Grab Bag
Plentiful partners can give you what you're groping for.
Make friends in high places-that's how sports bag company
OGIO blew open the doors to the "in crowd." Looking for a
company that shared his style, OGIO founder and CEO Mike Pratt
pitched überbrand Ducati Motorcycles a cross-promotion the
company couldn't resist. Soon, Ducati hangtags adorned 150,000
OGIO golf bags, and golf shops housed gleaming motorcycle displays.
Ducati even offered up a Supersport 900 motorcycle as the grand
prize of an OGIO contest.
Hip by association, this youthful and aggressive company was
getting everyone's attention. The company forged new alliances
with Yamaha and Mongoose dirt bikes. Popular golf equipment
manufacturer Callaway Golf also approached OGIO, which designed
Callaway's bestselling golf bag ever-and now makes 90 percent
of Callaway bags. Snowboarding, skateboarding and motocross pros
have also hooked up with the company, which now designs gear bags
for those sports, too.
"We've always been known for quality and fresh designs,
but we never had the brand," explains Pratt, 40. "The
[turning] point was aligning ourselves with cool brands outside the
[golf] industry." Sales for this Bluffdale, Utah, business hit
$51 million in 2001-and you can bet that with each new ally,
Pratt's thinking, "This is the beginning of a beautiful
friendship."
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