This Garage-Born Toddler Golf Bag is Changing the Industry

What can you accomplish in 28 minutes?

For one, you could run a decently fast 5k race. Cook a nice steak dinner. Hit a bucket of range balls. Perhaps you could to sit down and watch an episode of Jeopardy.

Twenty-eight minutes is also the amount of time it took Tyler Johnson and Charlie Golf Co. to sell out of their first run of toddler golf bags.

But before Charlie Golf Co. sold out of that initial shipment (and pretty much every one since), Tyler Johnson was simply acting as any good father would given a similar situation: he noticed a problem with his son’s golf bag and decided to find a solution.

Charlie, Johnson’s son, didn’t actually have a golf bag. That was the problem. When they would go to the range together for some father-son bonding, he was forced to carry the clubs, not because a toddler golf bag didn’t exist, but because the ones that did exist just weren’t practical or good.

“I remember leaving that night and I’m like, let’s find him a golf bag,” Johnson quipped. “I thought, heck, let’s try to figure this out. And I remember that that night I just sort of went to work on it just like a little passion project of mine.”

At the time, no thought was really given to making it a business. Johnson couldn’t have predicted the enormity of it all nor the sheer number of people who, like him, just wanted to make it easier to spend time on the golf course with their kids.

“If anything, I was gonna get two sample bags out of the deal and one would be for Charlie,” Johnson said.

Spoiler alert: Charlie isn’t the only one now rolling up to the range with a toddler-appropriate golf bag.

Home Cooking

Why is it that seemingly every successful business starts out of the founder’s garage? PING, Amazon, In-N-Out and Apple all have a similar origin story.

Perhaps it’s the humble beginnings that teach a man or woman to put their nose to the grindstone. Or maybe there’s just something about having nowhere else to turn that brings out the best in people.

Whatever the case, Charlie Golf Co. was born, as you can probably surmise, in Johnson’s garage. What started as a simple sketch on Canva and a few sample bags has turned into a legitimate golf business.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Despite it’s miniature size, making a toddler golf bag isn’t a small feat. Johnson went back and forth with a factory working on strap size, length, etc.

Selling the actual thing proved to be the easiest part. Remember, the initial shipment of bags (150) sold out in just 28 minutes. The next shipment of 300 was gone in 12.

“After the second or third sellout. I’m like, OK, this could be something,” Johnson said.

Family Recipe

Charlie Golf Co. didn’t do anything ground-breaking. Johnson will be the first to admit that. Toddler golf bags do exist (although they aren’t very good.) But the reason they grew so fast, and continue to grow at exponential rates, is thanks in large part to the family nature of the business.

Johnson’s mission is to help families spend more time together. His medium just happens to be a toddler golf bag. But besides making a product that encourages parents, grandparents and children to enjoy each other’s company, Charlie Golf Co. is successful because Johnson’s family all help out.

The kids love running boxes to the UPS man (though there’s getting to be way too many to do that without the help of a cart or wagon). His dad enjoys packing orders into the wee hours of the night. His wife stays busy holding down the fort. All members of the Johnson clan do this in the name of making golf a family game.

Yes, the Charlie Golf Co. toddler golf bags are much better than the competition. This is evident by the growing waitlist and constant sellouts. Heck, Johnson’s first sale actually went to a PGA Tour pro (he shall remain nameless but he was an early adopter, snagging the 33rd spot on the wait list).

But for as good as the product is, the story of family togetherness is what makes Charlie Golf Co. marketable. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s relatable.

Lightning In a Bottle

There’s no way Johnson could have predicted the lightning-quick pace at which Charlie Golf Co. has grown. From his toddler golf bags being used at the Masters par-3 tourney this year to avid Charlie Golf Co. fans making a trip to the Old Course with a toddler golf bag in tow, it’s almost crazy to see the success.

Where do we go from here? Charlie Golf Co. recently launched a set of toddler golf clubs which, as you can probably guess, have already sold out. Luckily, you can preorder a set. (Smart move, Tyler!)

The next step? Probably find somewhere a little bigger to accommodate the continued demand for bags, clubs and the seemingly endless number of parents who want to do the same thing that inspired Johnson to start the company in the first place: spend more quality time with their kids.

Last I checked, there’s no market cap on family togetherness and no shortage of parents looking to bond with their children. For those reasons, there’s no doubt in my mind that Charlie Golf Co. will continue to thrive. No, Johnson didn’t catch lightning in a bottle. Johnson captured the one thing we all need a little more of: Love.

Will they expand? Some day. Right now, the focus is on meeting demand. For now, Charlie Golf Co. will continue to foster a love for the game in that same little Iowa garage where the idea first came to life.

Want to learn more about Charlie Golf Co? You can follow the journey on Twitter where Tyler Johnson chronicles the ups and downs of the business under the handle @tylerjohnson_59

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