Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore

#132 - The Byrd: Kris Drey

• Paul Liberatore • Season 5 • Episode 132

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The Byrd Golf Belt blends style and utility in a way that's changing how golfers think about their accessories. You can grab the regular model fo about $49 or the braided version for $59, turning what's usually just a basic belt into a handy golf tool.

What makes this belt special? It's got clever built-in holders for all your golfing must-haves: tees, a divot tool, your golf glove, and a ball marker. You'll keep your pockets free while having everything you need right at your fingertips during your round.

 If you're looking for more than just belts, The Byrd's got you covered with gloves, divot tools (they call them "Clyps"), and various bundles. 

Between fast shipping, quality materials, and features that actually make your golf game better, The Byrd Golf Belt's proving to be a solid choice for golfers who want both practicality and style on the course.

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Paul:

What's up guys? Welcome to the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast. This week I have my good friend, chris Dre from the Bird. If you guys haven't seen or heard of the Bird, the Bird is the word. It's a cool new. I don't know what you would call it apparel slash accessory. I don't know. It's kind of like its own little area, but it's cool because you can. Yeah, it's an accessory, but yeah, it's also like other products that you can take with you at the course. So I thought it was really cool. I thought it was really cool. I saw the PGA show and then I asked Kris come on the show. So welcome to the show. Thank you, paul. Happy to be here. So where are you located?

Kris:

I am in the East Bay area in Walnut Creek, California. That's a nice area. Yeah, it's fun, nice place is that where like is that where, uh, silicon valley, we're living?

Paul:

remember that show, silicon valley, yeah yeah, walnut, you think.

Kris:

What do you think that was that? I think was a little south of me, about 45 minutes to an hour, but yeah, walnut creek it's a good place. It's centrally located to napa tahoe. You know all those good places, carmel drive.

Paul:

Is it to like napa, like an hour? Napa's 45 minutes, tahoe's three hours, carmel's two wow, so you like, you have the spot dude yeah, it's pretty cool. So what did you grow up in the bay area or like, where did you grow up at?

Kris:

I grew up in southern california so I grew up surfing on uh the beaches of southern cal? Uh, specifically salt creek beach. So that was kind of the feel of my brand. You know, like I I gravitated to lightning bolts because my favorite surfer was Jerry Lopez at the time and his he had surfboards with a lightning bolt design and I just kind of liked the beach vibe. You know kind of chill, mindful present. That's kind of what we're all about. You know, being able to focus on the course is critical so did you like?

Paul:

what's your background? So you went to your group like we're in southern cali, la or what no, I grew up in a little town called dana point yeah, now dana point's like huge right like it is.

Kris:

They changed the uh, the boundaries of the city like a while ago. It was years after I left, though, and I was laguna niguel, and then it became dana point, and dana point just gobbled up half of orange county, it feels like I was talking to somebody and they said, like they live in dana point or that area and they said it's like impossible to buy a house.

Paul:

That's what they said. They did like what the rent? Like they rent, they're telling me what the rent was. I was like you gotta be kidding me, dude. He's like yeah, we'll never buy a house here, we can't afford it. Yeah, it's, it's nuts, it's just crazy. But back in the day it probably wasn't like that right, it was probably like normal yeah yeah it was super chill.

Kris:

It was. It was cool and you know, I grew up in a little community near the beach so I had my little riva scooter. You remember those things? Yeah, I had a little red riva with a surfboard rack on it and I used to zip down to the beach.

Speaker 2:

It was fun the good old days I miss those.

Kris:

I miss those beaches, man. It was warm and nice water, not shark infested like Ocean.

Paul:

Beach, did you so? Did you go to college in Southern California, or what?

Kris:

I went to school in Chico, so I kind of ended up a little north but almost in the middle. Sort of what school is that Chico State? It was voted number one party school in the country several years ago, that's that's all you? Yeah, it was not so, it was just one year, it was in playboy magazine and that's all anyone would say to me. Where do you go to school, chico?

Paul:

oh, you must be a partier, like name one school that doesn't party, man, come on there isn't one, unless you go to like I don't even know, this probably doesn't even exist. So what did you so in Chico State? Then, like I know you're a smart dude because you moved to the friggin Bay. So would you like CS or something? What did I? What what'd you major in?

Kris:

oh no you. It's funny. I majored in natural resource management and somehow I came out of that not wanting to be a park ranger Not that there's anything wrong with that but it just wasn't something I was motivated to do. And that was right around when the interwebs became popular to the public. So you know I joke that my wife set my career for me because she bought me my first AOL disc and 14K modem. So that was it for me.

Paul:

Do you remember when you used to like give that the disc like it was in the back of, like every magazine and like everything? Remember that. For sure I remember being in college and we just like throw them at each other Like ninja, yeah, I used them as a.

Kris:

You know you put your drink on them. Drink coaster, that's I mean right.

Paul:

I mean, how would you get people on the internet for free? Remember to give you minutes. It was like 10,000 minutes or whatever it was.

Kris:

Remember minutes. It was like 10 000 minutes or whatever it was.

Paul:

Remember that and remember the screeching sound you hear when you logged on and then you tie up the phone line and everyone would be pissed and then, like someone would call you and you get bumped. Remember that. Yeah, that was frustrating, too funny. I checked with my kids like dude, it was nothing like that. When we were kids I was like you wanted to play two player.

Paul:

Your friend was coming over like that's how it was, for sure I remember I remember in college, like when I was like that's when, like well, I guess they already been around, but remember duke nukem, I remember playing nukem in college and like there's a.

Paul:

I was in a cs major but my roommate was my freshman year in my freshman year and like he, like him and like a bunch of other guys like networked everything so we could play duke nukem. Like us and the guys next door awesome, you thought that was the coolest thing on the planet. I was like holy crap, you're like yelling at each other, like down the hall, like you're an asshole, but like I was so good at that game, dude yeah college after that that was fun the good old days.

Paul:

And then what happened? So you got like okay, so that you got into what like how did you bridge bro I was really into music.

Kris:

I wanted to be in the music industry. I did an internship with pgd, polygram group distribution, which was a thing back then.

Kris:

They're long gone now but back then, oh geez, I don't even remember. I mean I want to say sound garden, but I can't remember. But you know, I graduated and needed a job in the music industry. So I found this little tiny blues record label in san francisco called blind pig records and, uh, they needed someone that understood online and design and things like that. So they hired me and I worked there for a couple years and then I realized I wanted to work in the internet, not music, and then I was digital. From then on I worked at cnet groupon, did you really? Yeah, doing what? Product management, writing specifications for software engineers. That's, that's the bulk of my career so wait, so so you.

Paul:

So you got the job. So okay, so you go to the bay and your first job is with the music company. What'd you do there? I did, I was jack of all trades I got him on the internet I I built your website oh my gosh 97 96, 96 97 really early. Internet like this is like super absolutely yeah for sure.

Kris:

Yeah, and I was. You know, I was smitten, I was intrigued and I loved the interwebs and that was it for me.

Paul:

I was hooked dude, I remember like all my friends that were in cs, I remember like taking a science, like a cs class, and I was like this is cool, but like I would never want to do this shit, bro. They all like made so much money. It's ridiculous. They all graduated or they had jobs right away and they all went to the bay and they all got extremely wealthy like, especially especially if they were software engineers. Like one guy I know went to like he got like a bunch of guys or went to the Bay, started their own like I don't know interweb, e-group, something back like in the 98, 99. And then they sold it to Yahoo. They made like I remember my buddy made a hundred grand right In his stock and that's when Yahoo was like cool and then he ended up like taking a year off because he had a hundred thousand dollars like a million dollars nowadays right and like take a year off.

Paul:

And then his friends who went there all left and joined google in like 2000 or 2001 yeah, buku buku, buku, buku book and then he left there because he made a ton of money, went public and got a job at youtube before the merger. So, like wow, I was like, oh man, if you step in shit, you would find a diamond. Like literally, that's what.

Kris:

Like it would stick to his shoe, man, that's crazy. That is good for me, like trying to get a job.

Paul:

You know, I'm just gonna be like right, walk it. I don't know. I remember you just like told me like companies would come to youtube, like you knew all these dudes had money right, and like they'd be in the parking lot and they would like try to sell these guys, like the most random shit, like scooters and like you know whatever, like I don't know, like dork, cool dork toys, you know that were outside, like oh, you know right, and like he was showing me a video of it and I'm like, oh, my god, this is nuts. Like this is not my world. I would love to be in that world, though I mean, I'm tired now, not probably, I don't, probably not. But so then, what happened? So you went there and then you got high. So how? What did you left at baptist? What was it called? What's it? What'd you say? The music, the polygram, the polygram.

Kris:

And then you went to the jazz plays and like, did the same thing but like helped you get back on and then got them online, managed their newsletter, got their artists on the radio, got them interviews, got them in magazines. I basically did everything. It was crazy. And then a new album would come out and we would turn the whole house into, you know, a fulfillment center and we would pack cds all day long for weeks.

Paul:

It was just miserable but, you know I got to see some, but you were young and it didn't matter right and I saw some really cool old school blues legends.

Kris:

You know, yeah, magic slim. You know all these really cool guys that I dug um and I got to hang with them at biscuits and blues. Which is this funky little blues hang in San Francisco, all dark and weird. It was awesome.

Paul:

I think it's all weird. So then all right, so then one. So you've done the same. So you kind of just worked in tech, right? So you went, what did you do with CNET? You just helped them. I mean, cnet does review stuff, don't they?

Kris:

Yeah, they. They were pretty much product reviews. They kind of invented it, unboxing things like that. So I was a product manager and I owned a couple of websites different ones over my career and I uh, moved up into the world and took over cell phones which were a big deal back then. Do you remember the Motorola Razr? It was like this end yeah. Yeah, when that came out, I was running the cell phone division and it in 2006 so that was probably 2004.

Paul:

Yeah, my first cell phone was a star tack, and that is the motorola star tack where, like it had the antenna, you had to pull out and always break off and I'd like, yeah, yeah, you thought you're hot. Yeah, I didn't know me. I was like, yeah, I got a cell phone $900, you know, and I paid for my minutes, and no, I don't mean ringtones.

Kris:

I love it. Yeah, so you know it was music, then tech, and then you know I was designing digital products for years and years and years. Oh, website, software, all that kind of different stuff, apps um, you know writing specifications and and prds product requirement docs for for years, you know. And then you know doing wireframes and you know building digital stuff forever and then, out of nowhere, during covid, I've discovered that I could build physical things too and I was like wow, I kind of like this.

Paul:

This is fun, so it's tangible right, you can feel it, yeah, and that's my whole life now, you know, I just love it.

Kris:

You know like I've got a PowerPoint deck that's like 250 slides and it's just ideas that I have of inventions that I want to make someday, you know, but for now it's all about golf inventions. That's where I'm at right now. Why?

Paul:

golf. Why did you decide to start there? You're a surfer who likes music and tech, so why golf?

Kris:

Golf just fits the vibe. It's outdoors, it's in a beautiful place, it's chill, it's relaxed, it's fun. You're usually with friends and for me, I mean, I was that annual boys trip golfer for most of my life and when COVID hit there was nothing else to do. So I dusted off my clubs and I just started playing more and more and became completely addicted. And you know, for people that know me, I'm super fastidious and kind of anal retentive. So you know, everything has its place and I'm all about organization, as you can tell by the hats on how they're perfectly one behind my off by a little bit that white one.

Kris:

Yeah, I know, it's not that because I'm going to go fix it Whatever bro, because I'm gonna go fix it whatever bro. So I quickly became a little frustrated with golf, because golfers have more gear than any other athlete combined on the planet, which is just. It drives me nuts, like if you don't have 150 things every time you play around, then you're missing something. So I got tired of reaching in my pocket and stabbing my fingers looking for tees, ball markers, divot tools and all that. So I'm like there's gotta be a better way. So I hit uh, google and looked for like a belt that I could hold my stuff. And there was nothing. I couldn't find anything. So I busted out grandma's singer sewing machine and I started sewing belts, um and fast forward. I found your wife, like did you have a?

Paul:

stroke like she's like what are you doing, right?

Kris:

she's completely baffled, like what the hell?

Paul:

oh my god, are we doing like outside the norm? To like what? What happened?

Kris:

yeah, uh, but for me that was the norm. Like my wife was like, yeah, yeah, he's tinkering again. Like I always tinker, like I'm a perpetual tinkerer. I tell people I love to like the lens I have when I'm walking down the street is, oh, that could be better or that could be different, and that would be cool if it was a little tweaked. This way, you know, like that's just the lens, I see things you know through. So you know, I started making belts and I found a manufacturer and then, next thing you know, I've got five different products with a bunch of patents pending and what kind of patling and a or utility their utility patents and uh, yeah, yeah that's a lot of money.

Paul:

Shit man that made utility pads.

Kris:

That's not cheap well, I knocked it down to just one. I found uh an attorney that is a family friend, so it saved me a ton of money family discount. Yeah, exactly, and he just worked it so that he could fit them all in one.

Paul:

So we've got one non-provisional filed right now and we got rid of all the provisionals independent provisionals you do the provisionals first while you're designing it, just cover your ass, exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, that's you have to do. I mean, then you have to worry about it and it's like we're just first in line, right, so technically, yeah no really weird.

Paul:

Like I want my patents right now. Like I find I have a design and utility and utility technically you would think like utility is the hardest one to get right. Like it really is. It's so strong and we filed the design a year before the utility and the utility's already been granted. Really, yeah, dude, I'm like seriously, thanks, I don't care, I'd rather have the utility. I mean, I'm still going to get it, but still it's like why would it take so many sons?

Speaker 2:

That's nuts, I took it into a quick.

Paul:

I was like holy crap, that's really fast.

Kris:

It's like reverse yeah.

Paul:

Right In case you don't know like the difference between design utility is just designs the way it looks and utilities ways functions right. And then utilities way more stronger in my opinion than design, because designs the way it looks right. You change it a little bit Now you're not the design, but you still want to do it and it's usually a bit cheaper.

Kris:

I mean, then do it, yeah, yeah, and going both is is expensive, but you did the right thing. That was smart law school does f to you.

Paul:

Oh, that's right. So then you're able to be like no no, no, yes, so okay. So like, let's talk about the bird. So then, when did the bird launch?

Kris:

so we've been selling product for about 16 months now. We uh, we went to the our first pga show last year and we had product like samples I think at the time. There's the bird um light of the feather um like your logo. Your logo is sick thank you, I designed that you got your lightning bolt for it too yeah, oh, and it's like magnetic too, right.

Paul:

So like you just think, like that would also kind of play off that that's smart. There you go. Yeah, you're the magnet guy.

Kris:

No, you're the magnet guy. You, you've got the cool magnet product, but both of us do. Actually, I have magnets in almost everything. I make my belt that you see, there has a magnet on the buckle, yeah, and it holds your ball marker, and that it has what I call t and well, sheaths. So I have t sheaths and pivot tool sheaths and that you can see the braided belt there that's coming out very soon and it has my new buckle which is ta-da a lightning bolt that's cool so yeah, I incorporate lightning bolts into almost everything I do.

Kris:

They just feel cool, you know no they do.

Paul:

That's cool. That's probably like an old, like skateboard, like kamikaze skateboard. Remember that when we were like in the 80s or badass that's. It reminds me of tony alba yeah, or alba. I just watched the documentary on uh tony hawk but like, oh, that was good. Did you watch that one? That thing's really good because prejudice, like everybody you know, was in it and the history of skateboarding.

Paul:

I don't know. It's cool, good documentary, and he and I are the same age. It was like 54, 53, six, oh, really old school man, old school. So okay, so what? So let's. So this is coming out right the braided, really Old school man, old school. So okay, so this is coming out right, the braided belt.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right now.

Paul:

And then there's a T-sheath right, as you call that, and that's for your T-sheath on the belt. And then there's a magnet here on the actual face of the belt so you can put your ball marker.

Kris:

Yeah, it's underneath, so it goes through the metal and it has, you know, it pulls it tight, holds it really securely.

Paul:

so that, if this, if this uh marker wasn't, there is the magnet on the back side of this or is the magnet like on the front side of it?

Kris:

it's on the back, so the front's clean oh, that's smart.

Paul:

it looks like crap and it's like some dumb ass. Little magnet in the front that looks junky yeah, it's smart, it looks clean. So if you didn't want to put a ball marker there, it doesn't look all weird because you have this circle thing. And then we're like, what's that Right?

Kris:

It looks more utilitarian when it comes out officially. In a couple of weeks there's going to be an embossed Sun logo right there, so you can kind of see something you know when there's no marker on it oh, that's cool.

Paul:

So that's the new ones coming out, right? So, like, the first one that came out was that one.

Kris:

Yeah, that's webbing. So, um, I liked elastic and I kind of like the one one size fits most, so we didn't have to do like five different sizes and whatnot. So it's fully adjustable. It goes up to a size I think 48 or something like that. And, yeah, it holds two tees, a divot tool and a ball marker, and all of our stuff ships with that stuff too. So you get a free divot tool when you buy a belt, free tees, free ball marker and uh this is the divot tool right yeah yeah, it slides in, really fits, really snug, because I designed it with neoprene inside, so neoprene, I'm fascinated by this, this material it's.

Kris:

It's both slick and sticky, so it's spongy, so it grips things, it holds them by cushioning them, but it's slick too, so things move off of it, so it's really easy to get your gear in and out of it and it holds it. I've never had one person complain that they lost a tee or something like that. But yeah, these things are selling like hotcakes.

Kris:

They're with the belt, the webbed belt. Yeah, that one we're looking at right now. Yeah, that one's a new color. The most popular ones right now is the black one and the gray one with the gray stripe. They're just. We've. We've run out of stock three times, which you'd think I would learn, but hopefully I have now.

Paul:

No, it's hard. You never know because you're still, like, relatively new, so you don't know what people like and you're always probably you're I mean, you're a tinkerer, right, so like you're probably always refining the product, so that's what you're, you know you're.

Kris:

So right, yeah, you get it, you're. You're an inventor too, you know, and it's to me that's you probably do tees though, that like have your logo on it, like, oh, they do.

Paul:

You know? I'm saying, like those ones that are on the top, that you could just whatever, oh, on the tip on the top, I mean yeah, yeah, I can sell the top. So, like you would see, like the bird logo on top. So there's like four ways. You mean there, yeah, because you can, they'll print all that on there. I would do that because then something loses the t. You'll see that there, I don't know, just because the top breaks off, they might find the top and keep the top.

Kris:

If you're, this idea is I don't know this is one of my worst ideas a black t you hit that thing once, you never find it again.

Kris:

But yeah, so then you know that led to the clip. The clip led to the divot clip. We've got a hat, we've got all kinds of stuff. We have a glove now. That glove holds two Ts on the cuff and a marker underneath, and I designed it. I play softball, so I wear batting gloves a lot and I like the feel of batting gloves how they are. They have thick cuffs around your wrist, so I'm like.

Kris:

I wonder if there's a golf glove like this, and I couldn't find one. So, you know, it has the neoprene that goes down on your wrist, which which kind of reminds you in your backswing don't break your wrist, you know. So it's kind of a swing aid, if you will, and it's made with Italian Cabretta leather. It's got, you know, spandex between the fingers, so it's really comfortable and it's the bleed.

Paul:

I bought gloves once and they bled.

Kris:

dude this it's funny you say that. I just was looking at pictures this morning that users said to me. They're like, hey, bro, my hands are red. I'm like, yeah, it'll come off in a day. That's not good dude.

Paul:

I have me once I had to like dump that or I seriously because like that just we fixed it like I ordered like from a manufacturer and I had like five colors, dude, I had like green, black, orange, right, and then we got done playing ball and, like my friend, my buddies, I didn't. I started selling them and then my my friends were like, look at my hands, and my hand had green hands and my black hands and I was like, oh, that's not good, there's one way to resolve it go white.

Paul:

It's all right. So I just go white. That's why they don't yeah. It's because the dyes, you know and yeah especially the sweat.

Kris:

It's an easy fix, though, because all you have to do is code it.

Paul:

You know so problem, so then did you what when, in terms of like, is this one of your designs too yep, I invented those.

Kris:

The divot clip is the clip, but it has a divot. It is a divot tool as well, so that one's kind of a three-in-one multi-two, that's the beer that's the pincher that opens and closes it.

Kris:

Oh nice, that's cool. And it also holds a pencil or a cylindrical, your straw, whatever. That's cool. But yeah, these things are pretty popular too. People like to buy the foursome. I give bundle deals because you know you're going out with your buddies and you show up with little surprise gift for them. So we're all about bundles. And you know, when we launched the company, it was really important to make our stuff accessibleles. And you know, when we launched the company, it was really important to make our stuff accessible. So you know, my marketing team is pissed that I don't sell the belt for 65 bucks. And they're like look, there are belts for 120 golf belts and they don't do anything like yours does. But I, I kept them all. My stuff is super affordable. You know, the clip is only 20 bucks.

Paul:

What's the most popular is the bundles Like not popular, but like it's a good way. And if somebody's out there learning how to sell stuff, you know what I mean Would you say like you have your singles, but then you also should have like a like what you're doing with bundles stuff too, where it's like oh, group of four, right, or something.

Kris:

Yeah it. Oh, group of four, right, or something. Yeah, it's all about average order value. I mean you raise that when you're selling something for 20 bucks it's hard to get good numbers. So you fix that, you remedy it by bundling things and then that keeps your average order value up and basket size bigger and all of that good stuff. So I try and do a lot of bundles and what's your most popular bundle right now the divot clip foursome yeah

Kris:

that one, yeah, no, the one on the left, that one is our most popular it's because of the clip.

Paul:

Is the same thing or is it different?

Kris:

they're different. One has is forked in the front and the other is rounded.

Paul:

Some people don't like the fork. Yeah, right, see, then you learn, right Like. Oh, people really like that kind. Okay, cool, that's what people want.

Kris:

Right, but the regular one is selling like mad. They just got picked up by Shields, so we're in Shields now. 42 stores across the country Well, specific areas, but I had never heard of Shields because they don't have them in Cali. But it is a freaking massive store.

Paul:

Yeah, they opened up one by my house. It's massive, oh really yeah.

Kris:

Is there a Ferris wheel in it?

Paul:

Yeah, there's a Ferris wheel in it. Yeah, yeah, I think they all have ferris wheels like one like a bass pro shot, but like right, just sports you know yes.

Kris:

So they picked up six skews which we were super excited about was that the pga show or they just found you from this? It was the distributor that found us and just really liked our stuff and she showed it to shields and they said yeah, we'll take six different products instead of you know just one, which we were fully expecting them to pick, like one or two, but six, man, we were stoked oh yeah um, we have a good female demographic as well, because ladies often golf and have no pockets.

Kris:

They have skirts, there's no pockets, there's nowhere to put their stuff, so they tend to gravitate. We have, you know, the pink bundle and all kinds of other kind of neutral colors and whatnot. So, yeah, the female demographic is a very important one to us.

Paul:

So, like you have two different types of clips, right yeah, the rounded type or the one that's a divot tool, exactly.

Kris:

The divot tool holds two keys.

Paul:

I'm trying to find out what somebody likes, and is that your design?

Kris:

Yeah, yeah. And then somebody likes and and is that your design? Yeah, yeah. And then and I made them out of aluminum, because aluminum is lightweight I want all of my products to be invisible to the golfer, like they can't bug you in any way. So everything I design it, just it's meant to be somewhat invisible. So you know, the belt is reversible. You can take that web belt and just roll it around your waist and it becomes like an everyday belt.

Paul:

It's um yeah they're all like how many belts does a person really need? Right like so, if they have one or two that they can just use all the time, then they don't, that's all I mean yeah, for sure especially for golf. So what's coming out this year, then?

Kris:

the new braided belt the new braided belt and the glove just came out. We just started selling the club the glove very recently. We haven't even really promoted them that much yet and and the braided belt we have a ton of pre-orders for already, which is cool. We're doing a little giveaway you get a free visor if you pre-order the braided belt now.

Paul:

So we've got a bunch of people have already bought from you before, like you just kind of pre-ordered your peeps on your that your previous buyers or are you like doing it some other way? Some?

Kris:

some are return customers, others, you know we're doing meta advertising and things like that, so people see it and they come check us out or they go to amazon and buy it you sell all this on amazon, or what?

Paul:

what? Like all your products in amazon, or just certain ones, pretty much everything.

Kris:

It's a necessary evil, and you're so right it it is it. You got to do it, but you hate doing it.

Paul:

Are you running ads on Amazon too, or are you just gone?

Kris:

We're going to start. We just started with an agency that they specialize in Amazon. They're obviously masochistic people because it's so brutal working with Amazon, but you know they take care of your listings. Has Amazon lost?

Paul:

any of your shipments yet, because they've lost some of mine before. And then they play games and like, oh, we didn't, you didn't send it. I'm like, yeah, I didn't, dude, you're thinking you received it, but where is it? Oh, you gotta prove seriously. And then they go oh, you have to prove that you bought it to send it to us. I'm like, why do I have to prove that I sent you the or the entire shipment to like? So they want you to spend like hours and hours and hours and hours and hours trying to like deal with it? It's like, yeah, that's that's called conversion in the world of uh law.

Kris:

They've taken my product and they who knows where it went right vaporware, but you know we're gonna have to do fba when we start advertising.

Paul:

So yeah, what I would rec. Somebody gave me a good recommendation. They said the other day I was talking to a pretty big brand that does it on amazon too. They said that like you can, you can run your ads like normal on Amazon. Or like just what they're doing is they're just running an ad on their branded name so that, like you know, like a competitor is not going to find your, the competitor is not going to compete for your brand name on Amazon.

Paul:

So like, if they are looking for the bird, then it's not like Chinese knockoff, chinese knockoff, chinese knockoff bird, right, essentially paying probably a dollar, right, let's just call it to like get you back out on top. But here's the one plus side I'll tell you the Amazon is that like if you're running ads on amazon, it will show up on google, because amazon's running ads like crazy. So, essentially, like you're gonna see an amazon ad for your thing on am, on google. So it's like it's a twofer. You know, yeah, yeah, but it still costs you a lot of money because they're gonna get you on the ad, they're gonna get you an fba, they're gonna get you on the transaction for the that our fee is next thing, you know, on a 20 thing, you're making two dollars. You know they're taking 22 percent right up.

Paul:

I've done the math. They take like almost over 50. Once all said if you're running ads, 30 for what? Right, you gotta have good margins yeah, you gotta have a good margin, that's right. You have a really good margins, yeah, um, so did you initially start selling that on amazon or did you like go there after you launched and then you'd amazon because you knew, hey, it's a really good way to get the word out, because everybody's on amazon, yeah yeah, it was the latter we we launched after.

Kris:

Yes, sir, we launched the website B2C is you know? That's where you want. All of your business is on your website, because nobody's eating away at your margins on the website. Yeah, so we prefer to drive all our traffic to the website. But, like you said, amazon is a necessity and if you want to, you know know, do you want to sell a lot of product?

Paul:

you got to be on amazon and yeah, yeah, that's what I feel, the exact same way. You know. You just have to, you have to. Yeah, I mean, it's not you'll make less money, but you get more, more, more you make up for it in volume yeah, or people know who you are right. So brand recognition for sure. The new brand, so right now the belt, the belt. The new braided style is coming out.

Kris:

And the new glove the glove is out, but just recently it's been out for about a month, so you can get those now. And what's your biggest?

Paul:

seller, like what's the most popular product you guys have right now? Would you say the belt or the the black belt?

Kris:

that black one, yeah, and the gray one is a close second. Those are our two top selling products, like by leaps and bounds. That's cool, man so clean too I bet you don't even feel that right?

Paul:

I bet you don't even feel it.

Kris:

They're super comfortable. I mean they're elastic, you know I mean this. The second version was a little tighter, elastic, because the first one was I wanted it to be soft and comfortable and it was a little too loose. So this one's a little stiffer, but it's not as stiff as a leather belt and you know they're definitely not for everybody. Some people think they don't look good and they don't like elastic belts, you know. But most people love elastic belts. So you know I modeled them after some of the top selling belts in the world.

Paul:

So yeah you didn't know first, you know what's more. Yeah, you know. Like, for sure, mother belts are dime a dozen right. I mean, yeah, and how? So like if somebody bought like this is it's really one size fits all right because it's elastic belt.

Kris:

So you just, you know, yeah the web belts or the braided belts will will have different, four different sizes, but the webbed belts, the elastic ones, they're, they're one size fits most that's so cool.

Paul:

So when did you launch? Launch then.

Kris:

It was probably 16 months ago, I want to say, and at the first PGA show we went to last year 24, we were nominated in the top five products of the year, which was really cool. That was not a pay-to-play program, we didn't have to pay to get that and we, uh, we were picked to pitch on the main stage our product to david ledbetter and a bunch of golf heavyweights, which was really cool. Kind of nerve-wracking but super fun. Um, and we didn't win. The grip caddy won and I'm glad for them. He's wiser, is a super cool guy, really great founder.

Kris:

What the group caddy it's? Uh, the grip caddy. It basically cleans your golf grips. It's an all-in-one little tour of that thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, looks like a wrench um, but yeah. So they won. We were told we were, we were a close second um, and yeah, we, we just have taken off since then. You know it's been. It was a good show. We went this year a little more quiet for us than the first year because you know we were the newbies and you know people go, buyers go to the pga show. They're always looking for the next thing to sell and if you have something that's even remotely different or outside the norm, then they're attracted to you. You know.

Paul:

No, I think it's cool product.

Kris:

Dude like when I think I was cool.

Paul:

I like inventive stuff that's cool, that I think people should know about. When I first saw this, I was like, oh, this is cool. You know like it's a lot of work to create something from scratch for your own, yeah, or to make a product better or something that never even existed. You know, yeah, the whole. It's a whole process, but with what you've done, with like your life and all the development, it's just a natural transition you know, yeah, totally yeah, you nailed it and it's funny like advertising on social media and whatnot.

Kris:

You know, people have no idea, to your point, what goes into this. I mean, it's our blood, sweat, tears, it's, it's our passion. So it's not just something you're doing to make a buck, it's something you, your soul, goes into. You know, and there there's a, there's a human behind every product that you buy in the world. So you know, you gotta your baby.

Kris:

Yeah, and you know it's. It's important to me like two things are super important to me that I've told my kids a thousand times as they were growing up be present, be mindful it always shows respect to people and find your passion early. You know, I was 50 before when I found my passion, you know, I just, but I I'm so grateful that I did, you know, because finding something you're passionate about is difficult and when you do, it's magical it's, just it's life-changing you know, I totally agree with that, seriously like yeah, when it's not about, like when you're young, you're feeling it's like chasing money is like the thing right or or whatever.

Paul:

I guess yeah, right. And it like when you get older you're like so what? I don't know. I saw that in the laws of lawyer.

Kris:

Yeah.

Paul:

So well, where can people find the bird?

Kris:

The birdcom. It's right there on the page and the bird is spelled with a Y B, y, r, d and you can find it on our website. You can find it in shields or golf stores, green grass stores near you. We're obviously also on Amazon and Etsy and all those fun places Awesome.

Paul:

Well, thank you so much, Chris, for being on the show today. You guys have to check out the bird, like it's cool, because it's not just like another accessory, it's like something you just like I don't know. It's like you're not a one-trick pony so you can use it for so many different things and it's also apparel, so it's like hard to say, like fit in one genre. It's like actually, no, it's like, and you're probably always like I bet you have new stuff coming out too that we don't even know about. You're probably like, oh, we should do that, we should do that, yeah for sure. But thank you so much for being on the show. Um, you guys check out thebirdcom and I'll see you guys in the next episode.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, paul, thank you thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf brand podcast. You're gonna beat me. Stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfersauthoritycom. Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you win. Stay out of the beach and see you on the green.

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Paul Liberatore Esq.

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