At any given night, in any corner of your local pub, you’ll find a group of mates on a three-pint buzz, cooking up their “million-dollar-idea.”
The majority of these spitball sessions usually amount to nothing or, worse still, another intellectually listless podcast. But every once in a while, a seed of an idea makes it outside those hallowed beer halls, and becomes greater than the sum of its progenitors.
That’s essentially the origin story of how the two Adelaide-based tradies behind Golf Gods set down the tools and made a fortune.
Back in 2014, three years before modern staple Malbon Golf had even been founded, glazier Dale Smedley and plumber Shaun Trevillian decided golfing fashion needed a shake-up. Something that thumbed its nose at the sport’s conservative sartorial sensibilities and embraced the laidback side of life with bold provocative designs. Think Aussie larrikin meets frat house chic.
“Our journey began with a simple idea: to bring something different to the table,” said Trevillian.
With nothing more than a couple of grand and a dream, the homegrown battlers got to work on their ragtag online-only operation.
“Looking back to those early days when we started out of my garage, we never could have imagined how much the brand would take off,” reflected Smedley.
As the Australian Financial Review described it, the early days were “slow and sometimes bumpy.” After all — how else can two blokes with zero experience starting a fashion label (much less running a successful one) figure out the ropes?
By 2017, Golf Gods had picked up enough momentum thanks to the power of social media with a handful of bestsellers steadily emerging.
“We’d do a post at 5 PM and then at 5:30 PM our phones would start dinging with sales,” Dale Smedley told the AFR.
In present day, the top performers include Golf God’s Miami Vice Summer Nights Polo, Happy Gilmore collection, and the playfully crass Shocker Glove — a reference to the sexually suggestive gesture, coloured fingers and all, disseminated across high school playgrounds.
From the very beginning, their greatest strength was how it captivated the youth. Golf Australia indicates approximately 3.5 million Australians (or 13% of the population) play golf with only 12% being members of clubs.
As Smedley claims, 80% of all golf played in this country occurs on public courses, where dress codes aren’t as prohibitive. In other words, the perfect stomping grounds for younger golfers to rock their Golf Gods apparel.
And the proof is in the pudding: over the last two years, the brand’s youth-oriented lines have enjoyed a tidy 30% bump in sales.
“We’re also proud to be loved by an older cohort of golfers who don’t take themselves too seriously and aren’t too shy to have a bit of fun,” noted Trevillian.
What had been established in Smedley’s garage a decade ago with $2,000 now spans two warehouses in Australia, one facility in the US, plus a showroom in Thailand; ships to 146 countries with over 440,000 loyal customers worldwide; and most crucially, averages $6 million in sales annually (half a million monthly) — $27 million in total revenue to date.
Though by all accounts, Dale Smedley and Shaun Trevillian are “just getting started.”
On the immediate horizon, Golf Gods will soon add a new warehouse in Denver, Colorado and a new showroom in Thailand’s Bangkok to its international presence, setting the tone for even greater ambitions for global recognition.
But the #1 priority as of this moment? Conquering the American market, where the sport is so ingrained within the culture, it’s practically another religion — and where they’ll be able to find the 20% sales increase they’re currently targeting for 2025.
Aside from the Denver warehouse, Smedley and Trevillian are in the process of courting outside investors for a capital raise to bankroll this full-scale expansion.
“To go hard in America you’re probably going to need $5 million to $10 million. We do quite a bit of revenue in America through Amazon,” said Smedley.
He added “with our sights set on further growth in the US and Asia, we’re committed to pushing the limits of what’s possible in golf fashion.”
“We’re excited to continue redefining what it means to be a golfer in the modern world and can’t wait to see what the next ten years brings us.”
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