We recently connected with Henry McGannon and have shared our conversation below.

Henry, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

When I was first getting RealGolfers going, I was new to the business of sourcing products from overseas. I was so excited about my wonderful idea to make high end golf shirts affordable, that I forgot about one critical detail. I found a great manufacturer and chatted with them about the shirts for a couple days. I made sure the fabric was perfect – fabric is probably the most important part of a quality golf shirt. I made sure the stitching was top notch. Our main goal is to make sure our shirts are as nice as any other golf shirts on the market, despite being half the price. Little details like the stitching are crucial to achieving that goal. I made sure the collar of the shirts was good – I went with a self fabric collar on this first batch of shirts. I made sure the buttons were all the right color, size and material. I thought I had covered all of the bases. I wanted to get the shirts in my hand as soon as possible, so I didn’t order samples. This was a mistake that stemmed from rushing to get the product, and not having any experience whatsoever in this field.

The shirts showed up two or three weeks later. I got the DHL notification that the shirts had arrived on my phone that day at work. I was beyond excited to get home and check out the shirts, it was like Christmas morning. I got home, grabbed the box and hurried inside to open it up. As I opened the box I could see the shirts, they looked amazing. The colors were perfect, the buttons were perfect and the collars were even nicer than I had hoped for.

I grabbed my size, an extra large, out of the box to try on. The fabric felt amazing as I took it out of the package – 90% polyester, 10% spandex. The perfect performance material for the modern golf shirt. As I put the shirt on, it felt a little snug. In fact, it fit my 5 foot 18 inch frame like a crop top. It was WAY to small. My heart dropped. How could this happen? I asked myself over and over. I ripped the shirt off in disgust and inspected it to see what the issue was, and it wasn’t hard to figure out. The shirts I had been waiting for so eagerly were not in American sizes – they were Asian sizes. For those of you who don’t know like I didn’t, Asian sizes are about the equivalent to American children’s sizes. At least they are for golf shirts.

This was a great learning experience for me. I learned you can not ask your manufacturer enough questions before making the purchase. I learned that the sizing chart you use for shirts is absolutely pivotal. Most importantly, I learned the importance of spending a few hundred extra dollars on samples. You have to be patient, take the extra month or 5 weeks to get the samples. You have to be organized enough to have the samples in hand a month or two before you want to release the collection for sale.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am 26 years old, and I have loved golf for about 20 years. Ever since I picked up a club I have been obsessed with the game of golf and dreamt of playing at the professional level. There is so much to love about the game, I won’t get into it. I grew up in Michigan and moved to North Carolina for college. Living in North Carolina gave me the opportunity to play golf more than 6-7 months out of the year which is the reality in Michigan. I played at a community college and then attended UNC Asheville after.

I have worked in golf as a caddy since I was 17. I’ve been lucky enough to caddy at prominent courses like Pinehurst No. 2 and the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island. Working in golf, especially as a caddy, gives one the chance to be around the game constantly. More importantly, caddying gave me the chance to play free golf. I would never have been able to afford to pay full price to play and practice golf. I have dedicated my entire life thus far to improving my golf game. Golf has given me everything I’ve ever had in my adult life.

Everything related to golf is expensive. The greens fees, the range balls, the clubs, the clothes, it’s all expensive. Golf has a bad reputation of being exclusive, unshared and reserved for the rich. Unfortunately, this is true to some extent.

One day, I was in my closet getting ready to head to the golf course to practice before an upcoming tournament and had a realization – not a single golf shirt in my arsenal had been purchased. Every last one was either from a golf course I worked at, or from a tournament I had played in. I asked myself: “Why? Why have I never purchased a single golf shirt at the age of 24? I play and practice every single day, I wear the shirts every single day. I love these shirts, why have I never bought one?”

The answer was simple – golf shirts are overpriced and a 24 year old caddy who spends all of his money on greens fees and entry fees to tournaments can’t afford them.

That is how I got into this business. In that moment in my closet I had the idea to sell the nicest golf shirts for half the price. A price that everyone can afford. This is the problem we solve for our clients. We provide them with golf shirts they are proud of, shirts they are excited to wear to the course, shirts that are durable, beautiful and stand out. I didn’t make the golf shirt better. There are numerous brands out there who make golf shirts that I love. I made the golf shirt affordable, because it can be.

That is what RealGolfers is known for – Beautiful golf shirts that everyone can afford.

We love golf, and want everyone to at least have the chance to see what it has to offer. We don’t want or expect everyone to be a golfer. We just want folks who are the slightest bit interested in golf to give it a shot. We want it to be more inviting, we want there to be less of a barrier to entry. That’s why we consider everyone from newbies to pros to be
RealGolfers. Anyone who is excited to tee it up is a RealGolfer. Our hope is that beautiful, affordable shirts that people are excited to wear will inspire some folks to get out there and play the game we love. It has a lot to offer.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Being a golf shirt brand, we need oodles of content of golfers wearing our shirts for social media. Instagram in particular. This was challenging at first. I had no idea where to get started. What content should I make? What even is content?

The way I figured it out (and I am definitely still learning), was looking to other great brands for inspiration. Not to copy them, but to see what they post on social media and what gets the best response from their audience. Photos, videos, reels, stories? What do we need and how do we get it?

I began obtaining top notch content by giving friends of mine RealGolfers shirts to wear to the course, and asked if I could take pictures and videos while we played. This worked out great for me. I didn’t have to change anything about my day to day routine! I already loved playing golf with my friends, and did it all the time.

After doing this for a while, I began to improve at it. Figuring out what my audience likes to see. Funny golf videos, beautiful golf courses and golf swings, informative videos about how to practice certain parts of the game like chipping or putting. You really can’t go wrong, it just needs to be consistent.

My advice to those just starting to build their social media audience would be to try everything you can think of. Silly videos and pictures are great. Informative videos are great. It needs to be consistent with your mission. By trying everything you can think of, you’ll figure out what you’re good at and what you need to improve. You’ll come up with new ideas based on what your audience responds too. You can always go back and delete posts that you don’t like. You’ll improve faster than you think. Pay attention to your competitors. If you’re new, they will be way better at it than you. Learn from them and just try your best. If you stick with it you will be just as good as them with time.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We don’t manufacture our products. I had no idea how to get started when I first had the idea for RealGolfers. So I just started googling. “Wholesale golf shirts”, “How to source high end golf shirts?”. I eventually came across the Alibaba app. This is really where I started to make progress. You can source almost anything on the Alibaba app. There are hundreds of manufacturers on there to choose from.

I started by finding 5 or 6 who specialized in what I needed, which was performance fabric. (A polyester-spandex blend to be specific.) I used the chat feature to speak with each manufacturer and to see who I could communicate the most effectively with. I now have good relationships with multiple manufacturers in multiple countries. Some focus on cotton, some focus on polyester. At this point, I don’t need to use the Alibaba app. I can go directly to my manufacturers and get quotes for products that I am interested in making.

The biggest lesson I have learned so far about manufacturing products is to be patient. The product has to be perfect, so patience is key. Spend time speaking with your manufacturer. Don’t order the samples of the product until you are 100% certain that you and your manufacturer are on the same page about every little detail of the product. Order samples from more than one manufacturer so you can compare the quality of the products. Use your leverage when negotiating the final price. You have all the leverage as the buyer, and don’t be afraid to walk away from a manufacturer if you don’t like their prices. There are a lot of manufacturers who would be happy to meet your needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: realgolfers.co
• Instagram: @realgolfersco
• Facebook: RealGolfers

Image Credits
All images taken by myself, Henry McGannon