At A Glance

Sunny Chou noticed a great potential in the old-fashioned world of golf clothing and took it head-on with TOMO Golf. Learn how he established a company that values performance just as much as style, and why TOMO shoes are revolutionizing the golf industry's definition of what it means to be both fashionable and functional. This one's for you if you like style and disturbance.

Who is Sunny?

Meet Sunny, Founder of TOMO Golf!

About TOMO Golf 

TOMO Golf is a golf shoe company that promotes comfort, breathability, and versatility. Through its fresh and unique style, customers can wear the high-performance TOMO shoes on and off the golf course.

Sunny's Journey

TOMO Golf started in 2017 when Sunny was attending school in San Diego. He's always been a sneakerhead with some background in product development and design management, so when he graduated, Sunny decided to do something for himself and create a company.

The golf industry is at least five to ten years behind the curve in fashion, performance, and functionality of apparel and shoes. When Sunny began the company, there was a prevalent gap between high-performance shoes, which cost $200, and discount shoes, which were low-quality and cost only $50. 

Understanding this and combining his manufacturing knowledge, Sunny began a quest to create comfortable, trendy, and performance-driven shoes that customers would want to wear everywhere, and not just on the golf course.

After years of development, the company expanded and produced apparel, golf gear, and accessories for its growing customer base. Since then, TOMO Golf has strived to do its own thing and have fun.

TOMO Golf's Growth Strategies

Incorporating Social Media

In the company's early years, social media was essential to the brand's growth. Because Instagram was saturated, it was fairly easy to gain traction on it. The team then naturally grew the brand's social media presence. Still, because Instagram is geared toward algorithms and attention-grabbing content, more strategy now goes into the company's social media. 

Sunny says that because of the platform's changes, Instagram's effectiveness is changing, but it does help the team communicate with their followers. As social media changes, companies must be flexible—it's not just about having the right content but staying in tune with what your audience wants.

Eco-friendly Practices

TOMO Golf has a unique Mulligan line that takes the company's cosmetically imperfect shoes and sells them at a discounted price. Before, the company would donate their imperfect shoes. Still, because there was a lot of wasted product, TOMO began selling their excess shoes to reduce waste and help another group of customers. The shoes, which most can't tell they're different from the perfect products, go from 35% to 50% off. Essentially, the Mulligan line offers another way for customers to get brand-name shoes.

Utilizing Technology to Enhance the Company

Sunny and his team use Shopify to run the business. By chance, the team has run into photographers, content coordinators, and web developers,  for instance, at the right time, which has helped TOMO Golf grow. Sunny says that part of a business's growth is finding the right people, which happens naturally.

The TOMO Golf team has been using AI to handle some of the business work, like creating written content. Although it's been a resourceful tool, AI can only do 80% of the work, and the rest requires a bit of tweaking. 

How the TOMO Golf Team Evolved its Customer Service

The TOMO Golf  team consists of five employees who primarily work both remotely and in person, but the company is looking to grow.

At first, the TOMO Golf team used 3PL, or third-party logistics, so they didn't handle customer service in-house. That experience taught them that it prohibits the company from providing the best customer experience. In 2019, the company transitioned to in-house customer experience, which Sunny said comes with its challenges, but it's been better because the team can ensure higher quality customer experience. It allows for more flexibility to process exchanges and returns at a quicker rate, and even though it costs a bit more, Sunny explained that it was a no-brainer for the team.

Because the team is small, it can be more flexible when working with customers and understanding their needs. Sunny believes this benefits the team by allowing it to handle customer inquiries on a case-by-case basis rather than referring to policies like a larger company would. Sunny says this flexibility provides for a better customer experience. 

When it comes to challenges, Sunny says that the biggest one for the team is thinking outside the box to solve customer issues. When problems arise, the team has to organize itself to solve any customer inquiry. Sunny explains that this takes good planning and good communication so they can consistently allocate their resources.

The company has a dedicated customer support agent who works in the office and handles fulfillment and customer tickets. This is helpful because many customer inquiries relate to the operational aspect of the business. As for their daily tasks, the agent responds to customer emails and other inbound communication.

Customer retention is the company's main focus. Sunny hopes that every customer's first product is their best experience so they continue to come back and purchase more products. He wants TOMO Golf's shoes to speak for themselves and create a transformative experience for each customer.