A golf clothing maker has moved its headquarters to a 3,600-square-foot building in the Irvine Spectrum.
“We wanted to grow the business,” said Rick Lamitie, chief executive of Rickey Golf Inc.
The company had been looking “to find a better fit” after it outgrew its 1,800-square-foot office in Aliso Viejo. The new building, at 49 Post in Irvine, is near where the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and the 133 Toll Road meet.
The 2-year-old company, which makes custom-tailored golf slacks and shorts that have dressed professional golfers Billy Mayfair and Charles Howell III, has grown quickly, according to Lamitie.
It moved because it needed more space for customer service and additional workers, he said.
Rickey Golf has about 10 full-time workers and about 24 sales reps across the country. The company plans to add several more by the end of this year, according to Lamitie.
$5M in Sales
Lamitie isn’t new to the business. He crafted his skills after running David Rickey & Co., one of the first Orange County tailors to cater to executives. Rickey Golf has done $5 million in sales since its start in 2005, according to Lamitie.
Clients buy clothes directly from the company or from private golf clubs.
Rickey Golf’s Irvine headquarters should help the company reach out to its customers, Lamitie said.
The building includes a showroom where they can look at the clothing designs and fabrics, and get custom fitted, he said.
With the headquarters close to the I-5 and San Diego (I-405) freeways, as well as the toll road, the showroom should become a convenient destination for golfers, Lamitie said.
Rickey Golf has teamed up with about 350 golf clubs so far, such as the Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells and the Whisper Rock Golf Club in Scottsdale, he said. Golf clubs pay about $500 to become Rickey Golf providers, according to Lamitie.
They get swatches and samples of fabrics so they can custom fit clients, Lamitie said. It’s an added service for a golf club, he said.
Trendy Clubs
Custom-fitted golf clubs are another trend in the industry, Lamitie said.
That also inspired him to turn the showroom into a fitting center, he said.
Getting fitted for clubs has “been a big deal over the last 10 years,” Lamitie said.
“We’re going along with that concept,” he said. “We wanted the fitting center to be a destination, a place where people could go.”
The company’s created a bit of a niche with its custom designed clothing.
Competitors include Nike Golf, part of Oregon-based Nike Inc., Carlsbad’s Ashworth Inc., Huntington Beach’s Cleveland Golf Co., a unit of Quiksilver Inc., and Adidas Golf, part of Germany’s Adidas AG. They offer golf clothes, but without the custom fit.
The company’s Irvine headquarters has a design-like quality to it, something that was important to Lamitie so it would stand out from other corporate offices.
Rickey Golf makes its clothes at a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in the Dominican Republic, Lamitie said. All of the clothes are custom ordered and shipped directly to clients, he said.
Lamitie said he spent about $1.5 million developing software that allows customers to create personal portfolios with their measurements on Rickey Golf’s Web site.
The bulk of the cost went to building a site that could link customers’ measurements directly to its plant in the Dominican Republic, he said.
The company’s Web site has fueled its growth as more customers are searching for convenient and private ways to buy tailored clothing, Lamitie said.
“A lot of guys are shy about going to stores, trying things on and getting things measured and fitted,” he said. “Now they never have to worry about that. Once they have their measurements on file, they can just pick colors and fabrics and get something shipped directly to them.”
Rickey Golf’s slacks and shorts typically run $175 to $275, according to Lamitie. The company’s thought about designing and making golf clothing for women but decided to stick to menswear because women’s clothing is too complex, he said.
“We’ve decided that we’re good at what we do with men and we don’t have the proper patterns for women,” Lamitie said. “We’ve had a lot of women ask us why not, but there are too many different body types and too many styles for women. It just becomes a difficult issue.”
Up next: Rickey Golf plans to sell custom-made shoes, shirts and belts in the next six to 10 months, he said.
