Press

A uniform decision

Production of caddie apparel helped revive longtime Augusta business

Golf fans glued to their televisions this weekend will wait for a glimpse of Tiger Woods and wonder who will don the green jacket come today's final round.

Fred Daitch, by comparison, will focus his sights on the seemingly mundane - what the caddies are wearing. As bystanders study the pro swing, the Evans resident will be studying every stitch on the guys carrying the clubs.

For decades, his garment shop downtown has supplied the all-white jumpsuits so synonymous with the Masters Tournament. But though the long-sleeve caddie coveralls have been a source of family pride since grandfather Philip ran the store, they only accounted for a token amount of business. Until lately.

A recent push into the world of golf apparel has made all the difference for Mr. Daitch's International Uniform Inc. on Broad Street, acting as a springboard to newfound profit and reversing a sharp drop in business.

In doing so, it has transformed the maker of such unglamorous garb as culinary aprons and surgical scrubs into a producer of caddie uniforms and golf paraphernalia for a growing list of world-class clubs, including Pebble Beach, Pinehurst and Ireland's Doonbeg. The headway even has him creating brand names for some products, and thinking about more.

"We're only scratching the tip of the iceberg out there," said Mr. Daitch, whose more than 2,000 customer accounts are already straining his six-person staff. "There are literally thousands of more clubs and potential customers for us."

The torrid pace has him talking with an as-yet-unnamed sports memorabilia collector to help manage his business, which only now is migrating from Magic Markers to electronic bar codes in the warehouse at the back of the shop.

The notoriety also has helped Mr. Daitch cross over to other professional sports markets, making mesh jerseys worn by stadium staff and cameraman at NFL and professional soccer games.

Business reborn

By his estimates, sports-related sales have boosted business by seven times since 1998, the year Mr. Daitch temporarily shut down the half-century-old shop and contemplated closing the doors for good.

Then, his chief concern was how to resuscitate sagging sales. In sharp contrast, today he's worried about botching an order because he can't handle the sheer number of calls coming in.

The turnaround, he says, stems from a decades-long relationship with Augusta National Golf Club, along with a little lucky timing.

The Augusta National jumpsuits were more about bragging rights than profit. The real money for what was Daitch & Co. came from being one of the country's biggest Hanes underwear distributors.

All that changed in the mid-1990s with the death of Mr. Daitch's father, Irvin, who his son says was his mentor and muse. Making matters worse, the family trauma coincided with a sea change in the underwear company's way of doing business.

"Hanes cut us out," he said. "It started selling directly to the Wal-Marts and Targets out there. It didn't need us anymore."

Indeed, the rise of super-discount retailers sucked the oxygen out of the market for many smaller stores that had bought socks, lingerie and hosiery from Daitch for years.

With the shake-up, his brother Gary left the business and Mr. Daitch did some soul-searching. That's when he closed the store and reopened under its current name. More than just a symbolic act, he shifted the focus to selling industrial uniforms, such as restaurant aprons to Fort Gordon's kitchen crews and surgical scrubs to the Medical College of Georgia.

But that was only the beginning.

Turning on a light

About the same time, Augusta National had for the first time hired an outside company, Caddie Masters Enterprises, to manage caddie operations. That's when Mr. Daitch saw an opportunity.

"Up till then we only supplied the jumpsuit, and the club then contracted out the screening embroidering and sewing of name and number badges to others," he said. "When Caddie Masters came, we got all the business. They turned on the light for us, and we went straight ahead."

Caddie Masters also opened the door to scores of other clubs across the country.

Within a few years, Mr. Daitch had a growing customer list and was shelling out a hefty $10,000 to run a booth at the PGA's annual trade show in Orlando, Fla., for even more exposure. He also turned the front portion of the shop, until then a wholesale warehouse, into a retail outlet.

Mr. Daitch's newest evolutionary twist is his creation of new golf-related products, including a bag that caddies sling over their shoulder to hold sand for filling divots.

His sand-and-seed bag is part of an effort to create a new nook in a niche apparel market, which he began a few years back when he introduced a stronger glue to help keep the Velcro name strip on the back of the caddie jumpsuit.

He also introduced a third pocket to the caddies' bib apron so it could hold more scorecards, pencils and water bottles.

The idea came from an order he was asked to fill for the Murray Bros. Cafeteria Restaurants chain, a customer he already made name tags for. It wanted a uniform with an extra pocket for ketchup bottles. A little tinkering, and it worked for caddie aprons too.

"I know it doesn't sound like much, but for 15 years these aprons only had two pockets," Mr. Daitch said. "You wouldn't think it, but that extra pocket was a hit."

He sells nine aprons for every jumpsuit, generally purchased by upscale clubs. Mr. Daitch also dyes coveralls yellow for trash crews at Augusta National.

Keeping it local

While Mr. Daitch is on the lookout for the next opportunity to innovate, he is in talks with some manufacturers to start branding his products.

The jumpsuits, for example, are purchased from North Carolina apparel maker VF Corp. and then touched up and finished by area shops Mr. Daitch works with.

With branding, he would get a logo or insignia on the coveralls at the factory and sell them under his own product name.

With business booming, it's unclear how long Mr. Daitch can continue outsourcing work to local shops. Market forces may dictate a move offshore to take advantage of cheaper labor.

"Right now with the number of orders he can still come to me and have it done fast. It's convenient," said Randall Redmond, whose shop, Redmond's Auto Upholstery on Jones Street, sews together the sand-and-seed bags. "But there's only so much I can do. And when he gets bigger he will probably have to go elsewhere, maybe overseas."

Mr. Daitch isn't thinking that far ahead, but he might have to soon. He has already had to hire a part-time worker for Masters Week to help sew.

"The Augusta National has always been very loyal to us, and I want to be just as loyal to my suppliers and workers," he said. "But my customers are always wanting a better and cheaper product. And that may be hard to do. There may come a point where we have to look elsewhere."

Reach Matthew Mogul at (706) 823-3352 or matthew.mogul@augustachronicle.com. 

--From the Sunday, April 11, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle