Equipment
How this golf apparel site is giving 9 percent of each sale to charity
The online golf apparel retailer is in a tough position, facing competitors who offer deep discounts off the bat and manufacturers increasingly less willing to offer accounts online.
It’s in this environment that Golf Pro Wears has entered the marketplace buoyed by a unique concept: the Give Back 9, which sends nine percent of every sale to a charity associated with a golfer.
For example, if you purchase a pair of Adidas AdiPower Boost shoes, Golf Pro Wears will send nine percent of the sale to Jason Day’s Brighter Days Foundation.
Hence the company slogan: Look great and donate.
“We obviously want to sell tons of golf apparel,” said Co-Founder Robert Huck. “But we also want to generate tons of revenue for our charities. If we can do both, then it’s going to be very exciting for all of us at GolfProWears.”
I had a chance to speak with company CMO Jeff Johnson about how the company arrived at its current business model and how the partnerships work.
Tell me about the initial concept and how you came up with the Give Back 9.
J.J.: The initial concept was sort of a ShoeDazzle platform. The idea was to do a male-orientated golf spinoff on that: every month a golf shirt would arrive or something. It transitioned from just golf apparel—there was always going to be a charity spin on it, thinking about a percent of sales going to charity.
We looked more to scripting and selling the scripted collections. We probably spent six months trying to know ahead of time what the scripts would be, so you could buy the hole collections or just a piece. We had even looked into giving the caddie a few bucks and he could send us a text every day. What we found out was, a lot of times manufacturers send players a kit—five pair of pants, 12 shirts—and a player grabs what he feels like wearing.
The pain-in-the-a** factor was huge with the concept. We had a consultant. We met with him, and he thought it was confusing. But he said, “This charity thing, I think that’s the point of difference you have in the industry.” We had come to a decision internally that if we could get some awareness from some of the charities and players, we could leave with 10 percent going to charity, and I thought what about nine and what if we called it the Give Back 9?
How do the partnerships develop?
J.J.: We start with the brands we want to work with. We look at who are the next brands. Once we have a brand, we’ll start conversations with the brand to see if it’s an easy deal. Do they give an account to anybody? What hoops are there to jump through? Next, we’ll look at the players on their roster. And then, we’ll sort of prioritize those players based on popularity.
Then, we’ll focus in on one and see who their charity is. Do they have their own foundation? Are they partnering with somebody like St. Jude? After we have a preliminary discussion, we jump right over to the charity.
Editor’s Note: Presently, the company has lined up golfer-charity-brand combinations such as Jason Day; the Brighter Days Foundation; Adidas, Ernie Els; Els for Autism; the Ernie Els Collection, Bubba Watson; Oakley; the Bubba Watson Foundation. Further partnerships are forthcoming.
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Whats in the Bag
Rasmus Højgaard WITB 2024 (April)
- Rasmus Højgaard what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Prototype (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 80 TX
Utility: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw White 85 TX
Irons: Callaway Apex Pro (3), Callaway X Forged (4-PW)
Shafts: KBS $-Taper 130
Wedges: Callaway Jaws Raw (52-10S, 56-10S, 60-06C)
Shafts: KBS Tour 130 X
Putter: Odyssey Ai One Milled Eight T DB
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Hojgaard in the forums.
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Whats in the Bag
Rory McIlroy WITB 2024 (April)
- Rory McIlroy what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X
Irons: TaylorMade Proto (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9)
Shaft: Project X 7.0 (4-9)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-K @59)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X3
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol Tour
Ball: 2024 TaylorMade TP5x
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Rory McIlroy’s WITB in the forums.
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Equipment
Spotted: Nate Lashley’s Ping PLD “Wolverine” putter
Ping PLD putters have been a very common site on profesional tours. Pros seem to gravitate toward the PLD line’s custom options and precision milling. We have seen the PLD line expanded over the years, but we haven’t seen too many, if any, large mallets.
This week we spotted a PLD putter in Nate Lashley’s bag that has a similar look to the old Ping Wolverine head shape. This putter is a large mallet with the famous “claws” on the outside and oval center that housed the alignment aid.
Nick’s putter has the PLD logo on the back but also looks like it might have an insert installed on the face. It is hard to tell but at the address picture, it looks like the face is a lighter material than the rest of the putters. The putter is center-shafted and should be face-balanced with a high MOI for stability and forgiveness on mishits. The sole is completely milled and has no markings of name or technologies that might be present in the head. A single white site line is on the top of the putter for alignment.
Nick’s putter is finished off with a chrome steel shaft and a Super Stroke Zenergy Flatso 2.0 grip in black and white.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Zurich Classic
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Jm
Aug 11, 2015 at 12:07 pm
9% of the entire sale or 9% of the profit?
If it is 9% of the entire sale then I commend them for their efforts.
JM