:You know what mean , or being in that environment, my school, I wouldn't say was like the most acclaimed and it's, you know, and it's like with my degree, like Parsons or some of these, yeah , downtown New York fashion schools are really, you know, if you come out of there, like you can get a job at Fendi or design Yeah,
Speaker 1:Write your own ticket
Speaker 2:Down , down for Vera Wang or whatever. And, and because they're really technical and they're extremely , um, laser focused actually like in one area. Like we have a friend that's
Speaker 1:A subset of Yeah,
Speaker 2:Yeah. We, I have a really good friend that's a , a fabric developer, and she's worked for Nike. And then I have another friend who's a , who's a textile engineer, and she does things for Under Armour, but they're not That's so cool . They're not like I was a , I I came outta college and I just wanted to do it all. I think that there's some people that come out and they're like, I want to just make patterns, which patterns are the, the template for how each piece of the garment gets cut out in fabric before it gets sewn. So it fits a certain way. And I think that there's just, just a lot of different layers of how you could get involved in this. And those schools are very good for them. I got to, so, well, I don't want to spoil anything, I guess before you continue to ask questions, but my first job was at Ralph Lauren. Um, fast forward after our big conversation, I guess of, of my, my intro into trying to show these people what I wanted to do. But when I got there, I met everybody and every time I'd introduced myself, someone would say, oh, I studied poli sci at GW and I studied finance at Duke. Um, you know, there was really no one other than the really technical people that were doing the real , like the most necessary parts of the design process that Yeah.
Speaker 1:The engineering side of it or whatever
Speaker 2:That went to the Yeah, the scientific, like true. Yeah , but because I mean,
Speaker 1:Fashion's art, right? So it's like that's, it's like, are you artistic or not? And do you have an eye for what you want to do?
Speaker 2:And it's taste, I think in, in a high level . Like if it's a taste level thing , um, so, you know, whatever, whatever the concept you're trying to embody, whatever that is, yeah, it's a taste level and it's trying to develop an and and tap into whatever that, like, it's these mood boards that everybody's coming out with on Instagram that these , these things that exist around the industry. And I , there's so many of them now, but there's so many people that are really good at it. And like, anybody like that could be a designer or, you know, a maybe a producer, a a director in film or something along those lines. Like that industry I think is just, it's just having that picture in your head of what you want to create.
Speaker 1:It's like making YouTube videos.
Speaker 2:So I think it's a , yeah, I mean, you have a vision for it. It's totally vision. Yeah . I mean, whatever it is , I think whatever, it's, so like if you, I , I don't know him, I don't know the inner workings. I don't know anything about the inside of this brand, but at Nike, if you watch documentaries about Tinker Hatfield or any of these guys, you know, classically, I don't know if any of them were or needed to be trained on design, but they knew what they wanted to make. And, you know , there's a lot of other people that really know what they're doing and how to help you see through that vision. But I think the first step is just trying to exploit like <crosstalk> . So then how'd you
Speaker 1:Get your first job? How'd you get the job at Ralph Lauren ? What happened? Because you had networked earlier throughout your, like before when you were in college or, or did you intern there? Or how'd you get your first job?
Speaker 2:I interned at Links Soul . So in school, I , between, in the summer , um, I actually, this is kind of funny. So I once again, network, I ended up , uh, through my dad making a contact with our local rep Links . Soul had just came out and they had all these great T-shirts. They had to make Parnot War t-shirts. They had a bunch of clever stuff and really a very, very small amount of skews . They had a couple polos and they had those great , uh, board Walker shorts. The , the , the Swim Short Hybrid, which is one of the first of their kind. And we asked the rep for a contact at Link Soul if there was any possibility of working, you know, somehow there. And I, I figured, you know, without really knowing anything about it, that was probably a way to get my foot in the door. It was a smaller brand. I figured there were less steps to meeting somebody.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Corporate.
Speaker 2:And , but it was, but it was also a brand that I really like. It spoke to me that everything about what they were, the story they were telling, it was really inspiring to me. So , um, without knowing anybody there and the rep said, well, I , I can't say that , I actually can't say this 'cause it's like sharing personal contact information, but it was like, yeah, his email's just
Speaker 3:<crosstalk> blah, blah , blah , yeah , this ,
Speaker 2:That, like, just send him an email, see what he says. So I wrote John Ashworth an email and you know, some dorky kid, like, I really love you. And he wrote me back and said, I love the idea of free help. And he wouldn't remember that either, but he did say that. And so I went and spent the summer there. My wife came with me and she got an internship at another really cool little brand. And , uh, we loved it. We spent two months in San Diego, which felt like, you know, a long time at that time in your life. But , um, we worked for John and then I came back and spent my , uh, my senior year and, or junior year, which was my senior year. And then , uh, I went to the PGA show again, and this is when I really started to dig in and I worked really hard to try to figure out really where I was gonna land end up. And Charlie had told me that I had a job if I wanted it, and that , that we would figure it out at Ralph Lauren. And this is my, probably my third time meeting him. And , um, you know, they're really high <laugh> , high, high efficiency business and like so many different things happening and getting pulled a lot of different directions. So it took a long time to try to dial in, you know, the job description, what it actually was when I might be there. Um, and I kind of lost touch with him for a little bit. And , uh, we, I , I reached out to some people on LinkedIn. I I tried to connect with as many people as I could at the company. And finally I met with a couple people and I got a call, or I got into contact with a couple people. Um, one of them was, her name was Sasha Kelly, and I had no idea who I was emailing because I was just trying to get in touch. And, you know, she was the SVP of Men's Design and Women's Collection on, you know, it was a very long job title and I had no idea what it meant because I was 17. Yeah . Or 18, you know, I was , I was 2021 , uh, yeah, 20. So Sasha wrote me back so kindly and said, let me talk to Charlie. And I think at the time she was even above Charlie. So , uh, <laugh> , you know, he finally reached out and I didn't really know how I, how I got in touch or who really, you know, drove the point home that I wanted to get in touch with him. But he called me back one, one way or another and we had a conversation and he said, this is how much we can pay you. And I said, okay, let me get back to you. I said, you know, I've done some numbers and I feel like this is what I need to make to move to New York and afford to live. And he said, Patrick, either you , you're gonna take it at this, you know, rate or someone else is gonna do job .
Speaker 1:Sorry Charlie,
Speaker 2:My job .
Speaker 1:Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You're like, oh no , he said somebody else is gonna do it. Like everybody wants to work here. And he is like, and I'm not just saying that because I, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1:He's not being a jerk. He's truth .
Speaker 2:Like , he's like , drop Lauren , like legitimately you're , yeah, you're gonna do it for this or someone else will. And I don't even think I hung up. I just said, okay, I'll do it. And I, you know, I had a , the , the living room conversation with your dad when you're trying to get your first job and negotiating and trying to think about, okay, what do I need to make or what, you know, what if he says this, what if he says that I was always a really a planner and I hung up and he said, so what did he say? And I said, well , I got the job. And he said, what are you gonna make? And I said, this amount . And he goes, that's not enough. And I said, what I said, and he goes, well, okay. So that's kind of how it all happened. So I, you know, Sasha Kelly is another one. There's a lot of people out there that like really helped me get to where I got. But it was because I was just super freaking annoying. I mean, I just kept bugging everybody to try to figure out how to meet the person I needed to meet, to be where I wanted to be. And I got a job offer at Links Soul actually at the same time. But I'd spent some time at Links Soul and I just felt like I needed to see, I mean, it just, Ralph Lauren I felt like was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Um, and it was New York City, like it was, if you're gonna, if you're gonna do it, that's, that's crazy .
Speaker 1:Yeah. Because you're like, look, this is like a resume builder too. I did it for like a year. It's like, oh, you r Lauren run . It's like instant credibility. I don't ,
Speaker 2:Right. Especially , I don't know if I ever felt like that. I don't think I ever, I was just , you're too young looking now
Speaker 1:Back, you're like, oh , that might been a smart idea.
Speaker 2:I think so for sure works .
Speaker 1:I was totally, yeah ,
Speaker 2:I was totally operating based on like passion and , and what I wanted to spend my time doing, which I have a lot of young kids that work for me now, and I try to preach that as much as I can. Free excuse . Well, yeah , kidding . I'm totally kidding . Yes. Yes . Slave labor. Um, no, but it's expensive to , it's expensive to pay people now , um, whether you know, college degrees or not, it's like, Lululemon's paying $18 an hour, it's hard to compete. But yeah, I try to talk about it all the time. And we work towards, you know, just 'cause I just felt like on accident I made all the right decisions just based on really fi trying to find what I loved. And I, I was lucky to, to, I was lucky to <crosstalk> You went to work at Ralph for it .
Speaker 1:And what happened? How long were you there?
Speaker 2:I was at Polo for, so I worked in the golf and tennis division. I didn't realize I was taking a job in tennis, but it's part of that category for them. So I worked in golf and tennis and I was part of the , um, design of the Ryder Cup team gear and putting together some of the presentation of how that stuff needed to be dressed and merchandised and , um, sending product to tour players. And so my job there was called concept design, which was really cool. It was like a junior creative director job, essentially. Like I got to follow around the most important people in the, in the department who made all the decisions and like organize their magazines sometimes, but other times , uh, you know, like really have some creative input, whether it was listened to or not. I got to soak up a ton there and I was there for a year. Um, it felt like a , once again, at that age, everything feels like an eternity, but , um, it felt like a long time. And one day Charlie just came to me and said, Hey , um, am leaving, I'm gonna leave. And he said, I'm not sure when it's gonna happen, but I'm gonna leave. And um, Maureen Whitaker, who I was working for at the time, is really gonna need somebody who can, who can help in this department. You know, there's gonna be a little bit of a hold to fill and they need , they're really, they're looking for great people. They're gonna hire probably a couple more if it happens. But , um, you know, I think you'll be really great. And, and it wasn't like at all like a, Hey, come work for me, but I made it a, Hey, come work for me thing. 'cause I was like, oh, if you're going, I'm going. Because I, I just felt like Charlie at the time was, you know, the reason that everything was happening the way that it was. He had great relationships with tour players and he is just, he was just a guy that I idolized and, and he was a role model of mine really quick when I was at that age. So , um, I told him, if you're going, I , I'd love the opportunity to to go and know what you're doing and what's happening next. And so yeah, a couple different things happened throughout the next six months and it probably happened a little slower maybe than it was supposed to, but , um, I didn't know anything about it until like a month before he was gonna leave. And then he said, Hey, I'm going and this is what I'm gonna do. And I said, you know, I'd like to do that, I think too. And so we talked about it a little bit and I never thought that I'd have another chance to do a startup , you know, at that age. It's like you see that on tv, like you see Silicone Valley and Oh ,
Speaker 1:That show
Speaker 2:On , uh, <laugh> . Yeah. And the things like that. Like you think
Speaker 1:That so funny.
Speaker 2:There's just never gonna be a , I just thought that there was never gonna be another chance. Like this is my, like at 22 years old, this is like, I have no risk. I no kids. How was I ever gonna have another chance to do this and like, go start something. Um , ever fast forward , I've just worked for, well, fast forward I worked for like a ton of
Speaker 1:A million startups, but still it's 'cause you
Speaker 2:Skillset . Yeah . Whether
Speaker 1:Like ,
Speaker 2:Well also I just think it's the way, the way our industry works. There's a lot of room for new cool things and I just happen to like be really lucky with timing for a bunch of different stuff. So , um, anyway, I had
Speaker 1:A conversation . Yeah . Hard conversation. You're a little bit of unicorn though too because like you've experienced it. Like, you know, most people don't have one chance of experiencing that, right? Like, they're at a startup and it got big well that was their one chance, right? Or like, they got a startup and it failed and they went back to doing something completely different. But like, you've got to see multiple startups and be part of those processes so you can, you , you get the best of each p each bit. You've learned something so you're like, okay, I know what needs to be done. Where I think, I mean it's, yeah , it's really cool dude. Honestly.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, no, I've been really lucky. And it's really just because I said yes to everything. I just, and I , and I'm such a people pleaser to a fault , um, that I , you know, some things I probably got taken advantage of a little bit on in , in certain ways because I just want everybody to be happy so bad. Like to the point that I just, you know, ruined my own life because of it. But I, yeah, I, anytime there was something that seemed like it was I could better myself with and it felt like a better fit for me, I was doing it. So , um,
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's cool. So then, so then what happened after, like who have you, I guess kinda like in the last seven or eight years, like name the brands that you've worked for so people kind of understand like your experience. 'cause it's gonna blow your mind, you guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I left Ralph Lauren and we were going to try to bring a brand called SVO to the United States. They're a great Italian brand , um, with awesome fabrics and we were gonna try to put a little rlx flavor on that. Um, and that didn't work out so well. Um, and then with our backs against the wall and nothing kind of with , you know, in , in front of us, we started Grayson. So I was the first employee at Grayson with Charlie. Crazy. That's pretty
Speaker 1:Crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would say we left Ralph Lauren to start Grayson, that's probably what the story is now. That's what everybody would say. But we left and kind of had a tough go at it , um, and just kept chugging. And Grayson was named after Charlie's firstborn. So you can imagine the stress on not having a job for either of us , uh, with a, with a one-year-old. Um, so we did that. And then, you
Speaker 1:Know what , that's like you , you have a one year old . I mean like imagine that, right? Yeah . Now you're but even more hungry I think once you get the kids. 'cause you're just like, I had to do this,
Speaker 2:I gotta do it. Yeah, yeah. And it's easier when it's something that you love to do. Um, but yeah, it's , that would be, it's crazy. I didn't have any idea at that time the level of stress. I thought I was stressed, but I had no idea. Um , and yeah, so I was in New York and doing a reverse commute to Bedford Hills where Charlie lived and I just did not like living in New York. Rewind, you know, with a dad who's a golf pro and a a little fun quiet club in our backyard to play all the time. New York's a really hard place to play golf unless you have a helicopter. So, and I didn't because I took that job I told you about for <laugh> , you know, before anybody else would take it at Ralph Lauren. So I didn't make very much. Um, so I left and moved back to Chicago and then I ended up in Greensboro, North Carolina short after working for a company called Duck Head , um, for some guys that worked at Ralph Lauren as well . And Duck Head invented khaki pants. They repurposed army tents, which was a fabric called Duck Canvas and hence the name Duck Head . So really cool Americana , um, brand. And that was kind of my first introduction into a Nongo product. I guess they were preppy enough to be golf, but it was really just men's wear . And I started to kind of develop my taste, I guess, around just clothing, you know, and not necessarily golf apparel. Um, and shortly after, based on some private equity decisions, I think there way of operating changed. A couple people left, a couple people were let go and the company was very different and I just kind of saw the writing on the wall. It looked like they were yeah ,
Speaker 4:Going
Speaker 2:To sell it. They looked like they were gonna sell it. So I , um, I had no idea what to do and I called John Ashworth and I just said, Hey John , you know, we , and we had talked a lot while I was doing everything that I had done. And um, and this was in a really short amount of time. I mean this was in like this , the series of three years. Um, but we kept in really close contact and I really, throughout the time I was at all those brands, I just kept kind of searching for what the Ashworth family had built because they built what they wanted to build with, with the people they wanted to build it with. So Link Soul was like, you know, John and Brother Hank and Sister Mary. Yeah .
Speaker 4:And
Speaker 2:Sister Jojo and everybody involved. You know, Dave, who is the , their CFO was a brother-in-Law. And I mean, there are just so many parts of it that they were just doing it exactly the way they wanted to do it. And that was really inspiring to me. So I, I just admired them to no end. And I reached out to John and I said, Hey, I don't know what to do. I see there's jobs in Carlsbad and Adidas. I know you know that, you know more than you probably wanna know .
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Ashworth was sold to Adidas. So , uh, but I'm like, these, there's jobs available. What should I, should I not, what should I be thinking? And I really wasn't looking for a job with him. I didn't even know that there was one available. But I was just looking for help. And he said, well, we need help. Um , they were opening a store in Huntington Beach , uh, and said, we don't have anybody to run it and we don't have anybody to design it and we'd love you to do both. And I said, well, my wife Kristen , who has worked everywhere around, you know, my job and followed me kind of throughout the country and things that I had to do, I said like, she needs something and she needs her own thing and I need to find her a job and I would like her to like what she's doing and we can't really move until she figures that out. And he said, well, you can't do it alone. And little did he know this entire time we'd worked at these other brands, we had this dream of opening our own store and we were gonna be able to open our own store for Link Soul and run it together. So it was kind of the perfect practice thing. So
Speaker 1:Yeah . The trial run too for you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:A little bit to now you've opened a , a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You've opened a store now, right? Like that's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't think of it that way at that time, but it was just once again, another opportunity. And it was something that we were gonna , it was like with people that we loved for a brand that we believed in and , uh, something that we
Speaker 1:<crosstalk> . Where was that at Costa Mesa. Where was that? That
Speaker 2:Was in Huntington Beach, yep . Oh , nice. And then we ended up opening three more , uh, or two more, three total. One in Oceanside at their headquarters at the lab, and then one in , uh, Alameda at a golf course called Ika Park. So those are all the big ones. And then I ended up moving home. Um, retail was amazing to us and we watched everything that they had built with the people that they loved. But as we did it, we realized that the people that we loved happened to be in Chicago. And you know, both of our parents sets of parents are here in Morris, Illinois. Our grandparents were here , um, just felt like life was here. So we wanted to do what they did and do it ourselves with our people. Um, so I moved home and it was still another four years at home before I was able to do what I wanted to do. But I, I scratched a lot of people's backs and they scratched mine to be able to afford to do this now. So I guess quickly, I worked at Grayson again as a design director there for a handful more years and helped with a lot of different things in retail development and product design. Um, I designed for True Links wear . I designed for my, one of my best friends in the world, AK Barty at Seamus. Um, I helped develop product for Fire Pit Collective. I designed product for Golfers Journal with Brendan . I worked for the 8:00 AM golf group. So I I did all of Mira's merchandise. I've done Golf magazine. I did, yeah. Which I like love. Yeah . Um, worked for golf.com. I worked for Jack Nicholas Design , you know, master's is limited edition, this, that, and the other for a lot, a lot of people. Um, and it's really cool 'cause I got to wear a lot of different design hats and everybody's brands are so different and the ethos with what everybody was doing was so unique that I got to just like buy the hour, be like, okay, you know, TrueLink for
Speaker 1:New Hat , new Brain . Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And, and Style . They set the founda, they set the foundation for what those, what their aesthetic was. So I didn't have anything to do with that, but like I got to tap into what they were so cool about, you know, and with, so yeah, and it , and not all product categories, but like a little here, a little there for a lot of different people and , um, yeah, just really enjoyed collaborating with all these folks for so long.
Speaker 1:I bet The way you were able to get these jobs, it was pretty much word of mouth, right? Like friends of yours or a brand you worked with, or it was like you went go apply 'em for a job, right? I would assume like, almost like, not a consultant role, but like, they're your employee, but like you're also like, okay, we know we can do this because we need somebody like that right
Speaker 2:Now. Yeah. I've never, I've never had to apply for a job, so that's pretty lucky. But I, yeah, and not so much word of mouth because everybody's a competitor. That's the interesting thing. Like everybody is trying to carve out their
Speaker 1:Little keeping to themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit. I mean, everybody's trying to , you know, carve out their little niche. But , um, a lot of the, a lot of it came from like, Hey, I see you're in Chicago, you know, a lot. Like if they knew me from Links Soul or they knew me from Ralph Lauren or they knew me from Grayson or anything else I was doing, it was like, what are you do ? Like, do you have a job? Do you need some , do you need some help? Um, and then I would just talk about what I was doing and that I, you know, could help. And I had the capacity and I'd love to help. And then I ended up, you know, digging into
Speaker 1:<crosstalk> being more Yeah , more experience and like, and yeah ,
Speaker 2:Learning
Speaker 1:Something new and making something cool. And, you know, that's , so then when did you start , um, field day? Like when did that actually start? Start?
Speaker 2:So, Grayson was my biggest , uh, workload, I guess I would say. Like, I had a relationship where I had the capacity and ability to work for other brands while I worked for Grayson, essentially full-time. Um, so it was a lot of nights and weekends trying to help everybody else and do everything I was doing for others. But we had my son Ford on July 14th, 2021. So seventh , all seventh , 7, 14 21. And we had a week off. And I got a call in the hospital that there was a store that might have an opportunity to , uh, open up. And in my mind it was like the perfect location. And I had known this for, you know, the last 10 years kind of thing, like if that ever came available. I wanna ,
Speaker 1:What was it before?
Speaker 2:Um, a lot of things growing up. It was a home goods store called Hanover Linens. It was a , um, you know, bedding and, and furniture store. Um, but everything, I mean, so that , this is a really cool, I mean it's a , there's a ton of history here. Um, the, my, my great-great grandfather was a Hines , H-Y-N-D-D-S, that's, that's , uh, my grandpa's last name. And the family that owns the building is, is the Hines family. And not because of anything, 'cause they're very distant relatives, but when the original building was built, it was the Hinz Family General store, which is a , which is a , a family apparel store, and then it became the Hines Brothers footwear store. And , um, you know, all these really cool pieces of history. So actually, like, I feel like it was a bit meant to be that I'm here , um, might be a bit contrived to try to make sense of that, but , um, I think it's, it's pretty cool that ancestors in some capacity of mine once ran an apparel store here. Um , crazy. It's like weird, but , but this , it's really like , bro , like , that's weird,
Speaker 5:Right? I mean, think about it. Like ,
Speaker 2:It's really weird. Yeah. And I don't know if it meant it was in a good way not , but don't think these things happened . I don't think these things happened by accident,
Speaker 5:So , no , of course not.
Speaker 2:Um, so yeah, so we're honored to , to be able to have the space and it's a beautiful space, a 200 year old space with original tin tile . And , um, I gave Paul the walkthrough when we were chatting earlier. So , um, but before we took it over, it was a private bar. Um, so it was like a members only bar and small group of family friends. And in little towns like ours, I guess that can exist , um, because the rent's not too expensive and everybody can chip in and have their own little cool place. So they did a really good job of making this place feel like an old, you know, 1920s kind of speakeasy, brick and mortar bar. And I just got wind that , you know, it might, there might be a chance that, that it could come available. So I had a phone call with the landlord and he said, yeah, let's do it. We're ready. And there was a neighboring space that wasn't available, but , um, there's my wife , uh, sorry. Um, so yeah, there's a neighbor neighboring space that was available and it was an engineering firm. Um, and I just said, what about that one too? Is that one available? And, 'cause I know that they own both spaces and he said, no, but let's just see what we can do. And now we, now we're in it. So we have both. And , um, yeah, so I, I had my son July 14th , I took a week off, and then I quit my job with Grayson a week later. Um, just like, totally solely, I , I love my job at Grayson and the people that I was working with at the time, but I was, it was just totally meant to be all the , all the, the cards were falling into place with everything that I had always dreamt of. So , um, so we got the keys in September and opened
Speaker 1:Last year,
Speaker 2:November 1st, 2021, sorry, super long.
Speaker 1:Oh wow.
Speaker 2:But yeah, November 1st, 2021.
Speaker 1:Um, so, but were you already designing apparel for it as you opened like a retail store? Like did you have like a, a Shopify store or something before that? Or you had nothing?
Speaker 2:I had a Squarespace,
Speaker 1:Which , oh , you're really dating yourself. You must use , uh,
Speaker 2:You may know it is not very good at e-commerce based on what Shopify is able to do now. But , um, I only had like, you know, six to 10 items for sale. So like, even while I was at Link Soul , I was starting to tip toe into, like we said earlier, the mood board and the, you know, the, the e-comm and social media kind of combo. And we made a couple things. We made a hat, we made a couple T-shirts, we did this. And I shipped it out of my basement for a long time, but it wasn't really a real business. It was just like this logo. And so the field Day boy, the Run Boy and what it embodies kind of has turned into what the store is. And , um, I didn't know in what order, but it's just all, like, everything I always pictured is happening all about .
Speaker 1:Are you on Shopify now?
Speaker 2:I am, yeah. <laugh> . Okay . I was making sure. Thanks for Yeah , <laugh> . Yeah , just like <laugh> .
Speaker 1:It's great. You're not, you're not, you're not on like MySpace or anything, are you?
Speaker 2:Shopify is great because you can link retail and e-comm, so you can have a physical space in an e-comm Yeah. eComm storefront. So our inventory is shared in the , in both, which is nice.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's actually really cool. 'cause then it's like, yeah ,
Speaker 2:You just
Speaker 1:Have your, your inventory, you know exactly what you have and you can share it. So then what made you come up with a run boy ? Like did you draw that? Did somebody else draw that? Did you find that? So what's the deal with that?
Speaker 2:I drew the first in iteration , um,
Speaker 1:Was a stick man . Just kidding.
Speaker 2:<laugh> , pretty much, no, it was a boy with a striped t-shirt. Um, and it was inspired by like a newspaper clipping of actually a newsboy. And it was, you know, Google images. I found it somewhere and I changed it a little bit enough to be a logo. And I found another brand in Japan, or it was actually a coffee shop that was like way too close to the logo that I had. And they definitely found the same clipping that I did, and they changed it to their way. But looking at them next to each other, you'd be like, what are these guys doing? So I, you know, things evolve and um, I just knew that I had to actually get in touch with somebody that could take my idea and turn it into what I wanted it to be. So , um, I had a really good friend that was an amazing graphic designer and has his own little product company and I just said, can you just put other , another eye on this? 'cause I cannot figure it out. And when you're drawing people and faces and you know, bodies, it's really hard to get right. So , um, we just worked through it for a couple months with somebody that I really appreciated and thought, you know, knew what he was doing. And , um, yeah, we Hammond egged it and turned it into what it is now. So that's him, the run boy . That's our, that's our man.
Speaker 1:So then how long have you had Run Boy since you started the brand in the basement or when you like started?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really the first thing. It was really the first thing. Yeah. So Field Day by definition,
Speaker 1:I , yeah ,
Speaker 2:Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, I agree. I think like you can't be a brand without a real logo, right? What are you of ?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Not , well, I think that going back to like the Hype beasts and the all , all those cultural things, you know, design was also branding and, you know, wanting to have the certain products and pieces that the best companies made. You wanted the logo, the Polo Pony. So , um, you know, I think it all started with that, but Field Day by definition is a day devoted. So I think that is to what, like Merriam-Webster Dictionary data devoted it . And I think that's what to whatever it is that you love to do. I think third bullet point down, 'cause there's the 1, 2, 3, I think the third bullet point down is , um, that it's like a day at play or something along those lines. So those things , those two things kind of infused is kind of what I think our lo our logo embodies. The runway embodies.
Speaker 1:So what is your aesthetic? Like what, like what is Field day? You know, like how would you describe ?
Speaker 2:I think it's a little, it's it's evolving, but I think , um, the, the brand as a whole is very heritage athletic, we're inspired. Um, I think if you picture 1940s through 1960s, maybe into the seventies a little bit , um, you know, this like good old days mentality and mid-century ideology of design. Um, and that can go as far as like Americana and, you know, an old soup can for a cool font or Arnold Palmer and a golf product. So, you know, from graphic t-shirts to all the different product categories that we're in now, I think, you know, we're just touching on a lot of different things. But we love the peanuts, we love, you know, I love Charlie Brown, I love Norman Rockwell. I'm inspired by,
Speaker 1:I love Peanut, you know ,
Speaker 2:Those kind of things. Wonder years . Yeah. Honey Roasted.
Speaker 1:Uh, so what is your favorite thing to design out of all the stuff that you have right now for Field Day and with golf? Like is it the shirts, is it the polos is , what is it? Like, what do you love doing?
Speaker 2:I think that , um, it's a mix. I think that like, inspiration hits you at different points and you just have to have to do what, what , uh, it feels like work when you have to do it. So I think that when you have an idea, you just gotta sit down and work on it. And I think that's the lucky thing about what I do in design, that I'm able to do that. But I have a lot of chores with the retail store that I have to do. So it's hard to have the energy and the capacity, quite honestly, to actually continue. Um, and like after a long day in the store, like we have a tuck , we have a tuck rental business in our store for our community.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah . Who the one who does it?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not the only one and I'm actually like very uninvolved, luckily in a , in a lot of it. Um, because it's a , it's a kind of a high maintenance , um, oh yeah. There's just a lot of , there's a lot of babysitting on different things to make everything perfect. And I only have to jump in when I'm needed, which is really lucky. Um, so I have a , a great , uh, uh, an employee here named Vicki that handles kind of the day-to-Day on, on Tuck fittings and picking things out. And um, so
Speaker 1:It's like field day's more than just like, I guess what people understand, like you're your own brand, but like you also have your own retail space, which is like different, you know, it's not like just a store, right? Because you were telling me before and you gave me the tour, it's like you have a bar there and you have a barber shop and you have all this stuff inside the store.
Speaker 2:Every step of the way kind of has been like a stepping stone to figuring out how I was gonna afford to create my own brand, quite honestly. And the store is a platform for our brand to survive, I hope, if that makes sense. And I wasn't really planning it as such, I don't think, but it's working out that way. Um, we, you know, working at all the brands that I did and learned learning what I did was really great. Getting to then consult for all the companies that I did, gave me the financial ability to start my store. The store now has created an opportunity mixed with consulting for brands to afford my opportunity to launch my product company. And there's a lot of little things that I had to do that I love all of it, but there's things that I like more than others. Um, so yes, the, the retail business, there's certain things that just have to, that our community needs. So we sell, so our , our retail store we call Field Day Social because it's a , Um , really a social setting. It's a safe place for our community. I feel like we have shuffleboard, we have pinging pong, we have all the things that you can have a field day doing that's cool. Um, we have a pool table, but all of them are dual purpose fixtures. So we put product on it and if you wanna play it, we can clear it off and let you play it. And if not, you might find something you love on one of the tables. We have a bar, we have a barbershop. Um, the bar is really kind of like a cool , um, not, it's a full service bar, but we have six drafts on tap. We've got Tito's, full Woodford, capping Oregon . Like we have one type of , uh, spirit for every category because we don't really wanna be a full encompassing bar. So we, we have a little bit of that, little bit of this, little bit of that. We have a barbershop. Um, yeah, I didn't think I'd be a bartender, but I am. Some days when I went to fashion school, I didn't think I was gonna end up <crosstalk> . Do you have you a liquor license? Being a bartender? We have a liquor license and I ambassador certified .
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh . What ? Yeah.
Speaker 2:To to make drinks.
Speaker 1:Did you go to the bartender school can do ?
Speaker 2:No. You , there's an online course though that you have to, to take to be able to serve people
Speaker 1:Responsibly . I remember , I remember as a kid, and I would be sick in the summertime, or not summertime , like during school, I'd be like watching tv, like there'd be a commercial for the bartending school. I always remembered that. I was like, oh , that'd be the coolest freaking school to go to <laugh> . Like , you know , it's like for the deadbeat people that like had no jobs and like were watching TV,
Speaker 2:Martinis on fire, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:And then after that would be the empire , um, carpet, commercial, <laugh>, <laugh> , you know, talking out right away. Like that stupid song .
Speaker 2:Right . I just heard the song. I heard the song
Speaker 1:5 5 8 . I even , yeah, good
Speaker 2:Time . You did live in the Midwest
Speaker 1:For a little bit, so , and I spent half
Speaker 2:Yeah , we have a , sorry, sorry, sorry. I love this. Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Oh no , I mean like, I just, I grew up out here, but like my family was all from Chicago . Like , we're always , always are like five times a year, bro. I wasn't , I was , I was here for school pretty much and then we'd be back in Chicago, so
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I
Speaker 1:Love it there.
Speaker 2:It's the nineties. I love all those nineties hit nine nineties nostalgia. Um, but yeah, I mean, I guess back to your original question, there's a lot of things that like, have to happen for your business to survive, I think. And , um, hopefully you like doing them, but there's some things that obviously you might not like. And , um, there's definitely pieces of that. And then there's other things that I just like totally geek out on, like the buying and the merchandising and dressing mannequins. What
Speaker 1:Do you love ?
Speaker 2:Oh , all the , you like that part?
Speaker 1:That's the part you love . Oh,
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah. I love putting things together. Don't you? Like I love , um, I mean bartending , there's not much, there's not no, I do, I do like bartending. 'cause you get to connect with customers and, and typically like when you, you know, make a connection, it turns into business. Um, that relationship just naturally turns into that stuff. Um, uh, I mean, the accounting part of it is not very fun. It's not the invoicing,
Speaker 1:You know ? Yeah .
Speaker 2:The cha the chasing the
Speaker 1:Chasing money and they owe you. They had no problem . Oh , oh yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1:The legal side, the legal. I hate that stuff, dude. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2:Like
Speaker 1:Somebody sent me a contract the other day and I just like, they're like, oh, here's a contract we wanna do with you. And I had to spent like the next like three hours, like ripping it apart. And I'm like, who wrote this? I'm like, and I , and I sent it back and I was like, listen dude, like I'm not doing that. Like, I'm like, here's what I'll do. And I've already spent time on it and then they accepted it. I'll do that. I was like, all right , cool. Because you sent me a bunch of information that did not even apply to our situation, but
Speaker 2:I
Speaker 1:Hate that dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah . Oh yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of back and forth on that side of it. And it's unfortunately, like the stuff that's not right in front of you. So it's the stuff you have to do when you really shouldn't be working. I think. So maybe I'd enjoy it if it was like actually when I , what I showed up to do. But it typically is the stuff that you have to try to play catch up .
Speaker 1:Well, I think you're , I mean, I think your style's fricking cool as hell, dude. Like when I , and like you could , like , you go to this , like , you gotta check out this website. I'll tell you , you'll tell you what it is in a minute. But like, if you saw the quality of like the actual product, it's like, it's, it's amazing. Like, honestly, I was like, holy crap. Like, this is like figure like a Grayson, like if you buy a Grayson product, like what that quality is or like a high-end product, but like not a super high-end price. It's like, it's hard to explain. Like you could tell that, you could tell the quality's there and you can see it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's
Speaker 1:Just not gonna be like a hundred t-shirt, you know, like , thanks .
Speaker 2:It's gonna be Yeah . I mean , affordable mean , there's , there's ways to do that. Yeah . I mean there's a lot of opportunity to like, and I think unfortunately when you design something, there's an opportunity to just keep adding things and always you
Speaker 1:Should bedazzle it. Thinking ,
Speaker 2:Thinking about , yeah. Studded. No , I think that once you, you know, you have a , it's hard. You gotta try to figure out how to, it's a happy medium in costing and positioning yourself correctly where it's accessible, but also pulling out all the stops that you want to make it really special. Um, so that's the fine line. We're dancing. We're lucky to be working with, you know, a lot of really great factories and some that are, that we've worked with in the past that are, that are making all the best product in the space. Um, so yeah, it's, it's good stuff. Um, and hopefully has a little bit of a different vibe and a different story than what else is in the market. We're hoping to go a little bit of a different direction. Don't wanna follow. So
Speaker 1:That's cool. Well, where can people find you ?
Speaker 2:You can find us on Instagram at Field day social . That's kind of where we tell our stories that our retail store , uh, which is just a really awesome little men's general store. Uh, the tag there is Field Day Morris , M-O-R-R-I-S. Oh, you have
Speaker 1:Your own thing. You have two different ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Field Day Morris is just kind of like a little bit more local. Um, homegrown mom and pop shop that my wife and I own. And that's , uh, you know, certain happenings, but there's a lot of cool product and stuff that we show and talk about there.
Speaker 1:So
Speaker 2:If you wanna follow our family that you can do that there. Um, and then field day , sporting co.com , it's kind of a long domain, but field day sporting co.com is where uh, the golf line has just launched. And you can get some of our, our , uh, merch and we also sell a lot of other really great stuff. I mean, the store has given us the capability to kind of merchandise online what we love. So there's apparel every once in a while. All the third party tertiary kind of goods that we sell in different categories of our store. From grooming products to grill stuff to golf accessories. We just are trying to put stuff in front of you that we think you'll love, which is really a , it's just all the stuff that I love. My wife would tell you that my whole business is based upon things that I want for wholesale, which is not completely offbeat. It's pretty close. <laugh>
Speaker 1:Well fill it fills it in, right? Like the things you like, you like some what you're selling too is what you'd like also. Right? Just , you just can't have, like, I don't make a shoe right now, but maybe one day I will. Right. So you
Speaker 2:Just like Yeah , well I had an amazing quote one time that was, if you can't make it better yourself, go get that and sell that too . And so we make what we think we make the best and then we I love that sell. That's really cool . You , the stuff in the market that we think that is, that is the gold standard kind of at the price points we're trying to sell. Um, Akbar just no , I love that Jamus would tell me. I mean, he makes fun of me every time we get on the phone and anytime he introduces me to anybody. 'cause he tells the story about our store and then he says he sells e-bikes and the only reason he sells e-bikes is just 'cause he wanted one. And it's, it's , it's true. But they're also really cool and you should buy one too, is kind of the philosophy. <laugh>,
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna name the brand, but like, it's a brand you worked for at one point, so let's put it that way. And the , the, the CEO told me we just wanna be really good at the one thing we make, like really, really, really good at it. And then everything else, like we'll just partner with those brands that make a really good whatever that is too. And like, instead of, and I'm like, that's so smart. Like that just Yeah, like don't reinvent something .
Speaker 2:Yeah . I think it's hard to do that an eCommerce brand . Yeah . I mean I think it's really hard unless you're just constantly collaborating. But it's hard to do that if you're an e-comm brand in our sense. We get to like, touch it, feel it, display it all day long too, which makes you love it even more and appreciate what makes it so great. So,
Speaker 1:And if you're selling it too , you really stand behind the product if you're like, oh yeah , thing's legit. It's not just, you know, a a Bella Canva t-shirt with a With a
Speaker 2:Ball. Yeah .
Speaker 1:With a guy running on it. Yeah .
Speaker 2:And a torn out label. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And a torn out label and then a screenprinted label inside. But anyways, well thank you so much for being on the show. Um, actually our mutual friend Var was the one that introduced us and he's like, bro, you gotta talk to Patrick. And I was like, all right , cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah ,
Speaker 1:So I'm so glad I got to again,
Speaker 2:Big hug couple
Speaker 1:Weeks ago . I talked to him. I think I'm having a call with him next week actually. So , um, have
Speaker 2:You done the show? Have you done the show?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was on the show like two weeks ago, I think. So he's a fricking smart
Speaker 2:Dude. Is it , is it up?
Speaker 1:It's on the live stream . It's not on the, it's not on the , um,
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I gotta go watch it. It's like a long one too. We had , we freaking goofed off half the time. Um, oh,
Speaker 2:He's easy to talk .
Speaker 1:I love the Pacific
Speaker 2:On , we go on full and then, and then like we both, oh , well I don't normally, but he normally is like, okay, I gotta go, we gotta stop with Let's talk next week.
Speaker 1:Like yeah ,
Speaker 2:<crosstalk> . But we all love this. We're all in this business for the same reason. So that's why it's easy to, you know, we, we, it's , it's easy to, it's easy to go down the rabbit hole geek out because we're Yeah. Geek out , right ? Geek out on the cool side for the same reason .
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like,
Speaker 2:Yep .
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. Well, I think what your , your style is really sick and I think your clothing looks impeccable. I mean, I know you're sending me something I haven't gotten any yet, and I'm telling you guys right now, but like what I've seen on his site , I was like, dude, that's fricking nice. <laugh> . Um, you better hook me up with an app.
Speaker 2:No pressure or anything, but no pressure or anything.
Speaker 1:Um ,
Speaker 2:Yeah, <laugh>,
Speaker 1:But if I ever go down I 80, I'll , uh, I'll stop in Morris and come see you and , uh,
Speaker 2:Yeah, please stop by. I'm a total sitting duck, so I'm here every day . Um, so please, you know, Paul and everybody else, if you're on your way by Morris, Illinois, please stop and see the store and come have a, a cold
Speaker 1:Here . Chicago, if you're in Chicago, it's only 30 minutes from like, it's like an hour from downtown probably, maybe an hour and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 45. 45 from midway. And uh , there's a lot of good golf around us . Yeah . So it's worth the trip for sure, whether it's for us or not.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for being on the show and I will see you guys in the next episode.
Speaker 6:Thanks for listening to another episode of Behind the Golf Brand podcast. You're gonna beat me and 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.