Dunning bolsters Hawaiian sales
Apparel company Dunning Golf hires Joey Sakaue as sales representative.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
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NEWS Koch joins Ecco teamEcco signs international player Carin Koch to an endorsement agreement. Koch, a two time winner on the LPGA Tour, will wear Ecco golf shoes in competition and appear in the company's promotions and advertising. Q-AND-AJoe Silva: Garb Inc. founder and president
Editor's note: Like the kids they dress, Garb Inc. is experiencing a significant growth spurt. At the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., company founder and president Joseph Silva was writing product orders non-stop. Silva recently spoke to GPA fashion correspondent Janice Ferguson about the growth of Garb Inc., which was started in 1996 and based in Lakewood, Colo.
AW: Why do you think we are seeing an apparent surge in the market for kid's golf/lifestyle apparel? Silva: In the past we, being Garb Inc., were trying to create a category -- youth sportswear. It was originally met with a huge amount of resistance. The reason was that many of the golf pros own the shop, and they didn't want to take the risk in an unknown. One by one took that leap of faith, brought the line into their shop, and it sold. Then they told their friends, and their friends told their friends. Five years ago the average Garb purchase order, and I'm estimating this, was probably around $500. Shops would bring in a small order and completely sell out. So the next year they would place a $750 order, and then the next year they come back to the PGA Show and say, "You know we sold out, let's bump it up to a $1,000." Now the golf pro is saying, "Well, let's bring in $2,000 and see. I want to have stuff left over." They are looking levels that will peak the opportunity. AW: So green grass is finding room in their tiny little retail spaces to add more kids clothing? Silva: Yes. And for those who don't have the space or are so challenged by it, we will send them samples and catalogs to put out at their junior golf kickoff event, for example. They'll place an order for a sweatshirt or something that each kid gets for signing up, but if they want to order shirts, hats, or additional items, they can do that from the catalogs and pull an order together. That's how the golf pros that don't have room in the shop, or don't want to take any risk in inventory, can still address the needs of their membership. AW: Is the largest segment of your business green grass? Silva: As a percentage, green grass is the largest. But when you look at individual customers -- resorts like Pinehurst, Pebble Beach and The Broadmoor -- they place the biggest orders. Providing product to major tournaments is another important part of business for Garb. AW: Are consumers buying more kids logo apparel? Silva: Yes. It's no longer just a resort logo shirt for mom and dad - they want to bring something home for their kids as memorabilia too. And that goes back to the first comment I made - buyers are jumping in with both feet now instead of just putting their toe in the water. They see from sales results that this is real; this category exists. They sell out every year so they're buying a little bit more. AW: Garb's mission statement and testimonials found on your Web site have a serious tone of customer service and satisfaction. Is that true? Silva: Yes, I'm freakish about it and you can quote me on that. AW: What makes you so freakish over customer service? Silva: I just have pet peeves. Bad retail experiences, people who don't return calls -- whatever it might be. It's very frustrating to me, so I practice the Golden Rule: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. I take that to the highest level possible. As an example, I won't let anybody that answers the phone here screen my calls. Even if it's a stockbroker, I'll take the call. I may ask them not to call me again, but if you want to talk to the president of the company, you can talk to him. On the quality assurance side, the amount of defects, warrantee returns or anything like that, is a fraction of 1 percent. It's very, very small. So it's "no questions asked" around here. If somebody calls and says there's a problem with a Garb product, we agree with them, take care of the problem, and make it go away immediately. Treating people well is contagious, and people buy from whom they like. I quote from the book "Raving Fans" all the time. We want all of our customers to be raving fans of Garb. If there was a survey asking what company in the golf industry gives you the best customer service, I want them to say Garb. AW: Why did you create a kids sportswear company? Silva: I was looking for a new business opportunity. I'd come off the corporate ladder climbing exercise and was searching for something more creative. Going back to my feelings about customer service, if you want a certain environment, start something on your own so that you can create the culture that you want. My kids were junior golf age at that time, and I had taken up the game and loved it. I thought it would be fun to become involved in the industry. I thought of myself as having some fashion sense, so I went to the PGA Show back in 1996, '97, and actually walked the Show. I didn't see anybody doing kids golf clothes. It was at that point I thought, this is either a really good idea or it's a really bad idea. It was a very high risk -- we were creating a category, and people had to be convinced there was money in little shirts. AW: What's been your biggest challenge or hurdle? Silva: The biggest challenge actually allowed me to get over the hump -- I call it cracking the code. I started out designing apparel that kids were going to like and thought was cool. That was a big mistake. What I had to do was create a line that was conservative enough that the golf professional would purchase it, cool enough that kids would wear it, and priced well enough so that grandparents would buy it. We needed to design the product for those three different groups versus just the end user, the kid. AW: How large is Garb Inc.? Silva: At peak season we have 20-25 employees, and we have about 3,000 customers. AW: Having been at this for 10-plus years, what gives you a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day? Silva: We started supplying the U.S. Open in 2001 at Southern Hills -- headwear to outerwear, infant, toddler, youth, boys and girls -- everything from soup to nuts for kids. Then, to go to the tournament, let's say, last year, and see somebody walk up in a 2001 Southern Hills shirt. You can tell it obviously wasn't the same kid that bought it originally. It was handed down two or three kids -- an heirloom. That's really rewarding. AW: You mentioned having an unrelated background -- does that mean you've learned everything from sourcing to fabric content from the ground up? Silva: I had a lot of mentoring for starting a business, what it takes to run one, and how to create a culture and environment where people want to work. But the day-to-day cutting, sewing, fabrics, yarn, textures, knits, woven, all of that -- it was the school of hard knocks with tens of thousands of dollars at stake. Now I'm a techno nerd. AW: What's on the horizon for Garb? Silva: What we have found over the years is, basics sell. Because of that, we have made a huge push, and a huge dollar and space commitment to stocking seven basic styles in 12 different colors and in 12 different sizes -- in stock all the time. It's convenient for buyers. A basic stripe and a basic solid are always going to sell. So you can change colors of the basics from season to season, and know it's always going to be available. It's a huge strategic change for us. We'll still have fashion items and what not, but we're committed to this core product that we're going to have in stock 24/7. AW: And, you have a technical fabric line? Silva: Yes, we've gone performance-crazy. Last year, we were one of the pioneers in performance fabrics for kids, boys and girls. The moisture wicking, UV protection and easy care is something we're really touting for kids. Think early morning, pull the shirt right out of the dryer, put it on Johnny and he's out the door. We introduced that last year and it outsold our next best shirt four to one. Our performance collection started with one silhouette for boys, and one silhouette for girls, in a couple different colors. It exploded. Again, it blew away closest competitor in our line. We've now increased that fourfold, and have four styles for boys and girls -- stripes, solids, blends, 100 percent polyester, and more colors. It booked extremely well at the show. AW: Do you think the technical fabric craze will make 100 percent cotton a thing of the past? Silva: I don't believe so. It goes back to making the golf pro happy, the purchaser happy, and the wearer happy. Kids love performance because it's cool. If they play lacrosse or soccer or whatever, they're wearing performance apparel. They know all about performance fabrics. The people that don't know as much about them are grandma and grandpa, and they're making a lot of the purchasing decisions. Because of that, it's not going away. People still like both. AW: And there's room for both? Silva: Absolutely. We introduced a polyester/cotton/spandex blend, which has a similar hand to cotton because it's 52 percent cotton, 44 percent polyester and 4 percent spandex. It's a very comfortable shirt to wear -- feels like cotton, but has performance characteristics with a much less shiny finish. Garb is very preppy -- we sell everything from seersucker to madras plaids. If we're doing a boy's madras plaid short, a shiny shirt just doesn't look good with it so this is a good middle road. AW: What is the biggest misnomer in the kids clothing business? Silva: People think that kids clothing should be 30 percent, 40 percent or even 50 percent less than adults because it's smaller. Unfortunately, that's not true. We have to be very careful in our sourcing, fabric selections, yarn counts, etc., to make sure we achieve superior quality products that are priced competitively. AW: Finally, why do people select Garb over other companies that manufacture young people's sportswear? Silva: Because we do a better job from head to toe for every age, boys and girls. We're a nice one-stop shop for that new market segment. For information: visit www.garbinc.com or call 866-367-4272. |
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