March 24, 2025 • 43 mins
The Byrd Golf Belt blends style and utility in a way that's changing how golfers think about their accessories. You can grab the regular model fo about $49 or the braided version for $59, turning what's usually just a basic belt into a handy golf tool.
What makes this belt special? It's got clever built-in holders for all your golfing must-haves: tees, a divot tool, your golf glove, and a ball marker. You'll keep your pockets free while having everything you need right at your fingertips during your round.
If you're looking for more than just belts, The Byrd's got you covered with gloves, divot tools (they call them "Clyps"), and various bundles.
Between fast shipping, quality materials, and features that actually make your golf game better, The Byrd Golf Belt's proving to be a solid choice for golfers who want both practicality and style on the course.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paul (00:34):
What's up guys?
Welcome to the Behind the GolfBrand Podcast.
This week I have my good friend, chris Dre from the Bird.
If you guys haven't seen orheard of the Bird, the Bird is
the word.
It's a cool new.
I don't know what you wouldcall it apparel slash accessory.
I don't know.
It's kind of like its ownlittle area, but it's cool
(00:57):
because you can.
Yeah, it's an accessory, butyeah, it's also like other
products that you can take withyou at the course.
So I thought it was really cool.
I thought it was really cool.
I saw the PGA show and then Iasked Kris come on the show.
So welcome to the show.
Thank you, paul.
Happy to be here.
So where are you located?
Kris (01:16):
I am in the East Bay area in Walnut Creek, California.
That's a nice area.
Yeah, it's fun, nice place isthat where like is that where,
uh, silicon valley, we're living?
Paul (01:28):
remember that show, silicon valley, yeah yeah,
walnut, you think.
Kris (01:32):
What do you think that was that?
I think was a little south ofme, about 45 minutes to an hour,
but yeah, walnut creek it's agood place.
It's centrally located to napatahoe.
You know all those good places,carmel drive.
Paul (01:48):
Is it to like napa, like an hour?
Napa's 45 minutes, tahoe'sthree hours, carmel's two wow,
so you like, you have the spotdude yeah, it's pretty cool.
So what did you grow up in thebay area or like, where did you
(02:09):
grow up at?
Kris (02:10):
I grew up in southern california so I grew up surfing
on uh the beaches of southerncal?
Uh, specifically salt creekbeach.
So that was kind of the feel ofmy brand.
You know, like I I gravitatedto lightning bolts because my
(02:30):
favorite surfer was Jerry Lopezat the time and his he had
surfboards with a lightning boltdesign and I just kind of liked
the beach vibe.
You know kind of chill, mindfulpresent.
That's kind of what we're allabout.
You know, being able to focuson the course is critical so did
you like?
Paul (02:51):
what's your background?
So you went to your group likewe're in southern cali, la or
what no, I grew up in a littletown called dana point yeah, now
dana point's like huge rightlike it is.
Kris (03:04):
They changed the uh, the boundaries of the city like a
while ago.
It was years after I left,though, and I was laguna niguel,
and then it became dana point,and dana point just gobbled up
half of orange county, it feelslike I was talking to somebody
and they said, like they live indana point or that area and
they said it's like impossibleto buy a house.
Paul (03:25):
That's what they said.
They did like what the rent?
Like they rent, they're tellingme what the rent was.
I was like you gotta be kiddingme, dude.
He's like yeah, we'll never buya house here, we can't afford
it.
Yeah, it's, it's nuts, it'sjust crazy.
But back in the day it probablywasn't like that right, it was
probably like normal yeah yeahit was super chill.
Kris (03:42):
It was.
It was cool and you know, Igrew up in a little community
near the beach so I had mylittle riva scooter.
You remember those things?
Yeah, I had a little red rivawith a surfboard rack on it and
I used to zip down to the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
It was fun the good old days I miss those.
Kris (04:00):
I miss those beaches, man.
It was warm and nice water, notshark infested like Ocean.
Paul (04:08):
Beach, did you so?
Did you go to college inSouthern California, or what?
Kris (04:15):
I went to school in Chico, so I kind of ended up a little
north but almost in the middle.
Sort of what school is thatChico State?
It was voted number one partyschool in the country several
years ago, that's that's all you?
Yeah, it was not so, it wasjust one year, it was in playboy
magazine and that's all anyonewould say to me.
(04:37):
Where do you go to school,chico?
Paul (04:39):
oh, you must be a partier, like name one school that
doesn't party, man, come onthere isn't one, unless you go
to like I don't even know, thisprobably doesn't even exist.
So what did you so in ChicoState?
Then, like I know you're asmart dude because you moved to
the friggin Bay.
So would you like CS orsomething?
What did I?
What what'd you major in?
Kris (05:01):
oh no you.
It's funny.
I majored in natural resourcemanagement and somehow I came
out of that not wanting to be apark ranger Not that there's
anything wrong with that but itjust wasn't something I was
motivated to do.
And that was right around whenthe interwebs became popular to
(05:23):
the public.
So you know I joke that my wifeset my career for me because
she bought me my first AOL discand 14K modem.
So that was it for me.
Paul (05:36):
Do you remember when you used to like give that the disc
like it was in the back of, likeevery magazine and like
everything?
Remember that.
For sure I remember being incollege and we just like throw
them at each other Like ninja,yeah, I used them as a.
Kris (05:51):
You know you put your drink on them.
Drink coaster, that's I meanright.
Paul (05:57):
I mean, how would you get people on the internet for free?
Remember to give you minutes.
It was like 10,000 minutes orwhatever it was.
Kris (06:06):
Remember minutes.
It was like 10 000 minutes orwhatever it was.
Paul (06:08):
Remember that and remember the screeching sound you hear
when you logged on and then youtie up the phone line and
everyone would be pissed andthen, like someone would call
you and you get bumped.
Remember that.
Yeah, that was frustrating, toofunny.
I checked with my kids likedude, it was nothing like that.
When we were kids I was likeyou wanted to play two player.
Your friend was coming over likethat's how it was, for sure I
(06:30):
remember I remember in college,like when I was like that's when
, like well, I guess theyalready been around, but
remember duke nukem, I rememberplaying nukem in college and
like there's a.
I was in a cs major but myroommate was my freshman year in
my freshman year and like he,like him and like a bunch of
other guys like networkedeverything so we could play duke
(06:52):
nukem.
Like us and the guys next doorawesome, you thought that was
the coolest thing on the planet.
I was like holy crap, you'relike yelling at each other, like
down the hall, like you're anasshole, but like I was so good
at that game, dude yeah collegeafter that that was fun the good
old days.
And then what happened?
So you got like okay, so thatyou got into what like how did
(07:15):
you bridge bro I was really intomusic.
Kris (07:18):
I wanted to be in the music industry.
I did an internship with pgd,polygram group distribution,
which was a thing back then.
They're long gone now but backthen, oh geez, I don't even
remember.
I mean I want to say soundgarden, but I can't remember.
But you know, I graduated andneeded a job in the music
(07:40):
industry.
So I found this little tinyblues record label in san
francisco called blind pigrecords and, uh, they needed
someone that understood onlineand design and things like that.
So they hired me and I workedthere for a couple years and
then I realized I wanted to workin the internet, not music, and
(08:02):
then I was digital.
From then on I worked at cnetgroupon, did you really?
Yeah, doing what?
Product management, writingspecifications for software
engineers.
That's, that's the bulk of mycareer so wait, so so you.
Paul (08:20):
So you got the job.
So okay, so you go to the bayand your first job is with the
music company.
What'd you do there?
I did, I was jack of all tradesI got him on the internet I I
built your website oh my gosh 9796, 96 97 really early.
(08:40):
Internet like this is likesuper absolutely yeah for sure.
Kris (08:46):
Yeah, and I was.
You know, I was smitten, I wasintrigued and I loved the
interwebs and that was it for me.
Paul (08:53):
I was hooked dude, I remember like all my friends
that were in cs, I remember liketaking a science, like a cs
class, and I was like this iscool, but like I would never
want to do this shit, bro.
They all like made so muchmoney.
It's ridiculous.
They all graduated or they hadjobs right away and they all
went to the bay and they all gotextremely wealthy like,
(09:15):
especially especially if theywere software engineers.
Like one guy I know went tolike he got like a bunch of guys
or went to the Bay, startedtheir own like I don't know
interweb, e-group, somethingback like in the 98, 99.
And then they sold it to Yahoo.
They made like I remember mybuddy made a hundred grand right
(09:37):
In his stock and that's whenYahoo was like cool and then he
ended up like taking a year offbecause he had a hundred
thousand dollars like a milliondollars nowadays right and like
take a year off.
And then his friends who wentthere all left and joined google
in like 2000 or 2001 yeah, bukubuku, buku, buku book and then
(09:59):
he left there because he made aton of money, went public and
got a job at youtube before themerger.
So, like wow, I was like, ohman, if you step in shit, you
would find a diamond.
Like literally, that's what.
Kris (10:15):
Like it would stick to his shoe, man, that's crazy.
That is good for me, liketrying to get a job.
Paul (10:23):
You know, I'm just gonna be like right, walk it.
I don't know.
I remember you just like toldme like companies would come to
youtube, like you knew all thesedudes had money right, and like
they'd be in the parking lotand they would like try to sell
these guys, like the most randomshit, like scooters and like
you know whatever, like I don'tknow, like dork, cool dork toys,
(10:45):
you know that were outside,like oh, you know right, and
like he was showing me a videoof it and I'm like, oh, my god,
this is nuts.
Like this is not my world.
I would love to be in thatworld, though I mean, I'm tired
now, not probably, I don't,probably not.
But so then, what happened?
So you went there and then yougot high.
(11:06):
So how?
What did you left at baptist?
What was it called?
What's it?
What'd you say?
The music, the polygram, thepolygram.
Kris (11:14):
And then you went to the jazz plays and like, did the
same thing but like helped youget back on and then got them
online, managed their newsletter, got their artists on the radio
, got them interviews, got themin magazines.
I basically did everything.
It was crazy.
And then a new album would comeout and we would turn the whole
(11:37):
house into, you know, afulfillment center and we would
pack cds all day long for weeks.
Paul (11:44):
It was just miserable but, you know I got to see some, but
you were young and it didn'tmatter right and I saw some
really cool old school blueslegends.
Kris (11:54):
You know, yeah, magic slim .
You know all these really coolguys that I dug um and I got to
hang with them at biscuits andblues.
Which is this funky littleblues hang in San Francisco, all
dark and weird.
It was awesome.
Paul (12:12):
I think it's all weird.
So then all right, so then one.
So you've done the same.
So you kind of just worked intech, right?
So you went, what did you dowith CNET?
You just helped them.
I mean, cnet does review stuff,don't they?
Kris (12:26):
Yeah, they.
They were pretty much productreviews.
They kind of invented it,unboxing things like that.
So I was a product manager andI owned a couple of websites
different ones over my careerand I uh, moved up into the
world and took over cell phoneswhich were a big deal back then.
(12:47):
Do you remember the MotorolaRazr?
It was like this end yeah.
Yeah, when that came out, I wasrunning the cell phone division
and it in 2006 so that wasprobably 2004.
Paul (13:09):
Yeah, my first cell phone was a star tack, and that is the
motorola star tack where, likeit had the antenna, you had to
pull out and always break offand I'd like, yeah, yeah, you
thought you're hot.
Yeah, I didn't know me.
I was like, yeah, I got a cellphone $900, you know, and I paid
for my minutes, and no, I don'tmean ringtones.
Kris (13:28):
I love it.
Yeah, so you know it was music,then tech, and then you know I
was designing digital productsfor years and years and years.
Oh, website, software, all thatkind of different stuff, apps
um, you know writingspecifications and and prds
(13:49):
product requirement docs for foryears, you know.
And then you know doingwireframes and you know building
digital stuff forever and then,out of nowhere, during covid,
I've discovered that I couldbuild physical things too and I
was like wow, I kind of likethis.
Paul (14:08):
This is fun, so it's tangible right, you can feel it,
yeah, and that's my whole lifenow, you know, I just love it.
Kris (14:15):
You know like I've got a PowerPoint deck that's like 250
slides and it's just ideas thatI have of inventions that I want
to make someday, you know, butfor now it's all about golf
inventions.
That's where I'm at right now.
Why?
Paul (14:31):
golf.
Why did you decide to startthere?
You're a surfer who likes musicand tech, so why golf?
Kris (14:39):
Golf just fits the vibe.
It's outdoors, it's in abeautiful place, it's chill,
it's relaxed, it's fun.
You're usually with friends andfor me, I mean, I was that
annual boys trip golfer for mostof my life and when COVID hit
there was nothing else to do.
(14:59):
So I dusted off my clubs and Ijust started playing more and
more and became completelyaddicted.
And you know, for people thatknow me, I'm super fastidious
and kind of anal retentive.
So you know, everything has itsplace and I'm all about
organization, as you can tell bythe hats on how they're
(15:21):
perfectly one behind my off by alittle bit that white one.
Yeah, I know, it's not thatbecause I'm going to go fix it
Whatever bro, because I'm gonnago fix it whatever bro.
So I quickly became a littlefrustrated with golf, because
golfers have more gear than anyother athlete combined on the
planet, which is just.
It drives me nuts, like if youdon't have 150 things every time
(15:45):
you play around, then you'remissing something.
So I got tired of reaching inmy pocket and stabbing my
fingers looking for tees, ballmarkers, divot tools and all
that.
So I'm like there's gotta be abetter way.
So I hit uh, google and lookedfor like a belt that I could
hold my stuff.
(16:06):
And there was nothing.
I couldn't find anything.
So I busted out grandma'ssinger sewing machine and I
started sewing belts, um andfast forward.
I found your wife, like did youhave a?
Paul (16:18):
stroke like she's like what are you doing, right?
Kris (16:21):
she's completely baffled, like what the hell?
Paul (16:24):
oh my god, are we doing like outside the norm?
To like what?
What happened?
Kris (16:30):
yeah, uh, but for me that was the norm.
Like my wife was like, yeah,yeah, he's tinkering again.
Like I always tinker, like I'ma perpetual tinkerer.
I tell people I love to likethe lens I have when I'm walking
down the street is, oh, thatcould be better or that could be
different, and that would becool if it was a little tweaked.
(16:50):
This way, you know, like that'sjust the lens, I see things you
know through.
So you know, I started makingbelts and I found a manufacturer
and then, next thing you know,I've got five different products
with a bunch of patents pendingand what kind of patling and a
or utility their utility patentsand uh, yeah, yeah that's a lot
(17:14):
of money.
Paul (17:15):
Shit man that made utility pads.
Kris (17:17):
That's not cheap well, I knocked it down to just one.
I found uh an attorney that isa family friend, so it saved me
a ton of money family discount.
Yeah, exactly, and he justworked it so that he could fit
them all in one.
Paul (17:32):
So we've got one non-provisional filed right now
and we got rid of all theprovisionals independent
provisionals you do theprovisionals first while you're
designing it, just cover yourass, exactly, exactly, yeah,
yeah, that's you have to do.
I mean, then you have to worryabout it and it's like we're
just first in line, right, sotechnically, yeah no really
(17:53):
weird.
Like I want my patents right now.
Like I find I have a design andutility and utility technically
you would think like utility isthe hardest one to get right.
Like it really is.
It's so strong and we filed thedesign a year before the
utility and the utility'salready been granted.
Really, yeah, dude, I'm likeseriously, thanks, I don't care,
(18:17):
I'd rather have the utility.
I mean, I'm still going to getit, but still it's like why
would it take so many sons?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That's nuts, I took it into a quick.
Paul (18:24):
I was like holy crap, that's really fast.
Kris (18:27):
It's like reverse yeah.
Paul (18:30):
Right In case you don't know like the difference between
design utility is just designsthe way it looks and utilities
ways functions right.
And then utilities way morestronger in my opinion than
design, because designs the wayit looks right.
You change it a little bit Nowyou're not the design, but you
still want to do it and it'susually a bit cheaper.
Kris (18:48):
I mean, then do it, yeah, yeah, and going both is is
expensive, but you did the rightthing.
That was smart law school doesf to you.
Paul (18:58):
Oh, that's right.
So then you're able to be likeno no, no, yes, so okay.
So like, let's talk about thebird.
So then, when did the birdlaunch?
Kris (19:10):
so we've been selling product for about 16 months now.
We uh, we went to the our firstpga show last year and we had
product like samples I think atthe time.
There's the bird um light ofthe feather um like your logo.
(19:32):
Your logo is sick thank you, Idesigned that you got your
lightning bolt for it too yeah,oh, and it's like magnetic too,
right.
Paul (19:41):
So like you just think, like that would also kind of
play off that that's smart.
There you go.
Yeah, you're the magnet guy.
Kris (19:47):
No, you're the magnet guy.
You, you've got the cool magnetproduct, but both of us do.
Actually, I have magnets inalmost everything.
I make my belt that you see,there has a magnet on the buckle
, yeah, and it holds your ballmarker, and that it has what I
call t and well, sheaths.
So I have t sheaths and pivottool sheaths and that you can
(20:12):
see the braided belt therethat's coming out very soon and
it has my new buckle which ista-da a lightning bolt that's
cool so yeah, I incorporatelightning bolts into almost
everything I do.
They just feel cool, you know nothey do.
Paul (20:33):
That's cool.
That's probably like an old,like skateboard, like kamikaze
skateboard.
Remember that when we were likein the 80s or badass that's.
It reminds me of tony alba yeah, or alba.
I just watched the documentaryon uh tony hawk but like, oh,
that was good.
Did you watch that one?
That thing's really goodbecause prejudice, like
everybody you know, was in itand the history of skateboarding
(20:57):
.
I don't know.
It's cool, good documentary,and he and I are the same age.
It was like 54, 53, six, oh,really old school man, old
school.
So okay, so what?
So let's.
So this is coming out right thebraided, really Old school man,
old school.
So okay, so this is coming outright, the braided belt.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, right now.
Paul (21:18):
And then there's a T-sheath right, as you call that
, and that's for your T-sheathon the belt.
And then there's a magnet hereon the actual face of the belt
so you can put your ball marker.
Kris (21:29):
Yeah, it's underneath, so it goes through the metal and it
has, you know, it pulls ittight, holds it really securely.
Paul (21:35):
so that, if this, if this uh marker wasn't, there is the
magnet on the back side of thisor is the magnet like on the
front side of it?
Kris (21:43):
it's on the back, so the front's clean oh, that's smart.
Paul (21:47):
it looks like crap and it's like some dumb ass.
Little magnet in the front thatlooks junky yeah, it's smart,
it looks clean.
So if you didn't want to put aball marker there, it doesn't
look all weird because you havethis circle thing.
And then we're like, what'sthat Right?
Kris (22:02):
It looks more utilitarian when it comes out officially.
In a couple of weeks there'sgoing to be an embossed Sun logo
right there, so you can kind ofsee something you know when
there's no marker on it oh,that's cool.
Paul (22:15):
So that's the new ones coming out, right?
So, like, the first one thatcame out was that one.
Kris (22:23):
Yeah, that's webbing.
So, um, I liked elastic and Ikind of like the one one size
fits most, so we didn't have todo like five different sizes and
whatnot.
So it's fully adjustable.
It goes up to a size I think 48or something like that.
And, yeah, it holds two tees, adivot tool and a ball marker,
(22:46):
and all of our stuff ships withthat stuff too.
So you get a free divot toolwhen you buy a belt, free tees,
free ball marker and uh this isthe divot tool right yeah yeah,
it slides in, really fits,really snug, because I designed
it with neoprene inside, soneoprene, I'm fascinated by this
(23:08):
, this material it's.
It's both slick and sticky, soit's spongy, so it grips things,
it holds them by cushioningthem, but it's slick too, so
things move off of it, so it'sreally easy to get your gear in
and out of it and it holds it.
I've never had one personcomplain that they lost a tee or
(23:28):
something like that.
But yeah, these things areselling like hotcakes.
They're with the belt, thewebbed belt.
Yeah, that one we're looking atright now.
Yeah, that one's a new color.
The most popular ones right nowis the black one and the gray
one with the gray stripe.
They're just.
We've.
(23:49):
We've run out of stock threetimes, which you'd think I would
learn, but hopefully I have now.
Paul (23:55):
No, it's hard.
You never know because you'restill, like, relatively new, so
you don't know what people likeand you're always probably
you're I mean, you're a tinkerer, right, so like you're probably
always refining the product, sothat's what you're, you know
you're.
Kris (24:06):
So right, yeah, you get it , you're.
You're an inventor too, youknow, and it's to me that's you
probably do tees though, thatlike have your logo on it, like,
oh, they do.
Paul (24:18):
You know?
I'm saying, like those onesthat are on the top, that you
could just whatever, oh, on thetip on the top, I mean yeah,
yeah, I can sell the top.
So, like you would see, likethe bird logo on top.
So there's like four ways.
You mean there, yeah, becauseyou can, they'll print all that
on there.
I would do that because thensomething loses the t.
You'll see that there, I don'tknow, just because the top
breaks off, they might find thetop and keep the top.
Kris (24:39):
If you're, this idea is I don't know this is one of my
worst ideas a black t you hitthat thing once, you never find
it again.
But yeah, so then you know thatled to the clip.
The clip led to the divot clip.
We've got a hat, we've got allkinds of stuff.
(25:01):
We have a glove now.
That glove holds two Ts on thecuff and a marker underneath,
and I designed it.
I play softball, so I wearbatting gloves a lot and I like
the feel of batting gloves howthey are.
They have thick cuffs aroundyour wrist, so I'm like.
(25:21):
I wonder if there's a golf glovelike this, and I couldn't find
one.
So, you know, it has theneoprene that goes down on your
wrist, which which kind ofreminds you in your backswing
don't break your wrist, you know.
So it's kind of a swing aid, ifyou will, and it's made with
Italian Cabretta leather.
It's got, you know, spandexbetween the fingers, so it's
(25:42):
really comfortable and it's thebleed.
Paul (25:45):
I bought gloves once and they bled.
Kris (25:47):
dude this it's funny you say that.
I just was looking at picturesthis morning that users said to
me.
They're like, hey, bro, myhands are red.
I'm like, yeah, it'll come offin a day.
That's not good dude.
Paul (25:59):
I have me once I had to like dump that or I seriously
because like that just we fixedit like I ordered like from a
manufacturer and I had like fivecolors, dude, I had like green,
black, orange, right, and thenwe got done playing ball and,
like my friend, my buddies, Ididn't.
I started selling them and thenmy my friends were like, look
at my hands, and my hand hadgreen hands and my black hands
(26:21):
and I was like, oh, that's notgood, there's one way to resolve
it go white.
It's all right.
So I just go white.
That's why they don't yeah.
It's because the dyes, you knowand yeah especially the sweat.
Kris (26:33):
It's an easy fix, though, because all you have to do is
code it.
Paul (26:36):
You know so problem, so then did you what when, in terms
of like, is this one of yourdesigns too yep, I invented
those.
Kris (26:46):
The divot clip is the clip , but it has a divot.
It is a divot tool as well, sothat one's kind of a
three-in-one multi-two, that'sthe beer that's the pincher that
opens and closes it.
Oh nice, that's cool.
And it also holds a pencil or acylindrical, your straw,
(27:10):
whatever.
That's cool.
But yeah, these things arepretty popular too.
People like to buy the foursome.
I give bundle deals because youknow you're going out with your
buddies and you show up withlittle surprise gift for them.
So we're all about bundles.
And you know, when we launchedthe company, it was really
(27:30):
important to make our stuffaccessibleles.
And you know, when we launchedthe company, it was really
important to make our stuffaccessible.
So you know, my marketing teamis pissed that I don't sell the
belt for 65 bucks.
And they're like look, thereare belts for 120 golf belts and
they don't do anything likeyours does.
But I, I kept them all.
My stuff is super affordable.
You know, the clip is only 20bucks.
Paul (27:52):
What's the most popular is the bundles Like not popular,
but like it's a good way.
And if somebody's out therelearning how to sell stuff, you
know what I mean Would you saylike you have your singles, but
then you also should have like alike what you're doing with
bundles stuff too, where it'slike oh, group of four, right,
or something.
Kris (28:09):
Yeah it.
Oh, group of four, right, orsomething.
Yeah, it's all about averageorder value.
I mean you raise that whenyou're selling something for 20
bucks it's hard to get goodnumbers.
So you fix that, you remedy itby bundling things and then that
keeps your average order valueup and basket size bigger and
all of that good stuff.
So I try and do a lot ofbundles and what's your most
(28:33):
popular bundle right now thedivot clip foursome yeah
that one, yeah, no, the one onthe left, that one is our most
popular it's because of the clip.
Paul (28:46):
Is the same thing or is it different?
Kris (28:48):
they're different.
One has is forked in the frontand the other is rounded.
Paul (28:53):
Some people don't like the fork.
Yeah, right, see, then youlearn, right Like.
Oh, people really like thatkind.
Okay, cool, that's what peoplewant.
Kris (29:01):
Right, but the regular one is selling like mad.
They just got picked up byShields, so we're in Shields now
.
42 stores across the countryWell, specific areas, but I had
never heard of Shields becausethey don't have them in Cali.
But it is a freaking massivestore.
Paul (29:21):
Yeah, they opened up one by my house.
It's massive, oh really yeah.
Kris (29:26):
Is there a Ferris wheel in it?
Paul (29:27):
Yeah, there's a Ferris wheel in it.
Yeah, yeah, I think they allhave ferris wheels like one like
a bass pro shot, but like right, just sports you know yes.
Kris (29:37):
So they picked up six skews which we were super
excited about was that the pgashow or they just found you from
this?
It was the distributor thatfound us and just really liked
our stuff and she showed it toshields and they said yeah,
we'll take six differentproducts instead of you know
just one, which we were fullyexpecting them to pick, like one
(30:00):
or two, but six, man, we werestoked oh yeah um, we have a
good female demographic as well,because ladies often golf and
have no pockets.
They have skirts, there's nopockets, there's nowhere to put
their stuff, so they tend togravitate.
We have, you know, the pinkbundle and all kinds of other
(30:27):
kind of neutral colors andwhatnot.
So, yeah, the femaledemographic is a very important
one to us.
Paul (30:35):
So, like you have two different types of clips, right
yeah, the rounded type or theone that's a divot tool, exactly
.
Kris (30:45):
The divot tool holds two keys.
Paul (30:47):
I'm trying to find out what somebody likes, and is that
your design?
Kris (30:57):
Yeah, yeah.
And then somebody likes and andis that your design?
Yeah, yeah.
And then and I made them out ofaluminum, because aluminum is
lightweight I want all of myproducts to be invisible to the
golfer, like they can't bug youin any way.
So everything I design it, justit's meant to be somewhat
invisible.
So you know, the belt isreversible.
You can take that web belt andjust roll it around your waist
and it becomes like an everydaybelt.
Paul (31:19):
It's um yeah they're all like how many belts does a
person really need?
Right like so, if they have oneor two that they can just use
all the time, then they don't,that's all I mean yeah, for sure
especially for golf.
So what's coming out this year,then?
Kris (31:36):
the new braided belt the new braided belt and the glove
just came out.
We just started selling theclub the glove very recently.
We haven't even really promotedthem that much yet and and the
braided belt we have a ton ofpre-orders for already, which is
cool.
We're doing a little giveawayyou get a free visor if you
(31:57):
pre-order the braided belt now.
Paul (32:02):
So we've got a bunch of people have already bought from
you before, like you just kindof pre-ordered your peeps on
your that your previous buyersor are you like doing it some
other way?
Some?
Kris (32:14):
some are return customers, others, you know we're doing
meta advertising and things likethat, so people see it and they
come check us out or they go toamazon and buy it you sell all
this on amazon, or what?
Paul (32:31):
what?
Like all your products inamazon, or just certain ones,
pretty much everything.
Kris (32:38):
It's a necessary evil, and you're so right it it is it.
You got to do it, but you hatedoing it.
Paul (32:46):
Are you running ads on Amazon too, or are you just gone
?
Kris (32:50):
We're going to start.
We just started with an agencythat they specialize in Amazon.
They're obviously masochisticpeople because it's so brutal
working with Amazon, but youknow they take care of your
listings.
Has Amazon lost?
Paul (33:07):
any of your shipments yet, because they've lost some of
mine before.
And then they play games andlike, oh, we didn't, you didn't
send it.
I'm like, yeah, I didn't, dude,you're thinking you received it
, but where is it?
Oh, you gotta prove seriously.
And then they go oh, you haveto prove that you bought it to
send it to us.
I'm like, why do I have toprove that I sent you the or the
(33:27):
entire shipment to like?
So they want you to spend likehours and hours and hours and
hours and hours trying to likedeal with it?
It's like, yeah, that's that'scalled conversion in the world
of uh law.
Kris (33:40):
They've taken my product and they who knows where it went
right vaporware, but you knowwe're gonna have to do fba when
we start advertising.
Paul (33:55):
So yeah, what I would rec.
Somebody gave me a goodrecommendation.
They said the other day I wastalking to a pretty big brand
that does it on amazon too.
They said that like you can,you can run your ads like normal
on Amazon.
Or like just what they're doingis they're just running an ad
on their branded name so that,like you know, like a competitor
(34:19):
is not going to find your, thecompetitor is not going to
compete for your brand name onAmazon.
So like, if they are looking forthe bird, then it's not like
Chinese knockoff, chineseknockoff, chinese knockoff bird,
right, essentially payingprobably a dollar, right, let's
just call it to like get youback out on top.
(34:40):
But here's the one plus sideI'll tell you the Amazon is that
like if you're running ads onamazon, it will show up on
google, because amazon's runningads like crazy.
So, essentially, like you'regonna see an amazon ad for your
thing on am, on google.
So it's like it's a twofer.
You know, yeah, yeah, but itstill costs you a lot of money
because they're gonna get you onthe ad, they're gonna get you
(35:02):
an fba, they're gonna get you onthe transaction for the that
our fee is next thing, you know,on a 20 thing, you're making
two dollars.
You know they're taking 22percent right up.
I've done the math.
They take like almost over 50.
Once all said if you're runningads, 30 for what?
Right, you gotta have goodmargins yeah, you gotta have a
(35:24):
good margin, that's right.
You have a really good margins,yeah, um, so did you initially
start selling that on amazon ordid you like go there after you
launched and then you'd amazonbecause you knew, hey, it's a
really good way to get the wordout, because everybody's on
amazon, yeah yeah, it was thelatter we we launched after.
Kris (35:44):
Yes, sir, we launched the website B2C is you know?
That's where you want.
All of your business is on yourwebsite, because nobody's
eating away at your margins onthe website.
Yeah, so we prefer to drive allour traffic to the website.
But, like you said, amazon is anecessity and if you want to,
(36:06):
you know know, do you want tosell a lot of product?
Paul (36:09):
you got to be on amazon and yeah, yeah, that's what I
feel, the exact same way.
You know.
You just have to, you have to.
Yeah, I mean, it's not you'llmake less money, but you get
more, more, more you make up forit in volume yeah, or people
know who you are right.
So brand recognition for sure.
(36:30):
The new brand, so right now thebelt, the belt.
The new braided style is comingout.
Kris (36:36):
And the new glove the glove is out, but just recently
it's been out for about a month,so you can get those now.
And what's your biggest?
Paul (36:49):
seller, like what's the most popular product you guys
have right now?
Would you say the belt or thethe black belt?
Kris (36:55):
that black one, yeah, and the gray one is a close second.
Those are our two top sellingproducts, like by leaps and
bounds.
That's cool, man so clean too Ibet you don't even feel that
right?
Paul (37:12):
I bet you don't even feel it.
Kris (37:13):
They're super comfortable.
I mean they're elastic, youknow I mean this.
The second version was a littletighter, elastic, because the
first one was I wanted it to besoft and comfortable and it was
a little too loose.
So this one's a little stiffer,but it's not as stiff as a
leather belt and you knowthey're definitely not for
(37:33):
everybody.
Some people think they don'tlook good and they don't like
elastic belts, you know.
But most people love elasticbelts.
So you know I modeled themafter some of the top selling
belts in the world.
Paul (37:50):
So yeah you didn't know first, you know what's more.
Yeah, you know.
Like, for sure, mother beltsare dime a dozen right.
I mean, yeah, and how?
So like if somebody bought likethis is it's really one size
fits all right because it'selastic belt.
Kris (38:07):
So you just, you know, yeah the web belts or the
braided belts will will havedifferent, four different sizes,
but the webbed belts, theelastic ones, they're, they're
one size fits most that's socool.
Paul (38:22):
So when did you launch?
Launch then.
Kris (38:26):
It was probably 16 months ago, I want to say, and at the
first PGA show we went to lastyear 24, we were nominated in
the top five products of theyear, which was really cool.
That was not a pay-to-playprogram, we didn't have to pay
(38:50):
to get that and we, uh, we werepicked to pitch on the main
stage our product to davidledbetter and a bunch of golf
heavyweights, which was reallycool.
Kind of nerve-wracking butsuper fun.
Um, and we didn't win.
The grip caddy won and I'm gladfor them.
He's wiser, is a super cool guy, really great founder.
(39:14):
What the group caddy it's?
Uh, the grip caddy.
It basically cleans your golfgrips.
It's an all-in-one little tourof that thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, looks like awrench um, but yeah.
So they won.
We were told we were, we were aclose second um, and yeah, we,
(39:38):
we just have taken off sincethen.
You know it's been.
It was a good show.
We went this year a little morequiet for us than the first
year because you know we werethe newbies and you know people
go, buyers go to the pga show.
They're always looking for thenext thing to sell and if you
have something that's evenremotely different or outside
(40:02):
the norm, then they're attractedto you.
You know.
Paul (40:07):
No, I think it's cool product.
Kris (40:09):
Dude like when I think I was cool.
Paul (40:11):
I like inventive stuff that's cool, that I think people
should know about.
When I first saw this, I waslike, oh, this is cool.
You know like it's a lot ofwork to create something from
scratch for your own, yeah, orto make a product better or
something that never evenexisted.
You know, yeah, the whole.
(40:31):
It's a whole process, but withwhat you've done, with like your
life and all the development,it's just a natural transition
you know, yeah, totally yeah,you nailed it and it's funny
like advertising on social mediaand whatnot.
Kris (40:49):
You know, people have no idea, to your point, what goes
into this.
I mean, it's our blood, sweat,tears, it's, it's our passion.
So it's not just somethingyou're doing to make a buck,
it's something you, your soul,goes into.
You know, and there there's a,there's a human behind every
product that you buy in theworld.
(41:10):
So you know, you gotta yourbaby.
Yeah, and you know it's.
It's important to me like twothings are super important to me
that I've told my kids athousand times as they were
growing up be present, bemindful it always shows respect
(41:32):
to people and find your passionearly.
You know, I was 50 before whenI found my passion, you know, I
just, but I I'm so grateful thatI did, you know, because
finding something you'repassionate about is difficult
and when you do, it's magicalit's, just it's life-changing
you know, I totally agree withthat, seriously like yeah, when
(41:56):
it's not about, like when you'reyoung, you're feeling it's like
chasing money is like the thingright or or whatever.
Paul (42:01):
I guess yeah, right.
And it like when you get olderyou're like so what?
I don't know.
I saw that in the laws oflawyer.
Kris (42:08):
Yeah.
Paul (42:10):
So well, where can people find the bird?
Kris (42:15):
The birdcom.
It's right there on the pageand the bird is spelled with a Y
B, y, r, d and you can find iton our website.
You can find it in shields orgolf stores, green grass stores
near you.
We're obviously also on Amazonand Etsy and all those fun
(42:35):
places Awesome.
Paul (42:38):
Well, thank you so much, Chris, for being on the show
today.
You guys have to check out thebird, like it's cool, because
it's not just like anotheraccessory, it's like something
you just like I don't know.
It's like you're not aone-trick pony so you can use it
for so many different thingsand it's also apparel, so it's
like hard to say, like fit inone genre.
It's like actually, no, it'slike, and you're probably always
like I bet you have new stuffcoming out too that we don't
(43:00):
even know about.
You're probably like, oh, weshould do that, we should do
that, yeah for sure.
But thank you so much for beingon the show.
Um, you guys check outthebirdcom and I'll see you guys
in the next episode.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Thanks, paul, thank you thanks for listening to
another episode of behind thegolf brand podcast.
You're gonna beat me.
Stay connected on and off theshow by visiting
golfersauthoritycom.
Don't forget to like, subscribeand leave a comment.
Golf is always more fun whenyou win.
Stay out of the beach and seeyou on the green.
What's up guys?
Welcome to the Behind the GolfBrand Podcast.
This week I have my good friend, chris Dre from the Bird.
If you guys haven't seen orheard of the Bird, the Bird is
the word.
It's a cool new.
I don't know what you wouldcall it apparel slash accessory.
I don't know.
It's kind of like its ownlittle area, but it's cool
(00:57):
because you can.
Yeah, it's an accessory, butyeah, it's also like other
products that you can take withyou at the course.
So I thought it was really cool.
I thought it was really cool.
I saw the PGA show and then Iasked Kris come on the show.
So welcome to the show.
Thank you, paul.
Happy to be here.
So where are you located?
Kris (01:16):
I am in the East Bay area in Walnut Creek, California.
That's a nice area.
Yeah, it's fun, nice place isthat where like is that where,
uh, silicon valley, we're living?
Paul (01:28):
remember that show, silicon valley, yeah yeah,
walnut, you think.
Kris (01:32):
What do you think that was that?
I think was a little south ofme, about 45 minutes to an hour,
but yeah, walnut creek it's agood place.
It's centrally located to napatahoe.
You know all those good places,carmel drive.
Paul (01:48):
Is it to like napa, like an hour?
Napa's 45 minutes, tahoe'sthree hours, carmel's two wow,
so you like, you have the spotdude yeah, it's pretty cool.
So what did you grow up in thebay area or like, where did you
(02:09):
grow up at?
Kris (02:10):
I grew up in southern california so I grew up surfing
on uh the beaches of southerncal?
Uh, specifically salt creekbeach.
So that was kind of the feel ofmy brand.
You know, like I I gravitatedto lightning bolts because my
(02:30):
favorite surfer was Jerry Lopezat the time and his he had
surfboards with a lightning boltdesign and I just kind of liked
the beach vibe.
You know kind of chill, mindfulpresent.
That's kind of what we're allabout.
You know, being able to focuson the course is critical so did
you like?
Paul (02:51):
what's your background?
So you went to your group likewe're in southern cali, la or
what no, I grew up in a littletown called dana point yeah, now
dana point's like huge rightlike it is.
Kris (03:04):
They changed the uh, the boundaries of the city like a
while ago.
It was years after I left,though, and I was laguna niguel,
and then it became dana point,and dana point just gobbled up
half of orange county, it feelslike I was talking to somebody
and they said, like they live indana point or that area and
they said it's like impossibleto buy a house.
Paul (03:25):
That's what they said.
They did like what the rent?
Like they rent, they're tellingme what the rent was.
I was like you gotta be kiddingme, dude.
He's like yeah, we'll never buya house here, we can't afford
it.
Yeah, it's, it's nuts, it'sjust crazy.
But back in the day it probablywasn't like that right, it was
probably like normal yeah yeahit was super chill.
Kris (03:42):
It was.
It was cool and you know, Igrew up in a little community
near the beach so I had mylittle riva scooter.
You remember those things?
Yeah, I had a little red rivawith a surfboard rack on it and
I used to zip down to the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
It was fun the good old days I miss those.
Kris (04:00):
I miss those beaches, man.
It was warm and nice water, notshark infested like Ocean.
Paul (04:08):
Beach, did you so?
Did you go to college inSouthern California, or what?
Kris (04:15):
I went to school in Chico, so I kind of ended up a little
north but almost in the middle.
Sort of what school is thatChico State?
It was voted number one partyschool in the country several
years ago, that's that's all you?
Yeah, it was not so, it wasjust one year, it was in playboy
magazine and that's all anyonewould say to me.
(04:37):
Where do you go to school,chico?
Paul (04:39):
oh, you must be a partier, like name one school that
doesn't party, man, come onthere isn't one, unless you go
to like I don't even know, thisprobably doesn't even exist.
So what did you so in ChicoState?
Then, like I know you're asmart dude because you moved to
the friggin Bay.
So would you like CS orsomething?
What did I?
What what'd you major in?
Kris (05:01):
oh no you.
It's funny.
I majored in natural resourcemanagement and somehow I came
out of that not wanting to be apark ranger Not that there's
anything wrong with that but itjust wasn't something I was
motivated to do.
And that was right around whenthe interwebs became popular to
(05:23):
the public.
So you know I joke that my wifeset my career for me because
she bought me my first AOL discand 14K modem.
So that was it for me.
Paul (05:36):
Do you remember when you used to like give that the disc
like it was in the back of, likeevery magazine and like
everything?
Remember that.
For sure I remember being incollege and we just like throw
them at each other Like ninja,yeah, I used them as a.
Kris (05:51):
You know you put your drink on them.
Drink coaster, that's I meanright.
Paul (05:57):
I mean, how would you get people on the internet for free?
Remember to give you minutes.
It was like 10,000 minutes orwhatever it was.
Kris (06:06):
Remember minutes.
It was like 10 000 minutes orwhatever it was.
Paul (06:08):
Remember that and remember the screeching sound you hear
when you logged on and then youtie up the phone line and
everyone would be pissed andthen, like someone would call
you and you get bumped.
Remember that.
Yeah, that was frustrating, toofunny.
I checked with my kids likedude, it was nothing like that.
When we were kids I was likeyou wanted to play two player.
Your friend was coming over likethat's how it was, for sure I
(06:30):
remember I remember in college,like when I was like that's when
, like well, I guess theyalready been around, but
remember duke nukem, I rememberplaying nukem in college and
like there's a.
I was in a cs major but myroommate was my freshman year in
my freshman year and like he,like him and like a bunch of
other guys like networkedeverything so we could play duke
(06:52):
nukem.
Like us and the guys next doorawesome, you thought that was
the coolest thing on the planet.
I was like holy crap, you'relike yelling at each other, like
down the hall, like you're anasshole, but like I was so good
at that game, dude yeah collegeafter that that was fun the good
old days.
And then what happened?
So you got like okay, so thatyou got into what like how did
(07:15):
you bridge bro I was really intomusic.
Kris (07:18):
I wanted to be in the music industry.
I did an internship with pgd,polygram group distribution,
which was a thing back then.
They're long gone now but backthen, oh geez, I don't even
remember.
I mean I want to say soundgarden, but I can't remember.
But you know, I graduated andneeded a job in the music
(07:40):
industry.
So I found this little tinyblues record label in san
francisco called blind pigrecords and, uh, they needed
someone that understood onlineand design and things like that.
So they hired me and I workedthere for a couple years and
then I realized I wanted to workin the internet, not music, and
(08:02):
then I was digital.
From then on I worked at cnetgroupon, did you really?
Yeah, doing what?
Product management, writingspecifications for software
engineers.
That's, that's the bulk of mycareer so wait, so so you.
Paul (08:20):
So you got the job.
So okay, so you go to the bayand your first job is with the
music company.
What'd you do there?
I did, I was jack of all tradesI got him on the internet I I
built your website oh my gosh 9796, 96 97 really early.
(08:40):
Internet like this is likesuper absolutely yeah for sure.
Kris (08:46):
Yeah, and I was.
You know, I was smitten, I wasintrigued and I loved the
interwebs and that was it for me.
Paul (08:53):
I was hooked dude, I remember like all my friends
that were in cs, I remember liketaking a science, like a cs
class, and I was like this iscool, but like I would never
want to do this shit, bro.
They all like made so muchmoney.
It's ridiculous.
They all graduated or they hadjobs right away and they all
went to the bay and they all gotextremely wealthy like,
(09:15):
especially especially if theywere software engineers.
Like one guy I know went tolike he got like a bunch of guys
or went to the Bay, startedtheir own like I don't know
interweb, e-group, somethingback like in the 98, 99.
And then they sold it to Yahoo.
They made like I remember mybuddy made a hundred grand right
(09:37):
In his stock and that's whenYahoo was like cool and then he
ended up like taking a year offbecause he had a hundred
thousand dollars like a milliondollars nowadays right and like
take a year off.
And then his friends who wentthere all left and joined google
in like 2000 or 2001 yeah, bukubuku, buku, buku book and then
(09:59):
he left there because he made aton of money, went public and
got a job at youtube before themerger.
So, like wow, I was like, ohman, if you step in shit, you
would find a diamond.
Like literally, that's what.
Kris (10:15):
Like it would stick to his shoe, man, that's crazy.
That is good for me, liketrying to get a job.
Paul (10:23):
You know, I'm just gonna be like right, walk it.
I don't know.
I remember you just like toldme like companies would come to
youtube, like you knew all thesedudes had money right, and like
they'd be in the parking lotand they would like try to sell
these guys, like the most randomshit, like scooters and like
you know whatever, like I don'tknow, like dork, cool dork toys,
(10:45):
you know that were outside,like oh, you know right, and
like he was showing me a videoof it and I'm like, oh, my god,
this is nuts.
Like this is not my world.
I would love to be in thatworld, though I mean, I'm tired
now, not probably, I don't,probably not.
But so then, what happened?
So you went there and then yougot high.
(11:06):
So how?
What did you left at baptist?
What was it called?
What's it?
What'd you say?
The music, the polygram, thepolygram.
Kris (11:14):
And then you went to the jazz plays and like, did the
same thing but like helped youget back on and then got them
online, managed their newsletter, got their artists on the radio
, got them interviews, got themin magazines.
I basically did everything.
It was crazy.
And then a new album would comeout and we would turn the whole
(11:37):
house into, you know, afulfillment center and we would
pack cds all day long for weeks.
Paul (11:44):
It was just miserable but, you know I got to see some, but
you were young and it didn'tmatter right and I saw some
really cool old school blueslegends.
Kris (11:54):
You know, yeah, magic slim .
You know all these really coolguys that I dug um and I got to
hang with them at biscuits andblues.
Which is this funky littleblues hang in San Francisco, all
dark and weird.
It was awesome.
Paul (12:12):
I think it's all weird.
So then all right, so then one.
So you've done the same.
So you kind of just worked intech, right?
So you went, what did you dowith CNET?
You just helped them.
I mean, cnet does review stuff,don't they?
Kris (12:26):
Yeah, they.
They were pretty much productreviews.
They kind of invented it,unboxing things like that.
So I was a product manager andI owned a couple of websites
different ones over my careerand I uh, moved up into the
world and took over cell phoneswhich were a big deal back then.
(12:47):
Do you remember the MotorolaRazr?
It was like this end yeah.
Yeah, when that came out, I wasrunning the cell phone division
and it in 2006 so that wasprobably 2004.
Paul (13:09):
Yeah, my first cell phone was a star tack, and that is the
motorola star tack where, likeit had the antenna, you had to
pull out and always break offand I'd like, yeah, yeah, you
thought you're hot.
Yeah, I didn't know me.
I was like, yeah, I got a cellphone $900, you know, and I paid
for my minutes, and no, I don'tmean ringtones.
Kris (13:28):
I love it.
Yeah, so you know it was music,then tech, and then you know I
was designing digital productsfor years and years and years.
Oh, website, software, all thatkind of different stuff, apps
um, you know writingspecifications and and prds
(13:49):
product requirement docs for foryears, you know.
And then you know doingwireframes and you know building
digital stuff forever and then,out of nowhere, during covid,
I've discovered that I couldbuild physical things too and I
was like wow, I kind of likethis.
Paul (14:08):
This is fun, so it's tangible right, you can feel it,
yeah, and that's my whole lifenow, you know, I just love it.
Kris (14:15):
You know like I've got a PowerPoint deck that's like 250
slides and it's just ideas thatI have of inventions that I want
to make someday, you know, butfor now it's all about golf
inventions.
That's where I'm at right now.
Why?
Paul (14:31):
golf.
Why did you decide to startthere?
You're a surfer who likes musicand tech, so why golf?
Kris (14:39):
Golf just fits the vibe.
It's outdoors, it's in abeautiful place, it's chill,
it's relaxed, it's fun.
You're usually with friends andfor me, I mean, I was that
annual boys trip golfer for mostof my life and when COVID hit
there was nothing else to do.
(14:59):
So I dusted off my clubs and Ijust started playing more and
more and became completelyaddicted.
And you know, for people thatknow me, I'm super fastidious
and kind of anal retentive.
So you know, everything has itsplace and I'm all about
organization, as you can tell bythe hats on how they're
(15:21):
perfectly one behind my off by alittle bit that white one.
Yeah, I know, it's not thatbecause I'm going to go fix it
Whatever bro, because I'm gonnago fix it whatever bro.
So I quickly became a littlefrustrated with golf, because
golfers have more gear than anyother athlete combined on the
planet, which is just.
It drives me nuts, like if youdon't have 150 things every time
(15:45):
you play around, then you'remissing something.
So I got tired of reaching inmy pocket and stabbing my
fingers looking for tees, ballmarkers, divot tools and all
that.
So I'm like there's gotta be abetter way.
So I hit uh, google and lookedfor like a belt that I could
hold my stuff.
(16:06):
And there was nothing.
I couldn't find anything.
So I busted out grandma'ssinger sewing machine and I
started sewing belts, um andfast forward.
I found your wife, like did youhave a?
Paul (16:18):
stroke like she's like what are you doing, right?
Kris (16:21):
she's completely baffled, like what the hell?
Paul (16:24):
oh my god, are we doing like outside the norm?
To like what?
What happened?
Kris (16:30):
yeah, uh, but for me that was the norm.
Like my wife was like, yeah,yeah, he's tinkering again.
Like I always tinker, like I'ma perpetual tinkerer.
I tell people I love to likethe lens I have when I'm walking
down the street is, oh, thatcould be better or that could be
different, and that would becool if it was a little tweaked.
(16:50):
This way, you know, like that'sjust the lens, I see things you
know through.
So you know, I started makingbelts and I found a manufacturer
and then, next thing you know,I've got five different products
with a bunch of patents pendingand what kind of patling and a
or utility their utility patentsand uh, yeah, yeah that's a lot
(17:14):
of money.
Paul (17:15):
Shit man that made utility pads.
Kris (17:17):
That's not cheap well, I knocked it down to just one.
I found uh an attorney that isa family friend, so it saved me
a ton of money family discount.
Yeah, exactly, and he justworked it so that he could fit
them all in one.
Paul (17:32):
So we've got one non-provisional filed right now
and we got rid of all theprovisionals independent
provisionals you do theprovisionals first while you're
designing it, just cover yourass, exactly, exactly, yeah,
yeah, that's you have to do.
I mean, then you have to worryabout it and it's like we're
just first in line, right, sotechnically, yeah no really
(17:53):
weird.
Like I want my patents right now.
Like I find I have a design andutility and utility technically
you would think like utility isthe hardest one to get right.
Like it really is.
It's so strong and we filed thedesign a year before the
utility and the utility'salready been granted.
Really, yeah, dude, I'm likeseriously, thanks, I don't care,
(18:17):
I'd rather have the utility.
I mean, I'm still going to getit, but still it's like why
would it take so many sons?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That's nuts, I took it into a quick.
Paul (18:24):
I was like holy crap, that's really fast.
Kris (18:27):
It's like reverse yeah.
Paul (18:30):
Right In case you don't know like the difference between
design utility is just designsthe way it looks and utilities
ways functions right.
And then utilities way morestronger in my opinion than
design, because designs the wayit looks right.
You change it a little bit Nowyou're not the design, but you
still want to do it and it'susually a bit cheaper.
Kris (18:48):
I mean, then do it, yeah, yeah, and going both is is
expensive, but you did the rightthing.
That was smart law school doesf to you.
Paul (18:58):
Oh, that's right.
So then you're able to be likeno no, no, yes, so okay.
So like, let's talk about thebird.
So then, when did the birdlaunch?
Kris (19:10):
so we've been selling product for about 16 months now.
We uh, we went to the our firstpga show last year and we had
product like samples I think atthe time.
There's the bird um light ofthe feather um like your logo.
(19:32):
Your logo is sick thank you, Idesigned that you got your
lightning bolt for it too yeah,oh, and it's like magnetic too,
right.
Paul (19:41):
So like you just think, like that would also kind of
play off that that's smart.
There you go.
Yeah, you're the magnet guy.
Kris (19:47):
No, you're the magnet guy.
You, you've got the cool magnetproduct, but both of us do.
Actually, I have magnets inalmost everything.
I make my belt that you see,there has a magnet on the buckle
, yeah, and it holds your ballmarker, and that it has what I
call t and well, sheaths.
So I have t sheaths and pivottool sheaths and that you can
(20:12):
see the braided belt therethat's coming out very soon and
it has my new buckle which ista-da a lightning bolt that's
cool so yeah, I incorporatelightning bolts into almost
everything I do.
They just feel cool, you know nothey do.
Paul (20:33):
That's cool.
That's probably like an old,like skateboard, like kamikaze
skateboard.
Remember that when we were likein the 80s or badass that's.
It reminds me of tony alba yeah, or alba.
I just watched the documentaryon uh tony hawk but like, oh,
that was good.
Did you watch that one?
That thing's really goodbecause prejudice, like
everybody you know, was in itand the history of skateboarding
(20:57):
.
I don't know.
It's cool, good documentary,and he and I are the same age.
It was like 54, 53, six, oh,really old school man, old
school.
So okay, so what?
So let's.
So this is coming out right thebraided, really Old school man,
old school.
So okay, so this is coming outright, the braided belt.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah, right now.
Paul (21:18):
And then there's a T-sheath right, as you call that
, and that's for your T-sheathon the belt.
And then there's a magnet hereon the actual face of the belt
so you can put your ball marker.
Kris (21:29):
Yeah, it's underneath, so it goes through the metal and it
has, you know, it pulls ittight, holds it really securely.
Paul (21:35):
so that, if this, if this uh marker wasn't, there is the
magnet on the back side of thisor is the magnet like on the
front side of it?
Kris (21:43):
it's on the back, so the front's clean oh, that's smart.
Paul (21:47):
it looks like crap and it's like some dumb ass.
Little magnet in the front thatlooks junky yeah, it's smart,
it looks clean.
So if you didn't want to put aball marker there, it doesn't
look all weird because you havethis circle thing.
And then we're like, what'sthat Right?
Kris (22:02):
It looks more utilitarian when it comes out officially.
In a couple of weeks there'sgoing to be an embossed Sun logo
right there, so you can kind ofsee something you know when
there's no marker on it oh,that's cool.
Paul (22:15):
So that's the new ones coming out, right?
So, like, the first one thatcame out was that one.
Kris (22:23):
Yeah, that's webbing.
So, um, I liked elastic and Ikind of like the one one size
fits most, so we didn't have todo like five different sizes and
whatnot.
So it's fully adjustable.
It goes up to a size I think 48or something like that.
And, yeah, it holds two tees, adivot tool and a ball marker,
(22:46):
and all of our stuff ships withthat stuff too.
So you get a free divot toolwhen you buy a belt, free tees,
free ball marker and uh this isthe divot tool right yeah yeah,
it slides in, really fits,really snug, because I designed
it with neoprene inside, soneoprene, I'm fascinated by this
(23:08):
, this material it's.
It's both slick and sticky, soit's spongy, so it grips things,
it holds them by cushioningthem, but it's slick too, so
things move off of it, so it'sreally easy to get your gear in
and out of it and it holds it.
I've never had one personcomplain that they lost a tee or
(23:28):
something like that.
But yeah, these things areselling like hotcakes.
They're with the belt, thewebbed belt.
Yeah, that one we're looking atright now.
Yeah, that one's a new color.
The most popular ones right nowis the black one and the gray
one with the gray stripe.
They're just.
We've.
(23:49):
We've run out of stock threetimes, which you'd think I would
learn, but hopefully I have now.
Paul (23:55):
No, it's hard.
You never know because you'restill, like, relatively new, so
you don't know what people likeand you're always probably
you're I mean, you're a tinkerer, right, so like you're probably
always refining the product, sothat's what you're, you know
you're.
Kris (24:06):
So right, yeah, you get it , you're.
You're an inventor too, youknow, and it's to me that's you
probably do tees though, thatlike have your logo on it, like,
oh, they do.
Paul (24:18):
You know?
I'm saying, like those onesthat are on the top, that you
could just whatever, oh, on thetip on the top, I mean yeah,
yeah, I can sell the top.
So, like you would see, likethe bird logo on top.
So there's like four ways.
You mean there, yeah, becauseyou can, they'll print all that
on there.
I would do that because thensomething loses the t.
You'll see that there, I don'tknow, just because the top
breaks off, they might find thetop and keep the top.
Kris (24:39):
If you're, this idea is I don't know this is one of my
worst ideas a black t you hitthat thing once, you never find
it again.
But yeah, so then you know thatled to the clip.
The clip led to the divot clip.
We've got a hat, we've got allkinds of stuff.
(25:01):
We have a glove now.
That glove holds two Ts on thecuff and a marker underneath,
and I designed it.
I play softball, so I wearbatting gloves a lot and I like
the feel of batting gloves howthey are.
They have thick cuffs aroundyour wrist, so I'm like.
(25:21):
I wonder if there's a golf glovelike this, and I couldn't find
one.
So, you know, it has theneoprene that goes down on your
wrist, which which kind ofreminds you in your backswing
don't break your wrist, you know.
So it's kind of a swing aid, ifyou will, and it's made with
Italian Cabretta leather.
It's got, you know, spandexbetween the fingers, so it's
(25:42):
really comfortable and it's thebleed.
Paul (25:45):
I bought gloves once and they bled.
Kris (25:47):
dude this it's funny you say that.
I just was looking at picturesthis morning that users said to
me.
They're like, hey, bro, myhands are red.
I'm like, yeah, it'll come offin a day.
That's not good dude.
Paul (25:59):
I have me once I had to like dump that or I seriously
because like that just we fixedit like I ordered like from a
manufacturer and I had like fivecolors, dude, I had like green,
black, orange, right, and thenwe got done playing ball and,
like my friend, my buddies, Ididn't.
I started selling them and thenmy my friends were like, look
at my hands, and my hand hadgreen hands and my black hands
(26:21):
and I was like, oh, that's notgood, there's one way to resolve
it go white.
It's all right.
So I just go white.
That's why they don't yeah.
It's because the dyes, you knowand yeah especially the sweat.
Kris (26:33):
It's an easy fix, though, because all you have to do is
code it.
Paul (26:36):
You know so problem, so then did you what when, in terms
of like, is this one of yourdesigns too yep, I invented
those.
Kris (26:46):
The divot clip is the clip , but it has a divot.
It is a divot tool as well, sothat one's kind of a
three-in-one multi-two, that'sthe beer that's the pincher that
opens and closes it.
Oh nice, that's cool.
And it also holds a pencil or acylindrical, your straw,
(27:10):
whatever.
That's cool.
But yeah, these things arepretty popular too.
People like to buy the foursome.
I give bundle deals because youknow you're going out with your
buddies and you show up withlittle surprise gift for them.
So we're all about bundles.
And you know, when we launchedthe company, it was really
(27:30):
important to make our stuffaccessibleles.
And you know, when we launchedthe company, it was really
important to make our stuffaccessible.
So you know, my marketing teamis pissed that I don't sell the
belt for 65 bucks.
And they're like look, thereare belts for 120 golf belts and
they don't do anything likeyours does.
But I, I kept them all.
My stuff is super affordable.
You know, the clip is only 20bucks.
Paul (27:52):
What's the most popular is the bundles Like not popular,
but like it's a good way.
And if somebody's out therelearning how to sell stuff, you
know what I mean Would you saylike you have your singles, but
then you also should have like alike what you're doing with
bundles stuff too, where it'slike oh, group of four, right,
or something.
Kris (28:09):
Yeah it.
Oh, group of four, right, orsomething.
Yeah, it's all about averageorder value.
I mean you raise that whenyou're selling something for 20
bucks it's hard to get goodnumbers.
So you fix that, you remedy itby bundling things and then that
keeps your average order valueup and basket size bigger and
all of that good stuff.
So I try and do a lot ofbundles and what's your most
(28:33):
popular bundle right now thedivot clip foursome yeah
that one, yeah, no, the one onthe left, that one is our most
popular it's because of the clip.
Paul (28:46):
Is the same thing or is it different?
Kris (28:48):
they're different.
One has is forked in the frontand the other is rounded.
Paul (28:53):
Some people don't like the fork.
Yeah, right, see, then youlearn, right Like.
Oh, people really like thatkind.
Okay, cool, that's what peoplewant.
Kris (29:01):
Right, but the regular one is selling like mad.
They just got picked up byShields, so we're in Shields now
.
42 stores across the countryWell, specific areas, but I had
never heard of Shields becausethey don't have them in Cali.
But it is a freaking massivestore.
Paul (29:21):
Yeah, they opened up one by my house.
It's massive, oh really yeah.
Kris (29:26):
Is there a Ferris wheel in it?
Paul (29:27):
Yeah, there's a Ferris wheel in it.
Yeah, yeah, I think they allhave ferris wheels like one like
a bass pro shot, but like right, just sports you know yes.
Kris (29:37):
So they picked up six skews which we were super
excited about was that the pgashow or they just found you from
this?
It was the distributor thatfound us and just really liked
our stuff and she showed it toshields and they said yeah,
we'll take six differentproducts instead of you know
just one, which we were fullyexpecting them to pick, like one
(30:00):
or two, but six, man, we werestoked oh yeah um, we have a
good female demographic as well,because ladies often golf and
have no pockets.
They have skirts, there's nopockets, there's nowhere to put
their stuff, so they tend togravitate.
We have, you know, the pinkbundle and all kinds of other
(30:27):
kind of neutral colors andwhatnot.
So, yeah, the femaledemographic is a very important
one to us.
Paul (30:35):
So, like you have two different types of clips, right
yeah, the rounded type or theone that's a divot tool, exactly
.
Kris (30:45):
The divot tool holds two keys.
Paul (30:47):
I'm trying to find out what somebody likes, and is that
your design?
Kris (30:57):
Yeah, yeah.
And then somebody likes and andis that your design?
Yeah, yeah.
And then and I made them out ofaluminum, because aluminum is
lightweight I want all of myproducts to be invisible to the
golfer, like they can't bug youin any way.
So everything I design it, justit's meant to be somewhat
invisible.
So you know, the belt isreversible.
You can take that web belt andjust roll it around your waist
and it becomes like an everydaybelt.
Paul (31:19):
It's um yeah they're all like how many belts does a
person really need?
Right like so, if they have oneor two that they can just use
all the time, then they don't,that's all I mean yeah, for sure
especially for golf.
So what's coming out this year,then?
Kris (31:36):
the new braided belt the new braided belt and the glove
just came out.
We just started selling theclub the glove very recently.
We haven't even really promotedthem that much yet and and the
braided belt we have a ton ofpre-orders for already, which is
cool.
We're doing a little giveawayyou get a free visor if you
(31:57):
pre-order the braided belt now.
Paul (32:02):
So we've got a bunch of people have already bought from
you before, like you just kindof pre-ordered your peeps on
your that your previous buyersor are you like doing it some
other way?
Some?
Kris (32:14):
some are return customers, others, you know we're doing
meta advertising and things likethat, so people see it and they
come check us out or they go toamazon and buy it you sell all
this on amazon, or what?
Paul (32:31):
what?
Like all your products inamazon, or just certain ones,
pretty much everything.
Kris (32:38):
It's a necessary evil, and you're so right it it is it.
You got to do it, but you hatedoing it.
Paul (32:46):
Are you running ads on Amazon too, or are you just gone
?
Kris (32:50):
We're going to start.
We just started with an agencythat they specialize in Amazon.
They're obviously masochisticpeople because it's so brutal
working with Amazon, but youknow they take care of your
listings.
Has Amazon lost?
Paul (33:07):
any of your shipments yet, because they've lost some of
mine before.
And then they play games andlike, oh, we didn't, you didn't
send it.
I'm like, yeah, I didn't, dude,you're thinking you received it
, but where is it?
Oh, you gotta prove seriously.
And then they go oh, you haveto prove that you bought it to
send it to us.
I'm like, why do I have toprove that I sent you the or the
(33:27):
entire shipment to like?
So they want you to spend likehours and hours and hours and
hours and hours trying to likedeal with it?
It's like, yeah, that's that'scalled conversion in the world
of uh law.
Kris (33:40):
They've taken my product and they who knows where it went
right vaporware, but you knowwe're gonna have to do fba when
we start advertising.
Paul (33:55):
So yeah, what I would rec.
Somebody gave me a goodrecommendation.
They said the other day I wastalking to a pretty big brand
that does it on amazon too.
They said that like you can,you can run your ads like normal
on Amazon.
Or like just what they're doingis they're just running an ad
on their branded name so that,like you know, like a competitor
(34:19):
is not going to find your, thecompetitor is not going to
compete for your brand name onAmazon.
So like, if they are looking forthe bird, then it's not like
Chinese knockoff, chineseknockoff, chinese knockoff bird,
right, essentially payingprobably a dollar, right, let's
just call it to like get youback out on top.
(34:40):
But here's the one plus sideI'll tell you the Amazon is that
like if you're running ads onamazon, it will show up on
google, because amazon's runningads like crazy.
So, essentially, like you'regonna see an amazon ad for your
thing on am, on google.
So it's like it's a twofer.
You know, yeah, yeah, but itstill costs you a lot of money
because they're gonna get you onthe ad, they're gonna get you
(35:02):
an fba, they're gonna get you onthe transaction for the that
our fee is next thing, you know,on a 20 thing, you're making
two dollars.
You know they're taking 22percent right up.
I've done the math.
They take like almost over 50.
Once all said if you're runningads, 30 for what?
Right, you gotta have goodmargins yeah, you gotta have a
(35:24):
good margin, that's right.
You have a really good margins,yeah, um, so did you initially
start selling that on amazon ordid you like go there after you
launched and then you'd amazonbecause you knew, hey, it's a
really good way to get the wordout, because everybody's on
amazon, yeah yeah, it was thelatter we we launched after.
Kris (35:44):
Yes, sir, we launched the website B2C is you know?
That's where you want.
All of your business is on yourwebsite, because nobody's
eating away at your margins onthe website.
Yeah, so we prefer to drive allour traffic to the website.
But, like you said, amazon is anecessity and if you want to,
(36:06):
you know know, do you want tosell a lot of product?
Paul (36:09):
you got to be on amazon and yeah, yeah, that's what I
feel, the exact same way.
You know.
You just have to, you have to.
Yeah, I mean, it's not you'llmake less money, but you get
more, more, more you make up forit in volume yeah, or people
know who you are right.
So brand recognition for sure.
(36:30):
The new brand, so right now thebelt, the belt.
The new braided style is comingout.
Kris (36:36):
And the new glove the glove is out, but just recently
it's been out for about a month,so you can get those now.
And what's your biggest?
Paul (36:49):
seller, like what's the most popular product you guys
have right now?
Would you say the belt or thethe black belt?
Kris (36:55):
that black one, yeah, and the gray one is a close second.
Those are our two top sellingproducts, like by leaps and
bounds.
That's cool, man so clean too Ibet you don't even feel that
right?
Paul (37:12):
I bet you don't even feel it.
Kris (37:13):
They're super comfortable.
I mean they're elastic, youknow I mean this.
The second version was a littletighter, elastic, because the
first one was I wanted it to besoft and comfortable and it was
a little too loose.
So this one's a little stiffer,but it's not as stiff as a
leather belt and you knowthey're definitely not for
(37:33):
everybody.
Some people think they don'tlook good and they don't like
elastic belts, you know.
But most people love elasticbelts.
So you know I modeled themafter some of the top selling
belts in the world.
Paul (37:50):
So yeah you didn't know first, you know what's more.
Yeah, you know.
Like, for sure, mother beltsare dime a dozen right.
I mean, yeah, and how?
So like if somebody bought likethis is it's really one size
fits all right because it'selastic belt.
Kris (38:07):
So you just, you know, yeah the web belts or the
braided belts will will havedifferent, four different sizes,
but the webbed belts, theelastic ones, they're, they're
one size fits most that's socool.
Paul (38:22):
So when did you launch?
Launch then.
Kris (38:26):
It was probably 16 months ago, I want to say, and at the
first PGA show we went to lastyear 24, we were nominated in
the top five products of theyear, which was really cool.
That was not a pay-to-playprogram, we didn't have to pay
(38:50):
to get that and we, uh, we werepicked to pitch on the main
stage our product to davidledbetter and a bunch of golf
heavyweights, which was reallycool.
Kind of nerve-wracking butsuper fun.
Um, and we didn't win.
The grip caddy won and I'm gladfor them.
He's wiser, is a super cool guy, really great founder.
(39:14):
What the group caddy it's?
Uh, the grip caddy.
It basically cleans your golfgrips.
It's an all-in-one little tourof that thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, looks like awrench um, but yeah.
So they won.
We were told we were, we were aclose second um, and yeah, we,
(39:38):
we just have taken off sincethen.
You know it's been.
It was a good show.
We went this year a little morequiet for us than the first
year because you know we werethe newbies and you know people
go, buyers go to the pga show.
They're always looking for thenext thing to sell and if you
have something that's evenremotely different or outside
(40:02):
the norm, then they're attractedto you.
You know.
Paul (40:07):
No, I think it's cool product.
Kris (40:09):
Dude like when I think I was cool.
Paul (40:11):
I like inventive stuff that's cool, that I think people
should know about.
When I first saw this, I waslike, oh, this is cool.
You know like it's a lot ofwork to create something from
scratch for your own, yeah, orto make a product better or
something that never evenexisted.
You know, yeah, the whole.
(40:31):
It's a whole process, but withwhat you've done, with like your
life and all the development,it's just a natural transition
you know, yeah, totally yeah,you nailed it and it's funny
like advertising on social mediaand whatnot.
Kris (40:49):
You know, people have no idea, to your point, what goes
into this.
I mean, it's our blood, sweat,tears, it's, it's our passion.
So it's not just somethingyou're doing to make a buck,
it's something you, your soul,goes into.
You know, and there there's a,there's a human behind every
product that you buy in theworld.
(41:10):
So you know, you gotta yourbaby.
Yeah, and you know it's.
It's important to me like twothings are super important to me
that I've told my kids athousand times as they were
growing up be present, bemindful it always shows respect
(41:32):
to people and find your passionearly.
You know, I was 50 before whenI found my passion, you know, I
just, but I I'm so grateful thatI did, you know, because
finding something you'repassionate about is difficult
and when you do, it's magicalit's, just it's life-changing
you know, I totally agree withthat, seriously like yeah, when
(41:56):
it's not about, like when you'reyoung, you're feeling it's like
chasing money is like the thingright or or whatever.
Paul (42:01):
I guess yeah, right.
And it like when you get olderyou're like so what?
I don't know.
I saw that in the laws oflawyer.
Kris (42:08):
Yeah.
Paul (42:10):
So well, where can people find the bird?
Kris (42:15):
The birdcom.
It's right there on the pageand the bird is spelled with a Y
B, y, r, d and you can find iton our website.
You can find it in shields orgolf stores, green grass stores
near you.
We're obviously also on Amazonand Etsy and all those fun
(42:35):
places Awesome.
Paul (42:38):
Well, thank you so much, Chris, for being on the show
today.
You guys have to check out thebird, like it's cool, because
it's not just like anotheraccessory, it's like something
you just like I don't know.
It's like you're not aone-trick pony so you can use it
for so many different thingsand it's also apparel, so it's
like hard to say, like fit inone genre.
It's like actually, no, it'slike, and you're probably always
like I bet you have new stuffcoming out too that we don't
(43:00):
even know about.
You're probably like, oh, weshould do that, we should do
that, yeah for sure.
But thank you so much for beingon the show.
Um, you guys check outthebirdcom and I'll see you guys
in the next episode.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Thanks, paul, thank you thanks for listening to
another episode of behind thegolf brand podcast.
You're gonna beat me.
Stay connected on and off theshow by visiting
golfersauthoritycom.
Don't forget to like, subscribeand leave a comment.
Golf is always more fun whenyou win.
Stay out of the beach and seeyou on the green.
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