If for some reason, there’s something wrong with the clubs, Sub 70 is committed to fixing them. That’s part of the reason for the positive reputation the brand has built in the social media space, lending to its upward momentum.
“We’ve grown fast,” Hiland said. “We’ve gone from a passion project to a real company. I want to be bigger, but you can’t let that get in the way of what we are today.”
Entering the club market was a natural progression for Hiland, who said he has never worked in a job outside of golf.
His love for the golf began as a kid in Hinckley, located about 20 miles west of Aurora, where he spent summers learning the game at Indian Oaks Country Club, a semi-private nine-hole course. He played on the Hinckley-Big Rock High School team and on the Waubonsee Community College team before earning his business degree at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he did not play golf. But he worked all through school at SMT Golf in Oswego, where he learned how to build clubs. (SMT no longer builds clubs). “I’d come back and work summers,” Hiland said. “I was around it all the time.”
After graduating from UW-Oshkosh in 1995, Hiland started Diamond Golf in 1995 and Hurricane Golf in 2008. After finding success with those two companies, Hiland took some time off to help raise his kids, but then felt the itch to start Sub 70.
“I was ready for the next push,” Hiland said. “We started off small and said, ‘Let’s see if this has any teeth.’”
Fueled in part by the massive growth in golf due to the pandemic, Sub 70 began to take hold in the direct-to-consumer market. The company initially offered three sets of irons, three different putters and one wedge model. Today, the product line includes 11 iron sets, multiple fairway woods, 12 different putters and four wedges.
“We were extremely Mom and Pop, but now our customer base has gotten much more widely adopted,” said Jay Armour, Sub 70 marketing director and co-owner.
Sub 70 does not rely on a deep marketing spend and does not pay any Tour players to play their clubs. Instead, the company is based on a smart social media marketing strategy and a deep commitment to customer service and accessibility.
The company does not charge for fittings and is responsive to building the clubs that best fit buyers’ needs.
“We are small, but there are benefits,” Armour said. “We are more nimble, more responsive and more accessible than a company that has 1,000 employees. We are not going to have a set product cycle unless we can make it better.”
A key breakthrough for the brand came in 2019 after PGA Tour pro Mark Calcavecchia put Sub 70 fairway woods in his bag followed by the company winning accolades from the MyGolfSpy product evaluation website.
Both brought legitimacy and visibility to the upstart brand.
“Those were two huge breaks,” Hiland said, adding that today the company has a few professionals playing Sub 70 irons, including Zack Fischer, who plays mainly on the Korn Ferry Tour.
With the typical five-year consumer club buying cycle, there is room for growth for Sub 70 as golfers replace equipment. Still, the company has rebuffed opportunities to put clubs at retail and, so far, has not pursued any outside investment or private equity infusion as it competes with other direct-to-consumer brands, such as PXG or Takomo.
“We’ve turned down deals from retailers and I won’t compromise,” Hiland said. “What I won’t do is grow too fast and lose control.”
John Lombardo covered the golf industry for nine years for Sports Business Journal.