Mark Carmona launched his DTC brand of unapologetically loud golf polo shirts, Sunday Swagger, in November 2019, and the timing turned out to be fortuitous. During Covid-19, golf, in the words of the Sports Business Journal, “provided a socially distanced recreational opportunity that other sports couldn’t, allowing many people to experience the game for the first time.”

The number of golfers who teed off on a course in 2023 reached 26.6 million, a 9.9% increase over the pre-Covid total of 24.2 million in 2018, according to National Golf Foundation data cited by the publication.

For Sunday Swagger, it meant players were buying their first golf shirts and didn’t need to be lured away from an established brand.

“We weren’t necessarily having to compete with them [being] loyal to a TravisMathew polo or a Nike polo,” Carmona told Retail Brew. “So it really opened the doors for us early on.”

The brand saw triple-digit year over year revenue growth for its first three years, with profitability progressively increasing over those years, all bootstrapped with neither investors nor debt, according to Carmona.

When it comes to growth, one unexpected driver Carmona has pulled out of his bag is the introduction of youth polos, all in the same patterns as adult sizes, in 2022. The youth shirts, which are unisex, have been central to the brand’s marketing for Father’s Day, with dad getting not just a polo, but a Mini Me.

Keep reading here.—AAN

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Money, the Beatles sagely advised, can’t buy you love, but if it could, mothers would be top sellers this year. While the $22.4 billion Americans are projected to spend on Father’s Day is the second highest in the 21 years since the National Retail Federation has been surveying consumers on their projected spending for the holiday, it’s about a third less than the $33.5 consumers said they’d spend on Mother’s Day this year.

Serves them right for all those dad jokes.

Father figures: Three-quarters of consumers will celebrate Father’s Day this year, spending an average of $189.81.

As it does with its Mother’s Day data, NRF inexplicably characterizes greeting cards as “gifts” and deems them this year’s most popular gift: 58% of shoppers planned to buy one. If you think a greeting card is more akin to wrapping paper, the actual most popular gift is clothing (matching polo shirts, anyone?), which 54% of shoppers intended to purchase, followed by “a special outing” (52%), gift cards (48%), and personal care items (31%).

Keep reading here.—AAN

You probably could have guessed that a store specializing in pocket knives, camping gear, and a jacket featured on the TV show Yellowstone would appeal to fathers. But Filson is nonetheless doubling down on Father’s Day this year in an effort to engage customers beyond the winter holiday season.

“We’re always going to be a primarily holiday driven brand,” Neil Morgan, VP of retail, told Retail Brew. “So much of our sales happen in Q4, November and December.”

Beyond the usual holiday bump, Morgan explained, Filson also has a reputation as a cold weather brand. But now the company is getting more focused on connecting with customers throughout the summer, he said, and Father’s day is an opportunity to do that.

Keep reading here.—AV

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