Inside Levelwear's holistic method to the athletic-wear enterprise

What does it imply for a model to take a holistic method not solely to merchandise but additionally its consumer-facing picture?

Levelwear, a family-owned and managed attire firm based in 1987, is discovering out.

The Canadian athletic put on model has spent a long time as a high-quality producer with restricted identify recognition, however that’s starting to alter.

Current partnerships with among the greatest names in professional golf, from Adam Hadwin and Corey Connors on the boys’s facet to Carlota Ciganda and Alena Sharp within the ladies’s sport — to not point out star athletes in different sports activities, just like the Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan McLeod and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Chris Taylor — have given Levelwear extra visibility.

The model’s clout resides within the high quality of its merchandise and the depth of its buyer relationships — a degree of pleasure for everybody concerned. When it got here to creating a mission imaginative and prescient for the model’s future, celebrating the collective versus the person felt like a pure alternative.

Jay Chaney is a associate and chief technique officer at Damaged Coronary heart Love Affair, an company primarily based in Toronto that Levelwear employed to assist form the corporate’s future model technique.

To get a really feel for the corporate tradition, Chaney carried out interviews with Levelwear’s workers, companions and prospects.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” he mentioned. “Probably the most wonderful a part of this entire course of was persistently, there was one form of story that saved on coming, whether or not you labored at Levelwear or whether or not you have been a buyer of theirs, and that’s that there was a humanity throughout the group, and that it was the those that mattered.

“So, in fact, the merchandise have been being delivered and there was a consistency of product and it was an ideal high quality. However what the purchasers have been telling us was that this is a corporation that they felt cared about them as prospects and other people and that the private relationships that existed between them and Levelwear actually made the connection indispensable, and one thing that they seemed ahead to.”

Who’s with You?™ and Win as One™ have been in the end chosen as the first ideas behind Levelwear’s new mission imaginative and prescient. As a substitute of specializing in the person, Levelwear wished to acknowledge the efforts of the crew that makes all of it occur. Every product has numerous people behind it. From design to manufacturing to supply, every crew member has a task in making Levelwear’s merchandise the most effective they are often, so the buyer — all the best way from Tour gamers like Connors and Hadwin to you and me — may be the beneficiary of that high quality. Whereas golf is a person sport, collective effort resonates in the same method. To achieve success a participant wants quite a few individuals in his or her nook, from a coach and caddie to a coach and supportive relations. That recognition — and celebration — of the crew is Levelwear’s level of differentiation from different athletic put on manufacturers.

“They’re very inclusive and open with everyone,” Chaney mentioned. “What’s true and natural about this group is they really imagine that the one method this firm goes to achieve success is that if everyone is handled with the respect of your complete group, and the way they deal with different purchasers as essential human beings, not simply monetary accounts or enterprise alternatives.”

That ethos begins on the high with Levelwear’s management. The model is family-owned, and CEO Hester Ngo desires that partnership to be evident within the merchandise. 

“We wish to be acknowledged as the primary attire model to develop into synonymous with celebrating teamwork and crew play — by shoppers,” she mentioned. “All of us have a household, by blood or alternative, behind all of us, let’s not simply acknowledge the triumphs of the athletes, however rejoice all these answerable for their success.”

Levelwear’s model ascendancy may be attributed to many issues: the Covid golf growth, a low-minimum, quick-turn enterprise mannequin, and naturally, premium high quality merchandise. However Ngo mentioned strategic licensing offers with main sports activities entities just like the MLB, NHL and NBA have helped the model when it comes to client consciousness. A key second: when Levelwear’s NHL licensing deal coincided with the Winnipeg Jets buying their growth franchise.

“Levelwear was well-positioned to assist them go to market rapidly with premium, fan-based licensed attire,” Ngo mentioned. “Our service mannequin offers a degree of differentiation that’s interesting to our companions.”

That dedication to service is aptly demonstrated in Levelwear’s relationship with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. Brent Frew is the director of company partnerships for Oilers Leisure Group, and two years in the past, he sought to develop the prevailing retail partnership right into a full promoting company partnership.

“The standard of the product is what spoke for itself, and why we’ve finished the amount that we’ve got,” he mentioned. “Not solely does it have that high quality really feel, it’s bought a good value level as nicely. But additionally, Levelwear’s possession group has been so dedicated to going above and past what the paperwork exhibits, not solely only for their model, but additionally only for us. They’ve stepped as much as the plate on numerous events the place we’ve wanted help on a retail entrance, on a fast timeline, to assist us out. Working with them is like working with associates, as a result of they’ve bought your again once you want it.”

Along with the licensing agreements with different skilled sports activities entities, golf is one other essential silo for Levelwear, not solely outfitting the model’s associate athletes on tour and supplying green-grass accounts and e-comm gross sales, but additionally by a multi-year licensing take care of the PGA Tour. In 2019, Levelwear additionally created an revolutionary event activation, the Levelwear Caddie Lounge, which features a barbershop, physiotherapy, product gifting, meals and drinks and even massages for the sport’s skilled loopers. The Caddie Lounge is on-site at choose PGA Tour tournaments all year long.

On the current RBC Canadian Open, the Lounge was a favourite hangout.

“It feels such as you’re in a clubhouse and a member of the membership,” mentioned Danny Sahl, who caddies for Corey Connors. “All the pieces is in a single place that you just want for the day.”

“This expertise is an 11 out of 10,” mentioned Ryan Moore’s caddie, Austin Gaugert. “Love that Levelwear does this for the caddies and at all times pumped to seek out out the blokes are out on the occasion.”

“The blokes go excessive to verify have been taken care of,” mentioned Matthew Achatz, who caddies for Kevin Streelman. “They cowl off every part we want if we overlook one thing.”

The anticipation of desires and wishes — particularly relating to the Caddie Lounge — is one thing that units Levelwear aside, mentioned David Desmond, the PGA Tour’s VP of endemic partnerships and media gross sales.

“Levelwear places collectively unbelievable merchandise,” he mentioned. “So you realize what occurs? Abruptly, they’re going to market X and the temperature drops right down to 38 levels. [The Caddie Lounge has] pullovers, they’ve bought rain jackets, they’ve bought little luggage of shirts. Gamers truly put on their shirt simply because it was there. And the participant didn’t have to enter the clubhouse and attempt to determine issues out. Levelwear constructed a program that was targeted on the well-being of caddies, and it was additionally an outlet for any person who would possibly want one thing.”

That goodwill helps create a military of name ambassadors, all of whom are grateful to Levelwear for prioritizing their wants.

“I look ahead to working an occasion the place Levelwear present us with the lounge,” mentioned Jeremy Wu, who caddies for his brother, Dylan. “They contact all of the bases. It provides caddie a motive to remain and hang around on the course.”

Relationships. High quality. Service. Doing issues in another way. These are the attributes that launched Levelwear to success prior to now, and will proceed to propel the model to even better heights sooner or later.