Background
With 40+ years in the apparel and retail space, Michael Setola has been a part of the golf industry for more than half of his career.
Acquiring Greg Norman Collection and merging with Tharanco in 2009 set the platform for the additional acquisition of Dunning in 2011. Most recently, the reintroduction of Tourney completes a “good, better, best” golf offering for its over 3,500 wholesale customers. He is an avid golfer.
The Setola Story
Growing up, I’d be making up a story if I said I always wanted to be in the apparel business. However, it just so happened that my first job out of college was with Hanes underwear in 1980, during the heyday of department stores. I learned how to sell based on trust and reputation. And, to this day, I believe that is the hallmark of a great executive.
I haven’t had many jobs with many companies throughout my career, but I took every opportunity over the years to learn about the different departments that make a company work. I’ve experienced the public and private sides of Men’s, Women’s and Children’s businesses.
My management experiences did indeed shape my passion for proper communication and team trust. The wonderful thing about the apparel business is that a bad season can be followed by a great one with the right product, the right understanding of the customer, and the right teams to make it happen.
These experiences led me to today having great partners that make up our company. We all have important roles in executing our business plans and work near seamlessly to execute. The best part is making a life through the passion for a sport I love.
Buckhaven Ventilated Stripe Performance Polo in Green Haze/Vintage Indigo
Arles Jersey Performance Polo in Green Haze
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You wake up in the morning – what’s the driving passion?
The driving passion each day is the privilege of working with the talented individuals and teams that make up our business.
From design, merchandising, production, sales, marketing, planning, retail, DTC, licensing and all things that make us tick, it’s an exciting way to start each day.
What elevates Dunning from other companies in the crowded apparel arena.
Dunning is “Engineered for Athletes and Designed for Players.”
While fashion trends and styling decisions are very important to us, the technical qualities are paramount in our position as a leading brand.
What impact will the increase in U.S. tariffs have on your bottom line?
The full story on the impact of tariffs is yet to be told. While we have tremendous partnerships with our fabric suppliers and factories, until all the dust settles on final cost increases we cannot finalize a strategy to manage.
Our goal is, as best possible, to hold prices to our customers and consumers as flat as possible.
Who is your customer?
Our ultimate customers are the men and women who appreciate an elevated, fashion right brand with exceptional technical quality.
While our target begins at the golfer, our reach goes beyond to include sportswear-related product needs.
To reach our customers, we sell to over 2,500 pro shops as well as through our own DTC e-commerce platform.
In approximate percentages – what is the sales via online efforts, brick and mortar retail outlets and green grass shops?
Dunning has not built out brick-and-mortar shops to date. Our e-commerce business has grown quite well in the past few years with the expansion of DTC print catalogs and increased social media marketing.
We are approximately 50/50 with green grass distribution.
Customer feedback is an important dimension in any company endeavor. How do you prompt customers to reply back with such comments and how have such comments impacted future clothing designs?
Our planning team keeps a keen eye on sell-in and sell-thru trends which, of course, help shape direction. But the immediate input for development is a shared collaboration between our design team and our sales team. Constant feedback from the field is welcome and encouraged.
We also monitor closely the feedback we receive directly from consumers through our DTC channels to learn what might be working or what might need improvement.
Companies routinely tout the importance of customer service. Define the term and approach followed at Dunning.
As you know, our Customer Service experience is of paramount importance to us as a company.
This passion goes beyond Dunning and extends into our Greg Norman and Tourney Golf businesses as well.
We maintain an “in house” team that is highly integrated with our 40 sales reps as well as our Embroidery Services team.
If you could change one thing in golf unilaterally – what would it be and why?
The thrill of the apparel business is the fact that throughout every day, season and year, change drives your business forward.
What hasn’t changed – and I wish we could conquer it – is the need to touch those 2,500 individual accounts in a timely basis at least twice a year to show them new collections and gather orders.
It’s a massive undertaking by a talented sales team, but the energy expended is remarkable.
Best advice you ever received – what was it and who was it from?
An old mentor of mine told me he wasn’t smart enough to remember what he told someone if it wasn’t true, so always tell the truth. You can’t ever be called a liar that way.
The most consequential challenges going forward for Dunning – short and long term are what? Also, have you put into a motion a clear remedial plan to deal with each?
Broad growth in the golf market has flattened out since the post-Covid explosion. Couple that with the ongoing new brand introductions that the market keeps experiencing and growth in the golf industry is once again a market share war.
Our short- and long-term goals are to continue our growth trajectory through our focus on the consumer, building on our positioning with strong messaging and new product development.
And the solution to meeting our goals begins with the very first question you asked: working with the talented teams we have brought together.
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