NEWS
Adidas Golf reports on its advanced cold weather apparel, which will allow golfers to play well into the winter months.
Trigelle, the contemporary women's golf apparel manufacturer, was chosen to be included in the Kraft Nabisco Tournament gift bag this spring.
FEATURE
Haley honored for body of work
By Vartan Kupelian
GPA Correspondent
Clint Eastwood has his Oscars. Nancy Haley is about to get hers.
Haley will break new ground -- again -- in January when she is awarded the Ernie Sabayrac Award from the PGA of America for lifetime contributions to the golf industry. Haley, a Michigan native who lives in Golden, Colo., is the first woman to receive the Sabayrac Award.
"It's a big deal for the golf industry," Haley said. "I'm really honored."
She will receive the award Jan. 17 at the 2008 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla.
Haley, a 1972 graduate of Michigan State University, began her career as an interior designer for a Denver architect immediately out of college. At age 22, she began her own business, Stratford House Interiors, designing interiors for model homes for developers in the Denver area. Following her marriage to Tony Haley in 1975, she changed the company name to Haley Interiors.
From 1975 to 1985, Haley (her maiden name is Sisson) continued in commercial design. She also began playing golf, and in 1985, began designing golf apparel in the evening in her home studio. A year later, Haley launched Sun-Daze by Nancy Haley, the first lifestyle sportswear for women golfers. She added a men's line in 1989 and named it Haley Ltd.
After a successful debut, Haley merged it with the men's collection and renamed the company Sport-Haley. The company stock was taken public in 1992 and Haley retired in 1996 with annual sales of just over $21 million.
That's when Eastwood, the Hollywood icon, entered the picture. Together, they created Tehama, now its 10th year as one of the industry's most prominent and successful lifestyle apparel brands.
Haley's retirement lasted only six months.
Looking back, Haley's not really surprised because she never saw herself as someone who could retire. Right from the start, Eastwood had her pegged, too.
Eastwood, former mayor of Carmel, Calif., was a golfing buddy of Haley's husband, Tony.
"Clint is a big golf nut," Haley said. "His lifelong dream was build a golf course in the Carmel Valley. It's kind of up high in the foothills. You can see Monterey. He built his golf course and called it Tehama. I met him right as he was moving the dirt on the golf course -- the beginning of his dream.
"My husband, Tony, would take Sport Haley shirts to Clint and Clint would wear them when they played. But I had never met Clint. Tony would talk about him and I'd whine about not having met him."
They finally got together when the Haley's went on vacation after she retired from Sport Haley.
"The very first night we were in the bar and, over a glass of wine, talking about how much we both love golf," Haley said. "Clint said, 'What are you going to do now that you are retired?' He said I didn't seem like the type of person who can retire. He was asking all these questions.
"Finally, I said, teasing him more than anything, 'Why are you asking? Want to get into the clothing business with me?'"
The response knocked Haley off her chair -- and it had nothing to do with the wine.
"He looked me in the eye and said, 'We could call it Tehama,'" she said. "It was a karma thing."
Haley is Tehama's CEO and Eastwood, after spending much time in promoting the company in the early stages, lets Haley take care of business.
"I'm a big marketer," Haley said. "That's my thing. There are a lot of good companies with a lot of good product. What sets us apart is what I call selling the sizzle."
Haley creates the sizzle, and Eastwood?
"Obviously, Clint is a very good sizzle seller," she said. "It's been an unbelievably cool experience the last 10 years."
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