![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\nCount TravisMathew as the latest brand to set its sights on the lucrative women\u2019s business.<\/p>\n
The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company, which started out as a men\u2019s golf brand 15 years ago, has been acquired by Callaway, expanded into a variety of lifestyle categories and now operates more than 30 stores. The goal, according to chief executive officer Ryan Ellis, is to grow TravisMathew into a $1 billion brand within the next five years. The entry into womenswear will help it get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe brand started in golf but the idea was always to be more than golf,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cIt was started by a couple of professional golfers who knew nothing about clothing and they hired me and a designer 15 years ago; I had six years of experience and our designer was fresh out of college. But they had a great concept: to create performance-based product that looks more lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tRyan Ellis<\/p>\n
The original concept from those golfers \u2014 Travis Brasher and Travis Johnson \u2014 was to offer pieces that didn\u2019t fade or shrink, were lightweight and comfortable and would fit the average American man, Ellis said. They opted for a more subdued palette than that offered by other brands \u2014 which Ellis described as a \u201ccolor bomb that just blew up: oranges and pinks and yellows \u2014 and opted for black, white, gray and navy, which was lacking in the green-grass shops of the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there was a need to bridge the gap between that oversize American golf fit and the tighter Euro-fit,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was nothing in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get their name out they signed professional golfer Bubba Watson as a brand ambassador \u201cand things really started blowing up.\u201d They stayed in the lane they had envisioned at the start \u2014 lifestyle product that performed and was comfortable \u2014 as a way to stand out among the myriad athleisure, athletic and lifestyle brands in the market.<\/p>\n
As the brand grew, it moved on from simply golf apparel into better men\u2019s sportswear. In 2010, it partnered with Nordstrom and it is now the number-one brand in the retailer\u2019s better men\u2019s sportswear department, Ellis said. The brand is also sold in better specialty stores around the U.S. as well as in Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tThe women\u2019s line is centered around elevated basics.<\/p>\n
TravisMathew\u2019s sales today break down into about 24 percent in green-grass shops, 18 percent in resort stores, 15 percent in Nordstrom and other lifestyle retailers, 20 percent through e-commerce and 20 percent in its own retail stores, which will expand from 32 to 40 units by the end of the year, the CEO said. It also sells through corporate gifting channels.<\/p>\n
At this point, Ellis said it\u2019s hard to know whether customers are buying the line to play on the course or to wear to lunch. \u201cWhen a guy goes into Nordstrom looking for something to wear to a golf outing or a great polo to wear to work, they direct him to TravisMathew. That\u2019s the key to the brand: We have that versatility so we win in both worlds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ditto for the brand\u2019s own stores. \u201cIf you walk into our retail stores, you wouldn\u2019t think golf at all, you\u2019d just think men\u2019s lifestyle. So it\u2019s important that we\u2019re always rooted in golf but the brand has become much bigger than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Big enough to attract the attention of Callaway Golf Co., which purchased TravisMathew in 2017 for $125.5 million, more than double its annual sales of around $60 million at the time. Ellis said sales this year are expected to hit $300 million and $500 million within the next few years. \u201cWe do not have a projection on when we will get to $1 billion, but we certainly believe this brand has the potential and will inevitably get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
So after dancing around the idea of introducing women\u2019s for years, the decision was made to finally take the plunge. The first move was to hire a seasoned veteran to oversee the category \u2014 Lindsay Browder, who serves as director of women\u2019s product.<\/p>\n
Browder was design director role for Peter Millar \u2014 another brand that moved beyond its golf roots to become a lifestyle label \u2014 and launched its women\u2019s division.<\/p>\n
Ellis said he it was important to him that Browder \u201creally understood the men\u2019s side and could create a clear vision on the women\u2019s side that was very different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLindsay Browder<\/p>\n
Already, 30 percent of TravisMathew\u2019s direct-to-consumer customers are women so \u201cwe\u2019re almost doing a disservice in not offering product they can purchase,\u201d he said. The mission is to fill the same void it saw in menswear, which is \u201celevated everyday casualwear,\u201d Browder said. It\u2019s not athleisure and it\u2019s not leggings. And it\u2019s not the \u201ctoo fussy, too expensive\u201d pieces offered by high-end fashion brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith so many brands, it\u2019s such a knee jerk reaction to get into women\u2019s,\u201d Browder said, \u201cbut we\u2019ve put the pieces in place to do it correctly. We\u2019ve hired the right designers, the right technical people, and we\u2019ve done it in a really strategic and mindful way because we\u2019re trying to build something that has longevity and depth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The launch collection will be small \u2014 20 stock keeping units \u2014 focused on wardrobe staples in knits, layering tops and comfortable bottoms. Prices will include $39 for graphic T-shirts, $79 to $89 for knits, $99 to $119 for layers and $59 to $89 for bottoms.<\/p>\n
Going forward, Browder said footwear and accessories will be offered along with additional apparel categories such as performance lifestyle pieces. \u201cThis is just the starting gate for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be offered only online and in the company\u2019s stores in the beginning, which will give TravisMathew the opportunity to gain insight into customer preferences and make tweaks as necessary before offering it to wholesale customers. \u201cLet us learn first and do the heavy lifting and then we\u2019ll grow with the wholesale customer,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n
Within a few years, Ellis is projecting women\u2019s will be 20 to 25 percent of the direct-to-consumer business. And it is expected to grow quickly after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be a $1 billion brand in the next five years and women\u2019s should be growing very fast,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should see 200 to 300 percent growth per year for the first four to five years. It\u2019s one of the most exciting parts of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other growth areas include retail, Ellis said, predicting that the company expects to eventually operate around 100 stores. Although most stores are small now \u2014 2,000 to 2,500 square feet \u2014 some newer units are being tested in the 5,000 to 7,000 square foot range in order to accommodate the women\u2019s offering. Most of the company\u2019s stores are in the U.S. \u2014 mainly top malls in the Midwest, Northeast and Southwest \u2014 except for a flagship international store in Tokyo. It is also planning to open a unit in the U.K. this fall.<\/p>\n
In addition, it will expand the categories offered such as outerwear, which will take TravisMathew beyond strictly a warm-weather brand.<\/p>\n
But the big push is womenswear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth is, TravisMathew doesn\u2019t need women\u2019s to have success,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWe\u2019re already growing 80 percent a year. But we feel like we have an understanding about what we want to do on women\u2019s so it makes a ton of sense and it\u2019s going to add a ton of value to the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Count TravisMathew as the latest brand to set its sights on the lucrative women\u2019s business. The Huntington Beach,…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[314,611,764,765],"class_list":["post-8389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travismathew-golf","tag-fashion","tag-golf-apparel","tag-travismathew","tag-travismathew-golf","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117206738809810744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/gear\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}