Ep #36 - Galvin Green: Tom Romano (GM North America)

We made it to Episode 36 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast.  In this week's episode, I interview my friend Tom Romano the General Manager of Galvin Green in North America. 

Galvin Green is a pure golf brand specialising in the design and supply of high-performance clothing to golfers in more than 20 countries worldwide. Designed by golfers for golfers.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Today we play golf. Let me show you how we do

Speaker 2 0:05

Welcome to behind the golf grand podcast. I'm 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

Speaker 1 0:21

Each and every single round you play

Speaker 2 0:23

To fund 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 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 putty performance and help lower your score. Visit OnPoint golf.us , and be sure to use code GA 10 for a 10% discount on point. Make more putts.

Speaker 1 1:09

This episode of behind the cough brand podcast is sponsored by our friends at Oracle golf bags or could golf bags is the only woman owned callback design and build company in the country. It was so great about Orca is that they do more than just call bags . They do gym and leisure bags too . So be sure to check out orca-golf.com for more what's up guys, Paul from golfers authority. Welcome to behind the golf brand podcast. This week. I have my good friend, Tom Romano from Galvin green, Galvin green is a premier outer rain gear coach. Anything you want us to keep yourself dry and warm is going green. It's a very cool company. I believe they're from Ireland and they started we'll find out more, but Tom's not in Ireland. I should. Nevermind . So without further ado, welcome to episode 36 of the podcast. Nice to be here. So he's an Irish, you guys thought he was going to be Irish and I hate to disappoint. He's like , I like the lucky charms and they're like , I don't know , like I always mess around. So like I had somebody on the podcast a couple weeks ago and I was from Australia and every time I taught to my really good friends, I was like, I always do like a British accent and he's like much Jalia and like , uh , they're like same thing . I'm like , same thing . Come on, you guys, you guys are kind of colony or you were so tell me, where are you right now? I'm in New York. Uh, I was in San Diego last week where our office is based in Carlsbad. Pretty much, you know, like you said, Arizona and San Diego seemed to be the meccas of golf, but I'm back in New York. I live in Manhattan and I miss the Carlsbad weather for sure. So why are you in Manhattan? Like why aren't you in Carlsbad or is that by choice or they want to do in New York?

Speaker 3 3:03

We , we launched in 2014 in our office. Used to actually be in Connecticut. And my predecessor, my predecessor's predecessor started the office in Connecticut. And then Steve Hendron moved it out to Carlsbad cause he was based out there and it kind of freed me up to move wherever and work remotely. I landed on New York as a place I always wanted to live.

Speaker 1 3:24

Where are you from? Originally? I'm from Connecticut. Oh, okay. So

Speaker 3 3:29

I got started with Galvin about six years ago. And then yeah, Steve moved it out to Carlsbad. And then , uh, just a few gala gala . You guys have the coolest fricking jackets .

Speaker 1 3:42

Like you guys make the best jackets, like the best and like the style. I don't know. It's European stylish, but it's this cool.

Speaker 3 3:52

It's unique. Um, I think everybody knows it for performance, but like the styling, the colors, the branding, I think , uh, it's, it's pretty fun and it's a great book .

Speaker 1 4:01

I seriously love it. So. Okay. So let's play a little game. What is your first golf memory? Well , Galvin or just life , life, life.

Speaker 3 4:12

I remember I was like nine years old and my dad made me go to this golf camp where I was not really into golf. Honestly, I had two buddies that went with me and I remember like we went out on the range and I shanked one literally right into one of the kids. Like he was right on the range to the right of me. And like I hit him and he was kinda like five yards ahead or whatever. And I hit him right in the ankle and the kid's like ankle blew up. I got in so much trouble getting stuck because you know this kid or this , some kid, it was a random kid. It wasn't one of my buddies. My buddies are laughing at me cause I just shot some fat kid. Was it the fact that it was a fat camp that was next door and then like literally like , and trouble. And I'm like, dude, I don't wanna play this game anymore. It was like the second day of camp, I'm like, I'm done. And my dad's like, you gotta be playing . We paid for this. You got to go for another week. And then I started to get a little better, all this stuff and started to get into it. But I was literally livid afterwards. I was like, dude, this game sex, I'm done. It's too hard. I don't want to play it . And that's the second best,

Speaker 1 5:14

My first memory of golf, like for ELLs . That's awesome.

Speaker 3 5:19

And you continue playing. So like, were you, were you good then

Speaker 1 5:22

Growing up or like, Oh is this like, not like, you know, like, did you keep on playing and you on the high school team and all that crap or what happened? I kept playing.

Speaker 3 5:31

It's more of when I was growing up, I was a basketball and like soccer kid like that, that was my favorite sports. I always played golf. And then when I got into high school, I kind of took it more seriously as when I was, you know, I'm like 62 now. But when I was a sophomore in high school, I was like five, two . So my parents were like, man, I don't think, I don't think basketball is going to be a support. Um, so I started playing golf a little bit more. I took it seriously, played high school golf. And then I played , uh , in college at Trinity college, like a small D three school golf . Yeah. I play golf. That's cool . But I was like 10th on the team. I was like, you know what I mean,

Speaker 1 6:05

10th on a division three team. I was

Speaker 3 6:06

10th on a division three team every year. It seemed like I was on the chopping block and I just barely made it every time. Like I think my sophomore year I shot,

Speaker 1 6:15

I shoot in the nineties. I was, I was on a division three,

Speaker 3 6:18

I think like, I think my sophomore year I shot 78 and the kid who got cut and shot 79. So like I , every year Patrick read it.

Speaker 1 6:29

Did you Patrick read it? Did you go? Oh

Speaker 3 6:31

Yeah. I was just like, you saw me throw it out into the fairway, like, Oh yeah. It's all right there.

Speaker 1 6:36

Do you have a ball in like your pant pocket or your pant leg use ? Drop it next to the green book . Oh my God . Look at that. You guys. Oh my God. That's so weird.

Speaker 3 6:46

150 yards out of bounds.

Speaker 1 6:48

You're in the sand trap and like, no one's looking, he's grab your ball and throw it out of the green.

Speaker 3 6:54

I'll play it. I've ever done that. Yeah. No. I mean, look, we've all, we've all gotten desperate

Speaker 1 7:01

When you're yeah. When you're desperate, but you're desperate when you planted your dad and he was like, I don't even wanna play anymore. Cause it's not fun. I do that too. Sometimes that was one that's only once . Um , absolutely . So you played division, you are number 10 on a division three golf team and I bet you had aspirations of going on tour.

Speaker 3 7:24

I had no aspirations. I knew when I was , I was a tourist school after this was pretty bad too, is like, I was joking me and my buddies to skip golf practice and my other buddies who play like football and be like, dude, you're skipping golf practice. It's not even like, it's the easiest thing. You go play nine holes. I have to go run like, you know, three miles for football or whatever it is. And you're skipping a golf practice. And I'm like, yeah. So I don't think I had the work ethic or aspirations to be a pro golfer playing , playing. I was having a good time. Yeah, it was , uh , it was fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:56

Today it's still cool. Did they give you like, did they pay for your school and stuff?

Speaker 3 8:01

No , no , no.

Speaker 1 8:02

It was just like you tried out or was it like,

Speaker 3 8:04

Yeah, like there was a printing process, stuff like that, but I just walked on. Um, yeah, just try it out.

Speaker 1 8:10

So they must have been really bad. I mean, cause no, they must've because they're like, wow , you walked on and he still made it. They played like five dudes at that school.

Speaker 3 8:20

You know , our team was pretty good. Like I was probably at my best, like a three handicap. So I was talking , um, but not nearly as good as some of these other kids we played in one tournament with like D one like Yukon, stuff like that and just got absolutely shredded. Yeah . Like we're shooting like 78. They're grinding at 68 and just literally it's crazy. Yeah . It's wild. I'm just like, all right , this is a different animal. I don't have game for this. I've never been that good. I'm not very good anymore.

Speaker 1 8:49

When I used to, I see a pilot. And so like when I was flight instructing, like you fly in Arizona, you fly in the morning, right? The summertime, it was super cool outside. So you fly in the morning and by 11 you're done, it's hot as hell. So we just go play golf. We're like, well it's still hot. I was going to play golf. It costs literally nothing. I got really good. I just feel like every day. And then math , once you have kids and, they're young . Yeah . It's impossible for sharing. I wonder the rain on Friday with my boss and he's getting into golf cause his girlfriend wants to get into golf. And so it was just cool. So he can play. So we went to the range and he had these old crappy clubs, like super, well , I don't know what brand these are. That's what all these are. And so like I had my nice clubs and I hit like five shots or whatever. And he's like, why are you really good? I started, I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm really good. I'm like, I'm like good. And I'm close to being good.

Speaker 3 9:34

Stop lying.

Speaker 1 9:37

I'm like not good at all. You know , I just wanna have fun . I want to be like, I want to shoot decently, but I mean , whatever. Um, so then after you graduated, what happened? Did you like get a job at like, what were you doing?

Speaker 3 9:48

So the guy actually who hired me for Galvin was a member of my club up in Connecticut. And he started Galvin here in the U S and uh , so he reached out my senior year , uh , of college and uh, and was like, Hey, you need a job. And I was like, yeah. And uh, you know, he's like, we need a customer service rep. Um, so I started in customer service right after college. Um, and then, huh. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So , um, and then, yeah, so for a couple of years did that, and then I got promoted to operations manager in 2018. Um, and then just a few weeks ago, got promoted to the GM

Speaker 1 10:27

For North America. That's crazy. Like , that's awesome. Cause you think about it, you guys, like he worked his way up, right? Like, and it was like just work and like CSR, that sucks. Like I had , I've done that before. I mean, it's not that I can CSR. It's just a hard job. People don't realize how hard it is. Cause you got to make people happy. Right. It takes patience for sharing that. What is cool too? I think it makes you special because you've done all the roles leading into the role you're in now, you know? So you understand like, okay, that's how it's supposed to be done. That's you're supposed to do it. Most guys just come at it and they don't know Jack. And they're like, Oh yeah, that's do this. Do that. And you're like, yo dude, that's not how it works.

Speaker 3 11:05

Yeah, for sure. I , it , it helps the people I work with. Yeah. For sure. Training and getting them to know like, yeah, like you said, how to, how to do the business,

Speaker 1 11:13

The biggest Galvin now and the U S

Speaker 3 11:17

I mean, it's getting big. I mean, we've probably grown 2020 was a struggle. Um, but yeah, 2020 in terms of like from March to like June, cause the majority of our customer base is green grass and a lot of pro shops are closed. So our online business was really good. Our direct from our e-com was really good. Our online partners such as

Speaker 1 11:37

Ready for it though. Right. Like, cause you guys were more focused on green grass for sure . Yeah .

Speaker 3 11:44

We kind of adapted yeah. And improvised into like using more of our online retailers, our big box, like PJ tour Superstore and trendy golf, some of our bigger partners, but it was struggle at least in the spring because us, for outerwear , um , known , known as an outerwear company, when you get into the summer obviously,

Speaker 1 12:02

And it's like. Right. And all your stuff is locked . Well, I mean, I heard it like not you guys, but like other brands, I think it with golf balls, especially, you know, all these stores were locked down to like even the big box retailers were locked down. So like they have product on the shelf in the retailer and their, and their econ was blowing up and they had no product because it's all stuck a , you know what I mean? So they had to like go back to and be like, Oh, we need a product that they got it back.

Speaker 3 12:28

Yeah. It's um, yeah, it definitely threw you for like trying to improvise and figure out what the best kind of course of action is for the business. But we , we figured it out. It was good. I mean, we, we finished the straw , uh, the , a really strong, it was our best September and October's ever , um, and we've been around since 1990, so it was great. And our 30 year history to , to finish off the year like that

Speaker 1 12:47

A bad year and a bad year overall life. Exactly. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 12:51

In 2021, I mean a hard part for us . Yeah . I think it's going to be really big. Like our pre books are better than ever. Our , our spring line is due to launch like pumping out we're back, you know, the great thing. And you know, as well as eyes golf is up like crazy, you know? And do my traffic

Speaker 1 13:10

Website, like in January was I was, I had 90,000 people in January on my website in January when like the entire United States frozen, you know what I mean? And I like, yeah, it's going to be massive here . I already can tell, you know, like you can just, you can feel it. It's going to be a big year

Speaker 3 13:27

For the ball to a hundred percent.

Speaker 1 13:29

Especially with like all the newbies that just came out from last year. Now they're like, Oh, I want to play. You know? And they're like, I have some brands going like, Hey man, how'd you sell some of those products. I'm an affiliate for a couple of companies. And I'm like, dude, people are stuck indoors . That's why like they want to practice. You have a practice for product, like a hundred percent. That's it? I mean, I am not doing anything special. It's just that they want,

Speaker 3 13:53

Everybody's got the edge to play. It's uh , it's just crazy.

Speaker 1 13:57

Like even when I went to the driving range, I couldn't , there was like, every Bay was taken. I was like, he's serious. Like where these people come from. And like, usually it's like, okay, all the Canadians come to Arizona. Right. And it's like , the border is locked. So it's like, people are not here. You know? Like are , is not how it used to be. So it's like, all these new players come in, all lined up , they hit a bucket of it .

Speaker 3 14:16

And the hardest part is getting people out of a Bay. Like they

Speaker 4 14:20

Will take

Speaker 3 14:23

Common. Courtesy does not exist when it comes to driving. Right . These guys will say ,

Speaker 1 14:28

I know it me off. It's because you can tell they're new too, because like belt , like, you know, you have the boards, right? Like between where you're supposed to be. Like, these people are backed up all the way to the back board. So their swing is like coming over my Bay. I was like, man. Like dangerous out there. Like seriously, my boss comes out , tagged in the head of the driver. Like for real , I was like, you need a backup . Like, I mean , you have all this front part of your Bay and your balls are behind you. So why are you not using the rest of the Bay? And this person's like, so , um, I might think she'll be like, Oh, check out my website. Yeah , yeah , exactly . My business card, nice little plug . I'm like , Oh, you need a jacket. And he would have Galfond green to like, really? I'm like, Oh yeah. Here's Tom's cell number. I'm like, what's, phone's going to be ringing off . Probably like , here's another tailor to like some suppliers. I don't really know this, but like some suppliers were based out of California, but like, they literally get all their orders in California and then they have to ship it out or they do like, they'll do some kind of like graphicy stuff in California and they'll ship it out. Like they're having problems too because California and all the COVID stuff. So like now there's a shortage. I know, I know this cause my friend does, you've managed a bunch of golf courses here in Arizona and he's like, dude, we can't even get the products. Like , like they're just selling, they're selling out. It's like the kids can't get the more inventory, you know? I was like, Oh, that's an opportunity. So you started in what year? Then? 14, 15,

Speaker 3 15:55

2015. Beginning of 2015. Yeah. So,

Speaker 1 15:59

So straight out of college, straight , like that's cool.

Speaker 3 16:03

Yeah. I've been with just Galvin and yeah, it's been fun, man. It's uh, it's fun to be kind of the , the mixture of a startup here in the U S but also because we're so established in Europe, you know, you have that backing of being the number one brand in the UK. Um, yeah. We're, we're the number one outerwear brand. And I believe the number two apparel brand last time I checked. So it's , uh , it's pretty cool. And that , and that's why I liked the traveler. Anybody, any American who goes to the UK to play, you know, Trump, you know, turn barrier doom bag or, you know, Carnoustie, whatever it is. They always come back and see Galvin everywhere there . They're like, dude, I saw this brand over there. Like, that's awesome. Yeah. It's pretty sweet.

Speaker 1 16:42

I love, I love you. I love those kinds of like, I don't know. I feel like European brands and I say European mainly like English, right? Or Scottish. Like you're not, not the from mainland Europe because ugly. Seriously. You know, it is like, this is golf, this isn't soccer. Okay. That's football , football, football, football, like , you know , talking about it's like one time I had a brand name of him , but I did some stuff for them. And they're from mainland Europe. Let's just say that. And I took pictures of their product . I did the review. And then I CA I was all excited. I was like, okay, here's the review? And they're like, Oh, we like it a lot. But switching out the images and I was like, sure. So then they, like, they go, we got a bunch of images we can send you. Right. So they sent me these images, dude, these people will not look like they're from the United States. Let's put it that way. Like they look like it's like, Carl going to , uh , Baeza to hang with his friends and we're golf equipment. Like , that's what it looked like. And I was like, I'm not putting on my website because I think it looks like Americans, like, so sorry. Almost supposed to promote that. How much to talk about how cool your brain is when you give me pictures of like, guys that don't even look like golfers wearing golf , like come on. But I mean, I, like, I never do that. Galvin was the number one brand.

Speaker 3 18:03

Yeah. We are. We're based in Sweden. Always have been. Um, but like the UK we launched in , I think about 2000, 2001 and it just grew like crazy because our brains are all time. It just rains there all the time. Right.

Speaker 1 18:16

Well , you guys make super, super high quality, like in this stuff, isn't cheap BRD . I mean , like, it's not like, you know, this is not cheap stuff, right? Like not price wise, I'm saying like, materials, like, so it's like, you guys make, it's like, Oh, you know , the best I can describe it is you make a whatever equipment and it's been a titanium, right? Like titanium , super expensive. Like, this is how it is because your materials like Gore-Tex . And like, I mean, whatever, I don't know the rest of the stuff material , sorry.

Speaker 3 18:47

Um , no, we always related to, we're almost like equipment, right? Like you said with yeah . With the fabrics that we use and the performance that we come with. Yeah. I mean, every Gore-Tex piece that we have has a lifetime guarantee. So when you're spending 400, $500 on a jacket, you know, you're never gonna have to buy another one, you know, 10, 15 years down the road, it's going to perform just as good .

Speaker 1 19:06

So cool. Like you guys make high, high, high, high quality stuff. And it like , looks cool too . You know, like you could make a really cool cortex or, you know, outerwear some of jacket and it can be ugly as hell, you know? Like, just because , but like you guys actually make it look like, I dunno , cool. Stylish.

Speaker 3 19:26

Yeah. I mean, it's kind of cool too . Like we were the first in golf to make a rain suit, not in black and Navy. And like, we try to use bold colors. Right. Cause we don't want to be boring. We want to be unique. We want to be different. And uh, I think our consumer and the Galvin green customer, like recognizes that and being like, I want to look different on the course.

Speaker 1 19:44

I was just thinking , you make cool stuff. Like you get what you pay for. Right. And I think like most golfers, two kind of golfers, right. One is they don't care. Right. But that's because like for let's use my we'll use my boss for example. Right. He cares because he can afford nice stuff and he's new the games . He was like, well, I don't know what to buy. Right. That's the first part people have, but he is used to having nice stuff. Right. So it's like, you know, most golfers want something nice and they want to leave . They want to look good and they're willing to pay the extra, you know, and they understand that, Hey, if you want the best stuff, you're going to pay more for it. Um , but so what's the story of gout and then how that started in the nineties.

Speaker 3 20:22

Oh , it's actually pretty cool. So we've been privately owned by our same owner , uh , Thomas Neilson . And he started at 1990 and it's kind of cool. So we started in Sweden and the PGA of Sweden has a magazine that comes out every year. Right. And it's, you know, those PGA magazines, they're like a hundred pages. And uh, he took out an ad, a 40 page ad in the PJ of Sweden and just put the catalog in there. Oh my gosh. So, you know, and then, you know, you're , you're bold with our dials and stuff like that. So people are like, man, I've seen, I've never seen anything in golf like this, this is cool. This is different. And so that's kind of how it started in 1990. And, and it kinda grew from there. It started in Sweden, kind of grew to the rest of Scandinavia. Like I said, in like 2000, 2001, I go to the UK and I mean, I can't , I think we're in like 36 countries now or something like that. It's, it's definitely a globally recognized brand, especially when you get into Europe.

Speaker 1 21:14

Yeah. It's known for its quality. Right. And it's, it's like everywhere. It's like, cause I mean our , our , a majority of your business, I guess initially would be in like green grass and European like golf courses. Right. I would assume

Speaker 3 21:29

We , we always target like the top, whenever we enter a new market, like the top facilities. Right. And that's usually the green grass , the resorts, the, you know, the high end places. And then it kind of trickles down based on the exclusivity. Right. Then we open it up to more and more people as, as it gets bigger and better. But yeah, that's been our strategy always. Um, when we came into the U S that was our strategy and still is to be honest. And , um, we've obviously partnered with a PGA tour Superstore, which has been great and a couple of online retailers and trendy golf, which they've been a customer of ours since day one. They've been awesome. And if you go on their site , it's fantastic. Um, fairway styles started with us this year. So , um, but you know, the , the pebbles, the durags of the world are great customers of ours also. It's , uh, it just makes so much sense is there's such high in places that it's great for our brand.

Speaker 1 22:16

Well, what's cool too, is that people, you know , um, expect the best, right. When they go to these courses a hundred percent. And so , um, you know, in order to get that, they have no problem. They want it , you know, they don't want some cheap to willing to spend for sure. They're already spending that much money to play around a call. They're like, Oh yeah. Like, Oh, I don't pay that much for a jacket. It's like, that's what it costs for golf today. You know? So like, so did they, did they throw the golf course then had like custom jackets? I have their , like, we'll say pebble on it or something like that or not.

Speaker 3 22:50

I mean, the majority so that we do do like special makeup products here and there with different drops, but it's mostly our core collection, but they'll put their logo on it. Right. I mean, nothing in pebble doesn't have a pebble logo on there because everybody who goes there once, you know, pebble logo on , on their gear. So yeah. It's , uh, it's pretty awesome. It's , uh, it's been fun to work with them. It's been great.

Speaker 1 23:10

So I guess like what's kinda coming this year with you guys.

Speaker 3 23:15

Yeah. I mean, we've , um, we've got some cool different every year. It seems like we're trying to like evolve, especially in Gore-Tex in our rainwear because I think that's what people come to us. That's what they expect. And we have a new generation of this shake, dry jacket called the Angus. I don't know if we talked about it before, but shake dry is this technology that's only weighs six ounces. It's super, super lightweight. Um, and in some material that Gore , um, provided us where we're the first in golf to bring it to the golf market. Um, it's only in running, running and cycling and it's super lightweight. The cool thing about it is that with every kind of Gore-Tex or rain jacket from any other brand, there's a textile on the outside of it. This one doesn't have a textile. It's literally the Gore membrane. So when water, it just bounces off crazy. It'd be perfect for like a, like in the Southern belt of the U S because it's so breathable, it's so lightweight, but when it rains, it's so muggy and humid, especially in Florida and Southeast, but that's something that we have, like a new generation of it coming for 2021, which we are really excited about. We have, I was telling you before this SMU piece for the masters dropping here in , uh , a month or two , um, an insula hoodie and crew neck , as we know, hoodies are super hot in golf right now. So we're excited about that, but there's a lot of things I feel like every year we always come up with a new generation and evolve in product and fabrics and , um, 20, 21 , no different. We have some cool stuff coming.

Speaker 1 24:38

Uh it's it's fascinating. You said that because I agree, right? Like what's big right now in golf. And I think you're seeing this in apparel is the hoodie. Right? Because we don't care. I mean, whatever, but then you're seeing a lot more performance where like, like shorts, right? Not like pants, like joggers almost like hybrid style, not, you know, not like I don't want you to even call it. I know grace and yeah . Yeah. Cause like, if I go to the driving range, I don't want to wear khaki shorts. I don't want to wear, I don't give a. You know? Like I want to just be comfortable and go swing the club. Or if I go play with you and we'll play book nine, do I need to dress nicely with a pole on a port , a polo shirt? And like, no, I just want to wear normal clothes and go hit my friends.

Speaker 3 25:25

Like, I , I am so used to being like the new England guy. Right. You wear your polo, your khaki, you touch

Speaker 1 25:32

Not even from new England, but that's how I grew up. You know, like you had where you had to dress the part. Yeah .

Speaker 3 25:36

Now when I go out to San Diego, like, or , or I'm going to like some of these, you know, different places, I see people on top the rent , you know, gym shorts, all this stuff. I'm like, man, it is so different now. You know? And , and , and it happened almost overnight, right. 10 years ago, I feel like everybody's still wearing the khakis and the polos and stuff like that. And now it's so much more casual and athleisure and it's great. I mean, it's introducing a lot more people to go home .

Speaker 1 26:00

I love it. I just love it. Like that's where the market is. I've really feel like that's a , that's where people should spend their, you guys. I don't know if brands already doing that, but

Speaker 3 26:09

Yeah, there's definitely a lifestyle aspect now. And off-course , OnCourse combination that like we w we are pushing towards right. Creating products that are great to wear perform on the chorus , but also that are versatile enough that you can wear to dinner that you can walk your dog. You know what I mean? Like

Speaker 1 26:24

I started that trend, honestly. Who do you think I'm trying to think. I'm really, I'm thinking about brands. Like, who do you think?

Speaker 3 26:30

I don't know. I mean, to be honest with you, I've seen like the Peter malar started classic and they've gotten a little bit more of into that direction. The G4 is the Grayson's . I think there's a good amount of brands that I don't think it's one, I think Travis Matthew in a different way, because it's got more of that surfer West coast vibe, but it did provide that, you know, athletes you're kind of looked at casual, look, I think there's a , been a bunch of brands that done it. I've done it. But when I think of like the surfer, relaxed vibe, I think Travis, Matthew did a kind of changed that vibe when you come into like the fashionable fashion forward. I think like the grace and the J Lindeberg, I think Galvin green, you know , uh, in, in Europe and now in the U S it's just, there's a million ways to skin a cat. It seems like, but I think,

Speaker 1 27:15

Yeah, maybe because of all these brands have come up and have evolved in the last 10 years, it just happened, you know?

Speaker 3 27:20

Sure. It's and , um, it's fun to see, man. It's , uh, it's fun to see golf as a more stylish. The apparel seems to be a bigger and better thing now in golf. So it's , uh, I think a lot of brands have something to do with it, but yeah, it's, it's , uh , it's cool.

Speaker 1 27:36

Yeah. I feel like, yeah. I feel like that's where kind of golf is going and clothes .

Speaker 3 27:42

I think it needed it too . Right. I mean, golf had the reputation of being stiff and serious and we want it to be more fun and introduce it to younger kids. And, you know, and I think you look at some of the athletes too, like the Ricky Fowler's of the world, right. The Justin Thomas' that have made it more cool Jordan Speith that make golf more fun than, you know, a super stiff exclusive game.

Speaker 1 28:05

And maybe it was, Amy will even further back to the going with tiger did. Right . Because tight , like with his performance where ish , you know, like , and it just , it just kind of cool to see how it's evolved the last 20 years. Like

Speaker 3 28:18

Every kid wanted to wear Nike, right. Because of gout or because of Nike. Right. And , or tiger woods.

Speaker 1 28:25

Did you watch the tiger woods? Uh , documentary? I haven't watched it yet. So good. Is it good?

Speaker 3 28:31

Right . I got to watch that. I was always like, I just watched the Jordan one, the last dance. That was good too . That one

Speaker 1 28:37

That was , that was really good. Yeah . The tiger ones . Only two Epic to two episodes. So , but they're both long, like an hour and a half each, but by the end of it, I, honestly, my opinion, I felt bad, you know, like I just felt bad . Like, you know, I know they didn't really want, like, you know, of course they do the PR thing, like, Oh, that's not really true, blah , blah, blah, blah . Like if you just watch it and there's like, you kind of feel bad for them . Like, I might feel bad at his a billion dollars, but like, you had a rough, you know what I'm saying? Like he was 21 or 20 when he went pro and he was like, dude, he didn't know anything.

Speaker 3 29:09

I mean, yeah. It was a lot of pressure from his dad.

Speaker 1 29:11

His dad was not a good dude. You know? It didn't seem like it. I mean, he might have been. Yeah.

Speaker 3 29:17

Yeah. Th th there was a lot of pressure that's for sure.

Speaker 1 29:21

So it's good. You should watch it. Yeah. I got to watch that now that you're inside and Manhattan and there's nothing to do because so many documentaries left to watch. So I'm running out. I want to run it out. I really am. I'm just like

Speaker 3 29:33

Tiger King. No more last dance, like all this stuff, man.

Speaker 1 29:36

No, man. What the heck? The last chance you get out of that's over. I can watch that. Like I know what am I watching? Am I watching anything right now? No, I'm not really. There's nothing good to watch. Oh, you know, matching actually. Sorry. I'm going to verge for a minute. I love it . So last week, like my life and I were like, Hey, let's watch the karate kid movies with the kids. Right. So we watched karate kid one and two, not three, because three sucks. It's stupid . So bad. I'm not going to submit like kids to that . So we didn't watch three. We watched one and two and they were like, Oh, let's watch Cobra, Kai. And now we're like totally addicted to Cobra, Kai. Like unreal. Love it . So good. It's so cheesy. But it's like so good, dude.

Speaker 3 30:18

I got a couple of things to watch now. Now I got the tiger doc . I got Cobra. Kai. I've got my week weekend set up already .

Speaker 1 30:25

Are you going to go golfing? You're going to wear your Gore-Tex and go out and look frozen course and no

Speaker 3 30:31

15 below another nor'easter coming or something. They had it snowed on Sunday. I don't know if there's another one coming. I don't want any more snow. I'm ready for golf. I'm ready for spring to come. But yeah .

Speaker 1 30:44

Do you go golfing? I , do you go golfing like , uh, in New York? Or do you go to Connecticut

Speaker 3 30:50

That much around here? Like, I've gone to a couple of clubs around, you know , I went up to Trump ferry point. I played up there, which was really cool, but you know, what's fun is like the five iron golfs in the city. Have you heard of this place? So it's basically a simulator like golf, but there's a bar there. It's pretty fun. Like me and my buddies we'll go down we'll Tiwana and just hit some balls, like go play pebble beach or whatever. And it's, it's awesome. There's a couple locations in city and it's pretty sweet. It's uh, so that's kind of what I've done because it is you take an hour, train out, you go play a five or six hour round at a public course, an hour back. It's just such a process to play when you're in the city. So usually when I play it's, when I'm traveling to different places or I'll go home to Connecticut and try to play around with my buddies or something like that. So

Speaker 1 31:36

Is it like just simulators then ? I'm assuming it's

Speaker 3 31:38

Just simulators you go like yeah, exactly. You can bring your clubs, you can use their clubs. Um, it's , it's, it's a pretty cool setup. And then, right . Yeah, exactly. But simulators instead of like, obviously the open range. It's it's awesome. I'm a big fan. That's cool .

Speaker 1 31:56

Yeah. I mean , it isn't a city, but without on lockdown or no. Is that opened up now?

Speaker 3 31:59

I haven't been, I know my buddy, my buddy went a couple of times and it's still open, but I have not been, I haven't swung a golf club in like five months. So I'm actually a little nervous to swing a golf club. I might have that nine-year-old memory again. Just shank one into somebody's ankle. Kid's ankle.

Speaker 1 32:18

Yeah . It was all like, Oh , like traumatized. Now

Speaker 3 32:21

I bet that kid probably never played golf again. He's like ,

Speaker 1 32:24

He's like, I'm not playing golf

Speaker 3 32:27

After that week. It's like, dude, I'm done that guy. That kid just ruined golf for me.

Speaker 1 32:32

So you guys, so this spring then Galvin, like what, what kind of stuff where you guys come and go on a new pants or shorts or, you know ,

Speaker 3 32:40

Honestly, what were cute? I would say there's not a ton of new , like I kind of touched on that shake, dry jacket then in shirts and pants, I think we have such like, we have some new designs when it comes to shirts. We have this like modern print, our dial. That's awesome. It's really cool. It's like kind of just a new version of our dial. That's not, you know, your 1996 sweater vest kind of thing. Um, it's, it's a pretty cool , uh, um, we added a new short called the Percy that's super, super lightweight. And it's kind of towards what we're talking about. Right? Techie stretch fabric that feels like everybody's kind of gone down that road, but you know, I've been testing them or I was testing them over the summer. They're awesome. And they breathe so well. They just fit better. They're a little bit more tailored than a conventional short. So it's a little bit more, you know, that sharper tailored look. So we've got some cool stuff. I'm uh , I'm excited.

Speaker 1 33:30

You've got a lot of cool stuff. Yeah.

Speaker 3 33:32

The SMU that the masters piece is sweet man. It's, it's awesome. Like this hoodie that I think is so on-brand for us, but touches on the masters . It's a perfect combination. It'll be, it'll be awesome. It's

Speaker 1 33:43

Like a heavy heavyweight hoodie or the lightweight.

Speaker 3 33:46

It's really lightweight. It's got this like thermal waffling technology that we've used with our insulin before. Um, we just kind of created a new design, a big GG print , um, logo on the front. It's going to be sweet.

Speaker 1 34:00

What am I going on the site now? But like, you guys don't even have hoodies on the site to you as the one you're ,

Speaker 3 34:06

We've done hoodies in our collection before, but obviously this one won't be on our site yet. It won't at three 15, but again, yeah, we've , we've dabbled in that

Speaker 1 34:14

Cool logo, by the way. I just want to see the Gigi is pretty sweet. Right? Doing fricking logos are hard as hell the Commonwealth was,

Speaker 3 34:21

You know, to be honest. Yeah. There are some logos that, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 34:28

Like you have a good logo . It's like, you guys have a good logo. Travis Matthews has a really good logo. Like just, I dunno . I like the minimalist look. So

Speaker 3 34:37

Yeah, the subtle look for sure in the logo is pretty sweet.

Speaker 1 34:40

Sorry. I just, I was looking at a jacket. I was like , actually one of the shirts I was looking and I was like, Oh, it's a , the way you have it. It just, I don't know. It's very clean.

Speaker 3 34:49

Yeah. It's uh, it's pretty good. The product is, it just keeps getting better and better. I

Speaker 1 34:54

Know you invented the Calvin green logo .

Speaker 3 34:57

I did, you know, I, I didn't want to , I didn't want to just gloat about it, but yeah, obviously, you know, a hundred percent me.

Speaker 1 35:04

So you guys have , you guys have a lot going on in right now. This is gonna be a big year for you guys. I think

Speaker 3 35:11

It is going to be a big year for sure. Um, you know, tour wise too , we've added a couple of guys. I mean, w I think we have six guys between Korn ferry and PGA. We have another five or six in Europe, so we have a nice, like stable of athletes too. And it seems like we're gaining traction in that as well, which is fun to watch. Yeah.

Speaker 1 35:29

Do you , um, do you have to sponsor them or do they just wear it because they know you're the best?

Speaker 3 35:35

Um, yeah, we know we , we signed them to contract. They're all sponsored and , um, yeah, it's , uh, it's great, man. We , Troy Merritt been a long time. Galvin guy lotto started with us last year, lotto , Griffin and Martin layered one last year. He's on with us again this year, JJ spawn . Who's been a consistent guy on the tour as well. A lot of these guys, but we we've noticed that they love the product, the connection to the brand. Um, there's just a personal aspect to it that I think they appreciate it's

Speaker 1 36:04

They get it. And they're like, Oh, this is awesome. You know?

Speaker 3 36:08

Yeah . Everybody comes back and be like, dude, this stuff's great. You know what I mean? And, and it's , uh, it just validates the brand to know that these guys love wearing it, you know, and, and, and want to keep the partnership gone. So

Speaker 1 36:19

That's the game right there. Right. Cause most of those guys don't want to wear stuff that is not good, especially when you're wearing it because they're wearing it every time they shoot the ball, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's not like, Oh yeah, I, whatever, you know, it's like, that's a very, I don't know . That's a very important role, I think, because they want to make sure they can still move

Speaker 3 36:40

That they're out there to perform their best. Right. And so they want product to match that, you know, when it rains out there, I think all of them will have confidence of saying, man, I think I can beat some of the other guys out there just based on what I'm wearing, because I'm going to stay dry. I'm going to stay flexible and be able to hit the shots that maybe with another rain suit or working with another company, I might not be able to.

Speaker 1 36:59

Yeah . Because you're all stiff. It doesn't screw up your shot. So it's like , like it's not like, I don't know . It's like another layer that they have to wear and still be able to perform at their best. Right? Like it's not, Oh yeah. This is my preferred golf bag. It's like, really? Dude, you're back . Just hold your stuff. You know?

Speaker 3 37:19

It just like eases their mind. It's like one less thing to worry about. Right. If it rains, they're like, I don't have to worry about that. I can just wear my gov .

Speaker 1 37:26

It's raining or it's windy and cold or you're there out at seven o'clock in the morning. It's freezing. Like, yeah . Like you want to be warm and still play. It's not like, Oh , I'm gonna take it off when it warms up. And I'm gonna throw it back to the golf cart

Speaker 3 37:38

Before I worked for Galanin like, I hated playing the rain. It sucked. Right. Everybody did, you know, he was just miserable. And then now like when we get a new product, I'm

Speaker 1 37:45

Like so excited. Like I'm like,

Speaker 3 37:47

Ah , dude, is it raining? Let's go. Like, I want to go play, ah ,

Speaker 1 37:50

Full outfit. Do you wear like, what would you wear? The pants and the jacket. You're like, whatever. What do you do with the shoes though? Shoes is not going to go away. Right yourself .

Speaker 3 37:58

I know the shoes. So I , I don't have like a preferred shoe line. I don't think like I've tried a bunch of different echo. I like, but

Speaker 1 38:07

I love that car . They make really nice stuff .

Speaker 3 38:09

They're just comfortable, man. It's it's nice.

Speaker 1 38:11

I work shoes like my , my truck , like when I go to court and they're so freaking dude, because they're so comfortable. They're so comfortable. Like Suzy , I don't even plug echo . I'm just telling you, they make the best fricking like black shoes you can wear for work. Like for reals . My dad told me that and he's old, man. He was like, Oh yeah, you should go . I was like, no, he didn't

Speaker 3 38:32

Like, dude, you gotta try these echoes . And like, I didn't like the silent cause were like old man ones. I found some like newer ones. And I was like, all right, like I guess I grabbed these. And then I put them on. I'm like, dude,

Speaker 1 38:42

They're like pillows on your feet. Like for real, I was like, no sandals slippers . Our , no , you got a guy from Galvin green and me. And we have nothing to do with that. Can we both agree on the same shoe? And it was an old man shoes, but for work or if you need to wear a suit, get echos because you use fricking workout. It's going to fit me. I feel like it's going to fit me. I just know that like I got a job , like 20 pounds, my suit that fit me, like it used to and I'd be like, Oh yeah, I'm a bad . Cause you can't, you can't have frigging high when you're wearing a suit. You know that it's tailored. Everything shows . I sorted a bunch of clothes and like , um, like I usually wear a large, right? Like that's but then not anymore. So like every brand has like their own size. So I'm like, well I'm still a large actually, you know, as a really cool tool, I'm going to tell you this, you guys should use on your website. I was, I was blown away. Travis Matthew says is like sizing tool on their website where you like put this information and it tells you like, Oh, 70% of the people would get extra large to some people. And I was like, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Like, that's pretty awesome. That's what they call us. I don't even know that. I just thought it was cool. Yeah . That's sweet. I would love. Yeah, no, I think we should do that because it tells you like, okay, 10,000 people have bought this jacket. And if this is, if you're a fat dude or just how big your chest is, like go to Travis Matthews website and do there too . Like when you're about to buy something, go see. And like it made me change my mind a lot on my , a lot of my stuff. And I was like, Oh, well I guess I should get an extra large as my chest is bigger than, you know, some skinny guy from Connecticut. Yeah . You're already

Speaker 3 40:20

Helping us

Speaker 1 40:25

From motto . Are you Italian? I am half, half Italian, half white. I say I'm half white Norwegian English, but my budget fricking no that's me too. I'm like English. But the half of that, it's the half Italian. It's fresh off the boat. Italian. My dad literally went through fricking Ellis Island before they closed that back in the wild. I bet there's like a brick somewhere for him . I don't really know. But he was five. He told you the story all the time. It's crazy. There's a by boat. They went by boat. Dude was like , where's your dad from, in Italy. A Brut . So region of Italy. So like it's Northeast of Rome. So like, if this is , this is Rome and then this big coastal city called Pescara, it's on the coast. And it's like on a 45. It's like, kind of right . We're closer to Pescara. It's called the so like the biggest city is like, Laquila, it's so free. I want to live there for seriously. It's like three times, two times, two times. It was really cool. I'll tell you a story. Like I went, when I was in high school, my family, right. My dad had been back in 20 years and then before I had kids, my dad and I went back just him and I for , for two weeks. Right? Like, you know, when it's your dad ends, you United States like hits your dad when you're like overseas with your dad. And he's like hanging with his friends and his family. Like his , his best friend is his cousin in Canada. And he was back to my dad was so fricking chill and nice. Like he was one of the guys like a bro. I was like, dude, what the hell you been ? Can this over here? Like for real, it's like, I would hang out with you. You know? What's so much fun, so much. It's amazing. I love Italy . Let's go. Let's go. You and me?

Speaker 3 42:13

Yeah , me too . We'll go play some golf. Yeah . I love to. That'd be

Speaker 1 42:17

My dream. I think it'd be fun to like travel. I've never

Speaker 3 42:19

Played. I've only played in Sweden when we'd go back to our headquarters, but I've never played in the UK. I've never played like anywhere else in Europe. I want to go play golf like Italy, either seeing these guys playing like Abu Dhabi, these views and stuff are incredible. It's unreal .

Speaker 1 42:34

I , um, I played in Scotland like when I was in high school with my dad and it was a fun actually we'll hear that story. I'll tell this quick story too. So, cause it's Galvin green. I wish I had your rain jacket. Let's just put it that way. So we go, we go rent these clubs and we went to some golf course and like, I was like somewhere near Edinburgh and like it was pouring rain. Yeah. Well actually it didn't start raining until we got on the course, but European courses or a Scottish course just goes all one direction for like 10 freaking miles. It comes back, right? Like not like it is here around a clubhouse and stuff. So like we get to like third hole and it starts fricking pouring rain. And the clouds are like so low. Like you , like , you could touch them and off . And I just remember like going into it , like this little wooden shack, like, like outhouse size with my dad and there's just pile like on the ground and a shovel in it. And we're standing there like trying to stay dry. And it was like thunder and lightning. Well then that stopped and we have walking some more and I was soaked, but I didn't care. It was fun. So yeah . Best memory ever had. I just said Gavin grant would have been driving, drive the boat

Speaker 3 43:43

A hundred percent. Next time you're out. You're going to be dry as a bone and you haven't even better time.

Speaker 1 43:46

You guys need to get going green stuff. It's like super nice. Like for ELLs , like there's about, I only I would call it like the hierarchy of apparel. And like, you guys are up there, you know, like, like hot, nice stuff. Like I looked like you Dunning. Uh, who else? That's about it? Well, I have a couple more Grayson. I like Grayson Peter malar a little bit. And then after that, it sort of slowly , I don't want really, I'm not gonna talk is pretty high up there too. But like there are different kind of vibe, you know, they're more of a, like a sand .

Speaker 3 44:19

No, those are all great brands, man. They're fun. They all seem up and coming too, which is great. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 44:27

Well, I am excited to be working with you guys. Like I know. So here's the story. I started talking to Tom, like almost like a year ago, like wrapped to the PGA show. Right. But then we were like playing phone tag time and he was busy and then COVID hit and he's like, Oh, sorry, I'm traveling. I'm trying to like figure this out, whatever. But we start talking more in like the fall. And so I'm excited with Galvin green actually sending me, they sent me a jacket. I just got yesterday. So I'm gonna do an unboxing on that. And then we'll do more this year, but they're fricking super cool. Easy . You tell like Tom's cools . How ? Um , he's not like some boring guy, like, Oh you can hang it . This is this guy I would hang out with. I'll call him . Uh , he's one of my golf homeys . Now I'd call him next time. I'm in Arizona. Let's do it. Two beers. Do it. I'll kick your on a simulator. Oh absolutely. I probably wouldn't actually, because when you're gonna be like, dude, this kid played in college, this is embarrassing, dude . I be like, that's okay though. He was division three and he was the last guy on the team. He never practiced. I didn't even make my high school team. So like that, that tells you anything. That's how my son this . Cause I was like, but I was trying to do a procrastination. I was like, look, I really want to make the high school golf team. But I procrastinate all summer. I didn't practice. And then I did really bad and I didn't make the cut, which she has really went to my high school. So you can kind of tell, like we had some really good players at my school. I was even close to that dude. Like, can we put a public course? It was like, yeah, don't procrastinate kids and don't do drugs. But one takeaway from this podcast today don't procrastinate and Tom's cool. And he's in Manhattan, but all right, well cool. I'm so happy to like , actually like have you on the show just to like, I dunno not have your, all your information, personal information. So then I can like text you all the time. Like, Hey man, my friend, I'm just kidding. I might do that actually, but no, that's cool. As you guys, Galvin beans , make some great stuff. I mean, great stuff. I'm just not , I'm not just saying that. Um, and you check them out. If you look for anything, it's like outerwear, like they're the go-to I don't think anybody can touch you really when it comes out or outerwear like staying dry and not in and still being able to play the game. Right. I mean, duddy makes like I have a dining just starting shirt here. I would never wear this if it's raining fin as hell. You know? But yeah, that is all I had to say about that. So thank you for being on the show and I look forward to do more with you guys this year. Be sure to check out Galvin green through everywhere. They're at golf stores or@theproshopthereatgalvingreen.com and Tom will come back someday. Hopefully. And we can talk some more. Absolutely. I appreciate you having me and I'm sure we'll catch up soon. All right, man. Well, you take care. Thank you. Thanks buddy. Right ? Bye-bye this week's episode was sponsored by their friends at Oracle golf bags or golf bags is the only woman owned golf bag design and build company in the country. They call it beg is your biggest piece of equipment. So make sure it feels like you Erica golf bags, they stand out in a sea of lookalike products. So checkout work a golf@orca-golf.com to learn more.

Speaker 2 47:42

Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf bread 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.