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Outside The Boards™
The OTB™ Podcast is your passport to the captivating world of polo, where we aim to redefine preconceived notions and deliver an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at this remarkable sport. Our mission is to introduce you to the fascinating individuals, remarkable locales, and captivating stories that comprise the heart of polo, while shattering common stereotypes along the way.
Tackling pressing issues currently shaping the sport, we foster constructive dialogue and exchange of ideas, insights, solutions, and exemplary case studies. Our ultimate aim? To propel polo to new heights on the global stage.
Join us for candid conversations with polo's industry luminaries, dedicated enthusiasts, and the extraordinary individuals who infuse this sport with their passion and energy, making it an absolute joy to be a part of. The OTB™ Podcast: Your portal to a polo experience like no other.
Outside The Boards™
Elizabeth Welborn: Heritage, Style & Sustainability
Elizabeth Welborn's journey from the bayous of Louisiana to founding a sustainable polo lifestyle brand speaks volumes about passion, purpose, and the pursuit of conscious craftsmanship. Growing up with a love for horses that began during childhood rides in Scotland, Elizabeth found her calling when she discovered polo in Northern California – not just as a sport, but as a way of life worth celebrating and sharing.
The magic of Stick & Ball was born in 2011, when Elizabeth combined her international business background with her creative talents to craft a brand that captures polo's essence beyond the field. Starting with handmade ponchos and vegetable-tanned leather belts adorned with Argentine buckles, she built a collection that embodies the rugged sophistication and casual elegance that define the polo lifestyle.
What sets Stick & Ball apart isn't just its beautiful designs, but its unwavering commitment to sustainability. Elizabeth passionately details her choice to use vegetable-tanned leather – a months-long process using bark and berries instead of chrome's heavy metals – creating pieces that develop a beautiful patina like a cherished saddle. Her dedication extends to fighting microplastics by maintaining a plastic-free brand and partnering with artisans in Peru to create heirloom-quality alpaca wool products that last generations.
Elizabeth's story resonates with anyone who values craftsmanship and connection – whether designing collections, hosting field-side dinners under the stars, or playing polo herself across global destinations from Argentina to Mongolia. As she prepares for her next chapter with her children graduating, she looks forward to expanding her knitwear lines and returning to polo play, always guided by her "buy less, buy better" philosophy that challenges fast fashion's wasteful cycle.
Discover how polo's traditions can inspire sustainable luxury at stickandball.com, where Elizabeth's thoughtful creations celebrate the timeless connection between people, horses, and the beautiful spaces they share. Follow her journey as she continues to redefine what a modern polo lifestyle looks like – elevated, inclusive, and deeply rooted in purpose.
About Hive₂O Hard Honey™
Hive₂O Hard Honey is a pioneering beverage company that brings the rich, balanced taste of honey to the forefront of the industry. With a focus on innovation, quality, and community, Hive₂O offers a range of hard honey and alcohol-free beverages designed to surprise and delight with every sip.
As a thank you for tuning into this episode of Outside The Boards Podcast, Hive₂O is offering listeners an exclusive online discount and free shipping on all four packs. Use code OTBPOLO24 in all caps at checkout. Visit hardhoney.com to explore products.
About Lineup Polo
Lineup Polo was built to revolutionize how polo is managed and experienced. With a mission to support the polo community and expand the sport’s reach, the platform digitizes processes and centralizes communication. Lineup Polo is committed to the game's future.
Available as a free app and web portal, Lineup Polo allows clubs to manage tournaments, automate leagues, payments, and memberships, building a new digital ecosystem for polo.
About Outside The Boards™
Founded after witnessing their first polo match in 2012, Outside The Boards™ seeks to share the sport’s beauty, intensity, and lifestyle while addressing industry fragmentation. Through best practices, insights, trends, and consulting, OTB™ helps stakeholders and brands unlock polo’s marketing potential and navigate the sport with clarity...
You are listening to the Outside the Boards podcast. I'm Daniel Leary. For most of my professional career, I have worked in mainstream sports for some of the world's leading sports organizations and properties and blue chip brands, helping to create award-winning omni-channel marketing campaigns, result-driven sales strategies and impactful brand building initiatives. But all that work doesn't compare to the fun, excitement and challenges I've been fortunate to experience working for the king of all sports, polo. For nearly a decade, I've put my heart and ambition into helping advance the sport of polo. I've made lifelong friendships, met some incredible people, traveled to memorable polo destinations and heard the craziest stories. My goal is to share these people, places and stories with you and provide a unique behind-the-scenes perspective of the game that breaks all the common stereotypes, all while discussing key issues affecting the sport today and the constructive sharing of ideas, insights, solutions and best-case studies for the purpose of advancing polo globally. Every week, I will have honest conversations with polo industry leaders, enthusiasts and awe-inspiring people who make this sport great and fun to be around. I hope, through their knowledge and their unique perspectives, they will motivate and inspire you. Together, we will explore ways you can make small tweaks to boost your polo business, whether you are a club, event, team or player. That will amount to big changes in revenue, participation, attendance and exposure Saddle up. Welcome to Outside the Boards with me, daniel O'Leary. Hi everyone, daniel O'Leary here and welcome to Season 5 of the Outside the Boards podcast.
Speaker 1:On this episode of Outside the Boards, I'm excited to introduce you to a true trailblazer at the intersection of sport, style and sustainability Elizabeth Wellborn, the founder of Stick and Ball. Based in the heart of California's wine country, elizabeth has created more than just a brand. She's built a lifestyle rooted in the culture of polo, the beauty of the countryside and deep respect for craftsmanship and community, with a background in international development and a love for horses that started early. Elizabeth found herself inspired by the polo lifestyle, not just for the sport, but its values heritage, adventure, elegance and connection. For the sport, but its values heritage, adventure, elegance and connection.
Speaker 1:In 2011, she launched Stick'n Ball as a luxury brand that would reflect that spirit, blending equestrian influence with globally inspired fashion and home goods. From handcrafted leather accessories and alpaca wool blankets to redefined apparel designed for everyday elegance. Stick'n Ball captures the rugged sophistication of the Polo lifestyle while championing sustainable production and artisan partnerships across Latin America and the United States. But Elizabeth is more than just a founder she's a storyteller, a community builder and an advocate for slow fashion and conscious consumerism. Whether she's curating collections, hosting trunk shows or playing polo herself, she brings a grounded authenticity to everything she touches and she's helping to redefine what a modern polo lifestyle looks like Elevated, inclusive and deeply rooted in purpose. So, without further ado, let's welcome Elizabeth Wellborn of Stick and Ball to the show. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:Hey, we're Rosanna and Alice, the co-founders of Line Up Polo. Before this episode starts, we wanted to introduce you to the platform we've built for the sport we love. Line Up is where modern polo comes together. For club managers, there's a powerful web platform where you can create and publish tournaments, fixtures and teams, and that info instantly appears in the Line Up app, where players, fans and organisers can see everything in one place, from live scoring and team entry to player stats and schedules. We've made it easy to run and follow Polo, whether you're organising games or just turning up to watch. Lineup makes Polo more connected, accessible and future ready. Search for Lineup Polo on the app or play store to get started.
Speaker 1:Elizabeth Goodwin-Wellborn. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3:Hi, good morning.
Speaker 1:Dan, how are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing very, very well. Hope the spring weather has made it to you and you're enjoying this slightly warm up of the seasons. I mean, it's rainy here today, so a perfect day to be inside to do a podcast interview.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, we got kissed with some nice warmth early this year. Like, I think, I planted my tomatoes in March and then all of a sudden I think we're back to winter again here in Northern California. So I'm glad that I produce alpaca garments.
Speaker 1:Oh wonderful. So what is it there now? Is it relatively cold, or?
Speaker 3:It's like, it's probably like you know. It gets down to probably like the high 40s at night and then during the day we're in the 60s. So we haven't. You know, compared to where I'm from, which is South Louisiana, we're not feeling the spring in the last like couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:It's like a consistent fall weather. It sounds like it's gotta be. It's gotta be pretty beautiful. Is everything starting to turn green out there?
Speaker 3:Well, the funniest thing. When I first came to San Francisco a long time ago, I just kind of pictured the Beach Boys and lots of sunshine and, funny enough, the first weekend I got here, some friends of friends had this big yacht on the bay and we were all drinking champagne and I jumped into the water thinking it's going to be maybe, you know, like, maybe kind of warm. But oh my goodness, that was my first. It was like the first like shock effect of Northern California weather and water. It's always pretty chilly.
Speaker 1:That's nice, though I have my sister Mary. She lives up in the San Francisco area and she always brags about the Northern California, whether going up there for wine, hiking, just exploring the beaches up there. It's absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 3:There's so much to do and I do actually appreciate this cooler weather. I mean, we have this what they call diurnal range. That's really big, so it's almost always, no matter what time of year, chilly at night and then during the day it's usually either, you know, maybe a little chilly, but are moderate. Sometimes we get some really warm temperatures around the San Francisco Bay, but because of the Pacific Ocean it ends up keeping it just not completely hot.
Speaker 1:Perfect for a parka.
Speaker 3:Yeah, perfect for a parka.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm excited to have you on this podcast. I've actually wanted to have you on for a few years now because I wanted to have someone from kind of the apparel, accessory side of the sport. There isn't, I want to say, which are really more focused somewhat on equipment, jerseys and the gear that's associated with it.
Speaker 1:Very little has to do with lifestyle. And someone might say to me Dan, you're wrong, you know Ralph Lauren? Okay, but I have to make it clear you know, when it comes to Ralph Lauren and Polo, I don't see much of Ralph Lauren and Polo, aside from Nacho Fregasas, who is a fragrance model for years. But, like in terms of sponsoring, partnering, getting involved with clubs, I never saw that at all from that brand.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of respect for him with growing such a strong, incredible international brand and from what I think I remember from his story I think Ralph began I want to say it was in his 50s and he has just done an incredible job of building a really big brand.
Speaker 3:It is not easy to build a fashion brand, I can tell you that. But yeah, I don't know. I think polo is just such an inspirational as well as aspirational sport and I don't really know, I think, all of his stories of how that became his brand. But in starting stick and ball I fell hook line and sinker for the sport and I think it's because as a kid I loved horses and I loved a kid, I loved horses and I loved being outside and I loved sports and all those things ever since I was really young. And when I happened upon the sport here in Northern California very first day that I was at the club just close to San Francisco in Petaluma, it all clicked and it wasn't too long after that that that I started dreaming about a brand that you know, really, truly encapsulated like this feeling.
Speaker 1:Let's start from the beginning, then. So you just mentioned it. Now, where are you originally from?
Speaker 3:So I'm originally from Louisiana, a small town called Houma, south of New Orleans, and you know, grew up there. My family, quite a few generations, are from there, french families that settled there a long time ago, french and Italian, and there's a long story as to how I got here. Which part do you want?
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, what took you out of New Orleans? Was it school? Yeah, School.
Speaker 3:first I went to a small Jesuit college in Mobile, alabama, called Spring Hill. I just loved my experience there. It was awesome and you can call almost everybody there Still really close friends to this day. And that school sent me abroad to study in Costa Rica. So I learned Spanish down there and also learned about weaving down in Guatemala too. So that was my first. I would say like I mean, I loved doing creative things when I was young. I sewed, I crocheted, I loved pottery, I painted all those things. But really learning about textiles didn't start until, I think, probably when I went to Guatemala.
Speaker 1:So you didn't major in anything textiles or fashion.
Speaker 3:No, I majored in international business in Spanish, okay, and love business as well. I feel like I have a little bit of like right brain, left brain, and it probably leans a lot more toward the right brain though, but I really enjoyed studying business, and early on in high school, my high school had sent me to this entrepreneur camp in Louisiana, and that's when it was just. It was so exciting. There were so many things about business. I loved branding and I loved commercial production and I learned a lot about that there, and both I think the love of textiles as well as having that business foundation, is what probably gave me the courage to start my own company.
Speaker 1:So how were you introduced to polo? It doesn't sound like it was something that was generational.
Speaker 3:Oh no, not generational at all. So, being from South Louisiana, almost everybody works in the oil business in some sort of way. You're either working in the business or servicing people within the business, and my aunt and uncle were living in Scotland at the time with a platform fabrication company, and so I went out there to visit them and to live with them, and that's where I learned how to ride horses. And so that was when I was 12. And I just loved every single. The first day that I went out to the stables, I knew that I wanted horses to be a part of my life in every way, so I wasn't able to get into jumping. After that, when I returned home, and just you know, anytime friends and I could like go to some stables that were not too far away about 30 minutes away and we would just ride the back shell roads. So I learned how to jump, you know, learned how to jump anything. I mean, I just had no fear. You know, barebacked on the North Sea every day and just loved it. But then it was a very, very difficult transition, because when I came back you know when I say I was born on the bayou we were right there, like a couple blocks away from the bayou and there's just no, there were no horse pastures or anything. And that was fun and adventuresome, but I still, like, hadn't figured out how to get horses back into my life full time. And I'll fast forward a little bit.
Speaker 3:After college I moved to Colorado to work in the telecom business. That company then started sending me down to Argentina, and that was in the 90s, and so that was. I started to, you know, fall in love with the Argentine culture way back then. But funny enough, even though I was going down there for work, I really wasn't in the know about polo. And so then my company moved me to Asia and I lived in Manila. And when I was in Manila at the Manila Polo Club, that was my first polo match ever, and I just remember getting dressed up, you know, to go to the match.
Speaker 3:But then while I was on the sidelines wishing that I was out there playing, but you know, back then this was in 97 and 98 when I was there, I mean, there were no women playing, so I didn't think that there was, you know, a way to play, but still I was daydreaming about it. And then fast forward a little bit more, my company brought me back and then I moved to California and I was invited to go to a small polo club in Petaluma and that was Cerro Pompa Polo Club. And when I got there I was just like, wow, this is everything that I love. Because then there was, like you know, fun Mexican and Spanish music and everybody was drinking mate and having a barbecue. And I'm like, oh my God, this is paradise.
Speaker 1:And so I'm curious, though what was the motivating factor to pick up polo? When, early in your childhood, you were doing dressage, I was jumping, yeah. So like, what made you want to switch? Because you know you have people like if you're jumping, for example, you're always going to seek out those opportunities, and what have you? But jumping into the world of polo, that's a big leap.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know, I think it can be a pretty natural transition actually. I mean, I think I was definitely born with a lot of courage and I wasn't too afraid of too many things. I still, when I went to Petaluma, did not think that women could play. I mean, like when I was there for the first few years, I mean I was just like cooking and helping with the charity events, and you know that I started daydreaming about this brand that I could make, and then finally there was one girl that started playing there who's now a really good friend. And then finally there was one girl that started playing there who's now a really good friend, lauren Dickinson.
Speaker 3:I'm like, wow, well, maybe, maybe, just maybe I could, probably, you know, I can try this, but the horses that they had there were just kind of crazy. I mean like really bucking and crazy. So I was still. I was maybe a little bit scared, but then you know, so then I was coming up with the idea for the, for the brand and the company, and I can't remember if you and I had talked about, like, how I got started with it, but when I was making some ponchos for one of the charity events, you know everybody loved the ponchos. They always wanted to have, you know, the ponchos after the event I'm like, well, how fun would it be if I also made some leather belts and had some blankets and that. Just it kind of started and evolved naturally.
Speaker 1:At that point, were you just like doing what you've already learned and you mentioned, like I was doing crochet and things like that. So were you just taking things at that point that you just knew how to do in terms of creating your own apparel?
Speaker 3:Definitely and probably like, and also like trying to figure out what is the next step. Like I really want to design some wovens and I want to design knitwear. So where do I get started? And so the place that I thought would be a great place to get started was Argentina, and so back in I think it was 2010 or maybe it was spring of 2011. I'm like I'm going to start this brand and actually the funniest thing too, dan, I'll rewind a little bit.
Speaker 3:I had been working after telecom. I began working for the Mondavi family up in Napa and working in wine and food, and so I'm like you know, how fun would it be for us to have this rosé? You know, make this great rosé wine, and a lot of people were not drinking rosé at that time, but the Mondavis had introduced it to me and I'm like how fun we can have this really great new wine and I could design this beautiful label and it can be called stick and ball and it's just this easy wine that we can drink after the game. So that was one of my ideas.
Speaker 1:So really, stick and ball was probably a wine at first.
Speaker 3:Literally the first thing I trademarked was wine and olive oil. And then, you know, when it came to the creativity aspects, I'm like, yeah, no, I think I really want to get into apparel and accessories. So I booked my flight down to Argentina and I'd already met a lot of friends that introduced me to different people down there. And I'd already met a lot of friends that introduced me to different people down there. And vlogs, or blogs I think back then they were calling it vlogs were like just getting started on websites and I'm like, well, if I'm going to start this brand, I at least have to hop on a horse and learn how to stick and ball right.
Speaker 3:So I booked a lesson with Luca DiPaola I think he was like a seven or eight goaler down in Argentina and went out to his place and I had a girlfriend from Louisiana that was with me and we got on the horses and he kind of left us. He's like here's the mallet, you know. Here's how you swing, have fun, you know. And then he goes off to play chuckers. Well, he finishes chuckers, comes back and we're still like swinging at the balls and, like you know, trying to figure this out because we had so much fun doing it.
Speaker 3:We couldn't stop laughing. It was the best feeling in the world as soon as, of course, you make ball contact and I knew at that point I'm like I could care less if any women are playing. I am going to play the sport Like this is just way too much fun, and so I canceled all of my appointments in Argentina with people in textiles and literally played polo for the next week. It was really funny. By the end of the week, lucas had me on a horse in chuckers and it was like you know, some of the best players from Colombia and Argentina. And I don't even know how I hung on. I definitely was not swinging at the ball, I was hanging on for dear life, but it was just and I just knew I wanted to do it forever.
Speaker 1:Well, it sounds as though, like up to that point, you have a bit of a sense of adventure. Well-traveled, oh, totally yeah. Entrepreneurial spirit, willing to take on risk.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So maybe that's a defining personality with people who play polo.
Speaker 3:Oh, I would probably say that for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that risk taker, that entrepreneurial spirit, that world traveler, adventurer type of individual.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, doesn't that go along with the analytics in the polo industry? It does. Overwhelming majority of polo players are CEOs. I think yeah.
Speaker 1:I forget who I had that conversation with. I think it may have been from the girls with Line Up Polo. We were talking about the mindset of a polo player, and just the sport in itself takes every ounce of your mental and physical capacity. So in a day filled with meetings, you know for your business and what have you to escape to polo, which takes every single ounce of you. I can see why major CEOs, entrepreneurs, do that.
Speaker 1:It's an entire escape, an entire escape. So it's almost therapeutic in a way to go ahead and do that. It's an entire escape, an entire escape. So it's almost therapeutic in a way to go ahead and do it.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's a hundred percent therapeutic. It was my therapy for many, many years.
Speaker 1:But now you've managed to take the sport and create a clothing brand. So now you get the best of both worlds. Now you're in it, in it.
Speaker 3:I don't think you can escape In every aspect, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in every aspect it's there P-O-L-O, so you're kind of going down the path. I feel like there was a break in your career from like 2007 to 2011. Yeah, there was Stick and Ball at one point.
Speaker 3:Was a wine and olive oil company, or could have been, it could have been, it was you could probably still pursue that.
Speaker 1:I think you should still pursue that. And when did Stick and Ball turn into officially a clothing brand?
Speaker 3:And what was your first product? Yeah, officially it ended up being the fall of 2011. I, you know, in spite of me like canceling all my appointments, I still pulled together. Like I ended up purchasing some really beautiful handcrafted belt buckles while I was down in Argentina, and so when I got back, I ended up, you know, hand making a bunch of leather belts and then incorporated the Argentine like belt buckles from my travels. Those were my first leather accessories and I'd already started producing because earlier that spring, I had gone to Peru and went to a textile show and, after interviewing what felt like hundreds of different people, I found the people that I wanted to work with to make my ponchos. So I started with a poncho and then that was the first thing that I was producing. It was actually working with some incredible artisans in Cusco that were part of a USAID program that was helping in education, in families and communities there in textiles, so it was great to partner with them. They're still one of my partners to this day. They make a good bit of my ponchos. And then, yes, I incorporated the belts.
Speaker 3:There's a funny story about those belts. Actually, I invited my best friend from college with me to go celebrate my 40th birthday by going to the New Orleans Polo Club. I hadn't been. You know as much as I was from Houma in Louisiana. I didn't even know about the New Orleans Polo Club until I started doing research. And then I'm like I've got to go there. That's where I want my 40th to be. And so she met me there and we're at the, at the Royal Sinesta hotel, and she comes in and she's like what in the hell are you doing? And I have leather and stuff for cutting and burnishing and the stuff that it's all over the floor of the hotel room. She's like I thought we were having your 40th birthday. You know, we first had to finish making some belts, finished making some belts, so it was that. And then I also began with some throws, some woven throws. So I took the pattern of what was on a lot of the Argentine horse saddle pads and then started making some blankets. And so those are my first three designs.
Speaker 1:So were you manufacturing all this by yourself.
Speaker 3:So you were stitching and crafting belts in your hotel room in New Orleans and sustainable textiles and, like alpaca, is just one that's just so great to work with and it's so soft and it lasts and it doesn't pill and those sorts of things. So you know all the research that I did in the beginning about textiles, I knew that I wanted to work with that. You know, in both our apparel and in our home division.
Speaker 3:And you were sourcing most of your stuff from where, did you say again, and you were sourcing most of your stuff from where, did you say again yeah, so I would send my designs to the artisans that I had met when I was in Peru earlier that year, and then they produced the designs and some were done by hand, and then I had others that were done by machine, and to this day I still balance handwork with some machine work too.
Speaker 1:Now, is all of your material sourced out of Peru, or is leather sourced from somewhere else?
Speaker 3:No, yeah, so different places. So Peru is still like a big staple for our company in terms of what they produce. And then alpaca, peruvian cotton, tanguise cotton. They're just really great with those specific textiles and they are incredible knitters as well as weavers. Some of their wovens, I just think, are so I mean you just can't, you can't top them. They're pieces that will last hundreds of years. They're heirlooms, for sure.
Speaker 3:And then my leather.
Speaker 3:Not too long after that I went to Milan because I was buying some US vegS, veg tan leather but what I was getting on the market and I didn't know a lot of sources, so I was sourcing locally but it was just a little bit rougher than what I really wanted.
Speaker 3:So I heard that you know, milan had the best leather show, and so I went out to Milan and was completely overwhelmed because it's like thousands and thousands of tanneries. But I'm a good investigator and I was doing a lot of talking with all the different vendors and tanneries and what I learned is that there's two different types of leather. There's chrome tanned leather and then there's vegetable tanned leather. Chrome tanned leather is obviously with chrome. It's with heavy metals. I wanted to have clean products and so I went with the vegetable tanned tanneries, which use bark and berries to preserve the leather, and it's a lot more expensive, but it's so much better for the environment, not just with the waste of you you know, the water and everything from the tanning but also against your skin and then, as it decomposes, into the environment.
Speaker 1:I'm just curious, like is that style tannery, uh-huh, if that's the right word to use. Is that something that's new? Has that been something that's been done for years?
Speaker 3:Yeah, vegetable tanning is the most ancient tanning out there. I don't really remember when chrome tanning started. I want to say 100 years ago, I don't know exactly, but when chrome tanning started. I mean it takes months to preserve a hide with the vegetable tannins and it takes like a day to do it with chrome, and so it's definitely a shortcut.
Speaker 3:It transforms the leather. It's much different leather after, whereas the vegetable tan leather to me was for sure it was about the environment, but it was also because to me it also just it looks like the saddle right. So when you get a brand new saddle, you know, usually from Argentina, they're that like really kind of fleshy toned, very light leather that once it gets into the sun the very first day it starts to get darker. Sun the very first day it starts to get darker and as you use it it starts to have its own patina and it's just so beautiful. I just I love saddles. I could have them all around my house. I love them so much, they're so pretty, and that's how I wanted our leather accessories to be as well.
Speaker 1:Do you have like a wall that looks like a tack room but isn't an attack room? It's just for decor.
Speaker 3:I would. I don't. At the very moment it's my kids and I and we're in a, you know, not too large of a house, so most of my polo stuff is, unfortunately, in my garage. I do have some incredible cool saddles that I did get from Argentina. They're more decorative. I have a couple of those. They're the gaucho style saddles, and then I have some from Mongolia too. So those are in my house.
Speaker 1:Oh wow. The way that you described making leather is just like the same way that it's barrel age whiskey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, isn't that also part of the beauty? I mean, to me, part of the beauty of making something is just not throwing a bunch of chemicals on it. I mean, everything to me is part of the story that makes something in the process that makes it beautiful. I mean, I don't want to be using any products that I know are going to make the water dirty for us to drink or make it toxic for animals. I've always loved nature way too much for that, which, by the way, we have our B Corp. I don't know if you're familiar with those. It's called a B Corporation. So instead of a C corporation, a B corporation really kind of focuses on people, planet and profit instead of just profit.
Speaker 1:Okay, no, that's great to hear. Yeah, yeah, a certification and movement for for-profit businesses that prioritize social and environmental impact alongside profit. I did that quick Google search right there.
Speaker 3:You did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of information, no. But speaking of sustainability, though, I did read a great article that you guys were featured in, I think, last year in Forbes about sustainability and textiles. Yep, how did that come about?
Speaker 3:That came about? I was part of a group of brands in New York during Fashion Week last week and all of us are sustainable brands, and so that Forbes editor was there and interviewed each of us and wanted to highlight the work that we're doing, you know, and taking this road of making clean products it's the only way that I would ever want to do this brand, by the way, but in doing that, it's not easy and it, you know, it does pinch your margins and it's more expensive and everything else, but it also is so satisfying knowing that what you're making is not bad for the planet.
Speaker 1:What would make the textiles leather not sustainable? What would be chemicals? What would be used in them?
Speaker 3:that's With leather and with any textiles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, like one of the biggest polluters is petrochemical based textiles. So you're looking at the polyesters and the nylons and all of those and I'm so deep into sustainability so forgive me if I think right now it's kind of known among everyone about how bad microplastics are. Yeah, we have a major microplastic pollution problem around the world now and it's only getting worse. And you know a lot of these yarns that are made. They don't biodegrade, they just break up into small pieces and then they go into the water and then they go into the air and they're in our bodies and need right now to stop using those. You know, and even if they're recycled if they're recycled and you're still putting it into the washing machine, then microplastics are still going into the water, you know. So I chose when I first started the brand that I wanted to be a plastic-free brand. So I do whatever I can to try to avoid plastics when I can.
Speaker 1:Okay, now you're opening up a great door, but it's something I think to take the opportunity to quickly talk about, because you didn't mention types of clothes like polyester. What were some of the other ones? Polyester?
Speaker 3:Polyester, nylon. I mean, there's so many different types of petrochemical products used. There's also in leather, believe it or not, and I go into this on our blog. Actually, I just published one a couple of days ago talking about this, or today I think it was today I published. But when I was in Italy that time I was telling you about Milan one of the things that I was being offered by almost any of the chrome tanneries was also something called PU coated leather and it was a 10th, if not a 20th, of the price of the vegetable tan leather. And it's because it's coated in plastic and I didn't know that this was going on. But, like most brands are using this and it's just so cheap and it doesn't matter how the animal is being cared for. It can have scars all over it because they're just going to put plastic on the outside of it. So the PU coated stuff made me pretty grossed out. I definitely knew I didn't want to go in that direction, but that's also a pretty big problem in our industry as well.
Speaker 1:So nylon polyester. I'm assuming clothes like dry fit clothing, things like that, are all petrol based. It's in everything.
Speaker 3:I mean. You just got to start reading your labels, you know.
Speaker 1:And when you're washing those materials, bits of microplastic are coming out in your washing machine and going back into the water system. Yeah, yes, there you go. You've heard it everyone.
Speaker 3:I don't think it's a secret.
Speaker 1:But those details matter, they really do I really do?
Speaker 3:I mean, it mattered to me even in the very beginning. It's why I've done things so slowly, so carefully, and I had a lot of friends that were telling me I don't think it really matters, I don't think a lot of people really care and I'm like, I think, a better environment at the end of the day.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the interview. Stay tuned, stay refreshed and stay curious. I love that you brought up sustainability because I thought to myself and this is from my last season I spoke with Alejandro Patro from Patro Polo Fields and we could have had another episode entirely on. This was just about sustainability in polo in general, and you know what does that mean to our sport. You know we're in vast open areas and open land. You know, are we using chemicals? Are we maintaining our fields in an environmentally friendly way, to how things are fertilized and how clubs can take the manure of horses and so on and so forth and make it into fertilizer for your fields, and he was emphasizing like there's ways to do this.
Speaker 3:There are ways.
Speaker 1:For Polo to really lead the sustainability effort. If people would just make that extra effort to do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know one of the things so out here in California, one of our natural resources can sometimes be tough to get and that's water. If we're having a drought season, obviously polo fields need a lot of water. But we did a lot of research you know research back at the club a long time ago the club that I was helping to manage and we found a Bermuda from Australia. I think it's even called like Bermuda number seven and it's drought tolerant. So sometimes it's just so, instead of just trying to feed the problem that you have, it's really just try to solve it and definitely I think from the manure that we already have at clubs that can be used to many other bioproducts that are out there right now. I was actually just speaking with a friend of mine, bonnie McGill. She manages the UC Davis polo team and her daughter was an ag major and actually that's one of the things that she's doing right now.
Speaker 3:Raeann McGill, I think she's representing a bio fertilizer company out of Kansas, but they're all there and because I'm in this field and sustainability left right, center, I'm hearing of different companies coming up with incredible solutions to problems that don't require us to throw on chemicals onto the field, and I'll touch on that a little bit more in that, being from Louisiana, you know we're at the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River. All of the nitrogen that is, you know, this synthetic fertilizer, so the nitrogen that comes from petrochemicals then goes back down to Gulf of Mexico and then we have hypoxia and so you have thousands of square miles of dead water because of it. And so you know there are definitely ways that we need to. We need to think beyond short-term and we need to think beyond just our local area, the impact that these decisions that we're making.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great topic to cover. It really is, and I applaud what you guys are doing in terms of just the sustainability clothing in general and it's beautiful as a result of it, and it's one of those things where it's like, look, you don't have to cut corners and mass produce something and use petrol, chemicals and what have you. When you stick with tradition, you can have a equal product that lasts the same, if not longer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know an interesting place to look to. So a long time ago a friend of mine was doing some photography for National Geographic and we're in in Cuba. This was I don't know 25 years ago and I was just amazed at the beauty of the agriculture there. And they didn't have access to petrochemicals because of the embargo and they couldn't bring it in.
Speaker 1:It was just too expensive.
Speaker 3:And so there the farmers. Because we're out there, you know, shooting a lot of farmers for the magazine and they're making teas for the land, and I remember my grandfather and my parents even making some special teas to use. But then, you know, those were when I was really young. And then when Home Depot starts to like here's this and here's how you get rid of weeds and it's chemicals left, right, center, you forget those traditions. So I don't know how hard it is to make a huge tea for your humongous polo field, but I do think that there are just better ways than the ones that are creating toxicity in our environment.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, do we just say that because of the embargo, cuba is probably one of the most environmentally forward-thinking countries? Still because of that embargo, the Cuban tobacco has never been touched by chemicals.
Speaker 3:It's either earth or water or the human hand from rolling it and working it and air drying it.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 3:It really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, part of me even just polo in general is even to build a case of, like you know, when I managed the Polo Club. I mean it's beautiful out there, I mean it's untouched grounds that are still being used. I mean at one point there's 13, 14 polo fields before they became golf courses. Because it's closed now. Right, it's closed now, but like, at one point during its height, you know, it had so many polo fields. Then golf came in. Naturally it became a really incredibly popular sport 40s, 50s, 60s and it began to kind of wither down and only to a few polo fields. Now there's two of them that exist out there. But you know polo is open land, open spaces, open green spaces.
Speaker 1:And those are really, really hard to find as the population increased. I mean the people who have polo fields and they hold on to them. I mean, well, what stinks is that you'll have people who don't have dynasties, their children, their grandchildren won't pick up the sport. Then you find them selling their land to developers and then it's gone, all that acres and acres of land pristine. I mean just having people ride and horses in your backyard or just around the area and then poof, it's all gone, just to build a subdivision.
Speaker 3:We just lost. It wasn't lost to build a subdivision, but we unfortunately just lost the Serra Pompa Polo Club, which is one of my favorites and that's where I started and that was in Petaluma.
Speaker 3:So was that a similar situation where it was someone retired, or no, yeah, one of the families wanted to get out of polo and so I think it just kind of forced everything on the market. So you know it's the Ames family, actually the foundation, that bought it. So the furniture, you know, beautiful, one of my favorite modern furniture companies they ended up purchasing for the foundation, but there's no plans of development. It's actually a lot of it's about sustainability, so it's tough to lose that one. That was 30 minutes away from San Francisco, which you know. That was one of the things I know you had mentioned.
Speaker 3:You wanted to talk about what I thought was what's one of the challenges that we also face as a sport, and I think everybody could probably agree that that's one of them. I mean, you know, for myself, like I actually I don't know if I told you this I took the last four years off of playing, so with my two kids you know I wanted to be there for their sports. They're both really big athletes. My daughter was in volleyball and lacrosse, my son's football and lacrosse, and so I I took a break and my son's graduating this year, so you're going to expect me back on a horse this summer, and they never took up the sport huh.
Speaker 3:We played and we even did this huge like West Coast tour and they played with me in Jackson Hole and Aspen and Vancouver. I mean we just had so much fun. I just like had visions of, like the Von Trapp family my two kids and me, you know playing, but it's just, they're in the sports with their friends. You know, part of the best thing about sports is the camaraderie and I'm so glad that they chose the sports they did, because my daughter was incredible at it. She decided not to play in college, but my son is going to continue to play football.
Speaker 1:That's great. And then there's something about riding along with your children on horseback, isn't there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is, there is, and I'm hoping that they'll join me again sometime.
Speaker 1:I bet they will. We've talked about that. There's always a gap. There is a gap always.
Speaker 3:But going back to Deanna the issue though now, so I'm looking to get back into it, but I'm also, you know, I'm working. I have my company, I consult for other companies as well, so I'm super busy. I'm not living on Serra Pompa at the Polo Club anymore, which I did for a while and that was like heaven, and so it's harder for me in terms of, like, getting horses again and maintaining those horses now being over an hour away from a club. And so one of the things in the business I was just going to ask you, because I know you have your finger to the pulse on this so much more is what is the USPA doing to support the lease horse program, Because I think that's going to be integral for me in getting back into polo.
Speaker 1:It's critical. I think more and more. I think like here in Chicago, for example, the Las Parisas Farm and Polo Club they're big into that to make it much more accessible instead of the feeling of, oh, you rode for a year or two, now buy a horse.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And feeling the sense that you're pressured into doing so and that's just not the way to go about it. That mentality needs to escape the leasing programs better. Other countries do it very, very well. I just had a great conversation with the folks at the Chantilly Polo Club in France and they do it and they've been incredibly successful at it. And, granted, you need to have that polo population and that level of interest to sustain a leasing program for sure, but no doubt about it, it's just going to be far easier to bring people in more and for longer periods of time before anyone decides to write a check to have two, three, four, five, six horses.
Speaker 3:Well, and also there's that you know when you're either just starting or for me, I'm going to be getting back into it. I mean, I'm not going to want like super fast horses this summer. I definitely would prefer probably the ones in Mongolia where I can kind of pop on, I can play with like a 40 mallet, but yeah, so I would not even want to be in the market right now to buy horses, because I want to definitely level up my skills again and my riding and everything over the next year or two. So the lease horse program is really important, but I know that's something that I'm not the only one that struggles with that and wants to figure that out. We do have some options for leasing here, which is great. I do know some clubs struggle with that too.
Speaker 1:And even the breeding program I think in the US is starting to get better. It's at Cotterall Polo Club in Utah. There's a wonderful breeding program that's out there and a lot of those horses that are trained become polo ponies and go all throughout the entire country. I think there's a place in Texas and in Virginia that are trying to do the same as well, to replicate what's been successfully done in Argentina.
Speaker 3:Aren't horses going to be tariffed now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, probably that's. The other thing is that Chip McKinney, who founded the Gay Polo Club, who's a fantastic and one of the most brilliant minds in the sport. He's great, we've talked many times in his understanding of the economics of the most brilliant minds in the sport. He's great, we've talked many times in his understanding of the economics of the game in comparison to how US operates versus other countries. And you know, the horse in the US is now a luxury. It's viewed as entertainment and luxury. It's no part of our everyday culture which makes it incredibly expensive versus other countries and those are just kind of just the natural progression of things. It's sad. I wish the united states did more to celebrate the horse.
Speaker 1:in my opinion, yeah the animal has been with us through thick and thin, and also a lot of people are unaware of or completely oblivious to the importance of polo has had in our armed forces and the military adventure and exploration and things like that. All you got to do is turn on 1923 yeah yeah, I mean. That's why I continue to follow the game. You know, have interviews like this. Discuss it because I've fallen in love with the game. The people the places are incredible.
Speaker 1:People think that this is an elitist sport and look, it's expensive. I will give you that. But there is a humbleness to the game. Even going to like there's a blue collar sense to it. When you start to walk into the stables, you know where everyone has horse shit on their shoes and they're drinking beer at a barbecue.
Speaker 1:Part of me is like it's no different than going to Mobile, alabama, to watch a football game. That's how I see it. You know we can go and talk a little bit about the marketing. Side is that there are different demographics and interests in this game and some are exploited and some are not. And it's the ones that are not, I feel like, have the best stories and that the most people can relate to. And those are the reasons why I fell in love with the game. It wasn't wearing seersucker suits and sucking down Vuclaco champagne. It was drinking a Yellow Jacket Coors Banquet beer with my boss, you know, on some folding chairs in the back of a pickup. I mean, it doesn't get any better. And it's. The camaraderie of the people is another thing.
Speaker 3:For a while there I was developing this whole tailgate line. I still do chairs and glasses and stuff like that, but yeah, I mean that's just part of the fun, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely the camaraderie of the sport. I mean it is such a unique club to be in and it's a club to have a lot of pride in. It's a club where you play the game. You can go anywhere in the world and someone will saddle up a horse for you to go play stick and ball, yep, anywhere in the world. I am not even a polo player by heart and I can call my friends up in New Zealand, india, argentina, ireland, the UK, anywhere.
Speaker 3:I've played in so many different countries and clubs. It's been such a gift.
Speaker 1:It's one of the most amazing things I mean. From your perspective, though, are there things in the sport that we're doing well or not doing well?
Speaker 3:That's a broad question, but you know, first of all I'm in California. I'm very far away from Wellington. I think that's where a lot of stuff happens, right, that's kind of the epicenter for polo. I think that's where a lot of stuff happens, right, that's kind of the epicenter for polo. So I'm not involved in knowing on a day-to-day like what's really happening over there at the center. What I can say is just, I guess, from my perspective, what and making things that people cherished was I was like a recruitment headquarters for polo out here.
Speaker 3:I brought so many people into the sport and it's, you know, more of that, I think, can be used in the sport. You know, just constantly telling people and inviting them. Otherwise it's not something that's on anybody's radar, you know. I mean, maybe they go to the Rift Clique tournaments and they have a lot of fun, but I don't know if at those events there's also like hey, sign up if you want a lesson. So I think, for all of us to remember how we're actually ambassadors of the sport, I'd pretty much say that anybody I know does try to recruit friends, but maybe that's just something. It's something I look forward to doing again once I have a brick and mortar store once more.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean, if the idea is to break away from normal society or the crowds and go to a place where there's an element of tranquility and quietness there there's small groups of people that share the same passion, the smell of the bar and the smell of the outdoors that polo is your game, then it is your game. It's an escape. It really is, and you can draw in comparisons with either other sports or other interests, like my family's big lake life. We will do anything to get to the lake. You know it's the same thing. Anyone will do anything to get to the barn. They will have their stuff packed and they immediately will leave after work and get out there to escape the concrete jungle that they're in. So I think that's one of the big recruitments. It's not riding a horse, it's just the environment that you get to escape to every day, every weekend.
Speaker 3:The other thing I think that we could do more of is have more fields. When I'm out and about anywhere, I'm always looking at something, looking at a piece of property. I'm saying, hmm, yeah, this could be great.
Speaker 2:I can fly in that field. Now I can fly in that field.
Speaker 3:I was actually at a resort recently in California where I think I've planted the seed. In terms of this just would be an incredible thing for your resort, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But incorporating it into resort life. Actually, I think it'd be such a great idea, because people are on vacation, they are probably a little bit more adventuresome and they're like okay, let me go ahead and try this. Like Mandarina down in Mexico, I've had so many friends that I introduced to that resort and they were so excited, even if they just went to a game. But for the ones that hopped on a horse and have taken lessons too, it's something that they'll be able to look fondly on that memory forever. And if they took up the sport too, I mean, that's also incredible. So we need to have those more opportunities for people to get involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to go back to you Stick and Ball real quick. I don't think you've answered the question. How did you come up with the name stick and ball? Everyone in Poland knows what stick and ball is, but why did you choose that name?
Speaker 3:You know, I think when I looked at the sport and fell in love with it and fell in love with the lifestyle and wanted to create this lifestyle brand, what I thought was the white space and the market had to do with everything that we've just been talking about. Like, this community, this camaraderie, this casual aspect, this almost hop on the horse and just hit the ball around aspect of the sport hang out with friends and stick and ball is that more casual way of getting out on your horse and knocking the ball around. It's kind of like a pickup sport, kind of a you know form, and I thought it was perfect for the brand because, you know, I don't create formal wear. I create beautiful, elevated, everyday wear. So, yeah, it alluded to that casual aspect.
Speaker 1:Totally makes sense. That's, the sticking ball is the casual side of the game, that's for sure. I was talking to I hope I remember this correctly Benoit Pierre, with the Chantilly Polo Club. They had, I think they called it, patio polo I think that's what he called it which which was basically it was a combination of arena polo but on grass. I think that's what the name of it is. I I'm going to regret if I got it wrong, but it was a catchy name that they called it. So basically, what they did is they took a polo field, cutting it half and did three on three.
Speaker 1:That's basically what it was yeah, and they would play with an arena ball.
Speaker 3:I'm looking them up.
Speaker 1:Hopefully I have that right French Valley Club. Yeah, in France.
Speaker 3:I think my friend Guillermo Lee works there. I'm pretty sure he's out there. Yeah, I haven't been to that club yet. I've played in Provence, which was really cool, and the family there that's behind it. They've been around in the sport for a few generations and they're just the nicest people ever. But yeah, I haven't played in Paris just yet or around.
Speaker 1:So, since 2011, when the second ball came about, at what point did it blow up and you started to do far more different products, accessories Did it blow?
Speaker 3:up. Did I miss something? I feel like I've grown like at a snail's pace, but it's the only thing I could do with. You know, I'm a single mom, so managing, trying to be an incredible mom and growing a business at the same time and at the time too, a long time ago, I was also managing the club. We definitely haven't blown up and, kind of purposely, I don't think I could have handled like huge scale while also trying to be there for my kids.
Speaker 3:But when we started to probably be more known is when I was getting out on the road and doing these pop-ups, especially also when I was doing these big dinners. So I love, you know, growing up in Louisiana, food is such a part of our culture, and so when I got involved in the Polo Club in Petaluma, that was one of the first things that I started doing was like cooking and entertaining, and so I brought that out onto the polo field and we're literally taking the tables and putting them onto the polo field and having these beautiful, fun dinners at night under the stars. And so I was getting these requests from clubs all over can you come and do that for us? It was so much fun, but let me tell you that is no easy task, especially when you have like a hundred people and the Jackson Hole Polo Club we literally Craig, gave me, like in the cabin there's like a whatever, a four burner electric stove and I don't know, like a hundred people it was so it was crazy. So very long story.
Speaker 3:Getting out and doing those community events is when we started to get known and then from there I was invited to be a part of the Hampton Classic and Greenwich Polo Club and I kind of started making this circuit. I would get to the East Coast a couple of times a year, try to get to Aspen or Jackson Hole. I've been many times. So that helped, I think. And then I was starting to hear people say, like in conversations oh yeah, I know stick and ball, and when I would hear that it would make me so excited, and especially when I was going somewhere and I would either literally bump into somebody at the airport that had, like you know, one of my sweaters or ponchos or bags and that made me really excited too. So it's getting out there, it's among certain groups, it's where you put the energy and I've had to scale back quite a bit in the last few years just trying to be there for my kids. But just wait, because they're they're graduating, so I'm back in the saddle.
Speaker 1:You're going to be out, back out of the trail again. Yeah, totally. Do you want to be small? I mean, do you want to stay boutique?
Speaker 3:No, no, I definitely want to grow. I just want to grow carefully. You know I've been in this business now. I've been in fashion for 14 years now and the number of brands that I've seen go under I can't even count. It is a like I told you, I think in the beginning it's very, very difficult industry. You're designing products. You're putting all of your money into making these products. You usually have to put your money out there to whomever you're making it with way in advance, sometimes six months in advance, depending.
Speaker 3:Now I've been in the business a long time. I negotiate things much differently. But and then and then you have to sell it right. So then when you get the goods, you have lots of inventory and you sell it slowly, piece by piece. Well, that's at least what you do kind of in the beginning as a brand. But now it's much different and I have a lot of contacts. I have contacts at the major department stores. I have contacts.
Speaker 3:But I've I've said no to many opportunities because of terms, and there's the terms in the industry can really put you under. If somebody's not going to pay you in a year after they receive goods, which is part of commonplace in fashion then you can go under. I mean you just don't have enough money to then produce for the next season. Didn't go under, I mean you just don't have enough money to then produce for the next season. So I was purposeful to go back.
Speaker 3:My first opportunity in wholesale was actually a local boutique here in Mill Valley and I didn't know that they were going through financial hardships at the time, but I was getting an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle and so they were really excited to take on my brand and we sold so much and I kept bringing product to them, they kept selling it and then it took me four months to get my money back.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, you have to be really careful for these pitfalls in this business. So negotiating your contracts and having a contract in place is really important, and I also wanted to do this industry different from many other brands. I mean, when I first got in it, I was speaking with a potential salesperson who is a friend of mine and she's just great and she works for big brands in New York and she loved stick and ball and she wanted to work with me sticking ball and she's she wanted to work with me. She's like okay, the first thing I'm going to tell you is you need to produce six collections a year and I'm like wait what you know? So not having had the experience before I came in maybe saved me Because, again, like if you're putting your cash out there for six collections a year and something like COVID comes up or these tariffs, or I mean there's just so many things that can just take you under, or a store that's just not paying you back, yeah, Well also.
Speaker 1:I mean, look at the companies that you're working with to produce these items. They have a skill and a craft I'd imagine that it's not like you're working with. You know the manufacturers of Nike. You know Nike shoes in China, so these are probably small business individuals who also need to be paid as well.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of artisan work. I also do work with some factories, so I have factories to produce my knitwear. They're all certified sustainable factories too. But Banana Republic is a company I did a collaboration with a couple of years ago a year and a half ago and that's an example of you know, I'm also a proponent of being able to do beautiful handcrafted things at scale, and we did. You know, we produced lots of things for that. It was a small collection, but many numbers of those things for them, and that was all done by hand. We have a really wonderful supply chain in place and we have this ability to do both machine-made garments and handcrafted garments. But I'm not in line with how fashion is right now, which we don't even have six seasons of the year. So what are we doing? You know? I mean I'm really big about how. I think we all need to slow down a little bit, buy less, buy better. I mean, that's what I've always been about.
Speaker 1:Is there any sort of particular product that you're looking to do in terms of expanding what you currently offer? Anything on the horizon?
Speaker 3:I love design so much so when I started the brand, I was immediately into what leather goods and home goods and apparel, and I've even done jewelry as well. So I've done quite a bit in many different categories. I think what I would like to do is to have a little bit more of an expansion in women's knitwear as well as men's knitwear as well. I did a run of linen shirts from Italy one year and the guys just loved it. I actually have a lot of guys that follow my brand, even on their email, and I don't know how they've hung on for so long, because I'm so slow to get stuff for guys. It's not that I don't want to, but I'm not funded by a private equity company. I do it all myself. So the expansion's slow, but the linen shirts were such a hit but it was really funny too.
Speaker 3:This is another lesson. I made them in Italy and so I was going based on. They were actually hand-done linen shirts. It was an Italian fit and Americans are not an Italian fit. They're so much bigger and so I sold out of, like you know, double XLs and the XL like right away. But to get through the other ones, I still even have some of the small and the medium. So so yeah, I've had so many lessons learned along the way and I'm just so excited to really sink my teeth into my brand. You know even more when I become empty nest soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how about anything on the men's side? Anything new on there? Any recommendations? Do you need recommendations?
Speaker 3:Recommendations? Yeah, give them to me. Like I do want to produce, I have access to, like some of the most sustainable and beautiful cotton, and so I do want to do some beautiful polo shirts, you know, just like not just the regular stuff, like some really cool shirts that also just last forever and don't have any plastic in it. So that's something I want to do. They won't be cheap, but they will be great pieces that you'll have forever.
Speaker 1:I think I forgot to tell you this I still have your socks that.
Speaker 2:I got from you, you do, I do.
Speaker 3:That was a while ago.
Speaker 1:That was a while ago that I remember getting I think it was at the Houston Polo Club yeah, I think, making your rounds, and it was at the Houston Polo Club yeah, I think, making your rounds, and I had a pair of gray socks that I got from you and I still have them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they will last forever. That's actually some of that cotton that I was telling you about. It's the Pima cotton. It's so beautiful, it is a long staple cottons. It doesn't break apart as easily, and you know. So, aside from the pilling, it just lasts longer and it's just so soft it's nice. Yeah, I've been asked to wear socks. It's something on my list too.
Speaker 1:I do as much as I can no, you got to compete with the bonobos, or I'm trying to think of the other one I know. Right, that's been made popular out there these days.
Speaker 3:Some slippers I think bonobos is owned by Walmart. Now right.
Speaker 1:Oh, is it Okay? Have you ever been offered to be bought at all?
Speaker 3:I get emails yeah, I do get emails Random people, though and I have a lot of people, especially out here, that really believe in the brand too, so I have some mentors out here that are great Like. One of my mentors is the former CEO of Banana. She just did such an amazing job of bringing that brand back and putting quality back on the shelves as well, and I'm a part of a lot of other incredible groups, like the Female Founder Collective with Rebecca Minkoff, and so I have a lot of people that really believe in the brand.
Speaker 1:Well, I have always been a big fan of the brand. I always have. I think getting involved is one of the I think, the few brands that are dedicated to the sport and its lifestyle, Gone in on the ground early but still, I think is just one of the few that is more into the lifestyle instead of like gear for the most part, which is relatively saturated.
Speaker 3:So you gotta leave weird to the people that really. I mean, it's so technical, Like I don't want to make something that could fail and cause someone to get hurt. I'll do saddle pads. That could be pretty cool, Right? But I'm a creative. I like the fashion side of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what, elizabeth, I can't thank you enough for joining me today and sitting down and talking about yourself, the brand. I really enjoy it. The product is fantastic. Everyone, please get a chance to go to stickandballcom. Some of the most beautiful ponchos, belts, leather goods, blankets that you're going to want. I will probably go on a scarf shopping spree.
Speaker 3:Those are the greatest gifts. They're so soft, they're so nice.
Speaker 1:For a guy that's in usually a sweater weather for six months out of the year, or longer. In Chicago, those will go a long, long way, that's for sure. And the colors are phenomenal. They're beautiful.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. I do have like VIP codes for friends and fellow polo players, so feel free to DM me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no doubt about it. Like I was just on your website, I'm trying to think of the color that it was that I think. I would think it was either the charcoal or a camel, yeah, even the olive. I mean, those are beautiful colors.
Speaker 3:One of the things Dan back in that sustainability side of stuff. When I started picking, like the natural colors of the alpaca, it just kind of created the color palette, and the same with the vegetable tannins. They're all natural, so everything kind of matches once you go in that direction too.
Speaker 1:We could talk for hours. I mean, we will have to have another conversation just on.
Speaker 1:Just just talk about style yeah, exactly but again, thank you so much for taking the time. Encourage everyone to take a look at this brand. It is absolutely stunning. Men or women, decorate your home. If you're looking to have that element of equestrian or polo in your household, I know my office is filling up with it, that's for for sure, thank you. But thank you so much and hey look forward to getting together soon. My sister is in California Also. A good buddy of mine owns a winery out there, lofty Wines in Sonoma.
Speaker 3:Oh nice.
Speaker 1:So if you're looking to do a stick and ball wine, I can make that introduction.
Speaker 3:You got it. That sounds awesome, if you want a rosé.
Speaker 1:They have a rosé, I think.
Speaker 3:They do. I'll throw it one of these days.
Speaker 1:But I'll make sure I give you a call when I'm out there, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:And same with Chicago. I'll be going out there to do some leather work, so I'll give you a ring.
Speaker 1:All right, excellent. Well, thank you Elizabeth, thank you, dan. In 2012, the founders of Outside the Boards witnessed their first polo match and were stunned by the sport's beauty and brutality. Few sports, if any, have these combined qualities. The sport's grace, intensity and warlike imagery create a shock and awe viewing experience like none other. Combine this with the sport's party-like atmosphere and lifestyle and you have a recipe for success.
Speaker 1:Today, the sport has yet to witness its full potential. The industry is fragmented, riddled with politics and inexperience. Outside the Board was purposely designed to change all that and bring clarity to the sport by introducing best practices, insights, trends and consulting services to industry stakeholders and interested brands so that they can reach their marketing potential and better navigate the sport. Whether you're a club seeking custom sponsorship and marketing solutions or simply looking for strategic advice, we encourage you to contact us today or subscribe to gain access to industry insights. Visit us at OutsideTheBoardscom or to learn more, or email us at info at OutsideTheBoardscom. Let's change the game. And that's a wrap for today's episode. Our heartfelt thanks to our season sponsor. And that's a wrap for today's episode. Our heartfelt thanks to our season sponsor, hive 2.0, for helping bring outside the boards to life.
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