BÆST Apparel. If not us, then who?

 

Golf. Same game, new identity.

 

BÆST, it’s pronounced “baste,” similar to “based.” More on that in a minute.

 

What’s important right now is for you to understand why and how we are changing the golf industry through our apparel.

 

We (Camden & Reid, nice to meet you) got into golf and wanted a few simple things out of our apparel:

• Comfortable and stretchy fabric that breathes
• Constructed with materials that are not just high performance but are also sustainable and good for the environment and those that wear it
• A modern and athletic fit
• No “LOOK AT ME!” designs, colors or patterns, and definitely no clothes that are smothered in logos and company names
• The ability to wear our apparel to work, social events, and other non-golf outings without looking like we just came from the course
• Produced by a company that was transparent with its customers in all aspects of business
• And, ideally, made in the USA

 

Believe it or not, this product did not exist. So, instead of deciding that we will be stuck wearing traditional oversized, brightly colored polyester golf gear, we decided to make our own apparel. Hence, BÆST was born.

 

Okay, on the name. Did you know how to pronounce Nike the first time you saw it? How about Adidas? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, today they are household names, so stop worrying about how strange our name may seem on the surface. The meaning behind our name is rooted in a handful of ideas:

• The Æ orthographic ligature (fun fact – it’s called an “ash”) is prevalent in Scandinavian countries, and we are inspired by their cultures where their designs are often referred to as minimalistic and modern. We really wanted to utilize an ash in our name.
• Also, it’s difficult to use an ash in English considering it’s not part of our alphabet, and we like taking on a good challenge. We are challenging the entire status quo of the golf industry, you know?
• The name BÆST, because it’s pronounced similarly to “based”, is also a nod to the following topics:
  • Where we are “based” out of, which is Southern California by the way, and we love the lifestyle that comes with our home.
  • The principles and standards that our company is “based” on (in case you missed those, there’s a bullet point list above where we spell them out).
• And last, but certainly not least, BÆST is Danish for beast, and everyone loves going beast mode on the course

 

The leading point of BÆST is to inspire social change in the overall apparel industry (that’s the long-term goal, for now we are focused on the golf industry). Once we started down this journey, we were completely amazed by the damaging ways the name-brand golf apparel icons operate. Import and outsource is the name of the game for them. They try and source fabric that they can squeeze down to the cheapest price per yard possible, and that results in a lack of quality control, lack of environmental and social responsibility, and comes at a huge cost to the laborers producing the fabric including poor working conditions, and beyond. We don’t mean to attack the business practices of other companies – we get it; capitalism may not be a perfect system but it is the best we have for now. As described by the great Milton Friedman: “…there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.” The main social issue here is that because these companies have been able to successfully sell their clothing and apparel items at standard market rates, say $85 for a polo and $125 for a pullover, it incentivizes them to increase the efficiency of their supply in order to get down their costs of production and, as a result, increase their margins, which traditionally happens at the demise of those further down the supply chain. Again, totally cool with us to try and increase your profit margins, but there is a point at which this can lead to problems. We are simply stepping up to say, “at what point does the increase in expense to the rest of the people in the supply chain (working conditions and health issues), or even better, the world (unsustainable fabric, pollution, waste, destruction of resources), cause someone to step up and enact a change?” We’re trying to be that change (could totally insert that ever famous Ghandi quote here, but we probably already wore you out on quotes).

 

So, here’s a run-down of our business model:

• Use the highest quality sustainable fabric we can find
• Transform that fabric into awesome designs for golf apparel
• Manufacture that apparel in the USA
• Sell the apparel direct-to-consumer to avoid unnecessary markups

 

On sustainable fabric: We’re using a combination of different natural and recycled fibers, such as bamboo, soy, organic cotton, and recycled polyester that gets finished with a little bit of spandex for ideal stretch and comfort. The result of these fibers put into action are incredibly soft, stretchy, breathable, anti-microbial, and at times naturally sun protecting, which we have found creates amazing apparel. Oh, and almost forgot to mention, because its plant based the fabric is as sustainable as it gets. As of right now, there’s really not a more sustainable fabric out there that can be used for our purposes. That said, this stuff is not cheap. We’re talking about our polos generating a cost well in excess of $10 a yard per shirt just for the material! Luckily for us we decided to utilize the direct-to-consumer business model which allows us to cut out middle men and save some costs. In turn, we can offer our apparel at the same market prices as the rest of the industry, but you get better quality stuff by choosing BÆST.

 

On the direct-to-consumer philosophy: If we charge $92 at a 50% margin per shirt, you’re getting a shirt that cost us $46 to make. When a name brand apparel company sells their $92 shirt in a traditional retail environment, that shirt is likely going to cost less than $15 to make. With a shirt that costs $15 to produce by the manufacturer, it often gets marked up at least 100%, if not 200%, for wholesale pricing for retailers, then the retail stores will also need to mark it up 100% in order to generate enough profit to keep their lights on, which results in competing $92 polos. To us, this is an incredibly inefficient way to do business. We would rather create a product with twice as much inherent value (better, sustainable, high performance fabric with more stylish design profiles and domestic boutique manufacturing) and then sell it at the same price as the other brands. Why be the consumer and get stuck with a markup that the retailer subjects you to without providing any additional value to the product?

You may be wondering, why does it cost us more to produce our polos? Well for starters, our fabric is more expensive. We source high performance sustainable fabric that is made with the highest of standards. Additionally, we focus on USA manufacturing when we can and we are always looking for manufacturers who use fair labor and environmentally safe production practices.

 

On logos: What’s up with brand fidelity these days? You’re not getting paid by these brands and companies to wear their gear, so why settle for clothing that has logos and emblems and names plastered all over? Is that really a representation of who you are as an individual, or are you just running with the crowd because everyone else is? We’re dedicated to keeping our apparel as simple in design as possible. The most branding you’ll see from us is probably our logo on our hats. Sure, this may sound hypocritical, but we view hats in a different light than our base apparel, and when it comes to our polos and jackets, you’ll have to look at the tag to find our name. We don’t want people to look like a walking billboard. We want you to feel like you’re representing your own brand when you wear our clothes.

 

On transparency: One of the most important things to us is to know the story of a product when we purchase it. We like small businesses and products where you feel an attachment to the company’s philosophy. To prove to you that we are upholding these values, we’re going to explain in detail all of the steps it takes for us to produce our garments. On top of that, we’re even going to show an approximate value of how much it costs for us at each step along the assembly line in order to get the product into your hands. That’s right, we’re going to tell you how much profit we make on all of our products. How’s that for transparency? And if you don’t like our profit margins because you think you should get the apparel at cost basis, why don’t you try asking some of the bigger companies what their margins are?

 

So, if you want a great looking product that performs exceptionally well, at a great price, and you want that product made here in Southern California, supporting our economy, constructed out of material that is good for the environment, and you also value complete corporate transparency, then check us out! At the end of the day, we’re still just a couple of guys who like to play golf, but we would love to welcome you to the BÆST family.

 

It’s still golf, only different.