New Bedford, Mass., Feb. 18, 2010 – Since entering the golf business more than 15 years ago, AHEAD has always been recognized for its innovative and creative new approaches to ornamentation. When it comes to branding golf courses, events and tournaments, AHEAD is an industry leader with proven designs that make headwear, apparel and accessories sell quickly. AHEAD introduced a new S.O.S. (Smart Ornamentation Sells) campaign at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show that was received with great enthusiasm from current and new customers.
“Our design and sales team took a look back at the most successful logo designs over the last 15 years, coupled them with some extraordinary new designs for 2010 and created a S.O.S. Resource book for each of our reps,” said Jeff Waller, national sales director. “With this book, the reps are better able to help their accounts visualize and select designs that will showcase the club logo and pop off the shelf. Internally we also think of S.O.S. as Simply Out Sells.”
The feedback on the SOS campaign at the show was outstanding.
“I was considering looking at some other headwear brands for my hats with ‘alternative graphics’ but after taking one look at the AHEAD S.O.S. program, we picked out so many great logos that we liked, there was no reason to look anywhere else,” said Kenny Nairn, Director of Golf for Celebration Golf Club, Celebration, Fla.
Customers were excited about the smart ornamentation designs but the new raised vintage label may have stolen the show.
“The vintage label has a classic, clean styling that resonated exceptionally well with our customers,” said Waller. “A lot of companies are over designing hats and logos. The truth is they become too busy and don’t sell through. It’s a big advantage to have such a long history of great designs when coming up with new techniques to help our customers sell merchandise quickly. In this economy, you can’t afford to have merchandise sit on the shelf. One of the exciting features of this new design is that it works well on both headwear and outerwear. I can’t say enough about our creative staff and what they bring to this brand.”
AHEAD leads the industry in creating new appliqués treatments and enhancing existing ones.
The launch of the SOS campaign was just one of the things buyers were excited about in the AHEAD booth. Named one of the busiest booths at the show, AHEAD had a number of new product launches that had the show floor buzzing.
– The new Bling Collection by Kate Lord is guaranteed to be a hit in golf shops this year. The collection features crystal caps, tees and accessories.
– AHEAD had many of the top clubs and resorts placing orders for its new Golf Digest recognition logo program. The program allows clubs to put its Golf Digest recognition award exclusively on AHEAD headwear, apparel and accessories. The excitement was shared by courses who now can co-brand their merchandise with Golf Digest logos, in particular tournaments and junior programs. A 12-month bonus subscription comes with most items.
– In Men’s Authentics, the new mercerized dri-balance polo collection was a show stopper. This hybrid performance polo combines 70 percent Egyptian cotton with 30 percent polyester for suggested retail of only $69.
– In headwear, performance headwear continues to be hot. The new tech-caps by AHEAD, featuring Coolmax® technology and moisture wicking attributes were strong performers.
“The PGA Show continues to be a success year after year for AHEAD,” said Ken Shwartz, President and CEO, AHEAD. “We were pleased to see that more and more of our customers were buying multiple categories from us and going deeper within these categories. I think it is a reflection on the economic climate we are in and also a complement to our business model of being the “one source” company for their soft good needs.”
About AHEAD
AHEAD® is a designer and marketer of branded headwear, apparel and accessories. Headquartered in New Bedford, Mass., the company operates four distinct business units: the AHEAD® men’s apparel line; AHEAD® Headgear, AHEAD® “Heavy Metal™” line of golf accessories and the Kate Lord™ Collection of ladies hats, ladies apparel and ladies accessories. AHEAD is a supporting partner of PGA Golf Retirement Plus, a licensee of the USGA, PGA of America, PGA TOUR and the official headwear of the AJGA. For information on AHEAD, visit www.aheadweb.com.
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