Today's Highlights

• Made in the U.S.A.
• '08 is about positive change in many ways
• Golf is a game ... and also a business

NEWS

Callaway introduces fall '08 collection

Callaway Golf Apparel's slogan "A better game by design" ties into fall women's line.

TMAG and RCGA extend relationship

TaylorMade-adidas Golf and the Royal Canadian Golf Association announce a new three-year agreement in which TMAG will continue to be the association's official apparel partner.

FEATURE

Made in the U.S.A.

By Vartan Kupelian
GPA Correspondent

Robert Bryan doesn’t have to be told his company and its products are unique.

“We’re the American-made guys,” he said.

In a marketplace dominated by labels from faraway places, that speaks volumes and gives Bryan a great deal of satisfaction.

Shenandoah Jersey Polo

“People say you can’t hang your head anymore on being American made,” Bryan said. “I love phone calls saying, ‘This is the best flippin’ golf shirt I’ve ever worn.’ I get them all the time.”

A walk through the many aisles of the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando provides many surprises, like discovering a company — Virginia-based Robert Bryan, Ltd. (www.robertbryanltd.com) — that still manufactures entirely in the United States and uses cotton grown exclusively in America.

Bryan founded the apparel company in 1993 and it continues to grow without a massive marketing campaign. It relies on word of mouth and, more than anything, letting the product speak for itself.

The apparel is made with 100 percent Supima-plied yarns, a fiber developed by crossing varieties of the world‘s finest cotton to develop a superior fiber. In World War I, production of the cotton moved to Arizona to accommodate the need by Goodyear for a special strength cotton used for tire cord during the war effort.

Bryan said the Supima cotton, now grown in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas, is the world’s finest.

What sets Supima cotton apart is an Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton, a reference to the length of the natural fiber. To be classified as Pima, a cotton must exhibit a fiber length of 1 3/8-inch. Supima has an average length exceeding 1 7/16-inch. The long staple allows fabrics to have the highest tensile strength available, according to Bryan, up to 50 percent stronger than other varieties.

Hunter Jersey Polo

Among the benefits of a strong fiber is that it allows even finer yarns to be spun with more fibers per cross section, which gives a more luxurious appearance and softer feel. The superior strength also allows the company to use a resin/compact finish.

The technical jargon aside, the benefit for the consumer is an excellent product, including a stay collar that will not curl. This is accomplished by knitting an invisible channel at the leading edge of the collar, inserting the stay and closing the channel.

The wholesale prices of the Bryan products, which cover a wide spectrum of golf wear, range from $35 to the high $40s.

“We remain price competitive with imported garments by inventorying fabrics and components that can be converted to match demand exactly,” said Bryan, who takes pride in the fact his products never wind up in discount stores.

How Bryan, 54, navigated an engineering degree from William & Mary and a career in the certification of nuclear submarines for seaworthiness at Newport News, Va., into the apparel industry is “an interesting kind of thing.

“I was looking for something to do my thesis on and it came down to the textile industry,” he said. “I did a parallel of textile to the steel and auto industries, steel being a better example of an industry dominated by the United States for many years. Today, the only steel mills making money are the specialized mini-mills.”

After all of his analysis, Bryan concluded that a smaller textile business could survive where a mega-mill faced too many obstacles because it “needed to knit thousands and thousands of pounds … for profitability.”

Among the keys, Bryan found, was to control inventories by downsizing the manufacturing. The mega-mills, he said, sacrificed quality for the sake of profitability and accumulated unwanted goods that ended up in discount stores.

“By maintaining tight inventory control, you can run a factory which pays a decent wage, offers decent working conditions for our people and turns goods over fast,” he said.

“The concept is totally different. There aren’t a lot of middle men. It’s a very vertical operation and we are able to be competitive.”

Bryan said the feedback on his product is outstanding.

“It’s an amazing product,” he said. “Golf teachers all over the country, the people who are on the lesson tee in the hot sun all day long, say no other product performs like ours does. The shirt stays dry and comfortable.”