We made it to Episode 30 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. In this week's episode, I interview my friend Dan Erdman, the Founder and CEO of Uther Golf.
Founded in 2016, Uther (pronounced other) forever changed the way golfers think about their towels. The company’s founders saw that customizing golf bags proved next to impossible. They were looking for a way to buck the trend and thought what better way than golf towels? Today, the company features towels of all shapes and sizes with colorful patterns and designs that are sure to make your bag stand out. Made of the finest materials, these towels are not only fun, they’re guaranteed to stand the test of time.
We made it to Episode 30 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. In this week's episode, I interview my friend Dan Erdman, the Founder and CEO of Uther Golf.
Founded in 2016, Uther (pronounced other) forever changed the way golfers think about their towels. The company’s founders saw that customizing golf bags proved next to impossible. They were looking for a way to buck the trend and thought what better way than golf towels? Today, the company features towels of all shapes and sizes with colorful patterns and designs that are sure to make your bag stand out. Made of the finest materials, these towels are not only fun, they’re guaranteed to stand the test of time.
Today, we play a golf. Let me show you how we do it in the pros. Welcome to behind the golf grand podcast. I've never missed with the seminar, 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 each and every single round you play to fun from on and off the green. Why would you play golf? You don't play it for money. Just let me put the ball in the hole. This is behind the golf brand podcast with Paul libertory behind the golf brand podcast is sponsored by OnPoint. The revolutionary three-dimensional dome golf ball marker on point provides a layman recognition as small as a degree of inaccuracy from the planned course of the putt face angle endorsed by Jim Furich us open champion and 17 time PGA tour winner. On point alignment technology has been proven to increase putting performance and help lower your score. Visit OnPoint golf.us, and be sure to use code[inaudible] for a 10% discount on point, make more putts
Speaker 2:What's up guys, Paul from golfers authority, and welcome to the behind the golf brand podcast. This week, you have a really good friend of mine, Dan Erdman from other towels, uh, others, pretty much the premier towel company right now in golf they've been around for, I dunno, probably four years, I would say, and just has been tearing it up. So it's kind of cool, like to see the original cause he turned to see a lot of copycats out there, but, um, Dan's with us today where I learned all about other and their story and how they came to fruition. So welcome to the show. Hey man, I'm excited to be here. So where are you Toronto? Um, unfortunately not golfing weather, um, in December. December. Yeah. Yeah, we, we kind of get the short end of the stick when it comes to the golfing season, but um, you know, it gives us a bunch of anticipation and then I guess it makes it a little bit more special to be on a golf course. What is your golf season? And in that area? I have no idea. I'm in Arizona. Yeah. About April to end of October. Sometimes you can squeeze in some rounds in November, but it gets really, uh, pretty, uh, in the fall time with the changing colors in Canada, especially at, um, a couple of Loco used to work at. So we're kind of in the opposite direction. Like Arizona peak seasons, I want to believe in the winter time. Yeah. Are, well, people were like year round, but like it starts from, I mean the perfect golfing weather, I would say is beginning of November to Hey and then starts getting really hot. And so, but I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty decent. It's just cheaper in the summer. That's all it really, it is. You can play TV for like a hundred bucks, but now it's like 400. So, I mean, no thanks. But yeah. So when you, so the main of my first question to you is when did you, like, what is your first memory of golf? Like, have you always played golf? Like since you were a kid or like kind of like, how did you get into it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So growing up in Canada, um, I played a lot of hockey and, and probably started hockey when I was about seven, eight years old. So I'm actually pretty typical for a lot of Canadian kids. And I stuck with the same group of hockey players and, and, and team members for pretty much my entire junior hockey career, if you can call it that. Um, and, and yeah, a lot of my friends would go from the natural transition to hockey, um, in the wintertime and golf in the summertime. And it was a cool pastime and especially a couple of my best friends, um, at the time would frequently go to the local driving range and, um, tear it up a little bit. So, uh, you know, it was more just for fun and, and, um, didn't take it overly seriously, but, um, at the same time, we're all, we were all competitive kids. So, um, we almost got into some fist fights on the golf course. Um, very hockey player, like not very golfer, uh, etiquette.
Speaker 2:So when like, so when you played hockey until when, like, did you wanna go to the pros or what
Speaker 3:Played up until like end of high school, uh,
Speaker 2:Is that you're not going to the NHL and you're yeah,
Speaker 3:Yeah. Uh, it was competitive hockey. Wasn't anything too crazy. Um, I played, I played for my high school hockey team nine grade 10, um, for a little bit. Um, and we were playing up against some really good, yeah, we, we were, we weren't, we weren't too good. Um, but yeah, we were playing like against like guys that were like going pro and, and, and, um, going to the OHL, which is like the minor, uh, and except before you get to the NHL. So, um, yeah, I realized at that point that there wasn't much of a career.
Speaker 2:So like I have a friend here in the Valley who is an NHL player and he is Canadian stock shocker. And he actually went to Stanley cups, but for the avalanche and like, he's a little older than me, but, um, he was telling me like he played hockey really work. I mean, I played hockey in high school too. And, but in Arizona we had like three hockey rinks. So there wasn't that much. Uh, so he was saying that like, when you, like, he played juniors or something and Aqua and like, what is that? Is that like the next level, I guess, like when you come out of high school and you started playing for like a w or is that like in high school and you're really good and you play for like a juniors team. I was always wondered that,
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of like the, yeah. The bridge between, um, like super competitive, uh, hockey. So like was, I was seamless like junior a, uh, and yet like, that's like the misstep, um, before you enter, uh, Danny show pretty much for, for a lot of people. So yeah, so that's, that's, that's really high-level and especially as playing the high school hockey, everything was just going so fast and, and it's crazy how, um, uh, quickly it, like when you're, when you're watching the game from your couch or even, um, from the stands, it doesn't appear as quick as when you're obviously on the ice.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You guys are super good. You're like, Oh wait, how am I leaving? Yeah,
Speaker 3:It's just happening so, so quickly. Um, but yeah, it was, it was a good time, more than anything. And, and, uh, it's fun to, um, you know, have a team sport and I get really invested with, uh, your, your teammates on a game and that sort of thing. So you like, did you just go to college? Like most people, yeah. I went to, I went to university, uh, for three years and then I actually dropped out to start the business I was setting on really. And yeah. Yeah. It was just my parents. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Um, now they're like, wow, they're really good decision.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, man. It was, it was the right time for me. And, and I feel like, um, a lot of younger people somewhat had an edge when starting a business and, and, and it's like their first, like there's there's code and cons to both I, this wasn't like my first actual job. Like I worked at summer camps and in the backdrop just a little bit at some golf courses. And I didn't have obviously the experience and know that a lot about the business world, but at the same time I had the ability to up, excuse me, I'm going to have to beat that out. Um, yeah. And, and, and not have too large a penalties because I didn't have to like support a family. I was, I didn't have a lot of expenses and I had that time to, to grow, um, into, into my career
Speaker 2:And it can be a lot more nimble,
Speaker 3:Right. Yeah. A hundred percent. So, uh, I'm super fortunate that I started winning. I did. And, um, yeah, at the moment, I'm, I'm 25 years old and I started at 21 and 25. Yeah, man. Yeah. Your dad, your dad, let's see, I could be your dad. Well, if I have seen your dad was like in high school or something. Yeah, yeah. Or you're 25, 25. He runs like a huge golf power company. Thanks man. Um, and, uh, you know, I'm 25. Yeah, no, no. And, and, and especially working with some of the larger customers that we have, I was like 22 years old speaking to, um, retailers and, and that sort of thing. And, and, and like big retailers, like, yeah. Guys are in like, aren't you guys at Dickson other sporting goods stores. Yeah. Were
Speaker 2:All sporting goods, golf galaxy, and in golf town locations. Um, so yeah, those are the big ones that we can really penetrate and that sort of thing. So we're really not easy. I mean, especially in the golf towel market, like you would think like, you know, it's just kinda cool. So yeah, we had, as you mentioned, the beginning of the podcast and this unique idea to create bashful golf towels, and we were the first in with this concept and you get rewarded for speed and, and having the initial idea. And it's really fun to be the first in because we're setting the stage, we're, we're creating something new and, and, and there's something really invigorating about creating new and better products that a lot of copycat brands, I can't imagine have the same sort of fulfillment and obviously success. Um, when they make money quick, it's like to them, it's like a get rich, quick scheme. Or the best advice I ever got from anybody is I is in the golf industry at least was, they said, you need to, um, focus on like one product that you're really good, really, really good at, and then branch out to other products or work with brands that are just like you, and then do something with that. And I was like, that's right. That's good advice. I mean, a hundred percent. And they're a huge shoe company. I'm not cool. No, you, you dropped out of college. So like, we'll use some college one day and you're saying this sucks. I don't want to graduate. I want to be a CEO that really happened. I didn't take it overly seriously. Like I didn't take even working, um, my other job seriously. Cause I always knew this was my path. And, and I don't want to have my own company like super young age. So it was always in the back of my mind. That was awesome. And, and I'm, I'm super fortunate that I did it. And again, as you mentioned, it's risky. And, and um, my, my family, wasn't a hundred percent on board, but, um, luckily I made it work very quickly and, and here's a deal. This is, I don't tell us my kids, but I've talked to other like, uh, entrepreneurs and CEOs of companies they're like us. Right. And they cost a hundred percent agreed. And then they say at the end of their kids do, they're like, Oh, you need to go to college through college is. You didn't go to college. Like, yeah, if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer or something like, okay, go to college. But like really anybody can go to college nowadays and get a diploma and say, I went to college. Like, it's just the way of, I don't know, like if you want to make money in your life, run your own business. And the rich people, I know have their own business and they just bootstrapped it and they built it and they figured it out. I see that a lot as a lawyer, like a lot of my clients, that's how they started, you know? And they're, they're older now. Right. And they, you know, they, they got in, on franchises early on when they were starting to become popular. Like they're all in the seventh grade now they own like 200 birds. Yeah. One of those guys. Yeah. One of those guys they're like, no, for sure. That's, that's great. And, um, yeah, for me, like, I I've always wanted to have like my own brand and in a sense, and I think a franchise is an amazing opportunity. And especially if you're able to scale it to that level, I just really enjoy creating stuff and know, especially with COVID now you don't want real estate. I mean, you don't want to rent, I guess that made me rephrase that real estate is always good investment. Don't get me wrong. You don't want to get into a franchise and like the subway or something, you know, in a retail Plaza or in a mall, like we have an entirely virtual team and it's been working for us. So it reduces our overhead. And, um, all of our thoughts, Craig, Craig is, he's actually pretty far away from me. Really? Yeah. Like relatively far, like an hour away, up a little bit North. Um, I was like, yeah. And he's, he's great. He's he's he's absolutely. He was our last murder. No, our four or five or higher. And then yeah. He's he does a good job for us. No, I think it's so cool. I've learned this too. I've taught other brands. I talked to vice about this. Right. Like I know that, like I know I work with vice and I know there are a number like two or three employee up the founders. Right. So they've been with them forever. And it's just cool to hear that, you know, after 10 years or whatever, and they're like, Oh yeah, I just stuck. I know so many guys that like start out with the new brands and then they're still with them 10, 15, 20 years later because they just, they care about them. They care about the brand, you know, and they try to grow it and they stay on it, which is the best part is that they are, they feel that they're part of it. You know, it's not like the a hundred percent and it's like, I'm going to clock in clock out. Like I never want employees, you know, that people that are passionate see the same vision and whatever goal that is to them, you know, most, I mean our whole team is virtual and we're all around the world really at this point. But it was just trying to find good people. That's the key a hundred percent. And yeah, we feel the same thing with every one of our team members is excited and, and passionate about, um, what we do. And then there's a good place. It's, it's, it's different than a corporate job. And I had the discussion with one of my friends actually, funny enough last year I went to the university of well-funded like an incubator program through there. So I met. But when you went to a different one, they're just like you guys, cause this is stupid. Yeah. Yeah, no. And then I, and then I came back for a hot second. Um, but yeah, they gave you an honorary diploma and
Speaker 4:Then you you're like, look good. I got,
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's different. Like I was, I was there
Speaker 3:And, and speaking to, um, obviously like a lot higher level people at the, at the university. So it was kind of interesting to get back there and, and, um, everyone to be like super welcoming and like honestly, um, congratulatory and that sort of thing. So yeah. Shout out to, to toddler and, and, and all of them. But, um, anyways, me and the process has been, it's been, it's been great having team members that, um, enjoy.
Speaker 2:I just, I can't believe it because I think you're like, I bet you're in her thirties, but like, you know, they're out for four years, you're 21, 22, starting on their end. Like, this is one of those stories that like, I don't hear that often. You know? I mean, you hear a lot of guys starting stuff in their late twenties, like outta college, then they start the company because they hate their corporate job. You know, it's a second gig, but this is kind of cool because I think this is one of the first times we've actually like kudos because it's really neat.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It was our first, yeah, of course our first video chat, um, right now. But as you mentioned, you've been in touch with our team and, and I'm sure you have, when you hear Dan or admin or whatever, um, you know, it's like quickly, you usually associate with an older person and I've actually had that. Yeah, yeah. No, for sure. But, um,
Speaker 2:It's not a bad thing. I think it's awesome because you think about it, I'm 43, right. Which I don't know, 43, but I'm 43. So I mean, when I was 25, if I was 21, I started a business. I mean, you have 17, I have 17 years on you, but it's like, you have like, you're already at this level and you have your whole future. I'm just so cool because imagine what you can do, what I, which is awesome is over the next, what can you do in the industry? Right. Because you're seeing, I feel like you're seeing a really big shift right now and call, especially, I mean, I'm not an expert, but I just see it on a product level. You know, every once in a while you see somebody be a kind of a changer in the game. And I think it's cool, especially in the last, I mean, it was COVID especially, you see how the game is changing and there's more people coming to it. And it's, I don't know. I just think it's a cool time to be in it. Cause it was stagnant for so many years, you know, for sure. Like forever pretty much.
Speaker 3:I completely agree. And I feel fortunate that we were pretty much the first out of the gate to even new, you know, age of golf in 2016. And we were definitely one of the first Instagram brands and, and yeah, it's great. Yeah. We weren't super big into Instagram. We're so not very huge on, on, on that platform,
Speaker 2:Medium then social. So
Speaker 3:Instagram is definitely our largest. We don't really invest too heavily in, in Instagram. That sort of thing. Like there's not a huge ROI on, on social. It's more, it's more like, I guess, status. But when you look at, when you look at some of the larger brands, no, a hundred percent of the street credit.
Speaker 2:I mean, what I learned is that no, I had all this traffic on the website, but brands didn't give a. Like, they're like, that's cool. But then they was, but then when I started getting more followers and people started like listening to my stuff and whatever it was, it's like, Oh, now I have street credit. Okay. Yeah. Well, it's this weird? I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah. There's, there's some brands that go primarily off of Instagram and I'm sure like, you know, that works for them, but I would say like maybe 1% of our sales are directed from our organic Instagram posts and not sort of things.
Speaker 2:So there's no, yeah. I mean, it's like the Gary V as like with Gary V he's like, you gotta just, when you make something, make it once and then put it on much places. Cause you don't really know where or how, um, and cough is an old sport, especially I can describe it. Like, you know, it's a 40 year old man, right? That's probably the demographic is a 40 year old man. I mean, it goes up higher than that. So it's almost like there's the 18 year old guy have money to spend on a$500 driver. No, there's no way in hell. You know? So you gotta kind of pick your medium. So what is your, I used to do them all, I'm assuming. Right. But you probably spend the most time on Instagram, but it's not like that's your driving for
Speaker 3:Yeah, no for sure. Our, our big channels are retail online. Um, yeah, but like, like email marketing is pretty good for us and that sort of thing. So yeah. Again, Amazon is snaps East and the amount of traffic that they have obviously surpasses any other, uh, commerce platforms. So if you're good there and you have the quality product, you'll be able to sell a bunch of units on, on that.
Speaker 2:What'd you say? Uh, I mean a lot, cause I thought it was cool because before we had a call today, we talked about Amazon a little bit, but you know, Amazon's like the devil, right? I mean, you gotta do deal with the devil because they have all these rules and all this crap out and blah, blah, blah. But it's like, you kind of do with it because if I feel like, and I would say honestly, a majority of golf brands, unless you're a big one, right. Don't even touch Amazon, which I think is hilarious. They will do everything else, but Amazon, right. It's like why? I mean, yeah, you got to deal with it, but they're like the second or third biggest search engine. So why wouldn't you not deal with it? Right. Um,
Speaker 3:Sure. Yeah. You, no, we actually had that incident a few times, especially being located in Canada, we put in a keyword to the front end of our Amazon page. It was like an anti-microbial and Amazon flagged that as a pesticide. So we had basically a year of going back and forth with Amazon to be like, no, no, no, it was just, it was just a word we're not
Speaker 2:When I placed this, that we're a towel dude.
Speaker 3:Exactly. And, and yeah, that shut down like all of our listings. So we basically had to relaunch our Amazon, um, in April this year. So everything that you're from
Speaker 2:This for Amazon is exactly, I'm not dealing with this anymore. We'll start from scratch. Exactly. And it was, we had to literally relabel all of our products and which actually kind of worked out for us because we were transitioning to a different thing too, on the, on the, for the, or just on Amazon all over, even for your retail stuff, you'd have like change the skews up. Oh. Yeah. We changed our UPC, their skews, which you know, was tedious, but absolutely worth
Speaker 5:It, but then an audit. Right. Cause you've been around
Speaker 2:For years, it's like, okay, let's now we're going to kind of get the mess of what you know, and now it's like, you know, it's clean yeah. 20%. And we're kind of do that too on the website right now on my website, like we're doing an audit ourselves and because we transitioned. So like we, uh, it took like nine months, but we redid the entire site and it w it relaunched like, well just the way it looks, right. It launched in February, March. Like I have to cool. It took forever to transition all this data into a new cause we pull pricing in real time now, which is cool. Cause nobody does that. So like, if I go, Oh, you want to buy an other towel, you can buy it, no fence, you can buy a five place, let's say. Right. And then the best price, Oh, other has the best prices go right to the manufacturer because they gave us a discount or whatever it might be, but we're still kind of cleaning up the data. I mean, you find stuff all the data out and that's all, but I'll just divide database management at this point, you know, it's ridiculous. How brands have have sales going on and different prices at different channels. We'd like to keep it super clean. So other than black Friday, cyber Monday, we don't run any sales. So yeah, it kind of like undercut the brand and it's really in my cheapens, the brand, if there's always a say on it, it's like as a brand, it's like a pan now Republic does, like now they're always like, Oh, it's 40% off. It's like, if you're 40%, yeah. I mean, it must work for them. You know, you double the price on your clothes and cut them in half. I mean, which is probably still a 50% margin, you know, or something. Yeah. That's, I mean, I see it too, but you don't know what the thing is is that, you know, somebody in my distributor, my sell for less. Right. Or, or I dunno. Um, so then you guys, so you launched in what you're 16, how many towels did you launch in the first round? Only$3. And two of them were really bad. The designs were solid. If you look upon on a old course check and, um, vintage flour that those were the two Doug's still fricking ugly, but like people bought them because they had no other option when it comes to fashion will golf towels. So, um, it
Speaker 3:Was either that or all or our other one called Flamingo Lake, which is actually our, our top seller seller. Yeah. A hundred percent now that's our top seller to this day. And it's funny. Cause that was like, our original
Speaker 2:Flamingo is so popular in golf, dude. I don't understand that. I mean, it's cool. I didn't see, because I know there's like a lot of shirt companies don't have the flamingos all over it. I'm like, yeah. I mean, nothing against flamingos. I like, let me go to my wife, my wife, my wife through a bird.
Speaker 3:I have like a Flamingo right here. Um, the theme of my condo now that, um, I have my place, I got a couple of flamingos there. Like I need to go catch all. Um, they're solid gold though. Just a good cheap one from West they're like 15 bucks. But yeah, I know it's, it's funny. Like my, uh, my, my ex-girlfriend got me a Flamingo from when she, she worked at West sound for a little bit and she thought that was, that was a cool gift. And then I just kind of, you know, branch it out from there. No, yeah, yeah, no, it was, um, a good,
Speaker 2:No, I was messing around. Um, that's cool. Um, don't tell your new girlfriend, if you have one that your ex-girlfriend gave that to you. Yeah, no
Speaker 3:It's wild man. Um, but I have, I have like Flamingo, um, like our golf ball packaging up as well.
Speaker 2:Golf balls have the Flamingo on it too.
Speaker 3:That's for sure. It's been, it's been really fun to introduce that collection. And again, we're only bringing out stuff that's completely new and different and, and this icon collection is something that they call.
Speaker 2:So you guys started in 16, what was a Shopify store? I'm assuming. Yeah. And then you're the only tower guy out there because if not, you get the old geezer towel, right. What's up heavy, you know, caliber all or something. And so then how big was that first like initial order that you had to do? You know what I mean? Did you buy like a ballad?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, no. At the time I should have bought less, I got 1200 towels, 400 of each design. Um, and for me that was insanely expensive. I mean, yeah, yeah. That's probably, I was, I was, I was actually, I was working at summer camp at the time. So my summer camp gig finance, a lot of the order. And um, you also got like a couple of government government grants for young entrepreneurs. So that really helped it helped me out, but I had a period of pretty much like 30 days where I was supposed to pay the supplier and I just didn't have cash. So they wouldn't release and send the product until I paid it entirely. So I wasn't going to like UltraNick money lenders and, and trying to figure out really
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, exactly plasma. I didn't get any of those, but I was highly considering it. And I couldn't get the products for mom and dad are like, hell to the no, because at school is that in the Dan book when he's like a hundred years old, he'll write this book about the timing. It's good because I'm happy that like, I didn't have like an investor especially early on or did not, I didn't want to control everything and it's like, shut the hell up. Yeah. So that's why I like having entire ownership of the company. Yeah. So yeah, it's, it's, it's been, it's been a lot faster of a growth trajectory and I could imagine, and, and yeah, we're only four years in and we're really excited about the future and the trajectory right now. So you get those first three towels and then did you, how'd you market that? Did you just put that on Instagram and like run Facebook ads or something? I'm assuming. Yeah, we, we went, we posted our, an Instagram story with an influencer at the time. Um, Colorado, well thought he had, he was like one of the first ones in and yeah. And then he had, I remember he had 15,000 followers at the time and I thought that was like 250. Yeah. I talked to him yesterday. That's why he's a great guy. And so too, we saw with me and now it's such a big moment for me. And, um, nothing obviously in relation to, um, regular business, but it was starting out and got the tea towel was in it and I was a big moment. Um, but yeah, went to the PGH trade show for and to have a booth this year. No, no, man. I was just walking and I pitched to, um, a couple of subscription boxes and some other, um, brands for like a collab. And I actually got a few good orders out of those connections. Um, I think people understand, like you don't really need a booth that PGA show like, no you don't. And when I talk to them and they're like, Oh, nobody wants to work the booth. Right. Number one. And you're stuck in your booth the entire time it's going to cost you more than$10,000 to have a booth. And then people think that like, they'll have street cred. If they go, Oh, I have a booth, the PGA show. Like, no, you should go talk, walk and talk. Like that's I went this year for the first time and I might have a booth. I would, I, but I just went around and I just like saw my friends pretty much. And, but none of them were happy with having to pay as much as they did for the booth. And they'd always run over men. Yeah. It's dead. It's so dead, dude. It's over other day about this. I talked to you about PGH I'm like, there's like, there's no PG in case Brule wants to know, this is what I know about it. Like they want to have a virtual PGA show and they want to charge money for that. And like, nobody's going to do that. I can tell you right now see that money run ads because I mean, good luck.
Speaker 3:That's going to actually be
Speaker 2:Really interesting to come this spring, to see how all the big brands are going to spend their money.
Speaker 3:Even 20, 22. I don't imagine us getting booth then. Like, it's just, it's not worth it. Like everything again is so much more virtual. And, and then what's the purpose.
Speaker 2:It was me. I was a new brand. Like, this is my opinion. You don't ever get a booth unless you're, unless you want to spend a bunch of money, really just go and hang out and make friends. If you don't have them, that's really what it is. Like it was crazy, man. We are leading top off one night and I was with the guys from TrueLink square and Chipo was out front, like doing some kind of thing. I don't even know what it was. And so like, we'd already missed it. They were done whatever they were doing. And then I started talking to Brendan McAuley. Who's the CEO. I didn't even know Brennan would call you even what I knew Chipo was like, Oh, I've seen that before we started talking, Oh yeah, that's my company. I'm like, Oh cool. And that's what we became friends. Cause I literally was walking at top golf at like 11 o'clock at night. Like that's, that's how you monetize. That's how you, you know, like, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's a lot of time and a lot of work, um, probably at least two, three weeks and just preparation and, and getting your roof sorted and contacts and all that sort of business. Um, it's, it's not worth it.
Speaker 2:And they always weird rules too. Like I was talking, I was with, I was talking to Asher and they, they had a, I think they had a second floor to their booth. Like it was, was really cool van thing. And then like, it was all set up and then they didn't pay, like our haven't been paid the right money or they, it was against the regulations of the conventions. I don't know what it was, but they couldn't even open it up. It was really bad. It was just like, that's crappy. Like there was all excited. It's cool though. I mean, if you already know people, it's a lot of fun because then you're like just excited to see people and that's rare, but the guys at POM the first time, like I don't walk by their booth. I'm like, Oh, that's pretty cool. Um, but then you meet all these hoity-toity brands and then you're just like, whatever, I'm not gonna name Bria, but like, yeah, I was very not impressed.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And then I see a ridiculous amount of money, upwards of a million dollars, the big, the big companies. And when they have these, like
Speaker 2:That are like huge. I've never seen me like that. I was blown away. I was like, where are we?
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude. It's absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's like a city. It was literally that big, but it was good. I mean, sorry, kinda aggressive, but it was fun. I mean, so then 16, you started and then 17. When did you go to the PGA show? Then they actually had the booth 17 or 18.
Speaker 3:We had a boot in 18, 19, and then they had not this year because we didn't point to that. We, we know where our customers are at and we're not targeting, especially like Greengrass accounts. Um, yeah, we walked the show this year and met up with a couple of contacts and um, I just
Speaker 2:Texted you and been like, yeah,
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll see. Maybe in 20, 22, like roll in, but mostly we won't have a booth and um, yeah, just, we meet up at the food court and, and um, you know, it's a lot more lightweight that way. Yeah. It's packed. But if you, if you go there at the right time, like not during lunchtime, then it's actually, we can get a spot.
Speaker 2:You can sit there and talk to us, talk them to death, like what they had those like offshoot hallways, you know, talking about. And then like we're in like meeting rooms, which is really weird, but like they would have four or five brands in a meeting room. So like they didn't get a booth, but you can share this like big, you paid money for this, like seriously, even like in the next town over. Yeah. So when did you release, like your second round of new or newer stuff? Like you got some sold some product, right. And then when you launched and you know, you had called all golf blog because you have other influencers too. Like, did you reach out to them and say, Hey, would you be willing to like try out my towel or, you know, just send it to them.
Speaker 3:There weren't a lot of infants at that time, which is crazy. So yeah,
Speaker 2:No, not that long ago was a million.
Speaker 3:Yeah. There's, there's a lot, there's a big, I would probably say like 50 times and I'm going to put through the now, um, then there was back then. There's it's crazy now. So yeah, we just, we reached out to a few influencers. That's going to give us some good traffic and street a little bit on, on Amazon. Um, and we
Speaker 2:Were pretty early. Yeah,
Speaker 3:We did get, we did get on pretty early in and, um, smart about 2017, 2018. And then as I mentioned, uh, Amazon pulled us in 2019 for Bay anti-microbial. Um, copy. So, um, we're back on now and, and yeah, it's, it's been a good driver for us. And, and
Speaker 2:So would you say you get most of your sales from your own personal website, like the actual website, or do you guys get them from your main major accounts at retailers and Amazon? Like, what is that what you would say is that stumbling on your Shopify store? Like, you know, there's a kind of a mixture or retail
Speaker 3:Accounts, uh, are probably about 50% Amazon and Shopify are about 20% each, maybe a little bit more to Amazon and then 10% just like general custom towel that we do and, and miscellaneous orders. Um, so yeah, we're, we're really fortunate, um, to have our retail partnerships and, and yeah, we're in over a thousand doors, so, um, it's, it's really exciting to pretty much go to the space and check out other towns in any city. And it seems in Canada.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right. Just how much you've accomplished in a short amount of time. Right. And you know, that there's a lot more, there's so many copycats. Oh, it's not even funny, but yeah. Dismiss them because they, we have their own style. I mean, towels, towels, you know, or whatever, but it's more about the quality of the towel like we were talking about before, but you guys are very particular on the towel, so it's not like, you know, it's not like you just buy some cheap towel, print something on it. It's like, you want a high quality towel. That's going to last a long time and the color is going to last and
Speaker 3:It's it, same with the whole like fast fashion concept. You can buy cheap good-looking piece of clothing, but it's not gonna last for a super long time. So we've paid high attention to detail too. Like the edges, the printing, the fabric. So it does last you a long time, upwards of three, four or five years for golf Hill is a super,
Speaker 2:Um, yeah. How much wear and tear it's getting. It's not like it's like a t-shirt.
Speaker 3:Yeah. W we have some customers from 2016 that still use that same towel. So we'll see how it fares for the next five years or so. Um, yeah.
Speaker 2:So how many towels designs do you guys have, like total now that you sell, like you were 20, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. We, we released spring 21 actually yesterday with the 24 new designs. So, um, I believe we're at about like 60, uh, on the website and, um, some other channels and yeah, we're, we're at about 60, 70 designs. Um, probably
Speaker 2:More than that. How'd you come up with the name, other
Speaker 3:Others, just the idea to be different and you know, there's them. And then there's like other, where were the others? And I liked the idea of putting a user though, just again, reaffirming that we're different and aesthetically, it looks in my opinion. Pretty cool. So, yeah. I'm super happy with that choice initially. I was, it was, I was in between other and defer dif you are. Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy that we didn't go with different. Wouldn't have been a great name.
Speaker 2:No, you didn't change your name. You'd be like, this is not working. We're differ. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you spelled the name wrong, you know, sometimes it'd be like, so you have new all new tiles on the site. Oh, that's cool. We have a Christmas towel. Look at that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Uh, Santa Santa golfing. My personal favorite is peace trip. It's very, it's like I said, it looks like a sticker, almost bunch of different stickers on it.
Speaker 2:You a cartel, Thomas has a golf towel on it. That's so funny. Yeah. It's a golf town
Speaker 3:That we have as it says, like see Riverside. So it's basically like instructions seniors.
Speaker 2:Oh, did I really say that? Oh, that's hilarious.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So that actually we released it yesterday. Not that one. It's actually had surprisingly good sales for us.
Speaker 2:Y yeah. That's cool. I like that on Canadian towels. Cool. Oh, actually, these are all cool. I'm just looking at, um, so then how do you code these? Are these your ideas or do you look graphic designers and they just send you, you know, like what, what's your process when it come to that?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Initially I worked with like a lot of virtual graphic designers and it was a tedious process and we have, um, an in-house one that his name is Jordan who, um, does a lot of our designs, but we also collaborate with a bunch of international designers. Um, so you'll see, like for example, other CC peace trip and a few others all made by this designer in and Spain, um, a really talented designer. So we have
Speaker 2:Bunch of love finding designers, design on your Instagram. There's so many talented designers. I just love finding, like, I just think of
Speaker 3:For sure. So what we'd like to do is have a bunch of different designers because we want different aesthetics for, for protective offers. So yeah. And design for every type of goal for pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah. The happy Gilmore towel. Did they like email you and say where's our licensing? Not yet. Or is it considered art and they don't have to, if they can't. Yeah,
Speaker 3:We haven't been emailed yet, but, um, it's only sold on our website, so yeah. That's been featured in golf digest, which has been super cool for us and yeah, it's, it's popular for sure.
Speaker 2:You have some really cool towels. You guys like, it's crazy. You have a comment. That's a lot of towels. I didn't know. You guys just released new towels. Now, the other thing you guys just did, like in the last two weeks is balls. Right. So tell me about the balls.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's been, uh, working on it for about nine to 10 months and obviously it's a very complicated product. So we wanted to make sure that we partnered with the right factories and yeah, it's been good, man. Um, we've had a good response. Has only been up for pre-order and it's arriving end of, end of December, but we're fortunate that they'll be rolled out to over 200, um, sporting goods locations, Southern locations. So, um, they're going to get in the hands of a lot of golfers very shortly and, and, um, we're excited to put it up on our other platforms and, um, we're actually working with a couple other, yeah. A couple other golf companies.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I just pulled it up on sharing screen. Like, it's pretty cool what you guys are doing. Like you guys are just, you're very, you're very selective on what you do, you know, it's not like you're just selling you just slap it on a logo and being like, Oh, here's the new other ball, you know? And it's some piece of or here's new other towel and it's not like, well thought out. It's just very, what's the word? You're very, uh, I wouldn't say selective it's
Speaker 3:No, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:It's like, I think that is what the biggest differentiator is between a good brand, a bad brand. Right. Someone's trying to make money off of you quickly, or somebody is trying to make you a good product. You know,
Speaker 3:Part of it we've been developing for over two years now and because it's such a, it's actually exactly, it's not right. And, and the small details aren't there. We're not releasing it, even though we would have at this point, caught some significant orders for them. We're not really seeing it until we nail it down. And we're almost at the point right now that we're gonna release it definitely early next year. So yeah. It's, it's exciting. And um, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know a part of you because of this is the way I feel too. And you have to be the same way is that yeah. You want to release it? You know what I mean? Cause you're like so excited by it, but it's not right. And then it's like that balance where you're trying to figure out what's more important to you and sitting with me, it's like not about making the money, it's about, um, making it right,
Speaker 3:Praying something that's great or something that's something that really is different and high quality. And, and yeah, we're not going to release any products that are like a me too or copycat. And, and we have a lot of, I guess, R and D going on at the moment and creating new different products. Um, so yeah, we have over eight to nine different projects at the moment
Speaker 2:Because you're a real brand. You're not just some guy selling towels, you know what I mean? Like you're a real brand. You're very, you're very selective in what you're doing and you want to make quality stuff that people like, and they'll continue to buy from you and be a fan and not be like, Oh yeah, it's not a cheap product.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Yeah. It's easy. It's easy. As you mentioned to just slap a logo on it and styling best example of that. Exactly or so. But, um, our, our process, like hacks are the best example because there's a lot of companies that buy blank hat and they slap a logo on it. And if you were like, it's one thing. If, if you have a massive following and um, you're trying to take advantage of that. Like, like, you know, that's, that's complete different story, but when you're selling a product, because you're trying to get the highest quality product and you're just slapping a logo on it, it's, it's a very difficult way to do business because again, you're competing with everyone else that some of that same hat, but your differentiator is your logo, which doesn't really,
Speaker 2:Yeah. Is my old thought put into it. And so it's, if someone annoys me more like seriously, because I've seen, I saw that a lot too, when I first started out doing this, is that people there's so many like quote unquote startups. Right. And it's like, Oh, we came out with this new rangefinder. It's like, dude, that finer 1500 brands are making the same rangefinder. And I know originally made it, you know, it's it's same thing. It's like, there's just so many products like that. And I don't even, I always get those like requests, like talk to me on Instagram. And I don't want to talking to you. I don't want to buy, you buy a$4 product and you're trying to sell it for 25. I could buy it. I think they had Alibaba right now and sell it. You know? It's like, you're not real. Like, I don't want to work. I don't want to talk to you because you're wasting my time and you're going to screw over people on some products. I don't know. I just, I would rather, I like to work with cool brands that are actually trying to change the game in a positive way. And there's a lot of them out there that people don't know about because they get lost in the noise right. Of the bigger budget companies. But yeah. That's cool. So you guys have a ball. I bet you, I married knows one of the things you and I talked about it, like you guys are doing and I'm like, Oh yeah, yeah, because you already have it like set up. You're doing it the right way. Yeah. It might take you six months before you release it. Who cares? You know, because you gotta sell a ton of them in a hundred percent. I completely agree. And, and you know, you ought to have a lot of patients, especially when we were working on a golf balls in like April. And it's just like, when is this going to come out? But, um,
Speaker 5:Yeah, right now this is golf right now
Speaker 2:December. And are you going to release it in December? I mean, at the end of the day, yeah. You probably make less money right now than had you made it an April cares, you know, a hundred percent. And that's what you ha I mean, you see that, I don't know. That's always been the problem I think with golf is that especially, you know, it's like every spring, every February, a new golf club comes out, which is better than the last year's golf club. Why? I don't know all of these claims. It's absolutely absurd. Like if we were, if it was true back from like 20, 20, 15 or 2010, we'd be up like driving it 450 yards and that sort of isn't it. So yeah. I feel like that's a really tough space to be in, uh, developing golf clubs. You should actually do that. Maybe really colorful golf club. Just kidding. Yeah. Flamingo. Yeah. Uh, clubs. Yeah, I'll do that. I don't like that idea. Apparel and accessories. That's where I think people, you know, that's where you can really differentiate yourself, you know, like exact products and golf clubs, all look the same as a matter of what type it is always the same club just looks different, but what's cool, man. You guys have a lot going on right now. That's awesome. I also wanna say, thank you for being on the show today. I know you're a busy guy, super busy and you know, we're excited to work with you and, you know, thank you for supporting us to, you know, different things. We do like contests and stuff, but yeah, the giveaway guys need to definitely check out other others. I don't know. Like I said, they're awesome. They have really, really, really cool towels. And as you can see, like they care about the quality and actually coming up with cool designs and not just slapping a logo on it and saying, see you later. So, but cool, man, thank you so much. And where can they find you at? Oh, there's a fly.com and their supply on social and yeah, as I mentioned, check out your local retailer and, um, golf galaxy, as I mentioned, golf town. So can, and
Speaker 3:You can check it out and I can thank you so much for all of this great talking to you and congrats on the contest. As, as, as, um, you know, we discussed earlier on I'm super stoked to, uh, to be a part of that. And, and it's, it's really big.[inaudible] there we go. There you go. Um, I'm excited and yeah, we'll, we'll send out a free other towel to the winter, so definitely entered the contest and yeah. Super, super appreciative that you, you have me on and thanks again for this. Yeah, for sure, man. Let's do it. We'll do it again. I'm going to come to Toronto. We'll cook off. Yeah. A hundred percent. It was good speaking to you, man. All right. You take care. All right later, man.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf brand podcast, you're going to beat me like 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're winning, stay out of the beach and see you on the green.