New items from A. Putnam's spring collection
A. Putnam
What's your strategy if you want to start a golf brand but need guidance to get your concept off the ground? Ari, a mother of five who works in supply chain management and is considering a career change – For Putnam, taking an online course on the topic of how to pursue your dream job proved invaluable.
She enrolled in a six-month online program called “Launch My Conscious Line,” which teaches you everything from conceptualizing your brand and sourcing suppliers to getting to the final stage of bringing your product to market and starting selling. I learned.
“What it taught me was how to start a clothing line on my own. You don't have to be great at graphic design, technical design, sourcing fabrics, etc., and it also teaches you how to do it with money.” '' said Putnam.
“So when I actually went to the production company, I was fully equipped with the vocabulary and questions I needed to build relationships and negotiate,” she added. Still with just under 50 retail accounts, including his pro shops such as Congressional and Dallas Country Club, and several PGA Superstore locations, Putnam browses through the program's resources. I continue to keep in touch with my former classmates. Two of her girlfriends have also retired. Launched golf apparel brands “Aiea Golf” and “Alfa Athletics”.
“We all lean on each other as we overcome bumps in the road,” Putnam said. “I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to create a brand that brings women a minimal and timeless sense of style in a sport with incredible heritage. I love arranging pieces to be more functional so they can perform for golfers, mothers, and businesswomen,” Putnam explained.
dreams deferred
Ali Putnam spent her formative summers at her family's summer home in northern Italy. Fascinated by the elegance and sophistication of the country's top in her leaderboard format, she dreamed of working in the fashion industry. She made herself the outfit to wear to Gianni's Versace presentation to the entire 7th grade class.
“It's kind of funny because Versace is such a loud brand and it's not my aesthetic right now. But for young girls, Versace and Gucci are the things that get in your face just by being there.” There's something so timeless and beautiful about it that has always stuck with me,” Putnam said, adding that Max Mara is an Italian brand that she remains obsessed with.
A. Two looks from Putnam's Spring line.
A. Putnam
A. Putnam's look is influenced by Mara's modern, minimalist capsule wardrobe, the idea of building a style profile around well-crafted, timeless pieces.
An accomplished lacrosse player like Haute Jones, Putnam chose Syracuse when it came time to choose a college. But when she wasn't running around the field for oranges, she didn't have a catwalk-worthy craft look and instead studied pottery. Her high school art teacher sensed that she was gifted with her natural talent and encouraged her to try her hand at it. It didn't take long for the fascination with modeling clay to lose its luster. Putnam pivoted to pursuing her corporate interests and changed her major to business.
“I graduated from Syracuse with a double major in entrepreneurship and supply chain management, which took me far away from my passion for art and fashion,” Putnam said.
After graduation, her first few jobs were in retail, including working in a Sears warehouse, where she wore steel-toed boots, drove a forklift, and learned the nitty-gritty of the business. Next, as she launched an e-commerce site, she headed to her DSW, where she works on fulfillment and third-party logistics.
After getting married, she moved into the industrial manufacturing industry, still on the supply chain and logistics side, spending over a dozen years in this field. Her childhood fashion dreams remained on the back burner, but her five boys, now ages 3 to 10, were up to her game with every ball and stick under the sun. Thanks to this, she was able to get back to her roots in sports.
While working from home and taking her children to various extracurricular activities, including golf tournaments, she joined a country club and the next chapter of her career began. There were very traditional rules in terms of her clothing, which she appreciated, but what was available on the existing market was lacking for her.
“My choices in terms of golf wear are either very preppy and not my style, or something that's a little bit sexy, and then very pattern heavy and doesn't suit me, my style, or what I need. “It felt like a golf uniform that didn't lend itself to versatility, because I'm a busy mom,” Putnam said.
That's when the wheels started turning. Seeking her guidance, she turned to her father, Det Hunter. Debt Hunter is an experienced entrepreneur who served as Arthur Andersen's regional managing partner for the Ohio, Michigan and Indiana regions for 28 years. He answered her a series of questions about her life to understand what really drives her. After that meeting, she was convinced that it was time to pursue her postponed dreams at full throttle, and she enrolled in the aforementioned course.
lessons learned
One of the biggest lessons Putnam has learned from his year in business is knowing when to bring in-house parts of a business that have been outsourced.
“We spent a lot of money in the first year, but all the money went into building relationships and learning how to do it.”However, this experience led to cost savings.
Web operations and product management were initially outsourced, but Alexa Dvorak, an early fan of the brand who reposted photos of A. Putnam's clothing on Instagram, was later hired as vice president of operations. , took over its reign.
“It's amazing how you can build a network just on social media. She runs a handle called @pleasureofsport and I got interested in it early on – 'Who posts my stuff?' I thought she might start her own clothing brand, so I kind of took a peek,” Putnam said.
The world of golf is small, and it turns out that Ms. Dvorak has worked in web design and backend for several prominent golf brands, and that her boyfriend was the founder and owner of SuperSpeed Golf. They hit it off right away, and that night Dvorak created a mock Shopify website that was day and night more beautiful and functional than the one Putnam had paid the company thousands of dollars to create.
Putnam is now fully focused on the second annual PGA Show, an industry trade show held annually in Orlando. There, they debut a new spring look that shakes up the classic minimalist vibe on the fairways and befriend buyers looking to refresh their pro shop offerings.
“You really can do more with less effort. You should be able to make those clothes flexible and style them in different ways,” Putnam said.
Putnam's goal for 2024 is to hit the magical 100 retail account mark while continuing to gain traction on the corporate side. The timeless and versatile sensibility of their style seems to resonate with professional women on the go, helping them land contracts to outfit employees of AT&TT, Nature's Valley, and Golf Forever. I am.
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