← The Glossy Podcast
The Glossy Podcast
After a decades-long Nike contract, Tiger Woods is creating golf shoes again
00:36:13
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Transcript75 lines
- [00:00]
Tyler Pinkos
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Jill Manoff
Thanks for tuning in to the Glossy podcast. I'm your host, Jill Manoff, and today I'm sitting down with Charlie Hudak and Tyler Pinkos, the team that worked with Tiger woods to develop his first golf shoes under the Sunday Red label. The shoes happened to launch on the day of this podcast release on December 4th. It's a big moment for Tiger, who worked exclusively with Nike for 27 years until January 2024. And for Sunday Red, rolled out under the 45 year old golf equipment brand TaylorMade in January. It's a big test of its potential. I wanted to ask Charlie and Tyler about Sunday Red's shoe business aspirations and I also wanted to ask about their experience to date working with Tiger. Indeed, I am a fan girl. Welcome, you guys. How are you doing?
- [00:53]
Tyler Pinkos
Great.
- [00:53]
Charlie Hudak
We're great. Thanks so much.
- [00:55]
Jill Manoff
Good. Thanks so much for being here. So the first question is very serious. There is a chance Tiger will hear this podcast.
- [01:03]
Tyler Pinkos
Well, we're looking forward to it.
- [01:06]
Jill Manoff
I hope so. Let's talk about your past before coming to the brand Sunday Red and what you were doing prior. I know you guys are industry veterans and you guys have very different roles in this shoe business. Charlie, you're more on the creative side. Yes. Tell me about your background and. Yeah. Your expertise here.
- [01:24]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, well, I'd say my background started I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Was, was a big sport fan, played sports, you know, was ingrained in sports most of my life. And then ultimately because of sports, I got into footwear at an early age and was, you know, obsessed. And I grew up around the time when the sneaker culture was kind of blowing up. So ultimately kind of, you know, was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And I ended up going back to design school at the University of Cincinnati Dap and studied industrial design there. And I was unique in the sense that I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to design high performance, high octane footwear for athletes such as Tiger and quickly got into the footwear industry. Worked in multiple different categories, everything from outdoor to cleated to basketball. And then ultimately, you know, found my way to golf. And, you know, my family has a long history with golf and so it was kind of a perfect fit. Ended up starting in the golf industry at Puma, then got recruited over to Footjoy and then ultimately, you know, got the phone call from Tiger and I was over the moon. I was, it was like a dream.
- [02:40]
Jill Manoff
Come true because he's been wearing Footjoy for a couple of years.
- [02:44]
Charlie Hudak
Yes, he did he did wear the footjoy?
- [02:47]
Jill Manoff
Yeah, I thought so. Amazing. See, I know. Tyler, tell me, what were you doing prior? And you're more on the development sourcing?
- [03:00]
Tyler Pinkos
Exactly. Yep. Product development started out in footwear about 15 years ago. Product development team. And that's where you pretty much do the engineering behind the shoes. So the fit, the wear, the materialization, comfort, product testing, all of that good stuff. Factory sourcing, nominated suppliers and materials. There's a lot of different hands that touch each shoe. And so to make sure that all the partners are working together to create the best possible shoe is basically my, my job. So, yeah, I've been working at a variety of different brands from athletic brands and then somewhat recently doing like brown shoe and so making high end Italian dress shoes over in Italy and kind of honed in the craft of beautiful art shoemaking. And it was a wonderful blend to, to make like a classic inspired dress shoe upper with the high performance attributes and bott traction elements and whatnot for Sunday Red.
- [04:03]
Jill Manoff
So that's the name of the game. Yes. I don't know anything about this shoe. What are we going to see on the 4th?
- [04:09]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, I mean, I think Tigers and Tyler and I all work together to kind of come up with a game plan. Started back in February on the launch. And the goal was to figure out first and foremost, like our four pillars were essentially like get the fit right, number one, number two, you know, make sure that it's comfortable. And then number three, which is like pretty much the most important piece for Tiger is that it performed. So like the performance of the shoe and then fourth was the aesthetic, you know, making it look beautiful, making it, you know, check all the boxes for him aesthetically, but what you'll see is essentially is kind of a more heritage classic model upper design. We call it a modern saddle. And then ultimately we dove into the performance and we, you know, canvassed the whole thing. We turned over every stone to make sure that it would perform to the exact specification of Tiger. So, you know, engineering the bottom, engineering all the traction lugs, engineering the spike locations and then making sure that, you know, the cushion aspect of the midsole and the outsole, like, could combine with one another to be like a high performance golf shoe.
- [05:20]
Jill Manoff
I mean, the ultimate expert that you have that you're working with. I would assume that there's a lot of proprietary bells and whistles that like a lot of shoes don't have or maybe placement of the spikes and do I know what I'm talking about? But yes. Tell me the Differentiators, like things that are maybe have never seen before in a golf shoe.
- [05:39]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, I think there's a lot of differentiators. I would say, I would say number one, you know, we started with the, the concept of like enhancing performance through ground force reactions. So one of the, one of the key differentiators is that it's a full length tread plat, full ground contact. It essentially, there's no stepped heel where you lose connectivity to the ground. So it, it ultimately has, you know, 100 coverage from the ground up. A second differentiator is, we work tirelessly to kind of evolve like a lower drop, which is like a heel to toe ratio. That was important to Tiger, his team, which is like the physio and the, and the trainer is to get him lower to the ground, which ultimately allows him to utilize those ground forces to a higher level. And also helped in terms of like reading putts for, you know, like on the green, he could get that ground feel. And then, you know, I would say like, based on like Tyler's experience of doing some more brown shoe high end fashion, is that we, we kind of took an inside out approach. Tiger didn't want these shoes to be a distraction. He didn't want to actually have to fuss with them when he was in competition. So we just labored over the idea of just making these almost invisible shoes so there would be no hot spots, no blisters, no problems even down to like laces coming untied. You know, one time when we were at the Genesis at Riv, you know, I saw him bending over and retying his laces and I was like, oh no, how to panic a moment. And you know, we, we addressed that. So we, you know, we, every step of the way I think we did like 19 to 20 different iterations. We mess with the durometer of the midso, the hardnesses, we messed with collar heights, we made a lot of, you know, amendments based on the inputs from Tiger. And our, our mentality was essentially like if, if we can check the boxes for this guy, then for the, you know, everyday consumer and for the everyday golfer, it would more than, you know, meet their requirements for sure.
- [07:44]
Jill Manoff
Tyler's over here holding up the shoe. It looks very sleek and yet it, when you're talking about it originally and like the Italian influence, I was imagining something that looked more stiff. It looks very, it's like it's the perfect mix of athletic meets sharp sleek. I don't know if that's the look. Is that what we're going for?
- [08:02]
Tyler Pinkos
Yeah, exactly.
- [08:03]
Jill Manoff
Perfect.
- [08:04]
Tyler Pinkos
We really obsessed over every detail, every material. We sent it through the ringer as far as testing, so flex testing, you know, waterproof testing. Tiger was big on the walkability element and the comfort for walking, so we added extra collar foam here. We changed up the construction on the seam so it wouldn't hit, you know, your malleolus bone. We tinkered with internal heel counters for your heel lock in, your instep lock in. And all of these insights were directly from Tiger. So it was a labor of love and, you know, a lot of back and forth, but ultimately landed in a place where he's very, very happy with the footwear, and so are we.
- [08:48]
Jill Manoff
So the trial and error looked like, we've got a good one. Take it for a round of golf, right?
- [08:54]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah.
- [08:54]
Jill Manoff
I mean, is that how it went?
- [08:55]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, it was a process. I think when we first went down there, you know, the idea with him was, you know, this is an art and a science. And he said to me, he's like, you take care of the science, I'll take care of the art. But it was a process. You know, there was no silver bullet. Like, we right out of the gate, we weren't going to, you know, hit the nail on the head. So basically, we just went through a process with them. And someone recently asked me what my favorite part was about this project, and I would say it was, you know, Tyler, myself, and Tiger, every step of the way, were working together. And all those long nights, those long days in the studio, the flights to Asia, working endlessly at the factory, and all the different samples that we did, all the different iterations, prototypes, it truly was a journey. And for me, the journey is the destination, for sure.
- [09:48]
Tyler Pinkos
Yeah. I think it was that statement of, if you're passionate about something, you don't work a day in your life. And since day one, working with Tiger on this, in an industry and category that we both love, it was just eternal motivation. And we didn't mind spending the long hours because we always saw the light at the end of the tunnel and had that drive to just keep going and keep improving.
- [10:12]
Jill Manoff
So much fun. I don't know, golfer behavior. Do you find a shoe you love and that's your shoe, or is there a golf shoe wardrobe? Like, what is the potential from here, would you say, in terms of coming out with a shoe collection? I know, like, one step at a time here, the first shoe, but, yeah. What are you guys talking about internally, about where to go from here?
- [10:33]
Charlie Hudak
I mean, I would say that, you know, we look at footwear as equipment. These are tools for athletes to improve their game, to get better, to perform at their highest potential. And yeah, I would say that a lot of golfers find something that they like and they, they kind of stick to it. But the idea for us is that we essentially have a three prong approach to, like, how to attack the market. And I would say that our first is performance heritage. It's more that classic styling that Tiger really kind of gravitated towards. The second would be sport contemporary, which is a little bit more athletic and some of the things that you see from some of the other, you know, performance brands, a little bit more athletically inclined. And then our third approach was kind of what we termed as adaptive lifestyle. And for us, adaptive lifestyle was this opportunity to kind of everything that's associated with the game of golf, we want to be, you know, we want to be part of, you know, whether it's training, whether it's, you know, hitting the 19th hole, whether it's recovery and rest, we really want to participate in everything that's associated to the game. So we have that three prong approach and we think that with a guy like Tiger woods, the potential is unlimited. You know, literally the sky is the limit. So we're excited because we think we have an opportunity to really make an impact. And Tiger's excited as well. So we're full steam ahead. And we always say, like, this is just the beginning. But I think for us, I don't want to speak for Tyler necessarily, but, you know, we're, we're committed and, and dedicated to continually improving our process, improving the footwear and improving Sunday Red's, you know, opportunity in the space?
- [12:17]
Jill Manoff
Yes, Tyler, it is the first style. First of all, what is this style called? And do you anticipate that this will be for the more die hard, serious golfer and we'll go from there.
- [12:29]
Tyler Pinkos
Exactly. Yep. Our first shoe is called the Pioneer Cypress, and it's a gamer shoe, a true gamer shoe. You know, if you have a tournament or an important match play, we want you to put this shoe on. It's in our opinion, you know, like Charlie said, leaving no stone unturned and obsessing over every detail to produce the best shoe in golf. That was the directive. We're working with the best and most significant athlete in the game. And so we want our shoes to perform as such. But yeah, like Charlie said, you know, we're, we started earlier this year. We had some wonderful factory partners, long days and hours, and typically the footwear development cycle from you know, concept to landing in your warehouse is roughly 18 to 24 months. And we really got on the horse and made it happen very quickly. Part of that is being a small team and having great leadership and then working directly, you know, with Tiger, we were able to make decisions quickly and continually evolve. But we are working behind the scenes on, you know, new colorways, new silhouettes, on this same construction in the heritage performance category, and then as well, working behind the scenes in different categories as well. So we're really excited for the future.
- [13:47]
Jill Manoff
I mean, was the conversation. We're getting it out by Christmas because what timing. It's pretty perfect.
- [13:53]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, exactly. There was a saying in our organization. It was like the compass, not the clock. And, you know, we just wanted to deliver the. The greatest golf shoe of all time for the greatest golfer of all time, in our opinion. Like I have always said, he's the most significant, significant athlete that ever walked the planet. And what he's done for inclusivity and diversity and. And all of those great things on a cultural level, you know, we just wanted to give him the best. And I would say, like, you know, I've been in. In the golf industry for a while now, and. And in the footwear industry as well. And the one thing that I've always said what I love about this. This job is that I'm always continuously learning. And, you know, I thought I had a good grasp on it, but then when I started working with Tiger, it just. It was, like, unbelievable. I started learning things that I had no idea. I mean, he ultimately speaks a different language, and I needed it like an interpreter to help us figure out, like, what he was saying. One of the key things that, you know, is another differentiator about this model is that Tiger constantly was obsessing over the swing and the transition of the swing and the various phases of the swing. And he talked about getting on point, and he didn't want to have. He wanted it to be seamless and very, you know, flowing. And one of the things that we did is, like, added a radius to the perimeter of the outsole to make sure that that transition, you know, regardless of his stance or his position on his feet or what phase of the swing it was. We wanted it to be a smooth transition. And, like, banking was a concept that we came up with in terms of, like, you know, a motorcycle on. On a track so that. That, you know, it would always have, you know, a lot of contact with the ground and seamlessly move throughout the transition of the swing. And he. He kept on saying like, you know, I want to be able to get on point smoothly and not be like kind of jolted forward because of a hard, hard right angle or anything like that. So we've taken all of his inputs and all of his insights and it was literally like going back to school again. So it's been awesome.
- [16:02]
Jill Manoff
Yes. Schooling you, I mean, the ultimate think about all like what he's done for Nike. He's got an amazing following and I'm sure he'll, he'll be showing up. You're not your heads of marketing, but he'll be showing up across your campaign here, the rollout. Will this be shown on his, his own channels and how will he be promoting it? Do we know? Is he pretty active in that capacity?
- [16:25]
Charlie Hudak
I, I mean, I, I would, I would say, you know, I think he's very attuned to what's going on and I think he's very passionate about this. I mean, for, for him, I think it's, it, it's more, you know, about like building a legacy and I think ultimately I, you know, his involvement in, in it will obviously make a massive impact. You know, just got a text from him earlier. This essentially one of the other models that we're working on. So, you know, he's up at the crack of dawn like thinking about these things, wanting to improve them and I think he'll take the lead and be involved on the marketing side as well.
- [17:04]
Jill Manoff
He's so intense. Yeah, I love him. You guys like circle back. Like my dad and I when I was in college, like this was our bonding thing, watching Tiger together. Anyway, it's so good. But tell me, we know about the red polo, like in Sunday red. It's red. Kind of a theme that plays out throughout the line or is that, that's reserved for apparel or what's the importance of it?
- [17:28]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, I mean, I, we have two limited edition models and it was, you know, we wanted to lean into the, the idea of Sunday red. And so we, those two limited edition models will have hits of red and so we have, you know, red bottoms on the les. And then we also have, you know, hits here and there of red, both on a white and a black model. So the les will be a little, you know, have some, a little bit of flavor, a little bit of accents with, with Sunday red, for sure.
- [17:57]
Jill Manoff
I mean, I love this. So you guys are full time shoe guys? Full time shoe, that's right.
- [18:04]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah.
- [18:04]
Jill Manoff
That's amazing. How large is the Sunday Red company right now?
- [18:08]
Charlie Hudak
It was, it started off in that I felt like it was, there was five, maybe six people and then it grew to 18. I think it's 2x of that now. I mean it's growing quickly and the overall success and how popular become as crazy, I mean just on the social media alone, I mean I think it's like one of the top two brands and in the golf space it's, I mean the one interesting thing that you always hear is someone, you know will ask like, do you think he can move the needle? And everybody just immediately says he is the needle.
- [18:41]
Tyler Pinkos
So yeah, we had a great meeting yesterday with our customer service team because that's the, you know, the touch point to our customers and Tiger's community and we gave them a kind of a 411 download on all the shoes and the attributes and what questions they can anticipate and arm them with answers. And I think it was slated for an hour and it went over two hours. So our customer service team is really, really passionate. You know, having the community surrounding Sunday Red with the customers and people interested in the brand reaching out and asking really in depth questions and it's an all hands on deck approach and everyone shares that same passion. And you can, you know, when some of the customer service people share the emails that come in, it's just wonderful. Like people are buying one of every single thing that we launch and it's definitely a community that's unlike anything I've ever seen before, as you can kind of imagine.
- [19:42]
Jill Manoff
Yes. And now you get to like shout it out. Did I have it right? When you were originally recruited to the company, you didn't know much about even who you were working with and what the project was and I'm sure it's been very hush hush because God forbid anybody sees the shoe, which I'm so privileged. Maybe we've seen it out, it's out there by now. But yeah, tell me about the whole, I don't know, kind of little scheme of it all and how it all went down.
- [20:05]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, I mean originally, like we weren't aware of what was, what was happening, but I think I got a phone call from CEO of TaylorMade and he essentially was like, you know, you're going to need to buckle up. When I, when I gave you this information and you know, after, after all the, I signed all the, you know, the NDAs and whatnot and you know, I had no, I, I didn't ever in my wildest dreams expect this to be the case. But you know, once they, they informed myself of that, it was game over. And Then, you know, going out trying to recruit Tyler was the same kind of scenario. I tried to give him a little bit of breadcrumbs. I was like, this is gonna be a big deal. I mean, I'll let.
- [20:50]
Jill Manoff
It's big and it's small. Take a guess.
- [20:52]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah. And you know, I think Tyler could talk a little bit about that. But truly, I mean, it was under wraps for a while and there was work being done behind the scenes prior to us being on board. But I don't know. Tyler, do you want to give your point of view? No.
- [21:08]
Tyler Pinkos
I mean, similar to you, I'm. It was not even on my radar, to be, to be perfectly honest. You know, there's, there's a lot of other great athletes that I would be excited about, but once that detail got dropped, it was, you know, how, where do I sign and how quickly can I sign it? Just a once in a once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. And, and yeah, the excitement, the anticipation, the, the nerves, the, the long nights and, and you know, Asia travel and all that. Completely worth it. And it's wonderful now to release what we've been working on into the wild and have another like, huge boost of excitement and energy surrounding the launch.
- [21:50]
Jill Manoff
Is it necessary to have partners in terms of sales? Partners? Is everything going to be happening maybe out of the gate, like direct to consumer and you're selling via your site exclusively or. Yeah, I know, like young golf apparel brands that I've spoken to have told me about the importance of like showing up in the clubs that are very exclusive, where you can't always get access. But direct to consumer, am I guessing right?
- [22:13]
Tyler Pinkos
Correct. Right now we have a exclusive pre sale offering on December 3rd. So a 24 hour pre sale if you sign up through our email list. And then December 4th we go live to the public, direct to consumer on sundayred.com and then, you know, as we get into 2025, we'll be entering like more high end greengrass accounts and ultimately opening up more wholesale doors as we keep moving.
- [22:39]
Jill Manoff
Tyler, I feel like this is a lot of responsibility. You're in charge of the quantities and the inventories. No, like who, how do you even judge what the demand? This is hard.
- [22:50]
Tyler Pinkos
I mean that has, we've had many, many roundtable meetings with, you know, marketing, operations, sales, I mean, you name it. The president getting involved, the CEO of TaylorMade involved. You know, everyone comes to the table with, with different experience and there's the, the problem is there's no historics here, like you said, you know, so We. We took our best educated guess and. And we developed the line. We'll be launching with five different colorways. So three of them will be the Pioneer Cypress. We have a white, a gray, and a black with some really pretty accent hits there. And then, like Charlie mentioned, the Pioneer Cypress Le, the limited edition, those will be in smaller quantities. And those are gonna have a red bottom with some fun. You know, maybe some splatter paint on it and some. Just more energy and excitement. And the whole goal there is on Sundays, you know, he's gotta have a little red on his footwear, too.
- [23:53]
Jill Manoff
Fun. Fun. I would think collaborations are to come. Maybe kids, maybe women's. Women's. Women's is, like, emerging. Yes. As a category in golf. Absolutely.
- [24:03]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I always. Everywhere I've been, I always say I have five sisters. So I definitely want to include women in this. And I think that's on the. On the docket too. I mean, we definitely want to participate. Even the footwear that we're doing currently, you know, they are kind of in the vein where if you're a size. I know, let's just say like an. What is it, eight and a half, you know, like, you'll be able to participate in the game. So.
- [24:32]
Jill Manoff
Fantastic.
- [24:33]
Tyler Pinkos
We're working on new women's tooling, women's models. That's all in the works, and we're really, really excited about that. I think Charlie mentioned he was on a different interview, and the Gentleman said that 40% of newcomers to the game of golf are women right now. So that's awesome.
- [24:51]
Jill Manoff
That is so awesome. I didn't know all the rules that women had to abide by. You need a collar, you need a certain length of a skirt. I mean, maybe men, too, is this old school?
- [25:02]
Charlie Hudak
I think it's. I mean, I think everything is evolving. I think, you know, with a guy like Tiger, I mean, you can break down barriers, and I think the sky's the limit. I. I believe that, you know, what we're doing for the women is going to be well received. And. And the footwear as well. Like, I think the footwear will. Will be an opportunity for them to really kind of give us their feedback, let us know what they're looking for. Because ultimately, like, we want to satisfy everybody. You know, that's our goal. You know, we just want to make sure that everybody who's interested in the game of golf will have a tool at their disposal.
- [25:37]
Jill Manoff
Totally tire won't be able to test it. Is the utility different? Is it like we work with women golfers.
- [25:42]
Charlie Hudak
Oh for sure. I mean we work with women golfers already. So like, yeah, we're doing a lot of testing, a lot of fit and wear testing. I would say like one of our biggest advocates like has been wearing the shoe, you know, almost as long as Tiger has, has been wearing the shoe. So you know, we've been working tirelessly to make sure that, you know, these, these products will work for, for, for both men and women and hopefully one day, you know, young, young, young children.
- [26:11]
Jill Manoff
I love it. Well, tell me long term goals for the brand. Let's say five year plan. We have a five year plan. Sky's the limit. Putting you on the spot, Tyler?
- [26:21]
Tyler Pinkos
Well, yeah, I mean I can speak for the footwear team. You know, for our five year plan, ultimately we want to start in the high performance golf shoe category. We want to make sure that people on tour and the avid gamer has a tool like Charlie said, to perform at the highest level. And then from there we want to evolve into more that sport contemporary athletic style silhouette. So we'll do spikeless spiked versions of that as you know, some people gravitate more towards an athletic build and some people like the more classic build. When we met with Tiger originally we showed him probably 30 different design CADS and he immediately pointed to a style very similar to this and said, that's me, I'm that guy. And so that's the lane we picked, you know, to run down at the beginning. But you know, as the team grows and we foresee just going into different categories and then the exciting category is that adaptive lifestyle where we can participate in the training, you know, the running even as far as like closer to a Chelsea boot or a loafer or casual, you know, what Tiger can wear to an event or an award ceremony or something like that. I mean we see Sunday Red as starting in golf but quickly moving into lifestyle and really taking over the world.
- [27:45]
Jill Manoff
Easy, cheesy, no big deal. I know. Clearly the quality is next level elevated. How does the price compare to like other golf shoes on the market?
- [27:55]
Tyler Pinkos
I'd say, you know, for our, for our first model here, we're definitely at the top of the pyramid, coming in at a premium price point. We're still very competitive with other brands out there in the, the gamer shoe space, but you know, we're going to offer a tiered approach when it comes to pricing and keep moving forward.
- [28:15]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah, and one thing, like one thing to note just about the pioneer Cypress is that it's a classic heritage build, but it's built like an athletic shoe as well. Like it's very, I mean, the construction of it, you know, some of the, the fine details, like we don't want to get into the nitty gritty of like the geek world of footwear, but like it is a high performance product. Like there's different things that we did that some of our competitors don't do that makes this a sleek, elegant and high performance vehicle for, for golf.
- [28:51]
Jill Manoff
Dookie cow. Industry insiders, they want the geeky stuff. I was going to ask even about the manufacturers you're working with. Like, you have this background, Tyler, in Italian manufacturing. Like, I know having talked with amazing luxury brands about how hard it is to get like, to get in the door. Like obviously we have the quantity promise, I think I would assume. But yeah, what else? Like you, you have to kind of boot somebody else out. Yeah. Anyway, talk to me about that challenge.
- [29:21]
Tyler Pinkos
It was, I'd say, you know, working with a variety of other brands ranging from more startup brands to a gorilla in the room, you know, such as Decker's brands. It's getting into high. There's not that many extremely high quality factories out there and we were able to go and do factory tours and visits and under the tailor made umbrella, you know, that was a great starting point to get in the door and get meetings with top management at the best manufacturers in the world. And then down the road when, you know, it was mentioned that this would be for Tiger woods, they kind of rolled out the red carpet for us, which was incredible.
- [30:00]
Jill Manoff
Like, next time we're going to say that first.
- [30:02]
Tyler Pinkos
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
- [30:03]
Charlie Hudak
Yeah. Our driver, our driver wouldn't. When we were doing those factory tours, I asked the driver, I was like, who are some of the bigger names and that, you know, from the US and, you know, the, it was, it was like Taylor Swift. And then quickly, like thereafter, it was Tiger woods. And they had no idea that we were working with Tiger Woods. So once they, once they found out, they started having parades, they put our names on video monitors. They, they like were. We went from having just like a normal round table, like dinners to going to fancy restaurants. And so it was, it was a, it was a truly a different experience once they figured out we were working with Tiger Woods.
- [30:46]
Jill Manoff
I'm gonna hang out with you guys, of course. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Well, Charlie, anything that Tyler did not add in terms of long term goals, I mean, beyond taking over the world?
- [30:58]
Charlie Hudak
Well, I mean, I, I think, you know, we just, I mean, I think we're ultimately continuously trying to improve. We want to make the best product for not only Tiger, but also those folks that are looking to improve, get better and hone their skills on the golf course and, you know, lower their scores. I mean, and ultimately, everybody's trying to get better, you know, whether it's health and wellness or getting a lower handicap or whatnot. Yeah, we just. We ultimately, like, just desire to be great. Just like Tiger. I mean, he's truly an inspiration. The amount of hard work he puts in, we kind of adopted his mentality as it relates to footwear.
- [31:38]
Jill Manoff
The goat. Okay. Anyway, I'm done.
- [31:43]
Charlie Hudak
He is a goat man. That's awesome, you guys.
- [31:47]
Jill Manoff
This was so, so fun. Thank you for being my guest today and hanging out. Good luck with the shoe launch. I'm so excited to follow your success. This is great. Thank you, guys.
- [31:57]
Tyler Pinkos
Thank you.
- [31:57]
Charlie Hudak
Thanks for having us. I mean, honestly, it was great. Thank you so much.
- [32:08]
Jill Manoff
That's all for this episode. Our theme music is by Otis McDonald. Be sure to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to the Glossy Podcast. See you next week.