Editor’s note: This article is part of The Changemakers series, focusing on the behind-the-scenes executives and people fueling the future growth of their sports.
MASON CITY, Iowa — Two 30-something-year-old dudes set up lawn chairs in a garage on a nice little Friday morning in November. The fridge is stocked with celebratory beers. Their laptops are out, if anybody wants to actually buy high-quality golf bags made specifically for preschoolers.
Tyler Johnson is nervous. He usually is. “Nobody’s actually going to buy any bags,” he keeps telling his buddy, Jared Doerfler, there for moral support. The waitlist was plenty long, but still, “Maybe I’ll sell 50 bags,” he says looking around at the 150 bags in his garage.
10 a.m. hits.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
The Shopify notifications go off rapidly.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
He is not prepared for this. The blue bags are gone in four minutes.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
“What the hell is happening,” Johnson says as he runs around the garage trying to get things in order. The gray bags are sold out in 10. Only pink is left. The waitlist was north of a thousand, but he worked the numbers backward and landed on a conversation rate to sell less than 100. Foolish.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
Within 28 minutes, all 150 bags are sold.
Johnson, 36, is a former University of Northern Iowa golfer turned software salesman living in Mason City with his wife, Jolene, and their two kids, Charlie and Alivia. He’s the son of a golf course superintendent who was the son of a golfer named Birdie, and one day Johnson wanted to take Charlie to the driving range to keep the cycle alive. But Charlie didn’t have a bag, forced to carry around a few loose clubs because the bags on the market just didn’t make sense. To Johnson, they were poorly made and impractical for a toddler. So Johnson created his own. Out of his garage. He designed these adorable 21.5-inch waxed canvas and leather golf bags made specifically for 2- to 5-year-olds in various colors, and he found an approachable price point. And he named it Charlie Golf Co.
Doerfler has to leave early to get out of Johnson’s hair. The Friday beers will have to wait. Johnson has 150 orders to ship by hand. Within a year, he’ll have shipped thousands. By this November, he’ll be faced with the decision to quit his job and commit to Charlie Golf Co. full time, a side hustle becoming a career.
The golf equipment industry was disrupted by a golfer trying to bond with his family. Now, it’s blowing up because of that very thing. Family.
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