It began with a man standing on a seaside holding a surfboard.
It was 20 years in the past that John O’Donnell created that brand of a surfer dude and slapped it onto a golf shirt. Over the previous 20 years, the model he launched, Johnnie-O, has grown right into a $200 million-plus enterprise of males’s, girls’s and boys’ attire and equipment with a strong wholesale enterprise and a couple of dozen of its personal shops across the nation.
Trying forward, there are plans so as to add new classes akin to eyewear, whereas including new shops and dealing to construct a few of its newer classes akin to womenswear and its Prime Shelf elevated males’s product — all whereas staying true to its unique mission.
Like many attire entrepreneurs, O’Donnell had no background in style, however he knew rather a lot about golf and nation golf equipment. He grew up in suburban Chicago surrounded by the preppie nation membership tradition, and spent his teenage years creating right into a top-notch golfer. He attended UCLA for school, the place he performed on the golf crew, competed in 5 USGA occasions and regarded turning professional after he graduated.
However as a substitute, he used his diploma in historical past and enterprise and his expertise within the sport of golf to hitch Fox Sports activities Web Chicago in promoting gross sales, adopted by Golf Channel and Merrill Corp., a monetary printing agency.
It didn’t take him lengthy to tire of the company life and O’Donnell began pondering the concept of constructing a enterprise centered round that shirt and his thought of “West Coast prep,” an idea that blended the blue blazers and khakis he had grown up carrying with the flip-flops and board shorts he embraced throughout his years in L.A.
He created a four-button pocket polo in a washed, old-school cotton material and named it after his nickname: Johnnie-O.
John O’Donnell
Courtesy of Johnnie-O
“There was one thing in that shirt that was magic as a result of it was a silly little polo shirt that was virtually disposable,” O’Donnell mentioned. “However there was one thing concerning the fashion married to the brand. I’d give a good friend a shirt they usually’d say, ‘I would like two dozen extra as a result of all my mates need one.’ So I believed, you understand, there’s one thing right here. And if we do that proper, I actually assume there’s an urge for food for it. And I feel we did do it proper. We didn’t attempt to get too huge, too quick. It’s been a very concentrated, conservative, methodical development.”
He pointed to his brother-in-law, Rob Berner, who serves as chairman of Johnnie-O, as amongst those that helped him keep on monitor. “His recommendation then — and nonetheless to today — is that new companies will be nice companies however the number-one cause they exit of enterprise is that they run out of cash.”
To maintain that from taking place, O’Donnell tapped some family and friends to take a position however at all times “operated below the mindset that we’re broke.”
However Johnnie-O is much from broke.
In 2022, the corporate took on its first institutional buyers, Ares Administration Corp. and Wasatch International Traders, who acquired a minority stake within the enterprise for $108 million. O’Donnell mentioned the funds allowed Johnnie-O to distribute some return to the preliminary buyers “which was actually a reduction of kinds to me as a result of whenever you become involved with family and friends cash, all hell can break unfastened.”
Even earlier than the funding, he made some personnel strikes which have confirmed to be invaluable as properly. In 2015, he introduced Dave Gatto, a one-time president and chief govt officer of Reef Holdings, on board to run the corporate on a day-to-day foundation.
Though Johnnie-O has grown considerably over the previous 20 years, Gatto mentioned the model stays true to O’Donnell’s imaginative and prescient and model positioning. “That’s our true north,” he mentioned.
However the “greatest inflection level” for the corporate is after they had been in a position to lure Chris Knott, the founding father of Peter Millar, out of retirement to hitch the corporate as chief merchandising officer, he mentioned. “That was virtually eight years in the past and it actually elevated the product.” He mentioned not solely was the standard and consistency of the providing improved, however Knott additionally helped improve the model positioning and rent an “A+ gross sales drive.”
Then got here the pandemic. However in contrast to a variety of corporations, Johnnie-O truly benefited, Gatto mentioned, as guys pivoted to a more-casual wardrobe and embraced golf. “We had been extremely properly positioned to excel in these classes,” he mentioned.
Johnnie-O’s surfer brand has turn into a signature of the model.
Courtesy of Johnnie-O
On the identical time, Johnnie-O invested in its e-commerce and began opening retail shops. The 12th will debut in Could in Birmingham, Ala., with different choose items within the works the place it is sensible and don’t compete with current wholesale accounts.
Final 12 months, the corporate launched girls’s golfwear which Gatto mentioned has been “tremendous properly acquired” thanks partly to the corporate’s success in menswear and the relationships it has established with some 2,500 inexperienced grass accounts. The majority of the enterprise comes from both golf or specialty shops with a couple of division retailer clients akin to Nordstrom, Von Maur and Dillard’s carrying the gathering.
“There’s been a variety of evolution however John’s imaginative and prescient has been precisely the identical,” he mentioned.
Johnnie-O gives West Coast prep product.
Courtesy of Johnnie-O
Personally, O’Donnell mentioned he’s nonetheless concerned within the enterprise, however not as a lot as to start with. “We’ve received an amazing crew and I put my hand on the wheel infrequently, however I let the professionals do their job.”
However he admitted that letting go hasn’t at all times been simple. “I keep intimately concerned in some ways. Emotionally, I’m all there. It’s my child and there are some issues I’d love to do in a different way, however you’ve received to know when to step again and let the professionals do their work. That’s why they’re right here. And I’m fortunate to have them.”
He too pointed to Knott as one of many keys to the model’s success. “He brings a lot extra to the desk than simply being an amazing designer and product man. What folks don’t understand is the relationships he has with factories, the commerce, the retailers. He positively put us from second-and-a-half gear to 3rd gear to fourth gear and he’s nonetheless gearing. And naturally, he’s surrounded himself with a really proficient crew. That was positively the turning level when it comes to how huge we might get and the way shortly we might speed up the expansion.”
Gatto mentioned that to commemorate the anniversary, the corporate is relaunching its unique polo in one hundred pc cotton together with commemorative golf headcovers and can proceed to rejoice all year long with completely different initiatives.
Additionally within the works are some product extensions in males’s, significantly round its Prime Shelf higher-priced assortment that provides higher materials and new classes akin to sport coats. “We see a variety of alternative there,” Gatto mentioned. “That’s performing extraordinarily properly in our personal retail retailers.”
He mentioned the corporate may also proceed so as to add signature retailers at choose specialty shops and can launch a restricted choice of eyewear subsequent month in addition to a brand new headwear providing.
“I don’t see us dramatically transferring far afield from the place we’re at present,” Gatto mentioned, “however constructing further muscle via product extensions and a few new classes.”
So what do the following 20 years maintain for Johnnie-O? “I see the model persevering with long gone Johnnie-O the person,” O’Donnell mentioned. “There’s a variety of depth and power and deep roots to what we’ve completed and I feel there’ll proceed to at all times be an affinity for it. And I feel there’s a variety of alternative to transcend simply polo shirts and five-pocket pants, whether or not that’s furnishings or the restaurant enterprise. I feel the longer term is vibrant.”
O’Donnell additionally didn’t dismiss the concept that he would possibly sometime promote the model in its entirety. “There’s positively not an indication out within the entrance yard,” he mentioned. “However we now have this investor group of family and friends who’ve been on this anyplace from 15 to twenty years. Not that everyone’s seeking to promote, however let’s simply say we’d be open to a companion of kinds, whether or not it was a minority or a majority, and who is aware of, at some point we might promote the entire thing. I feel we’re open to a companion that would deliver concepts and a few extra gas.”
