Launched in 2017 with the goal of bringing some much-needed color and character to the then-boring golf apparel industry, Bad Birdie was beamed into millions of homes when Founder and CEO Jason Richardson appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank in April 2020 as the COVID 19 pandemic spread and golf’s popularity started to surge.
Today, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company struck its biggest deal since Robert Herjavec missed a putt that cost him an extra five percent equity stake by signing PGA Tour players Si Woo Kim, Harrison Endycott and Callum Tarren that will ensure the brand will be seen on even more screens week in and week out.
“We’re trying to find players that are going to kind of continue to grow in the game and have a lot more trajectory so we’re trying to get players earlier on (in their careers) versus someone who is already super, super established,” Richardson said. “Our whole approach when we went into it was like, we don’t just want to sign guys that are like billboards, we want to sign guys who are part of what our brand represents.”
Richardson said sponsoring professional players has always been on the company’s roadmap but Bad Birdie needed to expand its product offerings enough to outfit a Tour player while also having enough team bandwidth to support such sponsorship endeavors.
Confident both boxes were checked, approximately six months ago Bad Birdie jumped into the PGA Tour world by attending events and meeting players in the hopes of securing sponsorship opportunities.
Bad Birdie isn’t stopping here. The brand is expanding its partnerships across all levels of golf, from supporting 10 high school programs, including seven-time Florida state champion Ponte Vedra High School, to collegiate programs and individual players like Oklahoma’s Drew Goodman as well as Korn Ferry and LPGA players including Isaiah Salinda.
While Bad Birdie will be making its professional golf debut, it joins a list of newer golf apparel brands inking deals with PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players as the game continues to grow, evolve and diversify.
“The old way of golf is done and with this new generation of golf, the train has left the station,” Richardson said. “There’s brands who have been on that train since the beginning and there’s others that are having to catch up and are kind of stuck in their old ways, so you see a lot of success with these next-generation brands or these brands that look at the sport in a new way, which I think is where the culture is going. It doesn’t surprise me that these brands like us, Malbon and lulu that are taking a new look at the game are able to have success.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for new brands to come in and take market share and continue to innovate the sport. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about for me. There’s this group of brands and this whole community that’s trying to reshape the culture around golf in a more positive way, a more inclusive way and a more creative way and, fortunately enough, that’s actually happening. Things are changing and moving in a good direction.”
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