From Friar to Founder - Jon Mason '96

When competing with the big players in the beverage industry proved to be challenging, Jon Mason '96 pivoted his energy drink company into a lifestyle brand. We chat with this former Friar baseball player and entrepreneur about his journey from his hometown of Norwood, Massachusetts, to the West Coast and back to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he now runs SwingJuice. What started as a home-based business with 10 golf-themed t-shirt designs has now grown into a successful brand, partnering with organizations such as MLB and the PGA. Mason shares his experiences attending Providence College, building SwingJuice, and bringing the company to where it is today.

As a special treat for our listeners and members of the Friar family, SwingJuice is offering a 25% discount when you use the code "GoFriars25" at checkout. To support other Friar-owned businesses visit Friars Shop Friars.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Chris Judge

Multimedia and Live Event Producer

Producer

Chris Judge

Multimedia and Live Event Producer

What is Providence College Podcast?

The Providence College Podcast features interviews with interesting members of the Friar Family. These in-depth conversations with PC students, Dominicans, faculty, staff, and alumni provide a rich look into the lives of noteworthy Friars. Occasionally we will also bring you on-campus lectures and presentations. Go Friars!

00;00;00;09 - 00;00;14;28
Chris Judge
Hello and welcome to the Providence College Podcast. I'm your host today Chris Judge. Joining us this week is John Mason from the class of 1996. John is a former baseball player and the founder of the company Swing Juice, a former energy drink company turned apparel company. John, thanks for joining us.

00;00;15;02 - 00;00;17;06
Jon Mason
Thanks for having me. Excited to be back.

00;00;17;10 - 00;00;31;01
Chris Judge
Thank you. Glad to have you here. I want to start go go way back. Way, way back. How did you decide to come to Providence College? And what brought you to here? To obviously play baseball, like I said, in the open.

00;00;31;02 - 00;01;01;09
Jon Mason
Yeah, it's interesting. I grew up in Norwood, Massachusetts, so just about 30 minutes north of here. And, you know, as I got into my junior year in senior year, you know, again, it just it was it became evident to me that I possibly could have an opportunity to play, you know, the next level in college baseball. So, you know, the entire process for my junior or senior, you know, visiting different campuses, you know, talking to different coaches and, you know, being recruited by different programs, you know, from Division one, two and three.

00;01;02;03 - 00;01;25;00
Jon Mason
You know, again, just kind of sitting there with my parents, we sort of you know, we looked at all the options and, you know, quite frankly, my dad was like, you know, PC is probably the best option for you for not only for for baseball, but for academics, because at the time, you know, PC had just come off a Big East championship, you know, get Big East baseball at the time was such a, you know, really competitive, you know, league.

00;01;25;00 - 00;01;32;00
Jon Mason
So we just kind of sat down, said, all right, let's, uh, you know, let's, let's make give PC a run and see what happens.

00;01;32;10 - 00;01;43;01
Chris Judge
So you get here and you had a tough freshman year. You guys weren't were that good? Correct. But by the time your junior year, you made it to the College World Series regionals, How what was that experience like?

00;01;43;05 - 00;02;01;29
Jon Mason
So, you know, it's amazing. You know, the just the progression. I think when I first got on campus, it was just like, you know, why do I ever like, I can't believe, you know, this is actually happening, you know, playing with, you know, Lou Maloney and then, you know, like seeing, you know, seeing because again, I had followed PC Baseball from, you know, basically my entire senior year.

00;02;01;29 - 00;02;25;09
Jon Mason
So, you know, Earl Smith, all these guys that I kind of saw on the program, I would come to games, but then to actually be playing with a lot of them. And then, you know, I mentioned Lou, like Lou's probably the best baseball player ever I've ever played with. And, you know, to see him, you know, progress in his career and just knowing that I spent that time with him and, you know, again, the whole the whole experience was just, you know, sort of out-of-body experience most of the time.

00;02;25;20 - 00;02;47;10
Jon Mason
You know, I think I think I'd played with a total of, you know, two guys that ended up playing like having long Major League Baseball careers, which, you know, when people ask me about, you know, Providence College Baseball, you know, rest in peace, you know, now that it's different, a whole nother conversation. But, you know, to have a cold weather school and to have, you know, produce that many successful players is a rarity.

00;02;47;10 - 00;02;52;10
Jon Mason
So, again, the whole the whole experience was phenomenal and something that obviously I've never forgotten.

00;02;52;12 - 00;02;53;28
Chris Judge
Did you cross paths with Johnny Mack?

00;02;54;04 - 00;03;08;20
Jon Mason
I did, yeah. Connie Mack was another another player I played with. And again, another tremendous long career again, another, you know, tremendous talent on the baseball field. Just really unassuming guy, great guy. But, you know, it was amazing to see him.

00;03;08;20 - 00;03;14;13
Chris Judge
And we all guys, we all got to see him a lot. Being Red Sox fans in this part of the country when he was with the Blue Jays.

00;03;14;13 - 00;03;21;08
Jon Mason
It was great. It was great. Alex, you know, between Lou and Johnny Mack, it was you know, again, it's been it's been fun to kind of watch those.

00;03;21;08 - 00;03;23;04
Chris Judge
Guys and now loving the new voice of the Red.

00;03;23;04 - 00;03;44;09
Jon Mason
Sox and a lose lose made a name for himself So it's funny so when I when I played in Nowhere to Hide we played in the league called the Bay State League. And Lou, again we were for three years apart he he played at Framingham. So again I was familiar with him just through high school. But then when I got here, I really got to see Lou, as, you know, the superstar.

00;03;44;09 - 00;03;55;04
Jon Mason
And I just knew immediately like this guy, this guy's going places. And same thing with Johnny Market. I mean, he was like a vacuum in the infield. And he just knew, like, all right, this good, this guy's special. Like, something's going to happen here.

00;03;55;04 - 00;04;01;18
Chris Judge
So you played baseball, but you also got a degree in marketing. What led you to want to do marketing here?

00;04;01;19 - 00;04;16;07
Jon Mason
Peter You know, honestly, I have to say like I was when I was going through my college application with my parents, my mother was helping me. She was like, You know what? What do you want to do when you get when you go to PC? And I said, Well, I want to play baseball. So was like, No, you have to like, you can major.

00;04;16;07 - 00;04;37;23
Jon Mason
So she was like, you know what marketing marketing looks like? It would be good for you. So I'm like, Okay, marketing. Marketing sounds like a Yeah, it's the way to go. And honestly, it's like, it's funny when I look, you know, you know where I am now with, with our brand and my business. And I kind of think back to, you know, those, those days in high school when I was trying to decide what I wanted to do.

00;04;38;02 - 00;04;46;19
Jon Mason
And then eventually when I got here, that's just how my brain has always worked. So I think it was clear that, you know, that was the right choice for me.

00;04;47;20 - 00;04;51;11
Chris Judge
So you graduated in 96. What did you do when you first got out?

00;04;51;19 - 00;05;15;16
Jon Mason
So right, right out of college, I worked at a job in Boston, just, you know, just sort of something I have nothing that I ever saw was like a career type of deal and, you know, was ended up working at a hotel. But then two years after I graduated, ended up moving to California for two years. So I had a friend, another another PC alum who, you know, he was living in Pennsylvania, living at home.

00;05;15;16 - 00;05;33;26
Jon Mason
And he said, you know what? Hey, look, you know, why don't we we were both living at home at the time and, you know, both were single and we were just kind of like didn't know what we were wanted to do in our lives. So we had another friend who lived out in California. So we kind of talked and said, hey, let's move cross-country with no plan, no money, but we'll see if we can make it work.

00;05;34;06 - 00;05;50;25
Chris Judge
So I'm going to jump ahead a little bit to oh, three or four area. I think you know where I'm going now. Yeah, you're out with a bunch of buddies playing golf. Yep. And this idea for Swingers came out. Yeah, came up. Can you give us a little background on on how that started?

00;05;50;26 - 00;06;11;29
Jon Mason
Sure. So, you know, like you said, 2003, 2004. So at that point I had moved back to back home. I was living in Boston at the time, you know, working in real estate. And again, this is sort of where my marketing head was, you know, so at the time, you know, was, you know, really starting to get into playing golf.

00;06;11;29 - 00;06;30;07
Jon Mason
And I had always been sort of a workout nut, but I, I was fascinated by the rise of these energy drinks that were out there. You know, again, Red Bull at the time was, you know, just sort of doing all these great and crazy things from a marketing standpoint. Guerilla marketing, I thought was cool. Vitamin Water, same thing.

00;06;30;07 - 00;06;49;26
Jon Mason
Vitamin Water was really, you know, at the time they were independent, but they were just doing a lot of cool things on the on the marketing side. And then there was a lot of other drinks that were just, you know, kind of trying to follow their lead. So I thought, well, that's kind of an interesting space. So so the I was scheduled to play golf with a friend of a bunch of friends of mine.

00;06;50;26 - 00;07;09;17
Jon Mason
My buddy called me the Friday night before this was playing a Saturday morning. He's like, hey, you know, we have an early tee time and it's like a 632 time. Wow. It's like super early. And he's like, Oh, no, no, no worries. We'll we'll just drink our swing juice and we'll be ready to go. I was like, Huh, that's that's an interesting name.

00;07;10;01 - 00;07;27;21
Jon Mason
Again, It's just odd that I was thinking about energy drinks. I was just like kind of watching that space, you know, as a consumer and just and as a marketer in my head. Like, I thought that was pretty fascinating. Then, you know, I just said, All right, well, Juice is kind of a cool name for maybe a golf energy rating, because I was obsessed with golf at that time.

00;07;27;21 - 00;07;46;24
Jon Mason
That's when I first became obsessed with golf. And it obviously just continued for, you know, every day since, you know, it's a cool name. So let me we ended up playing golf the next morning. I came back and was literally that afternoon when I got back, I just started searching like, if anybody owns the name Swing Juice, if anybody owns the domain swing juice.

00;07;47;11 - 00;08;12;05
Jon Mason
Looked up to the U.S. Patent Trademark Office website. Nobody owns Swing You. So I said, okay, let me let me buy all the domain. So I bought the domain name that day. I applied for a trademark for for a swing juice, energy drink at the time. And that's really when swing juice was born. So in the next couple of days, I just truly became obsessive about the idea of creating this drink.

00;08;12;05 - 00;08;29;04
Jon Mason
But then I set back like the Monday, you know, after I'm like, What am I going to do with all this? Like, I don't know how to make a drink. You know, how to make a, you know, anything with this? What am I going to do with this? So that was sort of the beginning of the journey until now.

00;08;29;12 - 00;08;51;27
Chris Judge
So like you said, it's a really tough industry. Yes. So you've got the monsters of Coke and Pepsi and then like you said, you had Red Bull doing cliff diving and doing all these other crazy events. VitaminWater had 50 Cent at the time as one of their first investors, like, how did you even how could you get your foot in the door?

00;08;52;09 - 00;09;14;20
Jon Mason
And that was the thing. So it's like, you know, I decided in my mind I wanted to make an all natural sports energy drink. So but again, I had no background in, in doing that. So it's like, you know, I'm looking at this brand idea that I have and then I'm thinking, okay, I wanted it to be an energy drink, but I'm like, How do you take that and get liquid in a bottle?

00;09;14;20 - 00;09;34;27
Jon Mason
It just it didn't make sense to me. So for a full year, I just did a really immersed myself and in trying to figure out that process. You know, I, I at the time I bought every single energy drink that was available on the market and I researched every single ingredient that was in every single one. And, you know, I taste tested every single one.

00;09;34;27 - 00;09;59;06
Jon Mason
So in my mind, I had an idea of, you know what I wanted to go to drink based off of what the, you know, the different ingredients did, kind of a flavor profile that I was looking for. So I really kind of just handwrote the the formula for the product. I knew I wanted ginseng in there, B-6, B12, Nice and vitamin D, you know, for all the different properties that it brought to you, wanted a lower amount of caffeine.

00;09;59;15 - 00;10;17;15
Jon Mason
I didn't like the way Red Bull made me feel because it had, you know, more than a cup of coffee, of of caffeine, of a cup of coffee. But I also like the benefit that caffeine can give you to help you with your concentration. So I took all of that, figure out the flavors, and I ended up finding a lab in Utah of all places.

00;10;17;27 - 00;10;37;19
Jon Mason
You know, I'd called around to labs, you know, in co-packers all the all over the country. And, you know, every time I would get the answer of either no or, yeah, I can produce this for you, but I have to produce like 10,000 cases of your idea. And I'm sitting there thinking like, like looking at my garage, like I can't find the cases of anything in there.

00;10;37;19 - 00;10;58;06
Jon Mason
So I found this lab in Utah that they were able to they were able to produce three cases. For me, it costs more money per bottle, but at least I could get a sample and see, you know, what this was all about. So we went through that process that, you know, I sent that my formulas. You be signed in India, something my formula.

00;10;58;06 - 00;11;22;28
Jon Mason
And then basically they just converted my formula that I had written down to like a real world scientific, you know, you know something that we could actually make a product with. And then over a course of about three months, we just went back and forth. They would send me samples, you know, I would send back the feedback. And then finally we came up with the product that ended up being the first, you know, ever swing to use energy drink.

00;11;22;28 - 00;11;40;29
Jon Mason
It was it was a lemonade flavor. And then, you know, from there I said, okay, well, they sent me blank bottles. So I was in my kitchen or in my my office, in my apartment at the time. And, you know, printing out printing out labels on my computer, sticking them on. And then I just said, all right, well, I'm going to give it a shot.

00;11;41;10 - 00;11;54;00
Jon Mason
Put a few cases in the trunk of my car and started driving around the golf courses and pitching the product and got a couple of sales. So it just sort of developed from there. And then it just, you know, and then the fire, you know, really started.

00;11;54;06 - 00;12;02;12
Chris Judge
Yeah, I was I was listening to a podcast you were on and the other host compared it to selling mixtapes out of pretty much.

00;12;03;11 - 00;12;11;01
Jon Mason
Pretty, pretty much. Which is ironic because, you know, it's part of our apparel collection of Yes, 100%, 100% was growing up.

00;12;11;10 - 00;12;19;11
Chris Judge
So when did you realize that it was time to make a change and head towards this different angle?

00;12;19;11 - 00;12;43;29
Jon Mason
So so it was about it was 2004 when the official saying use energy drink, you know, came on the market and you know, from 2004 to 2013. And I just basically was trying my hardest to break the the beverage industry. So, you know, again, a lot of trunk cases in the trunk of a car driving to a golf course is to supermarkets, to convenience stores.

00;12;44;08 - 00;13;07;25
Jon Mason
You know, we ended up getting into Whole Foods, which to me was a big goal of mine just because it showed the quality of the product. You know, at the high point of distribution, had about 300 locations throughout New England that were that were distributing the product. We were really pretty hyper hyper local, but it was about 2012, 2013 where, you know, the beverage industry can be really tough, clean.

00;13;08;07 - 00;13;33;19
Jon Mason
And if you don't have either super deep pockets from an investor base or, you know, a really strong distributor partner, it's impossible. I mean, you're fighting Coke and Pepsi in, you know, VitaminWater, Powerade and, you know, Gatorade, obviously, Red Bull. I mean, you know, I remember one time I was trying to produce some products before the summer. So the summer was was obviously our busiest time.

00;13;34;03 - 00;13;49;25
Jon Mason
And I remember I you know, we were kind of close to to get product delivered on shelves for Memorial Day. And I remember my co-packer called me at the time and he's like, Hey, John, I got to push your distribution back two weeks. And I'm like, two weeks Like then, then that brings us on a June and then we're sort of missing a window.

00;13;49;25 - 00;14;07;03
Jon Mason
He's like, Listen, I got vitamin water coming in and they the last minute run that they have to do. I have to push you back. He's like, Listen, John, Vitamin Water will spill more, more product in an hour than you will produce for the next five years. So that's when I was kind of like, okay, look up against, you know, the big boys.

00;14;07;03 - 00;14;26;06
Jon Mason
So but during that time, you know, we we had a good amount of golf courses that golf was always the base of the brand. That's how it started. And that's really who our customer base was, especially in golf courses, you know, So, you know, I could see the writing on the wall that the beverage wasn't necessarily going to take off the way I wanted it to.

00;14;26;18 - 00;14;48;20
Jon Mason
But I knew that, you know, golf and sports and lifestyle was just something I wanted to try to continue with it in whatever shape or form. So, you know, again, when you think back to 2013, 2000, 2000, 12, 13 and 14, you know, social media was just really starting to become like an everyday part of of of, you know, people's lives.

00;14;48;20 - 00;15;04;28
Jon Mason
And I said, all right, well, I got the beverage, but that's not really going to work out. I have this brand that is focused on golf, and I think that could work out people are starting to really live their lives on social media. So why don't I just make a pivot and try to make some some cool golf T-shirts?

00;15;04;28 - 00;15;06;07
Jon Mason
That's really how it started for me.

00;15;06;19 - 00;15;14;00
Chris Judge
So were you when you were doing the drinks? Was that your full time gig or was that just a passion project still?

00;15;14;01 - 00;15;40;05
Jon Mason
It was a passion project still. So I still was working in, you know, trying to at that, you know, at that time I had gotten married and had started a family. So it was it was still a sort of a side gig. My basement office was was my office. But yeah, so I think, you know, starting in around 20 1213, I just started again doing research similar to what I did with the beverage, started to do research in the apparel business.

00;15;40;05 - 00;16;09;03
Jon Mason
Think, how does this work? You know, how does e-commerce work? You know, redesign the website, you know, because it wasn't ecommerce friendly and then decided, right, well, I want to try to make this an e-commerce brand. So basically redesign the website between 2013 and 14 and then in February of 2014, turn the lights off on the beverage and turn the lights on and the apparel and you know, so and use the apparel brand was born.

00;16;09;18 - 00;16;14;11
Chris Judge
So when you started how many designs and products did you have started with?

00;16;14;11 - 00;16;39;10
Jon Mason
Ten designs, so ten graphic T-shirts and really kind of how that started again, I was still always a golf nut. You know, I'm a big fan of the game, professional game, and just, you know, I was kind of looking around and, you know, sort of a little side story. I've always been sort of into fashion, you know, from a in observer and just like into, you know, different types of clothing.

00;16;39;10 - 00;16;55;08
Jon Mason
But so I was looking at the golf industry and I thought, there are no cool golf tee shirts. I think I thought it would be cool to have some cool golf tee shirts. And that's really how I started. And I started to put together things that I thought I thought would be cool. You know, I thought be fun because it was different than what was out there.

00;16;55;19 - 00;17;18;06
Jon Mason
And yeah, started with about ten designs. And and I'm telling you, the first day, soon as the website turned over and I didn't tell anybody that I was doing this other than, you know, my web developer at the time, a friend of mine that helped me do the website, I didn't tell anybody were doing. So it's then first day started to get orders and I was like, okay, this this could go somewhere in.

00;17;18;06 - 00;17;35;00
Jon Mason
The biggest thing for me that didn't have a lot of inventory. So a beverage, you have to prepare the inventory with this. It was in the at least in the beginning, it was it was sort of building it as you go. And again, it became my new obsession, you know, within my obsessive years about sewing. Yes.

00;17;35;08 - 00;17;51;12
Chris Judge
So back in 2014, you were one of the first companies to do this type of stuff with designer t shirts and different designs and funny t shirts. Yeah. What do you think now separate you from all the other companies that are out there?

00;17;51;12 - 00;18;13;18
Jon Mason
Yeah. You know, I honestly think that, you know, the fact that we a you know, I believe that we were the first to start going down this road. But, you know, now that we've evolved, I do believe our product is the best quality product out there. You know, we we we definitely know we've evolved into, you know, having a team.

00;18;13;18 - 00;18;37;04
Jon Mason
You know, I feel like what sets us apart is, you know, our customer service and are kind of back in operation now. And, you know, again, I think we are truly different. You know, when you look at our designs and you look at our product line, we are different than almost anybody else in our space. And I think that's something that will continue to prove our going forward.

00;18;37;13 - 00;18;42;18
Jon Mason
And, you know, I'm just really excited to see where, you know, where we end up with this.

00;18;42;29 - 00;18;47;14
Chris Judge
So what what is the process for a design or how does a shirt come about?

00;18;47;17 - 00;19;09;04
Jon Mason
Yeah, So, you know, in the very beginning it was just really kind of me racking my brain for ideas of, you know, again, what I thought was cool and now the process is, you know, we're really trying to, to design into seasons, you know, into, into, you know, almost like a typical fashion cycle. So, you know, that process will really start.

00;19;09;04 - 00;19;26;07
Jon Mason
So if we're talking about like next spring, you know, that process is starting now. So we're almost like a year out and then we have so that's mainly for our performance, like our polos or performance quarters chips and hoodies for t shirts. You know, we try to do the same thing, but it's also a lot of it is is pop culture based.

00;19;26;18 - 00;19;47;21
Jon Mason
So if, if a cool event happens, if a player do something fun, we try to, you know, revolve a collection or design around that as well. So, I mean, my mind is always thinking of different ideas. I mean, I have notes on my phone. I have no pads. I mean, it's I'll wake up in the middle of the night, an idea will pop in my head or I'll try to draft it out.

00;19;47;21 - 00;20;05;16
Jon Mason
And then I get together. We have a few designers that we work with and we try to hash it out. But, you know, ideas are always, you know, always coming. But we're trying to organize and or we're truly doing a, you know, a fashion drop every quarter. And then, you know, again, our social media is the biggest way to reengage with with our with our customers.

00;20;06;00 - 00;20;10;21
Chris Judge
So you're headquarters now are in Pawtucket. What brought you back to Rhode Island?

00;20;11;00 - 00;20;32;24
Jon Mason
So it's funny. So came back to Rhode Island after after I was in California. You know, as the story goes, move back, you meet a girl, blah, blah, blah. Two kids later, you know, we ended up in Lincoln, Rhode Island. So, you know, when I was doing, you know, swing juice, transitioning from the beverage to apparel obviously was just me doing it.

00;20;33;07 - 00;20;56;28
Jon Mason
So I was doing it out of my home in Lincoln. And then, you know, in the years as the apparel started to grow, I started to bounce around a different office spaces and, you know, finally got to a place where, you know, we just we started to really grow in scale and just needed a needed a true facility where there is, you know, fulfillment, there is production.

00;20;56;28 - 00;21;11;05
Jon Mason
So we we more or less do everything in-house. And Pawtucket and it, you know, to me I just it's the shortest commute of my my career which is which is happy for happy place for me. So yeah it's a great spot to have.

00;21;11;10 - 00;21;20;05
Chris Judge
So when you started, were you contracting out with printers and printing on demand and are you still printing on demand or how is Yes.

00;21;20;15 - 00;21;45;26
Jon Mason
So now we have three different four different printers that we work with. And you know, we it's all contract based. We don't do we don't physically print in-house, but we we have great relationships with all our all our printers. So it makes sense for us. And we are a super quick turnaround. You know, I think in a lot of cases, you know, especially when we're talking about our t shirt orders, even like the high point of our business, like Tyler can speak to this.

00;21;46;12 - 00;22;05;01
Jon Mason
We get we get orders out within a day or two. You know, in some cases we beat, you know, some of the the major retailers that you're out there that are known for their fast shipping. So, you know, it's great to have the, you know, of the entire operation sort of under one roof. And, you know, it makes it makes it more efficient for us.

00;22;05;14 - 00;22;18;20
Chris Judge
You mentioned it earlier about social media and marketing in general. That concept of 360 degree marketing. Yeah. Can you talk about your strategy with that and how that has propelled the brand forward?

00;22;18;20 - 00;22;46;07
Jon Mason
Sure. You know, really early on, especially as I started to transition more towards apparel, again, this this goes back to when, you know, Instagram was really starting to become an everyday thing other than just sort of a, you know, a goofy little app that you share pictures, you know, Facebook, Twitter, you know, really embrace that. You know, I really would try to, you know, create these, you know, themes around golf, obviously, because that was the basis of our brand.

00;22;46;07 - 00;23;09;12
Jon Mason
So, you know, memes became something that, you know, I probably was an early adopter of that as well. But I would try to I would try to post things that would get somebody attention to our account and then or accounts and then start to weave in, you know, the product. So, you know, that is that is a strategy that is still remain, you know, something that has been effective to this day.

00;23;09;12 - 00;23;35;14
Jon Mason
It's like, you know, trying to get people to notice you, as you know, and in within our space and any other space, it could get crowded really quickly. And, you know, consumers now, especially digital consumers, they have really, you know, a quick attention span. So you have to like, grab them when you can. So, you know, between, you know, our social media, you know, we have our a whole CRM system where people have, you know, signed up on our mailing list.

00;23;35;14 - 00;23;56;25
Jon Mason
We keep constant communication for that. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, you know, just trying to keep our website fresh and and new. And then obviously our our longer term strategy is to create more internal content to show, you know, who we are as a brand, what we are as a brand, and just really try to be consistent across the board.

00;23;56;29 - 00;24;11;17
Chris Judge
And so I can tell by by going through the website and looking at the products you've evolved, you've started with the golf, you've moved on to baseball, you've now licensed baseball licensing, you're doing projects with golfers for charity.

00;24;12;10 - 00;24;12;20
Jon Mason
Yeah.

00;24;13;10 - 00;24;23;10
Chris Judge
Talk about the evolution of of where you started with just T-shirts and now you've done all these items, different types of fleeces and concepts and how that's the evolution of your brand.

00;24;23;10 - 00;24;26;20
Jon Mason
Yeah, it's been, you know, interesting. I talk about this.

00;24;26;20 - 00;24;27;27
Chris Judge
I forgot pickleball.

00;24;27;27 - 00;24;48;09
Jon Mason
Pickleball, pickleball is taking over the world. I never thought I'd say that, but it's it's true. You know, it's funny cause a lot of this has it's really sort of been an evolution. You know, I, you know, I think from the very beginning, I had this vision of what this brand could be. I always pictured as a lifestyle brand.

00;24;48;16 - 00;25;11;03
Jon Mason
I think I said that to myself back, you know, years ago when I was doing the beverage. I didn't really know what that meant. But, you know, I do believe that we're evolving into a lifestyle brand. I think a lot of the cues and partnerships that we've received are, you know, just either from customers suggesting, suggesting, hey, you should you should think about doing this or, you know, or brands that are approaching us like, hey, maybe we can work together.

00;25;11;10 - 00;25;30;10
Jon Mason
And that's really how a lot of that has evolved. You know, Major League, the MLBPA, who who's one of our great partners, you know, one of their reps, followed us on Instagram and they just simply deemed us like, Hey, have you guys ever thought about doing baseball? Let's go out on a call that evolved into our partnership with the MLBPA.

00;25;30;22 - 00;25;49;02
Jon Mason
You know, same thing with the USGA. You know, again, through like back channels, like people found out who we were, they thought they liked what we saw, what they saw. We've done a few trade shows, and I think those are important in the marketplace because people get to try and feel and touching your product and talk to your team.

00;25;49;14 - 00;26;09;18
Jon Mason
And I think that that's really how the USGA that we work with the U.S. opens for the next next several years, which which is great, But a lot of that really just has evolved from, again, trying to get ourselves out there and taking cues from you. Again, suggestions from customers, you know, again, trying to take advantage of partnerships that sort of present themselves.

00;26;09;26 - 00;26;31;14
Jon Mason
And you know, you speak of pickleball. So we did a trade show, we do the PGA merchandise show every year, or I've been to it 12 times at this point. I exhibited twice as a beverage. And this year we just completed a second years in apparel company. So last year somebody came by our booth who ended up being one of our clients from our for our golf apparel.

00;26;31;26 - 00;26;48;21
Jon Mason
And he said to me, you know, after after our initial meetings, like, Oh, you should think about getting pickleball, you think about getting into pickleball, I said to him, What's pickleball? Because I had never heard of it at that point. This is literally a year ago. So he explained to me what pickleball was, how they're base their base in Georgia.

00;26;49;01 - 00;27;06;10
Jon Mason
It's big down south, apparently, but again, I'd never heard of it. So I kind of dismissed it, did a little research on it, like, Oh, it looks cool, blah, blah, blah. Three months later we're talking and he's like, Oh, wear the pickleball shirts. And I go, The what is it? Remember the thing? Oh, that thing you mentioned. Yeah.

00;27;06;11 - 00;27;29;29
Jon Mason
Okay, sure. I'll think about it again. Sort of dismissed it. But from that point forward, I would say like it went from like every couple of weeks to every week, almost every day I was getting a request for pickleball, whether it be somebody that was following us on social, whether it be one of our customers or just friends that are like, you really should look into pickleball.

00;27;29;29 - 00;27;45;26
Jon Mason
And so that's when I you know, again started to really do research. And then I saw that, you know, LeBron bought elite team in the league and Tom Brady and all these celebrities are buying teams in league so like right then I saw pickleball was on TV one day and I'm like okay this is this is this isn't going away.

00;27;45;26 - 00;28;10;16
Jon Mason
So I just put together a quick little pickleball selection for t graphic T-shirts and from day one it has taken off to now where we're really starting to develop a pickleball line. But we're starting to work with like pickleball Partners, people that have pickleball facilities, you know, pickleball restaurants. It's a maze. I've never seen anything like it how much that sport is exploding, but it works.

00;28;10;16 - 00;28;14;15
Jon Mason
It works with our brands, you know, swing juice, you can kind of rotate that to pickleball. So.

00;28;15;03 - 00;28;33;15
Chris Judge
Yeah, the swing still works. Yeah. So you also seem like you're flexible in product types because I noticed also during the during the pandemic, which we're still kind of in, Yeah, you guys had a line of masks as well. Yeah. So is that keeping that flexibility, is that.

00;28;34;00 - 00;28;54;18
Jon Mason
Absolutely. You know, we you know, we do have a relatively small team at this point, even though we're growing and growing and expanding and we're nimble, you know, we don't have to really deal with any, you know, red tape from a corporate standpoint. So if we you know, if we decide we want to go after product that makes sense, we can we can quickly turn that around.

00;28;54;27 - 00;29;13;18
Jon Mason
And usually it'll start as a test. And Tesco's great that will expand that but test goes poorly will we'll get rid of it. But yeah, it's a great example. I know it's something that you know, we definitely can make moves on, on product lines or categories that we think make sense, give it a test if it works. All right, we run with it.

00;29;13;18 - 00;29;18;26
Jon Mason
So it's definitely part of the, you know, the ecosystem that were there that we're working with.

00;29;19;10 - 00;29;33;08
Chris Judge
So being here, Providence College and having a team in the big teams in the Big East and the new Wild, Wild West is and I'll correct has there been conversations as we can use about capitalizing on an area?

00;29;33;11 - 00;29;57;10
Jon Mason
Absolutely. So it's interesting, We've you know, when I first came on the scene, you know, it's it's the wild, wild West now. Back then it was, you know, I mean, it was just a total free for all. So we just kind of quickly developed a program to again, athletes were reaching out to us from all different, you know, universities and colleges and all different sports.

00;29;57;23 - 00;30;17;11
Jon Mason
And, you know, we put together deals with individual athletes to try to become ambassadors of the brand. And, you know, it really has been like an eye opening experience, you know, And, you know, again, just, you know, full disclosure, we're in current talks with a possible opportunity here, here a PC, which would make me, you know, beyond excited and hope.

00;30;17;17 - 00;30;40;10
Jon Mason
I hope it all works out. But it really is an interesting landscape. And I think it's truly change. College athletics, I mean, for a lot of different reasons. But I do think it's great. You know, I do think there are, you know, from, you know, a lot of people don't realize, like when you're when you play, you know, college athletics, regardless of the sport, regardless, regardless of the level, it is a full time job.

00;30;40;29 - 00;31;11;15
Jon Mason
And you're spending a lot of time practicing your sport, you know, spending time, you know, away from what your normal college activity would be. And, you know, again, especially when you talk about the larger schools and universities, you know, the larger schools, universities of the larger sports, you know, and I mainly thinking of, you know, that, you know, the the football programs of the South, you know, those are obviously like top tier something with like, you know, any any top tier sport and any university.

00;31;11;15 - 00;31;31;02
Jon Mason
I mean, there's you know, the colleges get compensated pretty, pretty heavily. And I think the athletes, you know, play a big part in that. So it's it's I personally I think it's good to see that that's evolved and I'm sure it'll they'll get some more regulations on it. I mean there is what you see some crazy deals at some of these you know 1718 year old.

00;31;31;13 - 00;31;32;16
Chris Judge
Cornerbacks down south.

00;31;32;19 - 00;31;34;27
Jon Mason
Yeah it just, you know, Yeah. I don't think.

00;31;35;04 - 00;31;38;17
Chris Judge
I'm sure you would have loved the little Golden Cross deal when you were here.

00;31;38;20 - 00;31;53;06
Jon Mason
Loved it. A Bronzeville deal. Yeah, right. We've been phenomenal having runs every single week, but yeah, no. So it's, it's fascinating. And you know, as like everything else is evolving, so, you know, we'll see where it all ends up.

00;31;53;27 - 00;32;07;11
Chris Judge
So do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs? Obviously, this is the Providence College podcast and we've got 3800 kids out walking around around us. What advice would you have for for young entrepreneurs who are trying to get in?

00;32;07;11 - 00;32;42;18
Jon Mason
You know, I think for me, you know, it truly became something that was obsessive to me. So if you have an idea that you're really if you can't stop thinking about it, start working towards it, You may not have all the answers of what what the end result will be. But if you worked every day towards your goal and whatever that is, you know, I think eventually if you if it is something that is really passionate, you know, to you and it's something you have, you know, a real strong sense of, it's something you want to do, like don't be afraid to go.

00;32;42;25 - 00;33;07;19
Jon Mason
There are so many so there are so many more opportunities out there than you realize. And even if the thing that is, you know, the most passionate or the thing you're most passionate about, even if that doesn't work out, you, you know, you could get an opportunity somewhere around that, you know, that that could that could end up being the thing that that breaks you through in, you know, just networking that network.

00;33;07;19 - 00;33;23;02
Jon Mason
I mean, that was that was one of the things I did early on. I just you know, I knew the idea that I was going for I knew the category in the in the space that I wanted to be in. And I just I just really focused in on that. And I tried to meet as many people in that space as possible.

00;33;23;02 - 00;33;43;20
Jon Mason
And that really, you know, it sounds like a thing that, you know, it's almost like a throwaway and that were networking. But, you know, in a lot of cases and a lot of a lot of different industries and a lot of different avenues, it truly is about who you know and not what you know. So, you know, get yourself out there and really, you know, focus and, you know, really drill down on what it is you think you want.

00;33;44;00 - 00;33;53;02
Jon Mason
Start working towards that and then try to meet as many people within that space that you could possibly meet. And who knows, You may get a great opportunity that comes out of it.

00;33;53;08 - 00;34;04;19
Chris Judge
I have to admit, I probably screwed up on this podcast because this should have been done out on the golf course. We probably should have just recorded a conversation session about we played.

00;34;04;21 - 00;34;05;14
Jon Mason
We stop out.

00;34;05;15 - 00;34;07;16
Chris Judge
Well, I guess Friday is supposed to be really well.

00;34;07;17 - 00;34;27;02
Jon Mason
It's supposed to be nice on Friday. So my suggestion is we do a part two. All right, We have a new collection. Let's dropping in this over this next month. So that kind of coincides with the great good weather of the Gulf season. So maybe we'll do part two on the golf course and test it out. We'll do oh, we'll do a little a little test kitchen type thing.

00;34;27;02 - 00;34;27;09
Jon Mason
There we.

00;34;27;09 - 00;34;38;04
Chris Judge
Go. My my son, both my sons, they watch golf on YouTube every day, every morning they're watching some either a mini golf YouTube channel or an actual golf YouTube channel.

00;34;38;15 - 00;35;01;07
Jon Mason
So that's fantastic. That's fantastic. And, you know, it's like even when I think of just sort of the evolution of how I've had with swing use and, you know, how consumers have reacted to the brand. Your example right there is, you know, that's the next evolution, like where, you know, we're deep in the process of trying to create some content for for that generation that does not watch TV.

00;35;01;21 - 00;35;06;05
Jon Mason
They're never taught. They'll never watch the PGA Tour other than highlights, but they'll watch just.

00;35;06;24 - 00;35;07;26
Chris Judge
One exception to the rule.

00;35;07;27 - 00;35;09;25
Jon Mason
There's no love. I mean, I watch it every week.

00;35;10;08 - 00;35;17;22
Chris Judge
Like my son was. My son will go, Can we turn on the golf on ESPN? Plus, can we watch a featured group? Caleb I don't even know who those guys are featured.

00;35;17;28 - 00;35;19;01
Jon Mason
He my kind of people.

00;35;19;01 - 00;35;30;10
Chris Judge
All right, man. So we always made it big. Coming up this weekend, we're recording on the Wednesday before this comes out. So we've got the the 16th hole in the stadium hole. It's always a fun time watching that one.

00;35;30;10 - 00;35;34;07
Jon Mason
You know, on top of that, you got super Bowl weekend about 15 minutes away.

00;35;34;07 - 00;35;37;27
Chris Judge
So I thought you would have made an excuse to try and take a business trip.

00;35;37;27 - 00;35;46;09
Jon Mason
Yeah. You know, I've had the opportunity to go the last several years, and every time I see the crowds, wherever they want to be involved, that always got a good.

00;35;46;09 - 00;35;46;18
Chris Judge
Point.

00;35;47;08 - 00;36;05;10
Jon Mason
This week. You know, just with the smaller ones I have that are out in Phenix, they're like, stay away. Yeah, it is just the crowds are crazy. The traffic's crazy. It's wild doing Graham. It's a lot of fun if you you know, you're you're able to get to some of the some of the cool events surrounding both. But yeah, it's mayhem stage but it's fun.

00;36;05;10 - 00;36;09;24
Jon Mason
It's fun for golf. Like, I love watching it on TV. I mean, it's it's just it's yeah.

00;36;09;24 - 00;36;12;29
Chris Judge
If you if you live out there that's the Airbnb for a weekend.

00;36;13;00 - 00;36;13;28
Jon Mason
It is that's.

00;36;14;05 - 00;36;16;27
Chris Judge
Your house out like the Augusta residence and some get.

00;36;16;27 - 00;36;40;10
Jon Mason
Out That's what they've all said they that's the way they plan their medication to get out of town because it's just it's just total mayhem. But yeah, you know, that's that's a great thing for the sport. You know, it's like, again, any time that, you know, for me at least, you know, any time that you can bring golf to like a mainstream viewing, you know, it's always going to help continue the, you know, quote unquote, grow the game.

00;36;41;05 - 00;36;44;18
Chris Judge
All right. This is a quick one. What is your handicap?

00;36;45;19 - 00;36;52;17
Jon Mason
So I always describe my handicap is as from before I had kids.

00;36;53;08 - 00;36;53;28
Chris Judge
I mean, I know.

00;36;53;28 - 00;37;18;07
Jon Mason
That now, right? So before I had kids, the lowest I got my handicap to was a nine. And I was literally trending towards a seven. I had my first child, didn't touch clubs for a full year and my second child. So now my handicap hovers somewhere between probably 15 and 18, you know, but I.

00;37;18;20 - 00;37;20;25
Chris Judge
Hardly we're right around that. We're right around the same.

00;37;21;05 - 00;37;21;11
Jon Mason
I.

00;37;21;11 - 00;37;22;14
Chris Judge
Just same reasoning, too.

00;37;22;15 - 00;37;23;14
Jon Mason
Right, exactly.

00;37;23;14 - 00;37;39;24
Chris Judge
So we have a golf league here that played that played at Craig's every Wednesday afternoon. And then once we had kids and once I had a kid, it was like, Oh yeah, can I spend 3 hours playing nine holes? It grows because it's the slowest walk you've ever had, right? And then another 2 hours having dinner with, with Buddy.

00;37;39;29 - 00;37;52;25
Jon Mason
Yeah. It's, it's, it's an event. Yeah. But now I just. Any time I can get out. I love to get out. I just love being out there. I don't even worry about what I shoot. I just want to be out there playing, hitting the balls and, you know, just. Just having. Having a good time.

00;37;52;25 - 00;37;57;23
Chris Judge
What's what is a typical day like for you?

00;37;57;23 - 00;38;24;13
Jon Mason
So, you know, typically, you know, morning, morning at like I said, I have two kids morning two young kids. Some mornings are usually, you know, getting them off to school and then, you know, once I get to the office, it's, you know, kind of meeting with the team a little bit. And then usually I'm on calls for most of the day, whether it be, you know, design calls or potential partner calls or distribution calls.

00;38;24;13 - 00;38;44;03
Jon Mason
But a lot of the time it's it's being on calls. And then, you know, when I leave the office, it really kind of continues at home. You know, granted, you know, I'm doing stuff with the kids, but I'm just I'm always connected. And, you know, which, you know, is it's a blessing and a curse. You know, It's just for me, it's like a seven day a week thing.

00;38;44;03 - 00;39;04;01
Jon Mason
I just don't ever turn it off. Which again, can be good, can be bad. But I just I don't know. It's just how my brain is wired. And like I had mentioned several times, I'm obsessed with it. I love it. So it just doesn't it doesn't seem like I'm working. But, you know, I truly love and I just I'm excited to see, you know, where all this can where all this can go.

00;39;04;01 - 00;39;05;29
Chris Judge
Yeah. And put the simulator in the office. Yeah. Now.

00;39;06;00 - 00;39;31;14
Jon Mason
Yeah. It's trust me, I have price them out. I have researched them. I, I even saw them. So we were in the, the, the PGA show last week or two weeks ago and you know, again it's like, it's like golf heaven, it's like a true golf industry show. But you know, you see all the simulator companies and all these for all these virtual potting companies are they'll build like a almost like a putt putt in your in your wherever you want to put it.

00;39;31;26 - 00;39;42;09
Jon Mason
But it's got, you know, all the measurements and the lasers to show you where you still your putt. So it's it's it's on the holiday wish lists for for some for at some point in time.

00;39;43;04 - 00;39;47;20
Chris Judge
So I think that's all I have for you today may have to pick this up in a part two some time.

00;39;47;20 - 00;40;04;05
Jon Mason
Listen we're going to we'll pick this up on the golf course. All right. I like that idea. But yeah, thank you for having me. This is great. I mean, any time we get a chance to come back on campus, I love it. It's amazing how much it's grown and how beautiful it is. And, yeah, I'm excited to get back.

00;40;04;05 - 00;40;09;10
Jon Mason
So, you know, maybe we can get over to a and go to Triggs or we can, we can find another spot. We can, we can go.

00;40;09;10 - 00;40;12;21
Chris Judge
I like it. I like it. Let's give one last plug for swing juice if you can.

00;40;13;10 - 00;40;32;19
Jon Mason
So swing use, you can find us swing you WSJ.com. So that's our web site where you find, you know all of our the great things that we're doing from an apparel standpoint, from golf to baseball to pickleball and you know, soon to be other sports on social media. You can find us. All of our channels are at Swing View.

00;40;32;19 - 00;40;53;13
Jon Mason
So Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Tok, you, you, you name it. It's at swing Views. And you can find me personally on the swing you sky on on Instagram and Twitter. So, yeah, give us a follow up. Check it out. Reach out. We love to love to see new faces.

00;40;53;13 - 00;41;07;00
Chris Judge
And I got to give a product shout out for one shirt that I saw for us people in Round Earth, I don't know, 35 to 50 in that range of new Happy Gilmore shirt. That's all. Yes, that's a that's a banger and.

00;41;07;00 - 00;41;28;00
Jon Mason
That's instant classic. Instant classic. It's yeah, that's, you know, along the lines of what we try to do is put out some fun, you know fun gear that especially I'm a big like nostalgia retro type of guy. So every everything we put out, I try to put some sort of a retro and it's nostalgic and kind of make you think back to the happy times.

00;41;28;00 - 00;41;43;24
Chris Judge
So I will say I, I told my my ten year old who I was interviewing today, well, he's nine. He'll be ten who I was interviewing. I showed him the the youth section on the website and I didn't have to scroll fire. He saw the Tatis one in his Georgia strong.

00;41;43;25 - 00;41;48;06
Jon Mason
All right, perfect. They love perfect. Hey, we're going to start them young, that's all. That's always our motto.

00;41;48;06 - 00;41;50;14
Chris Judge
Golf and baseball for my kids. We're all so.

00;41;50;15 - 00;41;53;26
Jon Mason
Beautiful. You're. You're one of our own. So welcome to the family.

00;41;53;29 - 00;41;56;06
Chris Judge
Thank you. And thanks for coming in. Yeah, Chris.

00;41;56;06 - 00;42;02;07
Jon Mason
Thank you so much. This has been great. And like I said, well, we'll we'll do part two on the golf course, so looking forward to that.

00;42;02;10 - 00;42;27;04
Chris Judge
And as a thank you to our listeners and Fryer family members everywhere, John in swing Juice are taking part in our Fryers Shop Fryers program. Just visit swingjuice.com and use the code gofriars25 all one word. It is not case sensitive to enjoy 25% off the huge selection of products we talked about in today's podcast that swing News.com code go fryers 25 for 25% off everything you heard about today.

00;42;27;21 - 00;42;52;24
Chris Judge
You can also visit the other fryer owned businesses that are taking part in fryer shop fryers by visiting Alumni dot Providence dot edu slash fryers. Dash Shop. Dash Fryers. A link will be in the show notes. Thank you for listening to the Providence College Podcast. Episodes are released every Monday on all podcast platforms, including smart speakers. Please Email podcast at Providence Dot edu is show suggestions and thanks again for listening.

00;42;53;00 - 00;43;01;20
Chris Judge
Go Friars.