Eastside Golf Co-Founders Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper join Yahoo Finance to discuss their golf athleisure brand’s infusion of streetwear influences and their growth outlook ahead of professional sports partnerships.
Video Transcript
– Well, staying in sports, where do you tend to find NBA players in their free time or in the off-season? Usually on the golf course. Joining us now, a guest who capitalizes on both those sports with their brand. Olajuwon Ajanaku, an Eastside Golf founder there, and Earl Cooper, Eastside Golf’s co-founder. So a big welcome to you both. So where did this idea come from to start this brand? And how much growth have you seen since its innovation?
OLAJUWON AJANAKU: Yeah. So actually, I met Earl in college. We were on the same golf team and won a national championship. He went his way, became a professional teacher in golf, which is a golf pro. And I became a professional golfer. So two years in that. I got to a point I just couldn’t afford it anymore. And I was in finance for about nine years. Got to a point I just wanted something different. I felt like I could still play professional golf. But I knew it would be hard to find sponsors. So I came up with the brand to actually sponsor myself. And now I’m self sponsored and starting my professional full golf career I would say the middle of this year.
– All right. So Earl, tell us what sets Eastside apart? And it’s more than an apparel brand. It seems to be a statement. And what do you want it to say?
EARL COOPER: Yeah. No. I think what sets us apart is the fact that our clothing reaches such a wide audience. As you see, we have on NBA gear. We have NBA players wearing it. At the same time, you have golfers wearing it. We had our Jordan shoe most recently in the PGA Championship and other events. So you’ve never seen a brand before that can be sold in pro shops, but also in local urban boutique streetwear.
– And I’m guessing this wasn’t much of a hard sell for some of these teams and some of these people that you’re collaborating with.
EARL COOPER: No, not at all.
OLAJUWON AJANAKU: Yeah, I definitely don’t think it was only because we come from an authentic place. We’ve been playing this game since we were six years old. And we have so many different angles that golf has never seen, that have never been talked about in just everyday country club life. I mean, we just have a different angle at golf that we feel that golf needs to experience.
– Earl, Tiger Woods has been winning majors for nearly 30 years. Has the golf apparel industry evolved?
EARL COOPER: No. Not much. I think that’s another reason why we’ve seen so much success is because a lot of it is kind of carbon copy. And one of the things that Olajuwon pushes us as a brand, as a company to remain original and also think about when we were young, you know, what did we want to have when we were 16 because we represent the brand as well.
– And Olajuwon, in terms of the fans that you’re hoping to crossover, perhaps golf fans who are into streetwear, and you also have NBA fans perhaps who you might want to see get more into the golf world, what sort of crossover are you seeing there? Are you mostly seeing that it’s NBA fans who are buying this, or perhaps golf fans getting in on the game as well?
OLAJUWON AJANAKU: Honestly, it is a bunch of NBA fans that are buying the apparel, but also golf fans. It’s hard to decipher at times. But I’ll say this. Mostly everybody that does play golf– and that’s the majority of our customers– they do buy this playing golf after this with the team that they root for all the time.
But also on the flip side, so many golfers want to feel cool off the golf course. And I mean, they want to be themselves. They don’t want to always wear– if starting the conversation with golf could be just as easy as wearing something with the word golf on it, playing golf after this, that’s what we want to do. And that’s what professional golfers want to do. And that’s what our clothes do. So it’s been making a huge impact.
– Earl, give us a sense of all the different products you guys do or plan to sell. And what’s been the buy in at country clubs across the country? You still go to a lot that require a collared shirt, shirt tucked in, and a certain old school, a bit outdated attire.
EARL COOPER: Yeah. No. I mean, we’re a full-service apparel brand. So we offer hats, socks, t-shirts, umbrellas, lapel pins. We’ll be having book bags in the future. We have some collaborations coming up. So there’ll be footwear available as well, more collaborations. And I think when it comes to the golf shops, I feel that, for us, I get it. We are in a few golf shops around the country.
So I think, for us, it’s only been one of those things where we don’t necessarily beg anyone to carry our brands and you kind of are really betting on the future of the golf game and the industry and betting on a wider net, not just kind of the traditional lanes. This is a brand for you.
– And Olajuwon, any plans to expand beyond the NBA? Any sort of leagues that you have your eye on who you’d also like to bring into the fold?
OLAJUWON AJANAKU: Definitely. Definitely. I think it’s time we could actually say that. But we’re actually talking to the MLB, Major League Baseball, and bringing them into the fold and actually going playing golf after this with Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees or your favorite baseball team. And hopefully, we could do that with other leagues such as, hopefully, the NFL or the NHL. But actually bringing the game of golf to where you’re playing golf after that sport or whatever you’re doing in your life. And that’s what we want to actually get across to everybody that golf is for everybody no matter what you do.
– Yeah. And that’s what I wanted to touch on. Before we go, Earl, you’re certainly going to change the way golfers look. But can you change the way the sport looks? It’s still a vast majority white sport. Can you open it up to some different people that hadn’t considered it prior?
EARL COOPER: Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest thing that we’re doing is betting on the future. This isn’t for the short run. We’re in it for the long haul. So we’ve been really targeting young professionals. And as they raise up the next generation of folks, it will just become normalized. So you’ve seen, again, a lot of these great junior golf programs. But it hasn’t gotten to the highest level. And so we continue to support junior golf. But one of our laser focus is going to be on young professionals and really betting on what we would call our grandkids.
– Well, good for you both. Eastside looks fantastic. Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper, best of luck. Thanks for being here.
