This Is UNRL: The Underdog Apparel Company

Michael E. Jordan was just a teenager watching baseball in his mother’s basement when he heard the word that would define his future apparel brand.

Jordan looked on as the Boston Red Sox won the 2013 World Series. When a player was interviewed in the aftermath, he said the same word a lot of athletes like to use moments following a championship victory: “Unreal.”

That one word—a symbol for the indescribable that leaves us speechless—sent him on a path.

The journey led Jordan to found UNRL, an apparel brand that was not manufactured in a board room or accompanied by massive budgets and decades of industry expertise.

No, UNRL was born out of a basement. It was created out of sheer willpower and grit. It was birthed through a grassroots, word-of-mouth, hands-in-the-dirt kind of effort.

Jordan only had $300 to his name when he launched. UNRL was a true risk, like betting on the underdog when they go up against a powerhouse.

But sometimes the underdog wins. Or, more accurately, they refuse to lose.

More than a decade after setting off to fundamentally change the athleisure apparel space, Jordan and his team has done just that.

UNRL’s line of hoodies, tees, joggers, shorts and more have proven to be a major disruptor. And when you put on their clothes, that underdog mentality somehow transcends apparel and makes a statement about who you are as a person.

It’s a representation of identity; that you, like the brand itself, are also homegrown, relentless and uncompromising.

It all started with failure

Growing up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Jordan was a precocious kid with an entrepreneurial spirit.

At just seven years old, he found himself in awe of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild unveiling their intricate logo. He had never seen a logo with such depth, layering and intricacy. It caught his eye in a way that went beyond a mild curiosity—he was fascinated by meaningful design.

As the years went on, a teenage Jordan got Adobe Photoshop and started playing around with YouTube tutorials on logo design.

“Logos then turned into web design, and web design turned into clients calling and asking if I could put their company logo on polos and hats,” Jordan told MyGolfSpy in an interview.

At just 16 years old, Jordan was rapidly learning about embroidery and custom apparel. It was clear he wasn’t going to take a traditional route in life. He displayed a special talent for clothing design.

In fact, he dropped out of school and put all his attention into gamingjerseys.com, a site that focused on Motocross-like jerseys for e-sports in the video gaming world. He secured a critical licensing agreement and appeared destined for a successful business.

“It wasn’t necessarily my passion, but I saw an opportunity that I could meet,” Jordan said. “It looked like I was going to hit a grand slam on my first at bat.”

It was more like a routine double play ball. Jordan had partnered with someone who tried to take advantage of him. There was a wrestle for the business—it got messy, including a lengthy legal battle.

Eventually, Jordan had to cut bait. He was a 19-year-old dropout who had racked up $70,000 of debt, now living in his mom’s basement.

“It was a little bit doom and gloom,” Jordan said. “I remember lying there, staring up at the ceiling, just feeling sorry for myself. But I thought, ‘I’m 19 years old. I can dust myself off and get back on the horse. Let’s try again.'”

Jordan wouldn’t make the same mistake this time. The second go around, he would choose something he was passionate about.

What he was passionate about was a lifestyle brand geared towards athletes. It would use the initials UNRL—shorter, catchier and more efficient than the full word—as its core.

“I wasn’t overly optimistic out of the gate because it was going to be an uphill battle,” Jordan said. “But I just loved doing it.”

The big break he needed

How does a smalltime apparel brand get off the mat? How does it gain momentum?

In the case of UNRL, it required some sweat equity and incredible fortune.

At first, Jordan made a website and hoped word of mouth would send him on his way. But, no, he was not Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams” as Shoeless Joe Jackson appears out of nowhere.

Build it and they will come? Not exactly.

Jordan had to discover how he could effectively drive traffic to his site, all without the luxury of a marketing budget. And this wasn’t his only gig, either. He took on a job as a real estate agent to make ends meet.

The solution came in the form of social media. Jordan reached out to a variety of parody, meme and tracker accounts asking if they would help with hat giveaways. It worked. With every giveaway, UNRL was picking up a couple thousand followers on their own socials.

Offline, the focus was on all forms of custom apparel.

“I didn’t care if it was a bowling jersey for a Tuesday night league,” Jordan said. “I would do anything.”

The dream was to have a lifestyle brand that was in retail stores, but that is a monumentally difficult business to build considering the world is full of names like Lululemon.

For the first five years of UNRL’s existence, it was grinding to build the business-to-consumer element. The money being made was coming from offline wholesale opportunities—custom corporate or team apparel.

It was during this time that UNRL had its first big break that would launch the brand forward.

In year one of UNRL, circa 2014, Jordan received a random phone call from NHL player and Minnesota native Jordan Leopold. Leopold had coincidentally gotten Jordan’s number through a family connection in another business venture.

This was more than geting a call from an NHL player. Jordan had grown up idolizing Leopold, a local standout who won a Hobey Baker Award (the Heisman Trophy of college hockey) while at the University of Minnesota.

“I nearly fell out of my chair when he called me,” Jordan said.

The request? Custom fantasy football shirts for Leopold and his teammates on the St. Louis Blues.

Jordan sent him shirts. He loved them.

Next? Leopold wanted to play a prank on his teammate, Alexander Steen. He asked Jordan for 35 shirts featuring Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind album cover. The cover famously features a naked baby swimming in a pool—naturally, Leopold asked Jordan to put Steen’s face on the naked baby.

After a few more rounds of shirts, Jordan built up the courage to tell Leopold what he really wanted to do with UNRL. Part of his aim was to make comfortable hoodies with elements of a hockey jersey, so that is the image Jordan sold Leopold.

Not only did Leopold make a call to the Wild to set up a meeting, but he even attended that meeting himself.

“Then the shot clock was on,” Jordan said. “I had to figure out how to make a good hoodie.”

Jordan, 20 years old at the time, cobbled together a prototype and drove to downtown St. Paul.

“I’m as nervous as you could imagine,” Jordan said. “I’m pitching a pro sports franchise and they don’t have much reason to give me a chance. And I’m meeting my childhood idol.”

Jordan struggled through the meeting. That’s when Leopold took things over and vouched for the hoodie, telling the Wild representative that all the cool kids would want to be wearing it. Then Leopold put on the medium-sized hoodie—even though he could have used a size XL.

“I could hear the seams starting to pop as he was putting it on,” Jordan said. “But by some divine miracle, he got it on and it looked alright.”

When it was all said and done, the Wild gave Jordan and UNRL a chance. They priced the hoodie at $99 in the team shop, which was more expensive than the standard Reebok hoodie. This came at a time when hoodies rarely reached that price level, but the Wild believed it was the right price.

“After the first game they had them, I got a call from the Wild saying they sold every single hoodie,” Jordan said. “And they wanted 250 more for the next game.”

The cycle repeated. UNRL had found a niche by making comfortable hoodies with high quality embroidery and intriguing design.

While it would take several years of grinding away to make a bigger dent, the relationship with the Wild—and subsequent licensing agreements with other franchises like the Minnesota Vikings—was among the first puzzle pieces enabling UNRL to reach the big stage in athleisure apparel.

Thriving versus surviving

When the pandemic hit, UNRL was in real trouble.

That is because about 81 percent of their business was direct-to-consumer wholesale, including that relationship with the Wild. Only 19 percent was online at the time.

They had built up to 17 employees, but a huge portion of their business vanished overnight.

“Everyone was giving me the same advice,” Jordan said. “They were telling me to furlough my staff and cut expenses so I could hang on until the world returned to normal.

“It seemed like the wise move, but I just didn’t love that approach. It didn’t sit well with me.”

Jordan had a different idea. UNRL hadn’t yet fully embraced the athletic lifestyle brand, which would factor in a wider array of products. If they could go all-in on that concept and create more of an online presence, UNRL could thrive instead of just survive.

“I told my team that we were going to triple our ad budget,” Jordan said. “And if it doesn’t work, we’ll probably be out of business in three to six months. But if we go down on our accord, I can live with that.”

The team was fully on board. The move required staff to take on new roles and learn different responsibilities that hadn’t been as pressing in the past. In order to make this work, it would require a maximum effort from everyone involved.

It worked. And in retrospect, some conditions of the pandemic helped catapult UNRL to where they are now.

Men’s clothes had to be bought online, which hadn’t been common prior to Covid-19. And athleisure wear suddenly became socially acceptable in a variety of settings, such as virtual business meetings. Meanwhile, comfort was becoming a bigger priority to those sitting around at home.

Those trends held strong even after the pandemic ended.

On top of all of that, it became cool to wear little-known brands. Whereas past generations valued the Nike swoosh or other “status icons” above all else, younger generations now like to standout with unique taste.

Midway through 2020, UNRL was down $500k from their projection. By the end of the year, they had flipped momentum completely and finished $1 million above their projection.

Just like that, the brand was off and running. It’s now a prominent player in the athleisure/sportswear category.

How UNRL connects with athletes (and golfers)

With that shift, the focus of UNRL got a little narrower. They became less reliant on custom team apparel and started to look more to being a men’s hoodie and jogger brand.

Specifically, UNRL wanted to be a brand for athletes.

“We wanted to appeal to all athletes across the board,” Jordan said. “We saw golf as a way to bridge the gap between all of those sports. Golf brings everyone together. It’s the athlete’s game in the offseason.”

That has given UNRL some unique footing in the golf space. They use other athletes, such as NFL wide receiver Adam Thielen, to promote golf apparel.

It shows that this is attire for competitors of all kinds.

UNRL’s product is more athleisure, but the marketing is more sportswear. Whereas a brand like Lululemon is geared more towards yoga lovers, UNRL is more of a traditional sports focus. That puts them in a neighborhood most athleisure or sportswear brands don’t reside in.

The hook for golfers or other athletes to try UNRL is fairly straightforward. The fabric material is world-class in comfort and functionality. The attention to detail on the stitching is noticeable.

Jordan didn’t go to fashion school. Similar to a golfer with a homemade swing, he taught himself, making his own creative and unorthodox ways to produce clothes.

In a copycat industry, the singularity of UNRL’s apparel makes them stand out in the golf world.

For example, take UNRL’s crossover hoodie. On a typical hoodie a golfer would wear, the drawstrings whip around during the swing—so Jordan’s team implemented the drawstring design of a backpack, which leads to less movement. Another issue is a golfer’s neck getting cold. Many golf hoodies go for a lower neckline, but UNRL looked to the ski industry and created an elevated neckline that still allows for easy movement.

The list of small innovations goes on and on—and it all leads to a quality, singular product.

The Crossover has been around for more than a decade now. There are improvements and tweaks, but it’s a timeless product that stands the test of time.

This creates a piece of golf apparel that doesn’t necessarily take inspiration from other golf brands. And that’s a good thing. UNRL challenges assumptions about golf apparel.

In the long run, they want to be seen as an athleisure brand that is country club ready. Not just an apparel brand that dabbles in golf, but a full golf brand underneath a parent company.

By creating limited edition offerings like we saw last week at the U.S. Open, word is spreading.

Their consumer is the guy trying to break 80, or maybe even 70. They aren’t putting pink flamingos on their shirts. This isn’t for guys who are going to the course to get hammered and crash their golf carts into each other.

It’s a brand built on competition, and the style reflects that.

That ethos brings us back to the beginning. Why does someone—a golfer or otherwise—wear UNRL?

It’s for comfort and functionality, but it’s deeper than that. It’s because you want to stand for everything the brand stands for, which is originality and competitiveness. You have that dog in you.

Jordan makes a point of saying that he didn’t build UNRL to sell it in a few years and make a profit. This was a passion project and an obsession before it was a business.

“It was never about money. For me, it was just about doing something great.”

And when you put on UNRL, that is exactly the feeling you have.

The post This Is UNRL: The Underdog Apparel Company appeared first on MyGolfSpy.