I recently spent time in Bourbon, Missouri with the management
team at Imperial Headwear. I was invited by David Shaffer who is the Director
of Marketing to tour their facilities and discuss their move from Denver to
Missouri. After the purchase in October of 2012 by Paramount Apparel
International the subsequent conversion of internal systems, etc. culminated
with this move, and like all such moves, requires patience and dedicated
expertise to accomplish. The team at Imperial were rightfully proud as they
explained to me that “not only is the transition complete but we are better
poised now than we have ever been to service the golf market.”
The other partnership that we were getting together to discuss was
described to me by Mike Wrightson (General Manager of Imperial Headwear) as “a
game changer in golf headwear” is the proprietary relationship with CoolcoreÒ to launch a
line of caps that can lower surface temperatures up to 30% without chemicals.
I was impressed with the tour, the team, the partnerships and the
potential of a “game changer” and so I am excited to have an opportunity to
publish some of that conversation.
David, Mike – sitting in
this showroom, having toured the facility and heard the details of the
transition and the breadth of the Paramount umbrella is frankly a lot to take
in. Go over the more important points of what this new latitude means to
Imperial’s green-grass distribution.
Mike –Imperial is now owned and operated
by a very healthy corporation. Imperial’s customers can really benefit from the
capabilities of this larger parent company.
Inventory levels are great, production has industry-leading turnaround
times, and returns are at record lows.
Our customers are just now starting to see the muscle behind the new
Imperial.
It seems that as big and
difficult a move and transition as this was that Imperial has not lost its
market share with high-end golf shops.
David – I like to say the higher a golf
course is ranked the more likely they are to do business with Imperial. Imperial is THE classic golf brand; we turn
100-years old next year. Of course there
was some attrition during the transition – that was to be expected – but a lot
of those customers have started coming back to Imperial.
Coolcore as a “game-changer”
is a strong declaration and yet after seeing the fabrication and the
demonstration and video I’m inclined to agree with you.
David – Wicking has been the performance
story for a long time now in golf apparel. Cooling is the next generation of
performance fabrics though, and Coolcore is the best cooling technology out
there right now. Coolcore fabrics test so well against other fabrics claiming
to do similar things. And to perform
that well without the use of chemicals is amazing -- it’s all in the fiber
construction.
Mike – It’s an exciting time for our
Company. There aren’t too many
technological breakthroughs in headwear, but this is one of them. I’m thrilled to be the first company offering
this cooling technology to golf customers.
Mike, you mentioned that the
fabrication alone won’t make the new line launch a success. You will need a
handsome hat design with shelf appeal and perhaps some “outside the box”
merchandising ideas in order to create the sell through you feel the product
deserves.
Mike – Yes, when we first evaluated the
opportunity to develop a line of cooling headwear we decided to design great
looking headwear with comfortable technical fabrics. Otherwise nobody would care about its
function. So we set out to make better performance
hats with superior technology.
David, assuming this
cool-down benefit takes the headwear category out of the commodity mode and
makes it much more brand driven- what are the marketing plans to drive this
home?
David – From a marketing point of view
this is also a game changer. We think
our cooling hats will have strong consumer appeal. In addition to designing some great styles
with Coolcore fabrication, we’ve set premium price points and increased
advertising as well as PR efforts to help drive consumer awareness.
When we put this Coolcore
conversation on the blog I’m going to want to put up the video that explains
the fabrication. Is there anything else that either of you would like to add to
for the reader’s benefit?
David – Coolcore technology is activated
by moisture. So when your body sweats or
you dip the hat in water, it triggers the cooling effect through
evaporation. Which is great because the
cap only works when you’re hot or want to cool down. Otherwise it’s just a great hat!
Link to video: https://vimeo.com/127868395
David, Mike – I want to
thank you for your time and effort telling this story to the blog's readership
and for having me out to Missouri.
Thank you, Craig!
