TravisMathew’s Goal Of $1 Billion Golf Brand Includes More Standalone Stores And, Finally, A Women’s Line

One of golf’s most popular apparel brands continues to grow at an almost dizzying pace. And there’s more to come for TravisMathew in Year 15 and beyond.

The societal shift toward more casual apparel has clearly been a good fit for TravisMathew, which falls in the active lifestyle category as one of several well-known brands under the Topgolf Callaway umbrella. Revenue is up significantly, the company has opened more than 25 new brick-and-mortar stores since the start of the pandemic (while doubling its workforce over that period), recently launched a women’s line that sold out its first run in less than a month, and has plans to relaunch footwear in 2024.

“I’m extremely optimistic about the future and direction,” says TravisMathew CEO Ryan Ellis. “We’re going to have big double digit growth next year. I think we can be the biggest sportswear brand in the United States and obviously we’ve got global aspirations.”

TravisMathew draws inspiration from its Southern California roots, with a culture and lifestyle that revolves around surf, sand and sun, and perhaps the biggest driver for its success has been a diversified distribution approach. Ellis, whose goal is to grow TravisMathew into a $1 billion brand within five years, points to five major sales channels:

• Ecommerce
• TravisMathew retail locations
• Specialty stores (like Nordstrom)
• Big box golf retailers (like PGA Tour Superstore and DICKS Sporting Goods)
• Green grass locations (country clubs and resorts)

“We’re diversified between 18-24% for all of our channels. One sort of goes up, one comes down, so it balances out,” Ellis said. “We popped out of the pandemic and the retail channel was really struggling, but ecommerce was way up. Then golf retail was way up and Nordstrom was down. So, it really balanced everything out. When you think long-term, having that balance gives you longevity, and it gives us balance on where we want to sell.”

Ellis says TravisMathew’s appeal is an approachable but youthful vibe.

“It’s fun and energetic,” says Ellis. “There’s been a shifting trend everywhere, especially in golf, but in work and in life too, toward casualization. That’s been going on since we started. We’ve been able to make product that’s more casual, yet dressy enough. Extremely comfortable, but looks good and not like you just got out of bed. Especially the male customer has gotten a lot more savvy over the past 15 years. He cares more about how he dresses and understands comfort a lot better. Those are things we specialize in.”

For the first time in 2022, though, TravisMathew also introduced a women’s line. It’s something that that the company, acquired by Callaway in 2017 for $125.5 million, had talked about for over a decade. The early returns, direct-to-consumer only to start, were better than they ever could have anticipated.

“We launched in May and sold out in about three weeks,” said Ellis. “Unfortunately, we didn’t buy enough inventory. And then we relaunched in October and it’s trending incredible. It’s taking up about 3% of our storage, but it’s overperforming as if it were the best men’s product in our store.

“The interesting thing is that 60% of people buying our women’s product are men. (That customer) may have never bought his wife or girlfriend clothing before, but he feels like it’s really approachable. She might already be wearing his TravisMathew hoodie and t-shirt. Long-term though, our vision is opposite — that 75% of our customers are women. Being 14 years in and not doing women’s line, it felt like a big disservice.”

Soon, the women’s line will be found in TravisMathew’s own retail locations. The company opened 10 stores in a 12-month period after the start of the pandemic, then another 11 in the following year. After entering the New York market with a recent opening in Paramus, New Jersey, TravisMathew now has 41 total doors. The vision is 70 to 75 self-branded stores within the next few years in addition to the strong green grass and broader retail presence.

“Even through the pandemic, when everyone was extremely pessimistic on retail, we believed that it was going to survive and be stronger than before,” said Ellis.

And while golf is core to the TravisMathew mission, it’s the broad versatility that’s resonating with consumers and fueling growth toward the $1 billion brand goal.

“If you said, ‘How much product is great to golf in,’ I’d say 75%,” Ellis said. “But that really the point of the line: we’re making product that you can wear on the course and it looks just as good off the course.”