#113 - Clinch Golf Gloves: Matt Mahoney (Co-Founder)

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Clinch is founded by two Oregon golfers, Matt Mahoney and Jason Desoldato, under the belief that there are better materials from which to make a golf glove. Jason worked for Nike and Burton and had extensive experience with innovative fabrics that help athletes overcome their challenges. Thus, Clinch was born. Clinch focuses on modern performance gloves designed to perform in rain or hot/humid weather. The Pacific Northwest is their home and proving ground - offering a diverse test from seaside mist to high desert heat. If it works there, it works anywhere. Their mission is to bring golfers an innovative product that performs in all conditions. Whether you’re grinding it out on tour or shooting to break 100, they have built this glove for you!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we play golf.
Let me show you how we do it inthe pros. Welcome to Behind the
Golf Brand podcast. I nevermissed with the Seven Iron , a
conversation with some of themost interesting innovators and
entrepreneurs behind thebiggest names in golf. My
friends were the golf clubs. Ilived on the golf course, I
lived on the driving rein fromPro Talk . You should learn

(00:21):
something from each and everysingle round. You play to fun
from on and off the green. Whywould you play golf if you
don't play it for money? Justlet me put the ball in a hole.
This is Behind the Golf Brandpodcast with Paul Libert tore .

Speaker 2 (00:34):
What's up guys?
Welcome to the Behind the GolfBrand podcast. This week I have
my good friend Matt Mahoneyfrom Clinch Golf . Clinch Golf
is a golf glove brand that hasrecently come out the last
couple years. It's a new typeof technology and a new type of
glove, which you're not reallyseeing. 'cause a lot of glove
out there are been around for ahundred years and they fall
apart all the same way. So it'sreally kind of cool to have

(00:54):
Matt in the show talk aboutwhat they're doing, how they're
different, and why you shouldcheck them out. So welcome to
the show. Thanks

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Paul. Good to see you, bud.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So where are you located?

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I am joining you from sunny Portland, Oregon
today.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Nice. Is it a nice day out there? It looks like
it's a nice day out there.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
It it is. Yeah. It's lovely. It's like always

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Nice in Portland. Is when , is it ever not nice in
Portland? Well,

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Six months of the year, we have six months of
guaranteed good weather, andthen we have six months of
rain.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
So when's the rain season? Like what months is
that

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Starts? It probably starts mid to late October, and

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Then it goes until April. Yeah .

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Rains

Speaker 2 (01:24):
And rains

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And rains. Yeah .
April, may, sometimes throughJuly 4th.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Does there ever snow there?

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah. Uh, we usually get one snowstorm a year comes,
we get about an inch of snow,chaos . Chaos in the city. Uh ,

Speaker 2 (01:37):
What do we do ?

Speaker 1 (01:38):
And then it melts by noon. My , uh,

Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's like , I was in Arizona, we get like one
rainstorm and everyone getslike, oh, what do we do? It's
rain. Like, I don't know . Iturned windshield wipers on. I
wanna drive super slow on thestreets . Like, dude, it's
rain. Like, come on now. Yeah .
Did you grow up in Oregon?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I did not. I'm originally from Burlington,
Vermont, where we have oh'sconsiderably snow. Oh , that's
,

Speaker 2 (01:57):
That's really far from where, how you do Oregon?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, my, my wife is from Portland, so I usually
don't need to explain muchfurther, but the , there

Speaker 2 (02:04):
You go.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
The sidebar to that is you can play 12 months of
golf in Oregon and youcertainly can't do that in New
England where it came from.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
No, it's like, it's, yeah. Like you , what, three
months? Maybe four if you'relucky.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah. Yeah. That might be a little extreme, but
yeah, five , five good months.
And that's it From

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Like, what, like June to maybe early October.
Like

Speaker 1 (02:25):
September?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah . Yeah. That's like, everyone's like, oh, you
live in Arizona . You couldplay golf all year round . I'm
like, Hmm . Yeah, you can. Butit's like, really? Rates don't
go down now until the middle ofMay. And so you have May, June,
July, August, it's like athousand degrees outside, so
you can play cheap golf, butit's so hot , like you're
dying. And then they reseededin October, so you can't play
golf in October. And then it'slike, rates go five times as

(02:46):
much the rest of the year tilllike May again. But

Speaker 1 (02:49):
I guess , yeah. I'll give you the true
origin story of how I wound upin Portland. We were living in
New England. My wife wanted tomove home to be near her
family. And I came on a trip inFebruary and I snuck in a trip
to abandoned dunes with somefriends. Uh, and that's what,
that's what sealed the deal forme.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Really? You're like, oh, wait a minute. This is ,
well , if I can do this inFebruary

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Doing , I can consider living here. Yeah .

Speaker 2 (03:11):
All right . So are you a golf professional?

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I am not, no. I am a just a golf, a avid golfer.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
What's your handicap?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
I am a 7.5. So

Speaker 2 (03:21):
You're good, dude, you , I'm a , I'm a

Speaker 1 (03:23):
15 . This is my , this is my line. This is what I
say to people. I say, if you,if you suck at golf, you
probably think I'm really good.
But if you're really good atgolf, you probably think I
suck.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
That's true. That's very true. It's all
perspective. Like, I neverreally had my handicap until
like a year ago and I'm like,I'm really gonna figure this
out. And I was terrible. Like alot worse than I thought I was.
And then like, I was a 24 andthen I started practicing a lot
and started getting lessons,and I got the right clubs, you
know, the right length, thewhole nine yards and all .

(03:53):
Like, now I'm a like, I'malmost 15, 16 right now. I
wanna get down to single digit,hopefully by the end of the
year. I dunno if it's gonnahappen, but that's my goal at
least. Yeah. Or I'll do it nextyear. I don't know . It's just,
it's possible. It's all aboutshort game. I feel like really
you can dial in your shortgame. Yeah. That's where it's ,
that

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Certainly helps.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
How'd you get into golf? Like, did your family
play a lot of golf or did yourdad, or what's the story?

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, I grew up, my dad did play golf and attempted
to get me into it when I wasyoung, but it didn't really
click for me. Um, you know , Ilearned to swing a little bit,
but what's just into othersports? And it was really in
my, my post-college years whenI finally had some money coming
in and some free time that ,uh, I started golfing and had a
good, good crew of buddies thatwere got into it at the same

(04:37):
time and, and really caught it,caught the bug for it. Then in
my, you know, sort of early tomid twenties.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
So you, you grew up in Vermont, right? So like, did
you I did . You didn't play ,did you play golf, like on the
golf team, or you just kind ofbarely played and you're like
out ? This is in my sport.
Really, I don't really care.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I played for , I played one year of golf my
senior year on the golf team,but, you know, I was not, I was
not a good golfer. And , uh,the , the golf team,

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Just , you made the team, bro. That's cool. Like,
I, yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Making the team men show up , showing up in the
cafeteria. Oh,

Speaker 2 (05:04):
That was like, all right . That was like , bro, my
high school , like Cheez Revywent to my high school. Like,
like my , it was like my , my ,my dad was like, you need to
practice more. I'm like, nah, Igot this, I got this. And then
I got just, I was like, okay,yeah, I gotta really take this
seriously. And I'm like , Idon't wanna do that. So
whatever. I wish I did that .
The only

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Claim to fame from my high school golf team is
that , um, a friend of mine,Laddie Klein , we call him
Laddie the Caddy, is nowfull-time on the p g a tour ,
um, and has made a living ofit. So we're proud of him.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Oh , that's cool. So you grew up in Vermont, did you
, where did you go to college?

Speaker 1 (05:36):
I went to Champlain College, which is in
Burlington, Vermont.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
And then what's your background? Like, what did you,
what did you get your degreein? So ,

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Uh , business marketing. Yeah. And , uh,
I've, I've, you know, sort ofboringly, I've worked in
banking most of my career , uh,which is , you know, you

Speaker 2 (05:53):
My wife does that.
Okay. Keeps promoted . Yeah .
When you got outta college then, like, what were you doing for
banking, marketing ,

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Uh, you know, or

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Just business development

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Started entry level . Um, but I , I've always done
a few things on the side aswell and tried to scratch the
entrepreneurial itch. Uh, butlike

Speaker 2 (06:09):
What, like what was your first, what was your first
entrepreneurial thing you did?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Uh, well, I, I flipped a couple of houses
with, with some friends. 'causethat was the trend back in, or
the early

Speaker 2 (06:18):
2012 . Yeah ,

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah .

Speaker 2 (06:19):
2010 , actually not back , like 2000 , like five ,
2006 . Yeah . That was, youcould make some good money
doing flipping.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
I attempted to found a, a wristwatch brand. Uh,
really,

Speaker 2 (06:31):
I

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Never went anywhere and floundered, but it was a
big learning experience for me.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
So tell me about that. So like, what , how ,
how'd you even like come upwith that idea?

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Uh, Fred and I had read an article about someone
else that had done it, and webecame convinced that, that we
could emulate their success.
And we put a bunch of time andthe few bucks into it and , uh,
got a bunch of product andcreated a , you know , website
and whole story behind it.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Oh , so where , get this product from, like
overseas? Like some, some, likewhat?

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You can, you know, you cansource anything from overseas
if you

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Hard enough on Alibaba. And then

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You're like , so how many did you order when you
first got your watches?

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Oh, I forget. Like, you know, 1500 watches or
something like that. Oh,

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Jesus . That's so ,

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Took a bite off.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
So how'd you try to sell 'em on your website? Or
did you try ? I

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Tried to sell 'em on my website with no real, you
know, this is, this is back intwo or 2008 or something , you
know, like back before therewere any sort of tools ,
. So no

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Shopify, like a WordPress site

Speaker 1 (07:28):
There no tools to market it. There was no , um,
you know, there was no , uh,meta to run ads on. And so we
just , uh, was Yeah. Came to agrinding halt and liquidated
our inventory. So, but good,good

Speaker 2 (07:39):
. See , like , I feel like that's like,
I love hearing these stories'cause it's just like how,
like, I feel like how youbuild, right? Like, you get ,
you learn something from that,okay. And then you tell the
next one, oh, I learnedsomething from that. And like,
you might lose money, you mightwin whatever, not win, but
like, make money and you kindof get to the right product.
And that's the hard , I thinkit's the hardest part, right?
Like figuring that, thatprocess out.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
So what else, because you got a wristwatch
company, then what happened?
What else you got? So

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Then, you know, back to banking and , uh, you know,
starting a family and just, youknow, grinding it out for, for
several years of just , uh, youknow, being a career man.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
So then what year did you guys move to Oregon?

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Uh, I moved to Oregon nine years ago. So that
would've been around 2014, Ibelieve it was

Speaker 2 (08:27):
13 .

Speaker 1 (08:27):
13 or 14 .

Speaker 2 (08:28):
And then that point, were you, is that you , you had
already kind of bit the bug andyou were saying like, you went
to band and you were likecompletely blown away by it,
and you're like, whoa ,

Speaker 1 (08:37):
I was blown away by it. Yes. And most I heard would
understand. It's just , uh,it's a golf paradise.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Why? For the people who haven't been there?

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah. Well, it's , uh, you know, there are now ,
uh, five, you know, you know,terrific courses that are all,
first of all, they're sodistinct and different from the
typical golf we play in thestates, but they just create
this unique experience. It's,you know, it's in the middle of
nowhere. It , uh, Portland isthe largest metro area to it,
but it still takes me fourhours to drive there. Um ,

(09:08):
really

Speaker 2 (09:08):
That far, really . I know

Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's truly remote.
Yeah. Uh , but when you getthere, it's, you know, it's
turnkey. You can park your car,they shuttle you everywhere.
Um, you're just totally takencare of. You're immersed in
golf. Like, it's, it's, it'snot a resort with, you know,
like

Speaker 2 (09:25):
You have rules and kids running around everything
,

Speaker 1 (09:27):
All golf related.
Um, but there's fantastic, whenyou're not playing golf,
there's fantastic golfamenities. They've got the
punch bowl , which is a giantputting green with severe
undulations and a mobile barcart. So you and your crew can
, um, set up there, you know ,put a few bucks on the putts.
And , uh, there'll be, youknow, in the, in the afternoon,
if it's a sunny day, you'llhave just hundreds of people

(09:48):
out there , um, you know, havehaving a few, few , uh,

Speaker 2 (09:52):
How big is his putting green? Like, honestly,

Speaker 1 (09:54):
I mean , massive. I mean , uh, like

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Huge.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Like, you know, I , I don't, I'm not

Speaker 2 (10:00):
a football field,

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Like, at least as big as a football field. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
For reals . Holy crap . Massive.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, it's got two 18 hole courses. And when I say
they undulate, I mean, it'slike a carnival ride, you know,
your ball slides, you know, canbe a triple breaker. And it's,
but it's , it's, it's a lot offun.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I say like, yeah , I wanna go so bad, dude, I have
no idea. I just gotta , I gottado it. I wanna do it. Like ,
it's on my , it's on my bucketlist of courses to go play
hopefully the next year. So youmove , you move into Portland,
and then what, were you stillworking in banking when you
decided to start clinch? Orlike what did you do?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, I was working in banking and , uh, that's
exactly what I was doing when Idecided to start clinch.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Was it a side, was like a side thing? I guess
another , it was side business,

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yep . Uh , early. So

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Then how'd you, how'd you start that?

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I guess the origin is really my, started with my
dissatisfaction with leathergloves. Um, I, I just, you
know, basically in anycondition, I think leather
gloves, my opinion is thatthey, they feel great, you
know, outta the envelope whenyou put 'em on. But , um, they,
they've got a number of flaws.
Um, you know, that they don'treact well to moisture. They

(11:12):
don't stretch back. They wearout way too quickly. And so it
occurred to me ,

Speaker 2 (11:16):
They dry out, they

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Dry out, they turn into beef jerky, you know,
they, they feel great at thebeginning around , but you
know, if you get a little bitof sweat, a little bit of
moisture , um, from rain or afrosty beverage or whatever it
may be , um, they, they justdon't work absorb it .
, they don't work as a grippingmaterial any longer, and they
don't, and they, and they'reslow to dry out. So there was a
host of issues with them , andI just kind of became convinced

(11:38):
that there was, in this age oflike modern performance
materials where everything wehave like stretches and wicks
and, you know , uh, isantimicrobial. There's just,
there had to be a bettermaterial to make a glove out of
is, is what set me off on thisjourney.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
So what year was that when you started thinking
about that?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
That was like early pandemic era . Era. So about
three years ago.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
So you , were you playing more golf during the
pandemic?

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, I'd say I was, yeah. It was, it was lovely,
you know , it wasn't a lovelytime, but it was lovely time be
because

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Those , it was a lovely time of year

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Work was, you know, remote and, and

Speaker 2 (12:13):
You're in banking, so like,

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah , there were a couple crunch times . So there
was a lot going on. And thegolf courses were, you know,
remained open and it , uh, theywere crowded. But I was, I was
super grateful to have that asa, as an outlet because a lot
of people didn't have anythingpositive to do during that
time. So, all

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Right . So you, you , you realized there was a
problem or you felt there was aproblem? Yeah. Um, which I
don't disagree. And so like,how did you bridge that gap?
Like, I mean, are you, you'rein banking, so you're not a
designer by trade, right? Yeah.
So like, how did you go aboutdoing that? What happened ? So

Speaker 1 (12:44):
That's really where , um, serendipity comes in. I
met my now business partner ,um, his name is Jason Dels
Saddo . And I met him throughgolf and kinda shared my, my
frustration with leather andshared my idea with him. And he
was a guy that, that , uh,first of all, he agreed with me
, um, and, and shared the sameexperiences with leather

(13:06):
gloves. And he was also a guythat was able to, to kind of
make the product happen.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
So then how'd you meet Jason?

Speaker 1 (13:12):
I just met him through just playing at a local
golf club ,

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Playing golf.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah. Are you

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Serious ? Yeah .

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
So you , did you guys like, you like , so you
met him at a golf course orjust like, or what, or through
like your crew ? Yeah,

Speaker 1 (13:23):
We , we met up and then we had our kind of first
business meeting at a , youknow, he lives in Portland as
well. We're on the oppositeside of town. So we picked a
neutral ground coffee shop, andI, I came with my ideas and we
, we met for about an hour anda half and we determined that
we had a path forward. So itwas , it was, it was pretty
great. So

Speaker 2 (13:39):
What's Jason's background?

Speaker 1 (13:40):
So Jason's background is in product
development. So he worked forNike previous to, to the Clinch
gig for over a decade. Prior tothat, he worked for Burton
Snowboards. He has justdeveloped a lot of product. Um,
he worked for , uh, Nikebasketball and skateboarding.
Um, and has just expensive ,extensive experience working

(14:01):
with different materials,working with the factories
that, that can , um, you know,make those material , put those
, bring those materials tolife. And just knew a lot
about, you know, whatproperties we needed and, and
frankly had the connections toget us samples and, and , uh,
get

Speaker 2 (14:17):
It going. Right, like get the knowledge of the
product Yeah . Or the knowledgeof the materials and could
actually get samples made andknow who to go to. And I mean,
that's huge, right? 'cause Ithink that's a big gap that
always has to be filled becausepeople think like, oh, like,
like Matt and I were talkingbefore the show, like, I did
gloves once. That was aterrible mistake. 'cause they

(14:38):
sucked, you know? But like, ifyou're new to something like
this, like you don't know, likeyou just try to, you know, you
try like, I don't know . It'shard. It's , it's especially
hard. I guess what one, goahead.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
I was , I was sidebar be , before I met Jason
and I was exploring this idea.
I went to a, like apparelmanufacturing course that
exists here in Portland. And,you know, there was a bunch of,
you know, various women thatidea had ideas for designer
lines, whatever. And so I, Italked to my idea about gloves,

(15:08):
and the reaction I got waslike, Ooh , do you know how
hard it is to sew a glove? Thethe idea of, you know, doing it
as a D Y I D I Y project , uh,was was out the window there.
So I really needed someone thathad the connections to get one
made. Yeah. Gloves are, glovesare tricky. So

Speaker 2 (15:23):
Did you like bring it up or you guys were playing
golf once or something? Likeseriously? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
I mean , just, yeah .

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Really.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
No , I , I , I brought it up with, you know,
it was a , everybody

Speaker 2 (15:32):
I would listen, ,

Speaker 1 (15:33):
It was a freaking complaint of mine.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Man Club sucks. I wish somebody was new design.
Oh , I don't design. Yeah,right.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah. I mean , you see people that, you know, have
the, you know, you know , ohyeah,

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Riff right here on the palm , you're on

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Down . I've seen people in the driving range
before they even tee off andthey've got half a hole worn
there. Um ,

Speaker 2 (15:53):
And by the time they're the fifth hole, it's
like completely ripped and nowit's complete trash.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah. Yeah. So grip and durability are really, you
know, the, the core of what wewere trying to solve for.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
All right . So then you guys started this up going
in, what, 2020 during thispandemic

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Year ? Yeah , like a year . We , we worked on it
for, forgive me, because my, myrecollection of what year is
That's fine . What's, is is ffuzzy coming outta

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Pandemic ? Is that like, I feel like the pandemic
is like a black hole. Like Icannot do math. Yeah . Like I
have like thoughts a pre 2019,like, oh yeah, it was 2018,
whatever. Yeah ,

Speaker 1 (16:22):
2020

Speaker 2 (16:24):
2021 . I don't remember anything.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
But , uh, we launched , we launched the
product in May of 2022. Sowe're just over a year old now.
But we worked on it for, I ,I'd say approximately 18
months. Nearly two years beforewe, before we launched. And

Speaker 2 (16:39):
So then during that time, like what were you guys
trying to do? Like what?

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Well, the first thing we did was we, we, we
got, we connected with afactory that makes gloves for ,
um, some other brands. And sothey had some, we, we knew they
had the technical capabilities, um, and we provided them with
a list materials that we, wewanted to test out. So first
they sent us swatches, and thenwe reviewed, you know, I don't

(17:05):
know , dozens of swatches ofmaterials. And we sort of felt
them by hand and tested themwith, you know, for how quickly
they dry or whatever. And thenwe had, we sent them several,
several different iterationsthat we wanted them to sample
for us. And so the factoryworked with us and did some
sampling. And , uh, we, we wentto work, we had some friends
who were like-minded and we, wedid a bunch of testing and we

(17:27):
had spreadsheets and, you know,questions and answers and lots
of stuff. And we kind of landedon a material that we liked. Um
, and then sort ofsimultaneously we were looking
for an actual designer thatcould design the glove for us.
And so we, here in Portland, we, we live in sort of a hotbed
of footwear and apparelbusiness. So we, we found,

(17:49):
unfortunately , big ones local, um, who worked for another,
let's just call it majorcompany in town here. Um, who
was ,

Speaker 2 (17:56):
They make shoes ,

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Uh, yeah, they do make shoes. Yeah. ,

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Um , oh wow. Who

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Was willing , you know , who had experienced
designing golf gloves and whowas able to , uh, do some
design work. And he whipped upa couple designs for us, and
one of 'em was our, is what wecall the tactile glove, which
is the product we launchedwith. So , um, it was marrying
up those two, marrying up thedesign with, with the specific
fabrics that we had called out.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
It's a lot, I mean, like, this is the thing I don't
think people understand is are, is like clinch is not making
like the glove that you'vealready are used to seeing.
Like, that's easy. I mean, it'snot easy, but it's like, you
can find a fact bazillionfactories that make that glove,
right? Yeah . Like ,

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah ,

Speaker 2 (18:34):
The crap shoot is like, is it the right factory?
That's not , not a crapmaterial. Is it gonna bleed
through? Right? It's when itcomes a leather, right. Or
whatever, fake leather. Butthere's plenty of places to do
that. But essentially clinch isremaking the glove. Like it's
not that glove. It's acompletely different glove. So

(18:54):
that's a whole process, right?
'cause you have to, like,you're , you're starting from
scratch 'cause you're like,what's the material? What do we
want it to do? Has to lookgood, has to last, right?

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Absolutely. You know, the material is the core,
is the core thing. You know, wehad a number of like what we
call mini basins , like about,you know, how you take the
glove on and off, whatever. Butreally the, the palm material
is, is the core of our product, um, in terms of just, it's,
you know, it's got a littlemore stretch to it . So it
retracts if it , um, it, it'squick to dry. Um, it grips when

(19:26):
it's wet. In fact, I prefer ,um, when it has a little
moisture to it, I, I feel likeit even grips a little better.
And it's incredibly durable.
Um, is is the other thing. Youknow, it , it just doesn't wear
out. And I say that, you know,of course it does wear out in
time, but we , um, you know, onaverage, you know, we , we say
that it lasts, you know,typically two times as , as

(19:47):
long as a leather glove. Butreally we have people using
them time and time again. And,and you know, in fact we have a
photographer friend that wework with who we had doing our
sampling. So our original runbefore we were in , were in
production and he's stillplaying with his original
glove, so

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Shut up for real.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
They're , they're, and this guy's a this guy golfs
all the time. So , um, they areincredibly durable. Um, and
then part of that, like what wecall innovation, is that on ,
unlike a leather glove , um,these are washable. So if you,
you know, if , if, if they'regetting old because of , um,
you know, little oil on them or, um, you know, they've,

(20:27):
they've had encountered a lotof sweat. Uh , you pop 'em in
the wash on a gentle cycle andair dry 'em , and they really
just come back to life. Um, sowe got people, you know,
playing, you know, dozens ofrounds with them , um, before
they, they need to berefreshed.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Let's talk a little about the material. So like,
how is this glove made? So likewhat are the different pieces,
I guess? Um , yeah,

Speaker 1 (20:47):
There's essentially three different materials. And
if you click to that, that palmimage , uh, yes , that one down
there . So that's, that's sortof the core of the material
that, that , um, encapsulatesall of the, like that side of
the hand. And that is sticky ,

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Like the sticky and the grip, the gripping and

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah. Yeah. That, that's got a little bit of
stretch to it. Um, it, it's ,um, it's thinner than you might
expect. You know, we, we oftenget comments when people feel
it, that they say it feelsthin. And I think that speaks
to

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Really

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Their concern that it might not be as durable, but
then that's, you know, after around with it, that's pretty
quickly. Uh ,

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Like bro, if you like, not wor a leather golf
club, that thing's like paperthin. I mean, it's

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Like , yeah . But , um, so this material, I ,

Speaker 2 (21:30):
I look at it right now and I'm like, that looks a
lot thicker. But it'sinteresting. You're saying it's
thinner or it looks

Speaker 1 (21:34):
It's

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Not. That's cool.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
So this is, you know, this is really the core
material that , um, you know,we, we just tried different
blends of and settled on theone that we think works best,
but it, it , uh, yeah, it gripswhen wet it, it's got a little
bit of stretch to it, so it'llretract so it doesn't get that
baggy feel that leather canget, or pleather can get , um,
what's center hand . And it's,you know, it's , it's quick to
dry, but it also, it also doesgrip with wet. And then if you

(21:58):
click to the image, maybe thatgray image of the yeah . Of the
top of the glove. And I'll getto that image in a moment. If
you wanna , oh ,

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Here ,

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Uh , to the back of hand material. So there's two
separate materials on the, onthe back of hand, so that ,
that's the palm . But you go,yeah, go to that one right
there. The area around theVelcro tab there is like a
stretchy mesh material. And sothat allows for quite a bit of
airflow, which assists with aquick dry , also has some

(22:26):
stretch to it. And then thearea that you see with the ,
the, I guess the three fingersthat aren't the index finger
there, that's really just likea, a spandex blend that has
some stretch to it and justfeels great.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
It's soft,

Speaker 1 (22:41):
It's soft. And we put that there just 'cause it ,
it , it feels great. Youoftentimes , you don't even
feel like you're wearing aglove on that portion of your
hand. Um, so

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Like this, so like this finger right here, and
then the , the palm of theglove is the same material,
right? It's like Exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah. And that, that finger is , is the same
material as the palm. Becauseif you think about how you grip
, um, your, you know, if you'rea right-handed golfer, if you
think about how you grip withyour left hand, oftentimes that
, um, is, you know, fingers

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, it is covered up, right? That's , it's like
this and then this part of thehand,

Speaker 1 (23:14):
But oftentimes like this part of your hand is in
contact

Speaker 2 (23:18):
For the

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Grill. So that's why that's made of that material.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
The side of it is definitely for sure. Yeah .

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
And then this material here is like the more
the moisture wicking and , uh,yeah ,

Speaker 1 (23:29):
It's a , it's , it's an air flow . Like it's , it's
mesh, so it's got some stretchto it. It does, it, it , um, it
really helps with the air flow. So it's mu much more
breathable.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Can I ask you a question? Yeah . Why? And I , I
was wondering this, like whatmade you, in terms of design,
like why, why did you use thismaterial instead of that
material for the top part ofthe hand? Is there, I was
wondering ,

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Uh , the, so the me, i , i, the mesh is like kind of
a design element that helpswith airflow and breathability,
but Oh, I

Speaker 2 (24:00):
See. Um ,

Speaker 1 (24:01):
We , we determined that it probably wouldn't feel
great on no , on the fingers,on the backside of the fingers.
And it, it doesn't have, it hasstretch to it, but it doesn't
have as much stretch as thestand .

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Like it's soft and it feels right. Like

Speaker 1 (24:15):
When you flex your hand, you know , the stretch
doesn't impede your stretch atall because

Speaker 2 (24:19):
It would probably feel weird. Right. It was on
your fingers and you'd be like,I can see that. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's cool. It , it might, it might. So yeah,
that's , that's really why,

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Like with this image here, like what is this?

Speaker 1 (24:28):
So we have , um, what you're looking at there.
The , the black pattern iswhat's called a T P U overlay
is a technical term, but , um,inside the glove , um, in the
palm where gloves often wearfirst , um, it's a little bit
of reinforcement there. It's,it's printed on the interior of
the glove. So , um, you don't ,you don't notice it from the

(24:50):
exterior and you actually don'tfeel it at all. Like if , if we
didn't, when you put the gloveon, you'd never feel it. It's
not a particular,

Speaker 2 (24:56):
This is on the inside, like we were on

Speaker 1 (24:58):
The inside. And it does two things. Number one, it
helps keep the glove snug onyour hand. So it , it's, it's
got a little bit of , um,that's

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Anti-slip property to it. So it's like a
rubberized, so it , it keepsyour glove snug on your hand
and, and retains the shapebetter. And then it also just
adds another layer there for,that's just the com most common
area for a glove to wear out.
So

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Is that all the fingertips or just certain
ones?

Speaker 1 (25:23):
It's not on the fingertips, it's on the palm of
the hand where , I

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Mean the palm , sorry, my

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Head . Yeah . Yeah .
It's it's on the ,

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Like in this area , right?

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yep , exactly. And

Speaker 2 (25:30):
That's on every finger? It's

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Not on the fingertips? No, it's just on
the, just right where it'spictured , uh, that's like a
blowup image. It's on theinside of that palm .

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Oh, the palm ? Not the fingers. Oh , okay. My bad,

Speaker 1 (25:41):
My bad.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
It's like in this area. Oh, that's cool. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Like right , right , right. Where you typically
would wear a glove out, that'swhere it ,

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, exactly. Oh ,

Speaker 1 (25:48):
So

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Does that also help with like just the wear as
well? Because it

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Does, like , that strength will wear , that stuff
will wear before the fabricwears. And so it's sort of a
sacrificial, sacrificialproduct there. So that, that ,
um, does help, it does helpwith glove wear . But again,
like , um, it's, it's superthin and like, just like as a
tactile experience, youwouldn't, you wouldn't notice

(26:12):
that it's there, go back to thetop of the, go back to the
image of the glove , um, fromthe back of the hand image,
like showing the Velcro collab,

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Uh , the Velcro,

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yeah, right there.
So yeah. One other distinction.
Yeah, any of the colors isfine. They're , they're just
different colorways. Um, thegreen one is great. 'cause do
you see the, on the Velcro tab,you see the, the , the green
kind of semi-circle there?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah. What is that?

Speaker 1 (26:38):
So , um, that, that's an idea that Jason came
up with. Um, so like in doingour research, we discovered
that, you know, golfers tend totake their gloves on and off.
Most golfers, many golfersdon't wear their gloves to put
, um, yeah , exactly. Yeah .
Which means they're taking onoff on every hole, which,
which, you know, between takinga break doing something else,
you , you're, you're takingyour glove on and off sometimes

(26:59):
like upwards of 25 times aroundif , if , you know, if you
think about it, like on analarm car five, you know,
you're walking on the fairway,you some people just take the
glove off, like that is a, arubberized tab that , um, is
like really distinct from theVelcro feel. Um, it's a , you
know, it's a, it's a minorinnovation, but it makes on and

(27:19):
off really easy. Um, and wefound like with, you know,
brand X typical glove where the, where it's the same material
that resides like the sameleather that is on top of the
other like, like leather. Itcan be hard, you know, at first
to

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Pull it off,

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Not looking at it.
They can be hard. Yeah. And we,and we, Jason had an experience
once where the, he was tuggingat it and the, the bottom
portion of the Velcro came offof another brand of glove. And
so we thought that having likean easy on off tab would, would
, um, oh , smart .

Speaker 2 (27:52):
I mean , I've had too , where you've like pulled
on this, I've had this happenwhere you pull on the Velcro
and it rips like the whole Yeah. Like the whole assembly rips
off the back of the glove andyou're like, oh, there'll go
that glove.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, no , that's exactly what we're, we're what
this is designed to avoid andjust to make it, you know, that
much easier to take on and offand

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Get your, and also try to get your finger
underneath there and just pullit off real quick instead of
like trying to dig at theVelcro. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Like

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Get it off. That's cool. So then when , so you
launched, when, when , when,when did the site go live?

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Uh , may of 2022.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
So a year ago. And then what, what was the
original launch? How manycolors did you go with?

Speaker 1 (28:31):
We had three. We didn't have the green color at
that time. We had the gray, theblack and the blue.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
What is your most popular color?

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Gray is our most popular color. The gray and
gray.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Really? Interesting.
So I guess one thing I noticed,so like you have six sizes,
really, right? Yeah . Um ,extra small, small, medium,
large, extra large double xl .
What made you decide not tohave to go with like all the
cadet sizes? There's like a

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Bazillion

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Of 'em , right? Yeah . And there's like, that's one,
one thing I noticed too. I hadother, I have a couple golf
club companies on the show andit's like, you know, it's like,
this is the thing I thinkpeople don't understand either
is like, there's like a billionsizes when it comes to golf
clubs. Like, 'cause if you haveall the cadets, you have all
the normal, and then you have,and then if you wanna add kids
and women, you just tripled it,right? Yeah . So it's like,

(29:18):
that's really a hard decision.
So like how, like how did youguys come up with like just
having the size you have andwhy?

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah. Well the, the , you know, the very candid
answer is that , um, you know,you wanna limp for, for taking
a stab at initial inventory,having Yeah . You don't

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Have of

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Is daunting.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, exactly. Right .

Speaker 1 (29:39):
The other , the other part of it that's equally
true , true is that our gloves, um, you , we, you know, a
very common glove size is theML size, which you notice that
we don't have either. And it'sreally because our glove,
every, all three elements ofour glove, of all three pieces
of fabric have stretched tothem. So , um, the reason you
need a cadet sizing in theleather glove is that there's,

(30:02):
there's no retractably there,there's

Speaker 2 (30:03):
No , there's no in between size.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah. Yeah. And , uh, our gloves have some
stretch to 'em. I, myselfwould, would be, I typically
wore an ML glove in Brand X'sglove. Um , and I find myself,
I can, I can wear both a mediumand a large in the clinch glove
and they both feel prettycomfortable. Um, there is a
notable di difference in thesizing, but , um, the, the

(30:26):
stretch and retract properties, uh, you know, just allow us
to have a, a smaller range ofsizes. Um, and, you know, smart
, you mentioned that you were,you had some, you know,
dabblings in the glovebusiness. So as you know , um,
you know, the, you have these,you have these sizes, and then
you have the rights for the ,your left-handed golfers and

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh , I've got the left hand , then you double it
again, right? So you like , you

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Double it again ,

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Lefthand , triple , triple, and you got double it .
'cause you have lefties too ,so

Speaker 1 (30:52):
You're like medium large, your medium large, extra
large left hand gloves are 90%of what, what we sell or 85% of
what we sell. Um, like

Speaker 2 (31:04):
No one buys extra small, small double xl and you
gotta , like if you , if youbuy hundred ,

Speaker 1 (31:11):
We do sell them. But the distribution chart, you
know, is a , it's a prettysteep bell curve. Um, and so
lemme

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Answer a generic question, right? Yeah . So if
you, okay , let's just pretendnot you guys, but like, let's
say you have, you're gonna buya hundred gloves, right? Like
of whatever, how would you, howwould you , uh, distribute the
sizes based on a , on a hundredglove order, just based on what
you know now of what peoplepurchase?

Speaker 1 (31:36):
It would be something like large 40, extra
large 20, medium 25, and then,you know, X X L and small and X

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Five and five and Yeah , yeah, yeah . As

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Few as our factory lettuce order is
basically the answer. ,

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I was telling , I was telling Matt, I was like,
dude, like I had this horriblestory, like I'll never do
gloves again because like thegloves I had , I had bought,
they weren't bad. They was veryinconsistent. Like some did
this, some didn't, and I ,which one was what? And like,
it looked good. I saw all thistime and money doing it, but
like, you know, the sizingsucks. And then also, like, one

(32:13):
, I guess the other issue too,we were trying to talk about on
the show before the show islike, okay , so like they have
green, green, blue and, and ,uh, well , I can't even see
that . Another screen , black

Speaker 1 (32:24):
And gray colors

Speaker 2 (32:24):
You got and black and gray. Right? But like,
because this material's notleather, you don't have to
worry about it bleeding. Right,right.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Like

Speaker 2 (32:32):
With a leather glove, you have that, it could
happen.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah. We've seen, we get images of people , uh, who
get, you know, some of thoseglo like, you know, there's
other brands that have come outwith, you know, there's, it's
more, more frequently on themarket now there's, there's
colored golf gloves and theylook cool, you know, I , I , I
like some of them, but , uh,they

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Look really cool. I mean, but

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Bleeding E

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Four started all that

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Bleeding is , uh, an issue with, with, you know, at
least with some of them. And ,uh, you know, the more, the
more sweat or rain orcondensation is a factor, the
more that's likely to happen.
What

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Is gonna happen every single time you play
golf. It's not like , oh , yourhand's not either. When is your
ha hand not gonna sweat? Right?
Yeah . So like in Arizona, myhand's gonna sweat, but it's
not gonna rain and it's viceversa where you live. So it's
like, it's always gonna getwet. That's why it dries out.
So it's like,

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah . Well, thank you. That's like a foundational
principle of our company isthat moisture is always present
in the game. You know, peoplethink like it'll

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Never , yeah , it'll never only

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Mean that for when it's raining, but it's, it's
not true. It's, you know,there's always , um, you're
always getting wet in some way,shape or form.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah. I mean, two things I like about this one, I
like the way you did yourclinch logo. I think it looks
really cool. You know, thewording, the cursive looks
really good. And then also thelogo is really cool. I've seen
that logo before, though. Notsaying you guys took it from
somewhere, but like, I've seenyour logo somewhere. I know,
I've seen that. It looks sogood job on the marketing. How
did you initially marketclinch? Like how'd you get it

(33:53):
out there?

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, so we have , you know, we're, we launched
and are still primarily , um, adirect to consumer brand. Um,
so we launched with a , with awebsite and a few dollars of
advertising and a , uh, thehelp of a PR person , um, who's
worked with some other golfbrands that are, that are based
here in, in town in Portland.

(34:15):
Uh, you know, Jason and I went, you know, had had a date that
we're going live and we, youknow, worked furiously to get
our images and get our sitetogether and get our
advertising together. Um , andwe, we did a , you know, sort
of a soft launch and, you know,we're prepared we're , we had
no idea what to be preparedfor. And we had a a , a great

(34:38):
first couple days, but really ,uh, we were familiar fulfilling
orders primarily to Oregon andNew England where we had a lot
of connections. So it was, itwas a lot of friends and family
buying product in the earlydays. Okay . Um , but then we ,
um, you know, just got betterand better at digital
advertising. Still a work in ,in progress there. But , um,
yeah,

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Of course

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Quench has found its, you know, found its home
online. Um, and, you know, wesell, sell to all 50 states,
sold, you know , um, we , wedon't do any international
marketing, but we've , um, solda bunch of gloves to all of the
nations you think of that havegolfing cultures like uk,
Ireland, Australia, Korea,Japan.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
It's hard though too, right? I feel like with a
brand like international, evenoutside of us , like you can go
into Canada, like it's so muchmore expensive for consumer .

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Yeah . We've been surprised, you know , consumer
Yeah . Shipping, shipping toSouth Korea duties

Speaker 2 (35:33):
And all that other crap. Yeah. Yeah . It's like,
what do you do? That's a harddecision, right? I think think
for any brand, it's like, do wejust stay lower 48 or do we
actually like go outside of ourterritory, you know? And then
like how do you guys do that?
Like if some of our orders itfrom , uh, a foreign country,
let's call it, like, do youjust probably cost more for

(35:53):
shipping and they have to paytheir own import duties if they
decide to buy it, right? Pretty

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Much . Yeah. I mean they , um, you know, we, we,
our our site is hosted onShopify, which , um, ad adjust
the shipping costs for theconsumer. Um, and so they, they
pay the shipping and you know,honestly, some of the price
tags that we've seen to shipsomething to, you know, Japan
for example, it's prettyeye-popping that, you know,

(36:17):
that we're, we're , you know,it's , it's more than the cost
of the club to get it there,but people are willing to , uh,
absorb it, try it out,thankfully.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah, that's the hard part. I always feel that
so hard because like, yeah,

Speaker 1 (36:27):
We're , we're to , to be , to be clear, like our
focus is domestic in the USright now. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
You

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Know , we're trying to build a brand here. And then
, um, if, you know, that's

Speaker 2 (36:37):
. I once had somebody order a bunch of
stuff for me and from my , my ,my other shop, and like the
dude, like, it went to Canadaand then the dude was like, oh,
the import dude was like ahundred dollars. I'm like, bro,
you bought like 50 effingtowels, like, what do you
expect? Like a hundred bucks?
Like , get over it. And he'slike, well, I'm gonna return
it. I was like , uh, okay. Youknow, so he would , he was

(36:57):
gonna , so he rejected theorder when it went because he
even paid a hundred dollars inimport. He's , well, that
wasn't part of the deal. I'mlike, dude, I told you to pay
own import duty taxes. Like,come on. Like, yeah ,

Speaker 1 (37:06):
All right ,

Speaker 2 (37:06):
So you're gonna return the entire order back to
me. I was like, okay, whatever.
That's cool. I don't know . Ifeel like international's
tough, I feel like, and I gethit a lot, like, why aren't you
shipping it to wherever? I'mlike, I don't wanna deal with
that. But

Speaker 1 (37:19):
, lemme tell you, the most humorous
international story I've had sofar, some , somehow some way
the , like Google my businessgot linked to my home address ,
um, which I probably did in theearly days when I was setting
it up. And I live, you know, Ilive, you know , I live in the
city of Portland, but in like aresidential neighborhood. And
so if you clicked on GoogleMaps, you'd see clinch golf pop

(37:39):
up over my It's

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Like your house.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah. And , uh, I was, I was out about doing
something one day and my wifetell , calls me and tells me
that three Japanese guysknocked on the door,
and my wife Really , they werelike, clinch golf . Oh
my God . So , um, she wasn'tquite sure what to do, so she,
she tried to give them my phonenumber, but I never actually

(38:02):
connected with 'em . But , she , she pretty
crazy . It's

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Crazy. They like came and saw you, like, that's
nuts. Maybe why they wanted tobe like your international
distributor from Japan,

Speaker 1 (38:11):
You know , I may have missed a , a , you know, a
massive, a massive thought

Speaker 2 (38:13):
You could be like, you could be like the most
popular glove in Japan rightnow, but you are in a home.
That's kidding.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Sorry. That's ,

Speaker 2 (38:21):
So when, like, with your apparel stuff, like when
did you guys start doingapparel around the same time?
Like your hats and your shirtslike that ? Yeah ,

Speaker 1 (38:29):
Yeah. We, you know, we launched like, to this day,
like our focus is on the glove,that's of

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Course .

Speaker 1 (38:35):
But, you know, we wanted to have some gear and so
we, you know , uh, ripped upsome hats and some hoodies and
some t-shirts, and we've got,you know, ball marks and tees
and, you know, all the, all theswag and you know, I , uh, I ,
I like a lot of it. The hatsare cool. Uh , that's cool.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Hoodies , I agree .

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Hoodies really nice.
But you know, in there are,there are like discussions
about where we might go nextwith the brand. Um, but those
are really accessories and thecore of what we do is really
built around the glove. That'slike, that's, that's , that's
what we stand for. No,

Speaker 2 (39:07):
I think that's really cool. So then, are you
only on the site, on your siteright now? Are you trying to
get in big box retailers or areyou trying to get on Amazon, or
what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, so pretty much on the site now, we have a
couple of shop local shops thatcarry our gloves. We've had
like a fantastic experiencewhere they've, you know, we
keep on restocking 'em andrestocking 'em and restocking
them. Um, that's cool . Um ,we've got, I'll give a shout
out to , there's a organizationcalled Northwest Golf Guys here
, um, that we've become friendswith. They run amateur golf

(39:39):
tournaments throughout likePortland, Seattle, and
California. The prize money youget from these tournaments gets
spent on their site. So they,they sell our products. Cool .
So that's another way to go tomarket. And we are in, we have
just recently signed a , uh,sales rep who's gonna get our,
our product into, he, he haslike a Pacific Northwest

(40:01):
territory, so he's gonna , he'son the road right now. Um, you
know, he reps a bunch of othercool brands and we're on his
roster right now. So we expectthat by spring of 24 we'll be
in , um, a number of shops inthis area. And then , um, you
know, we're quite frankly,we're a , we're a self-funded,

(40:22):
bootstrapped organization, sowe're gonna take a staggered
approach to going national. Oh,

Speaker 2 (40:25):
No. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Earlier this year you

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Only spend , yeah.
You only spend what you have ,right? Yeah . It's not like you
just go crazy on it.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Um, have you considered , uh, Amazon, or no?

Speaker 1 (40:38):
We have, we have, and we'll probably, we'll
probably get there. Um, wehave, we have plans around it,
but we're not there yet. Um,it's, you know, it's got , as
you know, it's got pros andcons. Um, pros being it's the
largest marketplace that worldhas ever known , um, and , um,
the

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Largest search engine.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Yeah. But we take, take some of the control away
of , um, the customerinteraction and, you know.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Right

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Now we're, we're super close to our customer
when they, when you order fromclinch golf.com , like, we try
to treat the client, right?
Like we, you know, weoftentimes send a handwritten
note, we throw some teas inthere, and we like

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Extra stuff. Yeah.
You're excited, you're like,thank you for buying my
product. Thank you . Yeah . Getyour baby, right? Like , you're
just like , Hey , thank you.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Questions or comments, you know, you know,
contact us, meet or Jasondirectly. And so , um, going to
Amazon, you know, remove someof that from our, our control.
But, you know, we're alsodoing, you know, frankly, that
we are, the , the goal is tocreate a viable business outta
this. So , um, we probably willget there, but we're just
trying to do it in a thoughtfulapproach.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah. It's a whole other beast too. I mean, you
get to learn it, right? It'snot like you just do it. Like I
have a couple of my friends areon Amazon and , uh, extremely
successful at it when it comesto golf, but it's like, I mean,
it takes years to figure itout, right? Yeah . And the cost
to it, like, I mean, I don'tknow , see yours is 25 bucks

(42:04):
for a glove. Like you'reprobably spending, I be ,
they're probably gonna get $8out of that. Amazon would on
every sale, just like off thetop. So it's like nine outta
17, so you have to doing themath backwards. So it's like,
it's this weird balance. I mean, it's nice to have F B A and
it's like on automatic andwhatever like that. But yeah, I
mean, it'd be interesting toobecause I think like you're,

(42:24):
you're a new product. It's notlike you're just selling
another globe like everybodyelse. It's like, it's, I don't
know , there's definitely prosand cons when it comes to
Amazon. Um, so what do you guyshave in store for the rest of
the year? Like, what's going onwith you guys till the end of
the end of this year?

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah. Um, so the retail rollout is taking up a
bunch of our attention rightnow, and we've got a couple of
exciting , um, brandcollaborations that , um, I
need to stay moot on who we're,we're working with. But , um,
one of them should launch bythe holiday season and one will
launch next spring. Uh , that's

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Um , I'm excited to , I'll be excited to share that
information when we , uh, we'refree to do so, but , um, it's
gonna be pretty cool. So we'reexcited.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
So are you doing this full-time? Yeah . Like ,
is your full-time gig now? Yeah. Like, it's not , you're not
doing the banking stuff, right?
So like what about Jason? Is hedoing it full-time or is he
still working as a , with hisstuff?

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah, no , uh, Jason , uh, does have another gig ,
uh, working for another, youknow, mostly direct to consumer
, um, company called CaneFootwear. Uh, and Kane is a ,
like a athletic, they call it arecovery performance shoe. Um,
and so he is kind of splittinghis attention, but , um, you

(43:38):
know, we're putting a lot ofeffort into Clinch. Oh,

Speaker 2 (43:40):
That's cool. Shoes are sick. It's like, it's like
Kane's going after , uh, Crocskind of , but it looks like a
lot cooler shoe than a crock.
That's cool. Yeah, it's like,it's good that you can foc like
it's the perfect pair, right?
Because you can focus full-timeon it. And then like that , I
have a buddy, another brand,very popular now, but they like
did the same thing. Like oneguy was an engineer and uh, he

(44:04):
kept on doing it while hisother partner worked on the
brand full time . And thenafter a couple years when they
got really ramped up and going,then he was able to leave his
job too, because it was like,they're going like gangbusters.
But it's really cool you'reable to do that. So where can
people find Clinch?

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Uh, best place to go is clinch golf.com , C l i n C
h golf.com. That's

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Cool. I mean, this Glow book's really cool. Yeah ,
I mean, I haven't tested itout. I mean, I, I'm looking at
it right now with you guys, andit , it looks cool, smart, very
smart idea. I mean, when's thelast time a golf glove was re
you know, redesigned?

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, no , that was Paul, that's like one of the,
you know, the , the things thatwe, when we talk to people
about the glove that we harkenback to is that like everything
in golf has been innovated on.
You know, like think about theball. The clubs that we use,
the shoes, you know, are arenotably different than they
were 10, 20, 30 years ago. Theclothes that we wear are

(44:59):
different, you know, theperformance element of it and
the glove, you know, and surethere's like some cool new
designs, like it , people diein purple, but it's the same
old glove. Like, and you know,the idea is just that leather
is just kind of a , at one timepoint, it was the best gripping
material we had, but it's, it's, uh, sort of antiquated now.
And , uh, we're, we're prettyconvinced that, that we are ,

(45:21):
we've landed on the rightproduct.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
It's very interesting you're saying that
too, because I didn't thinkabout that either. Like in your
right, it's like the glove hasnot been reinvented at all. I ,
I mean, that I've seen atleast, it's like, I mean,
reinvention could be like, whatdifferent color? Or they sew
some stuff on the sides of it,or, you know, but that's, it's
still the same,

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Yeah , same product,

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Same based product.
So, I mean, it's really coolthat you guys are doing this
and that you're, you'reactually, you designed a new
style in way of using a golfglove that was already, that
was not around at the time. Sothat's, that's really, that's
really cool. Well, I also saythank you for being on the show
today. Um, you guys, this is areally cool glove. Like
honestly, I can't wait to getmy hands on it . Check it out.

(46:03):
Um, I mean, like we were sayingbefore, my hands gets totally
sweaty. I play golf here. Iprobably go through a glove, I
don't know, after about four orfive rounds, and then it's
trashed. So I mean, to havesomething you can like wash and
reuse. And the other thing too, we were saying earlier with
the in between size, like I'm amedium and some golf , golf
glove brands , but I'm a largein others. So it's like really

(46:24):
inconsistent. So being able tolike not have to worry about
that and just be like, okay ,well they'll , they'll fit both
will fit one might be a littlebit, a little bit looser or a
bit tighter, but it's, theyboth are gonna fit and that
doesn't happen with normalglove . So I think there's a
lot of really cool sellingpoints here with, with the
glove. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thanks. I, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Well thank you for so much for being on the show.
Um, if you guys wanna check outClinch, please check out his
website, clinch Golf . It, Imean, I think you guys need to
check it out 'cause this isreally cool and uh, I will see
you guys in the next episode.
Thanks

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Paul . Thanks for listening to another episode of
Behind the Golf Brand podcast.
You're gonna beat me and golfstay connected on and off the
show by visiting golfersauthority.com. Don't forget to
like, subscribe, and leave acomment. Golf is always more
fun when you win. Stay out ofthe beach and see you on the
green.