The Korngold Insider
The 14-year-old competitive golfer is the founder of Featherie, a performance golf apparel line focused on female teen golfers.
Korngold grew up in New York and launched Featherie in response to her frustration with the lack of apparel options for teen girls who did not want to sacrifice performance for style or sustainability.
More than the performance apparel itself, Featherie was designed with the goal of ensuring that girls are no longer an afterthought in the golf industry. When she’s not on the golf course or designing Featherie’s next apparel line, Kate enjoys playing tennis, softball, skiing, math puzzles and baking.
The Korngold Story
I am the founder of Featherie, the first performance golf apparel brand designed for teen female golfers who don’t want to compromise function nor style.
As a competitive golfer, I and other female golfers like me, struggled to find clothing that wasn’t designed for boys, kids or women — none of which are designed for teen girls. After searching for options and finding none I decided to launch Featherie to fill a major void in the market that large brands missed and to help remind people that golf is for girls and that females shouldn’t be an afterthought in the industry as they have been for years.
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What does it feel like to be a 14-year-old entrepreneur?
It’s really exciting! I never thought it would be possible for me to start my own business and to play a small part in reminding the world that girls should not be an afterthought in the world of golf as the current clothing options would suggest.
What was missing from female clothing for teens and the like?
There were virtually no performance golf clothes being made for teen girls.
My options were the kids’ section, the boys’ section or the women’s section, none of which were my taste or my size.
Also, very few brands used sustainable materials and that is very important to my generation.
What was the most difficult part in getting started?
As a competitive golfer, I knew exactly what I wanted to design for girls my age, but I didn’t know where to even begin.
I knew I wanted to use high-performance, recycled fabrics that didn’t compromise function or style, but we had to figure out how to accomplish that given no one had done that for the teen market before.
Did you have interested investors providing financing?
My parents believed in me and in my idea — they are my investors for now.
When people actually meet you – what is the initial response you get?
Everyone has been so incredibly supportive and loves the idea that it took a 14-year-old to fill a major void that all of the large brands had overlooked.
Then, if they are a female golfer or if they have a daughter who golfs, they usually say “thanks for doing this — it’s about time that someone reminded the world that golf is for girls!”
Who is your customer and how are you reaching them?
My customer is a stylish female teen golfer or young woman (our sizing fits most women as well) who is eco-conscious and who is looking for golf clothing that is both sophisticated and feminine.
We are reaching these customers primarily through social media and through Featherie.com, but we are also hoping to reach these young women through the pro-shops at their home courses.
Companies routinely talk about customer service. Define the term and the approach you follow?
What I have learned is that producing a product is only 50% of a company — the other 50% is customer service.
I am so focused on making sure that both the product and the customer service are always premium, without compromise.
How is customer feedback encouraged and what role does it play with future designs?
We love feedback.
My first question when someone new tries something from Featherie on is always “what do you think!?”
We are using the comments we’ve received through our social media channels, as well as the feedback we’ve received in person, to help us design our second collection, which will be coming out next year.
In terms of sales – what’s the approximate percentage being gained via brick-and-mortar retail outlets, green grass shops and online efforts?
We are currently being sold in green-grass shops (pro shops) and through our website, largely driven by word-of-mouth recommendations.
We launched earlier in 2024, so at this point it’s too early to determine where most of our sales will originate longer-term. Fortunately, the product has really taken off so far.
Biggest challenges short and long term are what? And what strategic responses are being pursued to deal with each.
The biggest challenge so far has been just getting the Featherie name out in the market and informing teen girls that they now have clothing created specifically for them.
We are partnering with a number of golf associations that have the same goal that we do, which is to make sure that girls feel welcomed in the game of golf. I’m so excited about those partnerships.
Long term, I hope that our biggest challenge is to compete with big brands for the female teen market — wouldn’t it be amazing if a 14-year-old was the one to wake up the golf industry and make them realize that girls matter too and that led to the major brands making clothes for us?
Nothing would make me happier than if Featherie served as the inspiration to level the playing field for girls in golf.
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