00:08.59 ModGolfPodcast Welcome to the Mod Golf Podcast, where we speak with the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the disruptors, and the influencers who are shaping the future of golf. My name is Colin Weston. I am your host and today I have a guest, someone I've tried to have get on for the last six months. We've been back and forth, had a couple of mis-starts, a little thing in Florida called a hurricane that prevented us from having this this conversation a couple months ago. 00:35.98 ModGolfPodcast But here we are today! I gotta to admit this episode is a bit selfish because I absolutely love, love, love this brand. I've loved them for decades. In fact, I am currently wearing one of my jackets, like a motorcycle jacket from this brand that I just feel good and I am going to wear it for the whole time here, even though you can't see it, you just gotta believe it that I look great in this. And the brand is J.Lindeberg and today joining me is Scott Davis, who is the CEO of J.Lindeberg North America. 01:01.39 ModGolfPodcast And yeah, we're just gonna talk about apparel, the future, the history of the company. I just love what they do. I cannot get enough of them. So like I said, this is kind of selfish of me today, but you know what? 01:13.24 ModGolfPodcast It's my podcast. I don't care. I can do that! So here we go. So Scott... 01:17.40 Scott Davis Ha ha ha. 01:18.55 ModGolfPodcast Welcome to the Mod Golf Podcast. Thanks for joining us today! 01:21.44 Scott Davis Thanks, Colin. And it's always good to be selfish. It's important that you take care of yourself. And I got to tell you, you look super sexy in that jacket. And I tell you, that is a great piece from a lot of years ago. And as you mentioned, we've been around the golf space for a long time. 01:37.19 Scott Davis We actually started in 1996. That was when we came and entered the North American market. Yohan's vision was really to create his runway on the fairway. 01:49.56 Scott Davis We wanted to be able to really sophisticatedly disrupt the marketplace. 01:50.49 ModGolfPodcast Love that. 01:55.90 Scott Davis Both from a fabrication and fit perspective, but also from a functionality standpoint. And so that over time, that's what we've tried to really do. Johan got this inspiration from strapping his golf clubs on his back on a motorcycle and driving all over Europe. 02:11.73 Scott Davis He saw these guys in 1993 wearing his big baggy clothing and everybody wearing khaki pants and shirts that were two sizes too large or what it looked like was two sizes too large. 02:21.29 ModGolfPodcast Right. 02:28.37 Scott Davis So that truly was the beginning of "How do we build something that that really sets itself apart" and of course we remember when Jesper came on the scene wearing his pink polyester pants at Augusta. 02:43.18 ModGolfPodcast Yep. 02:43.89 Scott Davis We remember when Camilla Vegas was doing a spider and and strapped out over the the green and now. We have ah Victor Hovland and all the things that he brings along with it. So we've had a lot of years in the golf business, especially in North America. And we're excited about where things are going. So glad to be on and looking forward to to nailing down a lot of cool topics today. And thank you for your avid support of the brand. We certainly appreciate it! 03:11.67 ModGolfPodcast I am a fan. I definitely am. And as I said, I don't have any of your golf clothes right now because I just wear through them because I just love them. Not that your clothes wear out. Don't get me wrong. I'm not not saying that, but if I could sleep in them I would, which would lead my wife to think that I've got more issues than I already have, but I absolutely love J.Lindeberg. 03:30.30 ModGolfPodcast I love the brand. I actually just love that fitting too. I've always gravitated towards more of a European cut with with clothing, whether it's streetwear or even on the golf course. For me, it's it's just such a great fit. It's not like I'm 35 years old anymore. but I try to keep myself in pretty good shape. And I still do your clothes justice. I don't think I'm deluding myself here, that the clothes still work for me. And I want to talk to you about that. Let's start start there. I'm looking at the J.Lindeberg website right now, you have a lot of young 04:03.66 ModGolfPodcast very attractive models there that are modelling the brand, but it's not necessarily, in my mind, that you're appealing to a younger audience. But why don't you talk to me about that? Let's see where you are now. 04:14.77 ModGolfPodcast Just as far as who do you consider to be your ultimate person on the golf course, men and women who are wearing your clothes? 04:22.79 Scott Davis Yeah, thanks for that. I think for us, it's the modern traveler. It's the city dweller. It's the person who is in touch with their style to a certain extent. It's the 25 to 45, 50 year old is our key segment. And yes, our product fits a little bit closer to the body than probably some of the other American brands that do great stuff than what we do. We're known for having our fit. That's part of who we are as a brand. We feel like we really set into a lane that nobody else is in really. A lot of the brands are pivoting to that now as you see tour fits and sport fit and all the type of different fits that some of the bigger brands that have have have made product that was a little bit larger for a long time are doing now. So that's something that we started with way back and in 1996 and I think the entrance into and everything that we did around what happened with COVID and driving ounger people into the game of golf has just kind of 05:22.74 Scott Davis immediately put extra consumers looking at our brand and what we're doing. And we've seen some tremendous incremental growth year over year based upon that. And so from a fit standpoint, we always want to be sophisticated first and then a little disruptive second. So we still want the person, the player going out, whether they're on the golf course or off the golf course 05:44.42 Scott Davis to feel comfortable but also feel a little sexy when they put their stuff on, both men and women. That's really important for us. That's part of it. I think our consumer has a pretty good idea, but they like to push themselves a little bit. 05:57.19 Scott Davis They don't want to really be noticed at front of the line. They want to be subtly noticed for what they're wearing. And I think that's what JL does. 06:04.12 ModGolfPodcast Great. 06:06.06 Scott Davis That's what we do. J.Lindeberg does so well. we you know the fabrics, the fit, and how we style our product from a Scandinavian perspective just really gravitates toward that consumer in a really, really authentic way, which is important. 06:20.84 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. So you did touch on with Johan, the formation of the company, and then you have people bringing sexy back with Jesper and all the things that he did in the early 2000s. So I want to hear about the evolution of the company over the years. So what are some of the key turning points in your mind, the milestones in the J.Lindeberg journey to become a global player in fashion and particularly in the golf space? 06:45.30 Scott Davis I think for us, it was from a North American perspective, really getting back to the basics. It was really understanding when I took over seven and a half eight years ago, that we had lost our way a little bit, to be honest. 06:59.34 ModGolfPodcast Hmm 06:59.46 Scott Davis We were playing in color and we were playing in the easy layup type of way as it relates to the consumer. And we needed to get back to making product that really spoke to the consumer from a North American perspective but still hung on to who we were as a brand and so we've made a real effort to try to do that over the last seven and a half years and have the right brand elevators there that really get out in front of the consumer in a way that really makes a difference for us whether it's sponsoring the Olympics and having Scotty Scheffler walking down the fairway in Paris wearing our product or whether it's having Victor Hovland. It's authentic 07:37.72 Scott Davis messaging within the space and then backing that up with great product. I tell my people all the time, there's perfect and then there's everything else. And so, we really strive for perfection every day in everything that we do. We don't always get there, but I think that journey drives us to a place collectively as a team that has made the biggest difference for us over the last seven and a half years. 08:01.05 ModGolfPodcast Nice. So it sounds like you're not complacent at all. Sounds like you said avoiding an easy layup. You use that term that you got into a groove and you needed to shake things up and needed to disrupt yourself there. So I'd like to hear more about that as far as the culture of innovation and from the top down and how that is pushed and how that is encouraged, that whole idea of experimentation and that it's okay to fail sometimes and try things that may not work out. So talk about that culture of innovation that exists within the company. 08:33.23 Scott Davis You can't ever be as scared to fail. I think you always have to, from an innovation perspective, it's really important. I'm a golf professional myself, so the product has to perform on the golf course, first and foremost, and I think that whether it's using 37 and a half fabric that we use now and we can talk a little bit about that or it's using recycled polyester which we'll talk about a little bit later or whether it's color blocking in a way that makes somebody look a little thinner than they might be because of where we put the product where we put the color blocking. 09:08.16 Scott Davis Whether it's making sure that the arm holes are set in the perfect way so that when the sleeve drapes across the arm, it fits just exactly like someone would want. All those little details from an innovation perspective, like changing the placket of a shirt. 09:22.33 Scott Davis There's only so many things you can do to a shirt, right? It's a jersey. 09:24.38 ModGolfPodcast Right. 09:25.21 Scott Davis And we all know that 50, 60% of the business forever will always be jerseys so how do you create that differentiation within your brand and then how do you authentically layer in bottoms, mid layers, hybrids, things that and we took a lot of our inspiration from skiing so a lot of the things we do has a little bit of a tilt towards Alpine which i think is a good thing. 09:31.20 ModGolfPodcast Right. 09:52.15 Scott Davis Because when somebody puts our stuff on in mid layers and some of our stuff on them in outerwear, it has such a crossover opportunity versus just feeling like a quarter zip that you can get from a lot of great brands all over the world. 10:04.75 Scott Davis Our stuff has a little bit different flavor and flair to it. 10:08.84 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. So to expand on that here, Scott so yeah, at J.Lindeberg, you're really known for high performance, stylish golf apparel. So how do you balance that aesthetics with functionality when designing modern golf apparel, expanding on what you you said there? 10:23.91 ModGolfPodcast The term in a lot of materials now is is technical performance. So yeah, talk about that as far as between the kind of the aesthetic and the performance, especially in golf and also in tennis, because we're also quite active in that space too. 10:41.47 Scott Davis There's a lot of testing that goes into that. And to your to our point earlier, there is a lot of failure. We're trying new fabric right now that that we haven't even brought to market yet, that actually starts out in one condition. And as we weave it, it changes condition during the weave. 11:05.54 Scott Davis which is an amazing thing, and I'm looking forward to bringing it out. I can't say the name of it, but it's those are the kind of things that we're looking for. So like it's a fabric that has a certain hand, and then when it goes into to the weave process, the hand changes and becomes more supple and soft, and the and the fibers become tighter, and yet you maintain the four-way stretch that you need. Thusly, you get a lighter weight, softer hand, 11:30.32 Scott Davis more stretch and that to me has the hanger appeal that you need when you're sitting in a retail space and you're up against all this other competition at some given juncture it's going to be about how does it fit, how does it perform and do I feel great when I slip it on. We know that there's a lot of people out there that want to put product on that fits them a little closer to the body more from a athleisure or workout perspective than you know putting something on that fits a different way doesn't make that doesn't mean that's wrong. That's all good. It's just everybody's perception is their own truth and so we're looking for those folks that want to have a product that fits them a little closer that performs. 12:09.01 Scott Davis At the absolute top of the range they know that they can count on just like what you said. You do wear it to bed at night if you could I want 19 million people wearing J.Lindeberg jerseys to bed every night! Let's get a picture of that if we possibly can! That'd be great Colin. 12:22.16 ModGolfPodcast There we go. Well, perhaps I'll show up in bed with my J.Lindeberg biker jacket on tonight. I'll see how that that goes over. Maybe not that well, but I'll give it a shot though. 12:33.99 Scott Davis I love it. We did a fabric called 37.5, which is a self-cooling kind of natural thermostat control jersey. It is actually from a volcano. 12:43.18 ModGolfPodcast Okay. 12:49.59 Scott Davis Volcanic ash is weaved into the fiber and that volcanic ash once it reacts to the fiber actually has a cooling or warming condition to it for the person that puts it on. It's called 37.5 and we found it to be amazing. We're doing something for Fall 2025 called Solar Core that's from NASA. It's the lightest weight insulation in the world. 13:11.61 Scott Davis So those are the kinds of things that we want to be out front on and all the while, as long as it's performing, that's great, but you still wanna feel sexy when you put it on. You don't wanna feel like you're putting something on that you're slapping it on to stay warm or it's hot and you feel like the the sweat is being wicked off in a proper way. Polyester products, we can have a long conversation about where the perspiration really goes. And I think that's something that we could we can talk about. 13:40.32 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. So hey, I'm gonna make this a little bit interactive here, about an hour before you and I jumped on this recording, I did put it out on LinkedIn, so we've got quite a big ModGolf community there. And I said, h"ey, I'm meeting with Scott, do you have any questions for him?" 13:55.58 ModGolfPodcast I'll i'll give you a shout out and I'll ask your questions. I'm going to do that right now and it seems to be heavily trending here. People want to know about sustainable materials in golf fashion, a green mindset. 14:06.60 ModGolfPodcast You already touched on that a little bit and you kind of teased that out in an earlier comment you made a couple of minutes ago. So why don't we dig into that? 14:12.02 Scott Davis Yeah. 14:12.60 ModGolfPodcast I've got Mark LeClear and also Renee Kajigal, if I get their names correct here, both on LinkedIn, asking what is your take on sustainable materials in golf fashion and what are you are doing as a company to really push that forward. So as we know, the textile industry for decades and decades has not been the best player in that sustainability space. So yeah, Renee and Mark want to hear your take on sustainable materials and also, the JL green mindset that you're embracing and moving forward with. 14:46.07 Scott Davis Oh, great. Renee, and and thank you guys so much for your question. I will tell you this. I think to your comment, Colin, for the longest time, the textile business has been talking the talk, but I don't know necessarily that they are walking the walk, right? 15:02.70 ModGolfPodcast right 15:03.45 Scott Davis All of us have to be honest that it's something that has to happen. Now, that being said, it's like rolling the golf ball back. It ain't easy. 15:14.39 Scott Davis right and nothing worthwhile ever is. 15:14.71 ModGolfPodcast right 15:17.11 Scott Davis And so for us, we're taking a very slow measured approach to trying to do the right things 360 degrees. and if we can't do that, then we don't do it. 15:27.63 Scott Davis Let's say we're really focused on recycled polyester. So taking polyester and recycling it, using it again and again and again and again and not producing new polyester. 15:31.96 ModGolfPodcast right. 15:40.60 Scott Davis That's the number one initiative for us, to really ensure that we're we're doing that. 15:40.92 ModGolfPodcast Right. 15:45.68 Scott Davis Number two is that at the end of the day, it's a petroleum product. So we know with that comes certain things that are unavoidable. 15:57.43 Scott Davis And if we say anything other than that, then we're not really being genuine with what we're trying to do. A lot of what we're seeing, a lot of the companies that are coming out now, and there's so many more companies in the golf apparel space, 16:12.59 Scott Davis you're seeing more things that have a little bit more natural fiber in it than maybe it did two or three four years ago, so we're seeing more natural fiber mixes which creates less production on the on the artificial fiber side of things. It's much cleaner to produce a cotton shirt then is to produce a hundred percent polyester shirt. 16:33.42 Scott Davis We are starting to see a move towards that direction. Also, in the washings, how we handle the water, what we do with our manufacturers in holding them to certain standards to ensure that they are being as responsible as they possibly can with how we produce it, is what we're trying to do. And I know that Sweden is working really hard with a number of different companies. 16:59.67 Scott Davis And to run off the top of my head, I can't think of them, but we're aligning with the right green companies to help us. I have to say, we don't know everything in this space. 17:06.58 ModGolfPodcast Nice. 17:09.70 Scott Davis I think it's important that as a leader, you have to be able to say, "hey, this is what I'm good at. Let me find somebody else that's really good at this and partner with them" and have them help us say, "okay, how do we move forward to this authentically?" and say hey, 17:23.64 Scott Davis We're good here, and this is what we're trying to do with recycled polyester, and we promote that. We'll tell you what shirts are recycled polyester. We're still doing it this way with this, and we're still doing it this way with this, but we're working on it. We're trying to figure out the the right solutions, and we are holding our manufacturers accountable to how they do things to a certain extent as far as we can. That's what at this given time, that's the trend. People are saying it. 17:48.15 Scott Davis I'm not necessarily sure that a lot of it's happening, in the way that people would want it to happen. I think it's something that we need a collective effort on and we need to make sure that listen, at the end other of the day, the consumer is going to pay the number. 18:04.54 Scott Davis So the consumer, for an eco-friendly shirt, it's like the conversation that we have all the time about making product in America. It's the same thing. It's going to cost more to make it in America. It costs more to make it that way. It's just the reality of where we are. And anybody that doesn't say that's disingenuous, it's just the way it is. 18:24.08 Scott Davis So the consumer is going to pay for that if we are that way. 18:24.09 ModGolfPodcast Great. 18:26.96 Scott Davis And so what we're trying to do is finding solutions to maintain where we are from what the consumer expects and still try to be as green friendly as we possibly can, but being honest with you that's where we are. 18:40.49 Scott Davis And we are just 18:46.22 Scott Davis not able to go down that street in a real effective way. So that's what we're doing. But for us, it's really about leaning on more natural fibers and also recycled polyester right now. 18:57.87 ModGolfPodcast Got it. Got it. My background is not in golf. It's actually in architecture and sustainable building design. And so I've done a lot of work recently in that space, as far as 19:08.74 ModGolfPodcast decarbonization and getting to net zero. It's not necessarily going from where it is now to zero, because that's impossible. Like I said, that low-hanging fruit, those those small steps that you can do that are easier and more cost-effective to implement, whether it's changing your supply chain around a little bit, using a little bit less water, as you talked about, reducing that carbon footprint. So you as a business, it sounds like with some of your suppliers, are you tracking as far as bouncing around the globe, getting all the pieces put together for a final product. 19:39.46 ModGolfPodcast Are you becoming more cognizant of that and working to try to reduce even the the overall transportation distance that a piece travels from creating or from beginning to on my back and zipped up right now with the the piece I'm wearing? 19:51.46 Scott Davis Yeah. 19:58.98 Scott Davis Yeah, that's 100% right. One of the things I forgot to mention is we're making a lot less samples. So we make a lot less samples than we used to. 20:05.08 ModGolfPodcast Right, okay. 20:08.10 Scott Davis I think that's that's worldwide with the way 3D is now, right? Then 3D is continuing to get better and along with AI, it will continue to get better so that we can create something on a screen that the consumer can see. They may not be able to touch it. We may have a swatch that they can touch to feel, but we don't need to create all these samples. And you think about all these companies with all these account executives going all ah over the place with all these samples. So that's another thing. We're trying to create a lot less samples to to ensure that we're being as effective ah as we can. And yes, 20:41.44 Scott Davis we are doing the very best that we can going around and trying to ensure that all of our partners, holding them to a very high standard. Obviously, our company home base in Stockholm, that's a big push for us. You'll see a lot more of that coming out from us in 2025. It's a CapEx issue, right? It can it ends up being this. 21:03.35 Scott Davis We have to figure out a way as a company, but I'll ask you this question. How much more is it to build a carbon-free building than it is a building that isn't 100% carbon? How much more expensive is it to build a carbon-neutral building than it is a building that is just a standard building? 21:19.74 ModGolfPodcast There's a bit of a range, but I would say 25%. And it does come back, I think, to your your point. 21:23.56 Scott Davis yeah 21:25.19 ModGolfPodcast And I've seen this, whether it's a high rise condominium, are people incentivized to pay that extra for Building A that's over here and Building B that's over there that actually has the sustainable piece to it? 21:32.89 Scott Davis There you go. 21:39.75 ModGolfPodcast Is that important for them and in their buying and decision making? So I want to flip that back over to you now. 21:45.11 Scott Davis Yeah, I love it. 21:45.33 ModGolfPodcast So I think that in architecture and buying houses or condominiums, whether it's for investment or that's your place of residence. 21:56.74 ModGolfPodcast There's some people that do say, yes, that's important. I'm willing to pay that premium for that. But a lot of people are, no, they're not because they don't have that ability. So I guess for you, as compared to people making the decision for yourself, what have you seen in the industry of apparel and even specifically with J.Lindeberg, are you finding your consumers when you survey them that the sustainability piece is important for them or is that not is really helping to drive things? 22:22.02 Scott Davis Well, globally, yes. North America, you know the answer to that. 22:26.99 ModGolfPodcast yeah I do. 22:28.36 Scott Davis Yeah. So, what I would say is one of the things that comes to mind, let's just say for numbers sake, right? 22:33.55 ModGolfPodcast I do. 22:35.77 Scott Davis We, produce millions and millions of dollars of product that comes across and lands in the United States. We pay a certain duty for that product. What if we met a certain mark on sustainability, that duty changes. 22:50.67 ModGolfPodcast Right. 22:50.90 Scott Davis There's an idea, right? 22:52.03 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. 22:52.38 Scott Davis Instead of paying X duty, you pay Y duty, right? Because you're able to tag that and say that those products, we have done X, Y, and Z to ensure that they're a sustainable product as we can possibly produce. 23:06.23 Scott Davis Therefore, the duty goes from this to this. That could have a huge impact on companies' willingness to go out on a cap expenditure and say, okay, we gotta put these things and we gotta do this, we gotta do that to ensure that, these particular manufacturers are doing those things that we really think are our next level when it comes to sustainability, right? So there it is always 23:34.72 Scott Davis gonna be about the money. I wish it wasn't, but it always will, right, Colin? 23:39.86 ModGolfPodcast Yes. 23:41.24 Scott Davis That's the thing that I i think as we go forward and do these things and people take over for me in a few years and they move on, I think that's that would be great to see that. 23:54.71 ModGolfPodcast Yeah, ultimately you are a for-profit business here. It's like you're not a philanthropic endeavor here. So there's only so much that you can do. 24:03.28 ModGolfPodcast But ultimately it does come from the bottom that the consumer will drive and dictate. 24:03.35 Scott Davis Yeah. 24:08.85 ModGolfPodcast And if they answer by leaving all of your product on the hangers in the stores, then you realize there's an issue and you need to change that. 24:16.07 Scott Davis Exactly right, exactly right. And that's the thing for me it's that I always want to be as honest with the consumer as I can. We're doing a lot in that realm, but we're learning how to do more. 24:28.32 Scott Davis I think there's a learning process there. 24:28.48 ModGolfPodcast Right. 24:30.41 Scott Davis And so we are active in educating and being involved with the right people to ensure that moving forward, we can do even more. Right. So it's very important. 24:40.56 ModGolfPodcast Nice, nice. Okay, I got to flip it around here for the little bit of time we have left here, Scott. So I want to ask about your personal connection to golf. So you mentioned earlier, as far as yourself being a golf professional, I didn't know that. So yeah, share a bit about how golf has influenced your life personally and professionally and how it informs the work that you do every day with J.Lindeberg. 25:01.21 Scott Davis Yeah, it is everything to me, right? I grew up an army brat. My father dropped me off at the golf course when I was six or seven years old. And that's all I knew. That's all I've ever done. And it's given me everything. 25:18.86 Scott Davis Not to mention, it gives you the map that you need for life. I mean, golf is about as close to life as you possibly can get as far as I'm concerned. And so I can't begin to tell you, Colin, how important it is for me at 61 years old to look down the road and say, how many more people can I get into the game? 25:39.08 Scott Davis How many more people can I get to fall in love with the game? How much of a difference can I make through the game that I love so much that's given me so much? That's what drives me every day. Whether it's apparel, whether it's hitting balls on the driving range and somebody walking up and saying, "hey, you're a golf pro, aren't you?" And I'm like, yeah! 25:56.42 Scott Davis We talk a little bit and I take the time with that person, right? And those are the things that fuel me. For me, golf is the absolute backbone of everything that I've try to do in my life. Whether it was playing competitively or 26:15.84 Scott Davis getting involved in apparel, which my friends would tell you that I was the worst golf teacher of all time. So I wasn't a very good teacher because I was a really a high level player and I didn't really have a lot of patience for that and didn't and I struggled there. So I needed to move out of the teaching segment. So I got into apparel and it's been a blessing. I really enjoy it. It keeps me around the game. It allows me to continue to maintain my PGA status, which I've had since 1987 and I was just at the PGM championships in Southern Pines where the best players from every professional golf management program was playing in a championship. Actually my son was there, he was in it as well and I was able to address the crew and and talk to those young men and women that are going to be the futures of our game and for me that's it. 27:07.55 Scott Davis That is everything to me. So yeah, golf's played a major role in in my life to be sure. 27:14.35 ModGolfPodcast Nice. Nice. So your son's a golfer. I'm assuming that looking at the age of you, I'm assuming your son's probably up probably early twenties or so? 27:21.07 Scott Davis Yeah. He's a sophomore in college. I got a little bit of a late start, so he's a sophomore in college and it's been great. I asked him, I said, "are you sure you want to be a golf professional?" And he's like, yeah, dad, that's what I want to do. So, it's been great. Really good. 27:36.83 ModGolfPodcast Nice. Well, I'm thinking that with him, do you use him as one of your customer validators? Do you use him as a persona? Do you actually bounce stuff off of him? Because it seems like he would, him and his friends would be your target market. Yeah? 27:51.49 Scott Davis 100% I do, and I bounce it off my 23-year-old daughter, I bounce it off my wife, I bounce it off my friends, I bounce it off, anybody let me bounce it off of them, because I'll tell you, you can't get enough information. 28:03.60 Scott Davis Being an arbiter of a brand, it's all about the data and the information, and then I'm looking around three corners to see, okay, how do we put this brand in the right place four seasons from now? 28:15.24 ModGolfPodcast Right. 28:15.34 Scott Davis And so, yeah I try to ask decently intelligent questions and then just shut up and let people answer it, right? Because really that's my job. If you've ever seen the book "The CEO is the laziest guy in the room", that's a hundred percent Scott Davis. All right. So I try to find really smart people, put them all around me and then ask a few questions and get out of the way. I think that that's the real magic behind trying to find the right lane, find the right spot for the brand that you're working for. 28:51.57 ModGolfPodcast Well, you've definitely nailed one of the hallmarks of a good leader, not just a boss, but a good leader, yes, is surround yourself with smart people, empower them, and give them the opportunity, and then step back, and don't micromanage that. 29:09.53 ModGolfPodcast So I wanted to ask you a couple more questions here. What I wanted to ask you is I see on, well, I've got it somewhere on my jacket here, I see it you've got it on my collar here. 29:19.62 ModGolfPodcast the actual logo that you have with J.Lindeberg. 29:22.78 ModGolfPodcast So I want to hear the story, because sometimes you use a mega graphic across the back, all the way from shoulder to shoulder. So tell me about the origin story of the brand logo. 29:31.44 Scott Davis Yeah. 29:35.54 Scott Davis Yeah, the bridge, the bridge. It is the bridge between sport and fashion and it is a J. 29:40.25 ModGolfPodcast Ah, yep. 29:41.10 Scott Davis It is a J and an L. if you look at it really closely. So it's a J and an L connected. It's the bridge that we want to take our consumer on from sport to fashion. And we're actually going through a rebranding that will be announced later next year. It's going to still be the same bridge, but just a little sharper line on it, just a little different, but it's going to be great. But the bridge is the cornerstone of our brand for sure. 30:12.10 ModGolfPodcast You can't get too far away from that because it's iconic. It's one of those things. 30:15.00 Scott Davis No, no, it's yeah it's not going to change. 30:16.14 ModGolfPodcast It's it's so recognizable, which is amazing because so so many brands want that. 30:18.01 Scott Davis Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 30:22.82 ModGolfPodcast I can see that's kind of the pinnacle or the nirvana that you have, is something so instantly recognizable with that. I'm sure that's something that you've had the good fortune of. I'm sure that's by design and also with the marketing that you do. 30:35.88 ModGolfPodcast It's not by coincidence. 30:36.20 Scott Davis Right. 30:37.08 ModGolfPodcast I'm sure there's a lot of hard work put in there, but yeah, that logo, that bridge. I didn't know that story. So thanks for sharing that. You know immediately that's J.Lindeberg immediately. 30:45.55 Scott Davis You do, you do, you do. 30:47.30 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. I'm sure you've got a lot of other brands that are very jealous that you actually have that and they don't. 30:51.05 Scott Davis Well, I think a lot of brands do it really well, actually, but we do it as well. 30:53.59 ModGolfPodcast Yeah. 30:55.62 Scott Davis Then it gets down to placement too. There's a lot of brands out there doing a great job of putting the brand in the same place, in the same way on every piece. And I think there are some, that's a very important piece of of the puzzle. 31:09.96 Scott Davis So we we continue to try to stretch that universe a little bit there. So yeah, we're we're excited. It's a great time for J.Lindeberg. We're very excited about where the future is going, what the business arc looks like, and what we're going to be doing moving forward with a lot of our lifestyle product, because I want more people wearing jackets like that. We have a stronghold on the golf side of things, but I want more of those jackets out in the the other communities, and we're working hard to make that happen over the next few years. 31:46.89 ModGolfPodcast There we go. You're talking about sustainable design. This, this bad boy I'm wearing is almost 20 years old and it still looks great. And in the fact the quality of your products too, this piece looks like I just bought it yesterday and I wear this quite a bit. 32:00.48 Scott Davis Thank you so much. 32:02.58 ModGolfPodcast Like, and that's, that's amazing. So there, that sustainability piece, it's not a piece of fast fashion at all, the fact it's still held up so nicely. I get compliments on this all the time. I don't know if I mentioned earlier, my 23 year old daughter steals it to go out with her friends to go for the evening and go to parties with. So there you go. that's how cool it is. But I'm sure that over the years though, not everything has worked because in design, when you're pushing the envelope, things you think will really hit and they test and it's like, "oh, maybe that hasn't worked." So I like to hear some comments of a fun story if you're willing to share or something that maybe didn't work that that well and how that ties into navigating the cultural differences in fashion 32:47.86 ModGolfPodcast between Europe and Sweden, where you're based in Scandinavia and the North American market and how do you approach global marketing around that when it seems like the European market and the North American market to me are kind of two different animals. 33:00.79 Scott Davis Yeah, it's a tough one, too. That's a tough one, Colin, to be sure. I think from a failure perspective, the one thing that comes to mind is when I had this fancy idea when I first started. "Well, let's let's do and let's do a different fit!" 33:18.18 Scott Davis Why don't we just do a different fit, right? 33:21.08 ModGolfPodcast Right. 33:21.12 Scott Davis Well, that didn't that didn't go well. And we'll just leave it there. I had this bright idea that there was a lot of CEOs that wanted to wear my product that were 48 to 55 years old. 33:33.32 Scott Davis And I just needed to make the product a little larger. I just quietly tried that in a very small way. Nobody even really knew about it, and it failed in a very small, quiet way, which was really important. 33:40.93 ModGolfPodcast Right. 33:44.48 Scott Davis So it was not a big a big venture, but by the same token, it definitely I'm glad I tried it in that type of way versus you know going out globally with it from a North American perspective. 33:56.77 Scott Davis So yeah, I did that. And I think what's important is when you do stuff like that, you have to you have to learn from it. And I got a great lesson there. I was like, this is who we are. There's nobody you you know I wear an extra large in our product. I'm six foot one, about 215 pounds. I wear an extra large. I'm 61 years old. I'm not out of shape, but I sure as heck ain't in shape either. Everyone can wear our product, you just have to find the right size right and I think that's part of it is one of the things that we see. What i'm so excited about Colin is our women's business. Our women's business is on fire. Why do you suppose that is? Because it fits 34:40.71 Scott Davis a zero to smaller lady really, really well. And she buys everything because she can't find a thing that makes her feel sexy to play on the golf course. We feel like that's been our real point of differentiation on the women's side. So we're really excited about that. So yeah, that's basically what I would tell you there. 35:00.85 ModGolfPodcast Okay, have you seen over the last five years or post COVID, has there been and let's just stick to golf, not all what you do as far as leisure and streetwear and and tennis and other sports, but just in the golf apparel side, the percentage of sales between men and women over the last five or 10 years? 35:19.99 ModGolfPodcast It sounds like it's trending, that more of your sales are towards women. Where, is that? I'm sure it's not at 50-50 yet, but if is it, and is it doubled as a tripled as far as the the sales volume for women. 35:30.60 Scott Davis So in North America, it's about 60, 40, 60 men, 40 women. 35:36.76 ModGolfPodcast Wow. 35:37.14 Scott Davis So it's a big number. 35:37.45 ModGolfPodcast That's amazing. 35:38.89 Scott Davis It's a big number. Yeah. and And it's a powerful thing because the woman is the shopper. She makes the difference. 35:45.36 ModGolfPodcast Yes. 35:46.90 Scott Davis And so if we can make great product that the lady is coming in for, she's not only going to buy what she loves, she'll pick up a couple of things for the fella too and that's an important that's an important part of what we're doing so we've seen a huge uptick in golf in women's and that's going to continue. I think that's where you can really make some inroads, in men's golf the younger player the Gen Z player, the players that are entering the marketplace now. We're seeing all these brands pivot to them. Let's see how long they stay there with that, right? Let's see how long that lasts. It's going to be interesting to see, right? How long will that piece of the fashion side of golf kind of linger in that area or will it kind of move back to more sophisticated, yeah who knows? We don't know. That's the part of the fun of it, right? 36:41.80 ModGolfPodcast Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you mentioned that you just turned 61. You were an extra large. I just turned 60 here. I'm six foot one, 190 pounds. I'm pretty good shape. I stay active. I know you got a lot of young models on your website. 36:54.68 ModGolfPodcast I'm thinking perhaps for your summer or fall 2025, I think maybe if you decide to go for an older demographic that you and I should be on the runway, we should be models. I'll tell you what, if you want me as a model, I work for clothes! 37:08.25 ModGolfPodcast That's all I'm saying. 37:08.57 Scott Davis You for sure, you are in, that's easy, that's easy. 37:11.77 Scott Davis Not me, not me, but you, you're in, no problem. 37:15.69 ModGolfPodcast There we go, there we go. Hey, so as we finish up here, the future. So what's next for J.Lindeberg? What can you share with us? Any exciting new projects projects or product launches on the horizon that you can share with us? Or what's coming up for spring 2025 and fall 2025? 37:33.25 Scott Davis So for spring 2025, it's going to be about what I talked to you about with 37 and a half, as far as product launches and the things that we're doing there. For fall 25, it's going to be Solar Core. Also talking a good bit about what we're doing in ski and the tennis / pickleball side of things 37:53.92 Scott Davis is getting really hot so and that's indoor all year long that we're selling this tennis in the pickle so we're really excited about that Long term where I have my eyes set is 2028 Los Angeles and also getting a couple of flagship stores opened up between now and 2028 2029 37:55.36 ModGolfPodcast Right. 38:13.62 Scott Davis So I was the guy who closed everything down. So I was the guy that came in and and we we cleaned all that up. And so we're looking hopefully to to get a couple of flagships going and then have a huge presence in Los Angeles when when when the Olympics come rolling around in 2028. So lots of work to do there. 38:37.00 ModGolfPodcast Nice. So, so to finish up here, so what is your connectivity with your apparel in the Olympics? 38:43.33 Scott Davis So we will have the same thing we had for Paris. All of the United States teams, both in men's and women's, will wear nothing but J.Lindeberg apparel. Our brand will be on the golf bags. 38:55.10 Scott Davis Our brand will be everywhere during the Olympics for the US s golf team, both men's and women's, for the Los Angeles games. 39:02.07 ModGolfPodcast Amazing. 39:02.42 Scott Davis At Riviera. Yeah, it's great. 39:04.56 ModGolfPodcast There we go, good stuff. Well, I will continue to wear my jacket, represent the brand, because I get compliments on this all the time when I wear this. 39:09.60 Scott Davis Well, I gotta get you some more stuff. 39:13.44 ModGolfPodcast I don't think I have any other pieces that I wear out that people compliment me on. So there you go it still resonates, it still resonates. 39:19.90 Scott Davis Awesome. Colin, thank you so much. 39:21.17 ModGolfPodcast Good stuff. 39:21.99 Scott Davis It's been great. 39:23.56 ModGolfPodcast So as we finish up here, yeah, why don't you let our listeners know where they can, on social media and also with the website, I think that's pretty straightforward. but why don't you let people know where they can they get ahold of J.Lindeberg, where they can actually, if they haven't seen your apparel before, where they can realize how you're doing things like making pickleball sexy, which is hard to do, but it sounds like you're up for the challenge. 39:44.01 Scott Davis Yeah. Well, you can find our products in any of the finest golf shops all across the the United States and in Canada. You can also find us at all of the major outlets, PJ Super Stores, Worldwide Golf Golf Galaxy. 39:59.58 Scott Davis You can also find us on e-com. So we're all over the place. So if you can't find us, you just get have them call you, Colin, you can tell them where to go. You're dialed in. 40:07.90 ModGolfPodcast There we go, there we go. 40:09.01 Scott Davis All right. 40:09.47 ModGolfPodcast Well, I'll make sure that I take a picture of myself in this jacket included in the show notes here. Yeah, because I look fantastic! 40:17.91 Scott Davis I think you do too. 40:19.63 ModGolfPodcast I think I'd be doing all of our listeners a disservice by not including that picture. So I will definitely do that, Scott. So there we have it, Scott Davis, CEO of J.Lindeberg North America. 40:25.30 Scott Davis Thank you, my friend. 40:29.83 ModGolfPodcast Thank you, Scott, for sharing all the things that you've just been mentioning here about the apparel industry and the connectivity that J.Lindeberg has to that. So, hey, thanks for joining me on the ModGolf Podcast. 40:42.39 Scott Davis Thank you, Colin.