Ball Pro (PPAI 112763, Gold) sits somewhere between catering to a specific clientele of end users and being at the edge of a rising trend in the branded merch industry. As the company has grown in recent years – it’s seen a rise to No. 18 in the PPAI 100 after debuting at No. 37 in 2023 and has a three-year growth trend of 127.7% – it has also partnered with a number of household and retail brand names.
Under Armour, Vineyard Vines, Callaway, Titleist, Holderness & Bourne… these are the type of names that much of the consumer public, and golfers in particular, trust and want. Ball Pro is reaching its clientele. According to PPAI Research, 79% of distributors are reporting a rising demand for retail and premium products.
Adam Andrus has been working in marketing at Ball Pro for nearly a decade and a half. Over that time, he says most of the partnerships with brands developed as a product of those trending statistics.
“Many of the partnerships and decisions we’ve discussed weren’t driven as much by boardroom strategy as by conversations with distributors,” Andrus says. “We pay attention to what they’re asking for and try to respond accordingly.”
It’s an important distinction to make: Retail product partnerships in the branded merch industry are a somewhat newer trend, but they are being facilitated through the traditional distributor/supplier channels. Those healthy relationships within the supply chain also serve as a distribution of information. Ball Pro learns through distributors that their customers want access to brands they already know, trust and get excited about. Over time, that leads to partnerships on the supplier side.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make it easier for distributors to work with us,” Andrus says. “If we can offer sought-after brands alongside great products and service, it creates more value for our customers and helps them meet the growing demand they’re seeing from end users.”
Adam Andrus
Marketing Manager, Ball Pro
The logic behind those partnerships is one thing. Unlocking them as a possibility is another altogether. That is where Ball Pro’s growth has been strategic, lining up with its goals.
‘Exposure To A Much Broader Apparel Landscape…’
In early 2025, Ball Pro stepped into the next chapter of its journey when it acquired Branded Apparel. This allowed the supplier to expand into golf apparel and become something of a one-stop shop for golf tournaments.
Often when people think about companies acquiring other companies, especially in the era of increasingly common private equity mergers, they are mostly thinking about literal growth – the notion of one company swallowing up another and thus growing in size. Of course, there’s always some degree of truth to that logic, but what’s lost in that line of thinking is that in any strategic acquisition, there are specific additive qualities gained by the acquiring company. Those benefits can crystalize as the dust settles.
“One of the unexpected benefits of the Branded Apparel acquisition was gaining exposure to a much broader apparel landscape,” Andrus says.
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Andrus and the others at Ball Pro previously thought they had a decent handle on the golf apparel world. They were, after all, immersed in golf. What became clear, though, is that brand names brought end users and clients, and each partnership with those brand names was something like a mini lottery ticket.
“What we quickly learned was just how many great brands there are and how passionate people are about them,” Andrus says. “Every brand seems to have its own loyal following, and in some cases, almost a cult-like fan base. The Branded Apparel team that joined us brought deep expertise and relationships that opened our eyes to opportunities we might not have otherwise seen.”
- For golfers, there’s both a credibility factor and a loyalty factor at play with certain brand names.
- That’s before you consider potential quality considerations of a premium brand name.
Still, this dynamic isn’t specific to golf. It has broken containment in the branded merchandise industry.
“Retail and premium products continue to gain traction, increasingly becoming a core part of end buyers’ expectations, especially in recognition, gifting and employee experience programs,” says Alok Bhat, market economist, research and public affairs lead at PPAI.
Alok Bhat
Market Economist, Research & Public Affairs Lead, PPAI
Andrus says that mindset has been there for the past 20 years, but distributors and suppliers are starting to think on the same page. Using golf balls as an example, he says clients are typically either asking for their premium retail brand product (Titleist Pro V1) or they are approaching Ball Pro with a price point. “There isn’t a lot of middle ground.”
Ultimately, everything is cyclical in this story: Ball Pro was always fueled by partnerships with brands like Titleist. The acquisition of Branded Apparel led to more partnerships with brands like Greyson, Under Armour, Flag & Anthem, Sun Day Red amd Vineyard Vines. All of this fuels more growth and more opportunities, such as the newly announced exclusive partnership with Turf Caps.
Every firm takes its own journey, but data has suggested that this is something of a microcosm for what many industry suppliers are looking to accomplish by reaching end users through their retail brand partnerships.
“When someone receives a recognized brand, whether it’s apparel, drinkware or another premium item, it tends to make a stronger impression and stick around longer,” Andrus says.
