A new club approach attracts
Jennifer Glaspie launched Chicago-based Aphira golfware to create apparel for the social golfer who wants to stand out on the green, not fit in at the club.
by Carolyn Schwaar
When rookie golfer Jennifer Glaspie was kicked off the green at a Florida golf club for wearing a sleeveless, collarless sweater, little did she know that women’s golf apparel would become her life’s passion.
From the track to the street
In 2000, Glaspie, a successful corporate business consultant at the prestigious Chicago-based firm Baine & Co, began learning golf at the request of her boyfriend (now husband). But as her golf swing improved, this style-savvy petite urbanite discovered that her clothing choices didn’t.
“Golf apparel is way behind the fashion curve and options for the fashion-conscious golfer are limited,” he says. But it was a crisp October morning with tee time looming and “nothing to wear” that finally pressed Glaspie into action.
Convinced that there was great potential in a line of high-end women’s golf clothing that was modern and comfortable yet sophisticated, Glaspie put her career on hold and used her MBA from Kellogg to develop a business plan to launch a stylish line. golf for women. wear.
“I’ve always loved fashion, but I thought getting into the competitive apparel industry would be crazy,” recalls the 32-year-old Michigan native. However, the research showed that while the apparel industry is cutthroat, high-end niches such as beachwear and specialty sportswear have their own, more accessible and less competitive market. “I found some cutting-edge lines that were doing well, but the market certainly wasn’t saturated, so everything pointed to ‘forward,'” she says.
Glaspie and his contrarian designer, Cassy Clark, set out to create golf clothing that was fun to wear, modern and a little sexy, hoping to succeed. And they did.
Aphira debuted at the 2005 PGA Merchandise Show in Florida. “There we were walking almost three miles back to our little booth past these huge corporate booths,” Glaspie recalls. “We were totally overwhelmed, but from the beginning, people started saying great things. One woman said, ‘I love this line, this is my favorite line out of 1,000 exhibitors. It felt promising. We felt really, really good.” .
The duo wrote dozens of requests on the show for their first line. And when their initial customers received their shipment and loved it, they began to think they might have something. “One customer said that people bought it right out of the box before he could put it on the shelf,” says Glaspie.
Now in its third year, Aphira is established in nearly 150 golf stores in the United States, Europe and Asia. But the success did not come without some missteps.
“I thought we had to be really different when we first launched,” recalls Glaspie. The debut line was sexy and edgy with fitted tops and tennis skorts. “But we’ve toned it down a little bit as we’ve gone along.” The change in style reflects the company’s research into who buys its elegant line, which was withdrawn in many markets in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Nike and Addidas design sportswear for the athletic golfer,” says Glaspie. “Our client is more of a socialite than an athlete. She doesn’t play four times a week, she plays with her friends on the weekends and she is someone who is always dressed up.”
Like many entrepreneurs, Glaspie is an owner, marketer, sales representative and even a model. “Once, in a meeting with the owner of the golf shop at Ravinia Green Country Club, I ran over and put on a pair of shorts to show the customer how they fit,” she says. Each part in the line is made to size for product testing. “I need to try everything on. I swing a club and go around it. I’m a golfer and I know how functional a garment should be.”
The Aphira line is made entirely in the United States. The fabric is custom dyed and shipped to a factory on Chicago’s North Side for assembly.
For now, Aphira’s clothing is only available at golf stores, and that’s fine with Glaspie. “We need to stay focused on the golf market. We know that every dollar invested will return a few dollars in the golf market, but it would take too much capital to get into the larger apparel retail market.”
Although you won’t see Aphira in department stores, you can catch a glimpse of her on Golf Channel’s popular reality show The Big Break: Ladies Only, which will feature Aphira apparel on golfer Valeria Ochoa this spring. And the new Hollywood movie “Who’s Your Caddy?”, billed as “an urban version of the golf comedy movie,” features a sexy character that Aphira wears throughout the film.
The risky career leap from guiding the strategic growth of Fortune-500 companies to making golf skorts was definitely worth it, says Glaspie. “It’s just been a whirlwind, but I’m definitely having fun. In consulting I’ve had peaks and valleys and good weeks and bad weeks, but when it comes to your own business, your ups and downs are really high and your lows are really low. Everything takes So much more importance when it’s yours.”
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Callout or framed element:
Aphira: s-scared-ah. A word invented by golf apparel entrepreneur Jennifer Glaspie from the Latin word ephiro, meaning to exult.
Sidebar:
Can fashion attract more women to golf?
While it may sound superficial to say that more golf fashion items will get more women playing golf, Jennifer Glaspie, owner of Aphira women’s golf apparel in Chicago, says it’s absolutely true. “I have a friend that I asked to take some golf lessons with me, but she said, ‘I play tennis because the clothes are nicer.’ Having more fashion in this sport does change its image”.
Just take a look at internationally televised women’s golf tournaments such as the Lexus Cup, where teams led by Annika Sorenstam and Grace Park opted for the men’s polo shirt for fashion designer golf apparel to project an image fun and modern for women’s golf.
And younger players like Michelle Wie, who sports a tank top, are bringing their youthful attitudes and free spirit to the green, and that includes their fashion statements.
“There are a lot more young people playing this sport,” says Glaspie. And with youth, he says, come new ideas that break with tradition and mark a new style.
