NEWS
Bobby Jones will unveil its Fall 2007 lifestyle collection at the PGA Merchandise Show, Jan. 25-27, in Orlando, Fla.
Bobby Jones names Renee Beechler as director of the Bobby Jones women's collection. Beechler's responsibilities will include overseeing the sales and marketing of the women's collection, and working in conjunction with design to develop and present a complete women's lifestyle collection for the Bobby Jones customer.
G. Buff White is named vice president of western sales for Harry Vardon Golf USA.
Lord Daniel Sportswear announces that Doug Applegate will represent all of Lord Daniel's golf apparel lines to Georgia, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
Imperial Headwear announces its partnership renewal with the Association of Golf Merchandisers for 2007. Imperial originally joined AGM in 1989 as its second vendor partner member.
PAHR announces it will showcase its 2007 men's and women's apparel lines at the PGA Merchandise Show, Jan. 25-27, in Orlando, Fla.
Puma signs Hideto Tanihara to an endorsement agreement and will supply Tanihara golf footwear and apparel in 2007. Tanihara has won four tour titles in Japan and was second on the Japan money list in 2006.
FEATURE
Staying Ahead
By Alex Miceli
GPA Publisher
The entrepreneurial spirit has many roots in golf.
The golf ball, for example, evolved from feathery to Gutta-percha to the modern day Surlyn. And with each new advance, someone has had the vision for improvement.
In 1930, Gene Sarazan made a revolutionary development when he stopped using the Niblick and started using a club he designed to extricate himself out of bunkers. Thus the sand wedge was born.
In both instances, the developments were part of an ongoing process to make the game more enjoyable.
That has been the impetus of Ahead CEO Ken Shwartz, who in 1995 started a headwear company that has become one of the leaders in a crowded industry.
"Certainly when we started, we had a concept and a game plan, but there was certainly a lot of anxiety at the first PGA Show, not knowing what reaction we would get," Shwartz said recently. "The conceptual trepidation we had was somewhat assuaged at that first show, because even though nobody knew us, most people who looked at the product wanted to buy the product.
"So the concern quickly went from 'Was anybody even going to accept the concept?' to 'OK, now we've got to manage the business and set up an operation, and be able to ship orders out."
Shipping orders didn't become a problem either and since its first PGA Merchandise Show in 1996, Ahead has continued to grow at a rapid pace. In fact, Ahead uses the PGA Show as a vehicle to grow its presence each year.
In entering the headwear field, which Shwartz describes as "French Vanilla," Ahead has continually mixed new colors, designs, materials and processes that have forced competitors to make drastic changes to their own products.
One of the biggest innovations that Shwartz brought to the market was the appliqué process, which has changed the way courses market their brand.
"What we did quickly was we brought to the market the use of alternative logos," Shwartz said. "Designs that used their name, maybe used their logo as a component of the design, but didn't just use the logo. The first show we did, we had had zero caps that looked like what the market had only seen for the last 10 years -- caps that just had the club logo on the front.
"We had none of those and certain people walked into our booth and would say, 'They look beautiful, but can you do just our logo?' But why would you want that? That's not what you need to do to really grow your headwear business, you need to start showing your consumers caps with different looks on them and give them a reason to buy another cap or two and keep changing that out through the years."
The philosophy Shwartz used at that first PGA Show has worked in growing Ahead's entire brand, which has expanded to include apparel and accessories.
Ahead Timeline
Next week, Ahead will make its 11th consecutive appearance at the PGA Merchandise Show. Here is a brief look at the company's progress since its debut in 1995:
January 1995 -- Ahead introduces caps, buckets and visors.
January 1996 -- First year at the PGA Merchandise Show features a 10'x10' booth (100 square feet).
January 2000 -- Introduced the Aheaderizer for cap personalization.
January 2001 -- Introduced Kate Lord women's headwear.
January 2002 -- Introduced accessories and apparel (outerwear only).
January 2003 -- Expanded apparel line to polos and introduced tournament gift box program.
January 2004 -- Introduced Kate Lord apparel and continued expansion of the men's Authentic line and accessories.
January 2006 -- Made 10th straight appearance at the PGA Merchandise Show. Booth size had grown to 12,000 square feet.
Editor's note: A complete question-and-answer session will appear in Thursday's Apparel Wire.
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