Hello Geau Sport Community!
Today, marks a celebratory day for Geau Sport. It is the one-year anniversary of our brand’s launch. I wanted to pause on this special day to be gracious, reflect on our first year, and share a vision of Geau Sport’s future with you.
One year ago, none of you had ever heard of Geau Sport, yet all of you decided to join the Geau movement for better tennis bags along the way. Thank you.
To the early adopters - you are the ones that bought a Geau Sport tennis bag without the benefit of seeing all the customer reviews and expert testimonials that exist today. You are the ones that sparked a movement by recommending Geau Sport to your friends and family. You took a chance on me and for that, I thank you.
To my family – you supported me a lot during this first year. You trusted me when I said that this idea about premium tennis bags would work. You gave me grace when I couldn’t play Legos with you at times. For that, I thank you.
When drafting a plan for my first year, the primary goals were to keep the product line small, learn, adjust, and prove that the business concept was valid before expanding too rapidly. I can confidently say that the proof-of-concept phase is behind me and it’s time now to apply what we learned to our next phase of growth.
It wasn’t all high fives however. We had our challenges. Lead times in production and transportation increased by 2 months. The cost of transporting product to the US doubled since our first shipment arrived one year ago. All these factors led to my biggest challenge by a landslide – not having enough product for you.
Despite those challenges, we had an excellent year. The most important accomplishment was confirming that we have a great product that solves a real problem and that people really want. Without that, it is nearly impossible to get a new brand positioned for growth.
The next most important accomplishment was establishing a relationship with all of you. We chat on the phone about product ideas, you tell me how to get better, you take my surveys, and you even encourage me. Your voice impacts where Geau Sport is going and I’m pretty sure you know that by now. Thank you.
Some other accomplishments worth noting include earning strong endorsements from influential experts within the tennis industry, getting personal recommendations from our customers (thank you!), and starting several partnerships with new retailers, Tennis Warehouse, and Tennis Express.
Quality can be an especially difficult challenge for brands in their first year, but we had a stellar year in that respect – our warranty claims were well below 1%.
With the proof-of-concept phase behind me I’m now plotting a course for growth in Geau Sport’s second year. Some exciting changes are happening.
In 2022 you will see several new tennis bags across a wide array of function and style. This is my wheelhouse, and this is where I’ve put most of my energy lately. Expect to see some new models starting as early as January. Additional models will launch in the spring and summer as well.
More inventory. As I said before, proof-of-concept has been established, so I’ve made plans to bring in more inventory more often. Will it be enough?
Customer rewards! It’s becoming clear to me that the Geau Sport community is an especially passionate group of people. You have been recommending Geau Sport tennis bags to your friends and family and I want to start rewarding you for that. I will share more details about this new program before the end of 2021.
In closing, launching Geau Sport has been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life. If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I’ve yearned for starting my own brand for decades. The nuts and bolts of making it happen have been fairly predictable if I’m being honest. However, what I didn’t expect to happen was you, the Geau Sport community. The conversations, recommendations, feedback, and support have been something I’ve never experienced before… and for that, I thank you.
