It was 2017. I was sitting at my desk knee deep in corporate America. Nothing particularly special about the day — except that my wife and I were a few months away from welcoming our first child. Still, something inside me had been off for a while. I couldn’t quite name it, but I knew it was time for something different.
The corporate world had shown me a lot — mostly what I didn’t want. I kept feeling this pull toward work that was more true to who I was: creative, independent, connected to things I actually cared about. Golf had always been part of my life. And fashion, design, art — that was all there too, even if it had taken a back seat while I followed a more traditional path.
One afternoon, I opened a notebook and started writing.
Name ideas. Product sketches. Notes about fit, material, silhouette. Concepts for what I thought golf apparel could look and feel like if it had some perspective. That was the very first version of SOLO — scribbled in the margins of a career I was starting to outgrow.
At that point, I didn’t know how to make clothes. But I knew how I wanted them to feel. I believed in clean lines, thoughtful utility, and garments that moved with real purpose — not just hype. So I began learning.
My first year was mostly research and outreach. I’d email or call fabric mills, manufacturers, and showrooms in New York. Some welcomed me in. Others never replied. A few told me no outright. Sometimes I’d just show up anyway. I’d learned in banking that you don’t need permission to introduce yourself — and that showing up goes a long way.
Eventually, I started gathering sample yardage and trims, and working out the first patterns. That led me to a domestic factory in Fall River, Massachusetts. I really wanted to make everything here in the U.S., and while that journey deserves its own post, I’ll just say this: I was hopeful.
I handed off my sketches and materials, reviewed fit notes, and a few weeks later got the text: the samples were ready.
I drove down, picked up the bag, and didn’t even try them on right away. I wanted to sit with it. So I got back to the car, opened it up… and immediately felt it.
Disappointment.
They didn’t fit. The materials were wrong. Construction details were off. They just weren’t wearable. I didn’t want to show anyone. Honestly, I didn’t want to even talk about them. And it took me a while to go back to the drawing board.
But I did. Because it still mattered.
I kept going. I found a local pattern maker and started sitting with him — watching as he worked, learning the process from the inside out. We’d talk through everything: marking, grading, cutting, construction. I spent hours there. It wasn’t fast, and it definitely wasn’t easy, but I started to understand the architecture of a great garment — the layers behind what makes something feel right when you put it on.
Over the next two years, I experimented with all kinds of products: bottoms, shirting, outerwear. But there were two pieces that felt closest to what I had imagined back in that notebook — an anorak, and what would eventually become the Core Hooded Vest.
The vest came first. And honestly, I designed it because I wanted one. I liked vests, but everything I could find felt the same. There was no silhouette. No character. No reason behind the way it was made.
So I built one. I added a hood. Not for style, but for feel — and then the style followed. That became the idea: utility becomes style. If it has a reason to be there, and it’s built well, it’ll work. And when something works, it looks good.
There were more iterations. More failed samples. But each version taught me something new about cut, material, movement, and intention. Slowly, what started as an idea on a lunch break in midtown started to take shape — not just as a garment, but as a brand.
SOLO isn’t about being loud or different for the sake of it. It’s about clarity. Simplicity. Building something that speaks for itself.
The Core Hooded Vest is where it all started — and after all this time, it still says everything I wanted to say. Explore the full 2025 Core Collection to build your ideal layering system.