This was a short lived, fun start up idea I had around creating personalized and custom stickers for golf clubs. The idea was spurred as a culmination of three problems:
First, leaving a club out on the course somewhere is very common and easy to do, but getting the club back … is not as easy. Often you only find out that you lost it days, or weeks later, and then having to call the golf course, describe the club, day, and location that it was lost, is a tedious and stressful job. when a set of clubs can cost well over $1,000 and a replacement often costing around $120. By having at least your name, and optionally your phone number on the club, it dramatically increases the chances of you getting your lost item back.
Secondly, club customization and personalization is one of the key elements of the $9.3 Billion Dollar per Year Golf Equipment market segment, and I believe a set of $20 decals is a low cost opportunity for this space and the 66 million golfers globally, considering the average round is $80, average set of golf clubs is $984 and average spent on clothing is $378.
Third, and finally, the current offerings for club labels are very boring, bland and do not have a unique or cool factor associated with them. This product is intended for the folks who want to have something unique, personalized and an element of a “Pro” factor. In addition to personalization, there is also an element of patriotism associated with the decals.
Inspiration
As mentioned, a lot of my inspiration was drawn from cycling, but I have spotted this type of personalization and branding in other industries as well, such as RC Car racing, Motorcycles, Car racing and sports where athletes wear helmets (Ice Hockey, LaCrosse, Baseball, etc.)
Prototype Phase
Designing and printing a couple labels at home, these were the prototypes I came up with. Ugly, simple, but helpful in understanding the design process, sizes and practical elements in mass producing them. My initial plan was to use a 3rd party/local company to print these for me due to the cost of the printing, laminating and cutting equipment. In the event the product was well received, in a follow up phase, I would purchase my own production equipment. I ordered a bunch of samples from both online and local print shops to find a company that had a good quality and within a reasonable cost.
Production Phase
After proofing out the idea and general concept, I started work on the eCommerce site, branding, marketing and production process.
Cost Calculations
| Stickers | $5.75 |
| Envelope | $0.42 |
| Postage | $1.00 |
| Design | $3.00 |
| Postage Label | 0.10 |
| Transaction Fees | $1.00 |
| Cost | $11.27 |
| Retail | $17.00 |
| Profit | $5.73 per Sheet |
Here are a few of the product sheets and samples which were ordered, printed and tested out.
I launched the site in 2020 and did had some initial early success. In order to maintain some momentum I also started to add some product variations, such as for range finders (easy to loose) and also added some styles which were better suited to kids. I also started to market styles specific to different clubs and courses which they could provide to their members. Below are a few of these variations.
Product Variations/Other
These were some the junior/kids styles.
These were marketed toward teams, courses and groups.
These were some of the primary styles, you could pick with or with a flag or logo.
Website Screenshots
The site was based on WordPress, ran WooCommerce and credit card processing was by Credit.
Finally
In the end I decided to shut down the project. While golf was booming during Covid times, production, logistics, meeting up with people and getting this done, didnt have the momentum needed to keep going. Looking back, I may have pulled the plug a little soon. I should have done a bit more marketing and put in a bit more effort and pushed through the slumps.
