Inside Levelwear’s holistic approach to the athletic-wear business

What does it mean for a brand to take a holistic approach not only to products but also its consumer-facing image?

Levelwear, a family-owned and managed apparel company founded in 1987, is finding out.

The Canadian athletic wear brand has spent decades as a high-quality manufacturer with limited name recognition, but that’s beginning to change.

Recent partnerships with some of the biggest names in pro golf, from Adam Hadwin and Corey Connors on the men’s side to Carlota Ciganda and Alena Sharp in the women’s game — not to mention star athletes in other sports, like the Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan McLeod and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Chris Taylor — have given Levelwear more visibility.

The brand’s clout resides in the quality of its products and the depth of its customer relationships — a point of pride for everyone involved. When it came to developing a mission vision for the brand’s future, celebrating the collective as opposed to the individual felt like a natural choice.

Jay Chaney is a partner and chief strategy officer at Broken Heart Love Affair, an agency based in Toronto that Levelwear hired to help shape the company’s future brand strategy.

To get a feel for the company culture, Chaney performed interviews with Levelwear’s employees, partners and customers.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” he said. “The most amazing part of this whole process was consistently, there was one kind of story that kept on coming, whether you worked at Levelwear or whether you were a customer of theirs, and that’s that there was a humanity within the organization, and that it was the people that mattered.

“So, of course, the products were being delivered and there was a consistency of product and it was a great quality. But what the customers were telling us was that this is an organization that they felt cared about them as customers and people and that the personal relationships that existed between them and Levelwear really made the relationship indispensable, and something that they looked forward to.”

Who’s with You?™ and Win as One™ were ultimately selected as the primary concepts behind Levelwear’s new mission vision. Instead of focusing on the individual, Levelwear wanted to recognize the efforts of the team that makes it all happen. Each product has a number of individuals behind it. From design to production to delivery, each team member has a role in making Levelwear’s products the best they can be, so the consumer — all the way from Tour players like Connors and Hadwin to you and me — can be the beneficiary of that quality. While golf is an individual sport, collective effort resonates in a similar way. To be successful a player needs numerous people in his or her corner, from a coach and caddie to a trainer and supportive family members. That recognition — and celebration — of the team is Levelwear’s point of differentiation from other athletic wear brands.

“They’re very inclusive and open with everybody,” Chaney said. “What’s true and organic about this organization is they truly believe that the only way this company is going to be successful is if everybody is treated with the respect of the entire organization, and how they treat other clients as important human beings, not just financial accounts or business opportunities.”

That ethos starts at the top with Levelwear’s leadership. The brand is family-owned, and CEO Hester Ngo wants that partnership to be evident in the products. 

“We want to be recognized as the first apparel brand to become synonymous with celebrating teamwork and team play — by consumers,” she said. “We all have a family, by blood or choice, behind all of us, let’s not just recognize the triumphs of the athletes, but celebrate all those responsible for their success.”

Levelwear’s brand ascendancy can be attributed to many things: the Covid golf boom, a low-minimum, quick-turn business model, and of course, premium quality products. But Ngo said strategic licensing deals with major sports entities like the MLB, NHL and NBA have helped the brand in terms of consumer consciousness. A key moment: when Levelwear’s NHL licensing deal coincided with the Winnipeg Jets acquiring their expansion franchise.

“Levelwear was well-positioned to help them go to market quickly with premium, fan-based licensed apparel,” Ngo said. “Our service model provides a point of differentiation that is appealing to our partners.”

That commitment to service is aptly demonstrated in Levelwear’s relationship with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. Brent Frew is the director of corporate partnerships for Oilers Entertainment Group, and two years ago, he sought to expand the existing retail partnership into a full advertising corporate partnership.

“The quality of the product is what spoke for itself, and why we’ve done the volume that we have,” he said. “Not only does it have that quality feel, it’s got a decent price point as well. But also, Levelwear’s ownership group has been so committed to going above and beyond what the paperwork shows, not only just for their brand, but also just for us. They have stepped up to the plate on countless occasions where we’ve needed support on a retail front, on a quick timeline, to help us out. Working with them is like working with friends, because they’ve got your back when you need it.”

In addition to the licensing agreements with other professional sports entities, golf is another important silo for Levelwear, not only outfitting the brand’s partner athletes on tour and supplying green-grass accounts and e-comm sales, but also through a multi-year licensing deal with the PGA Tour. In 2019, Levelwear also created an innovative tournament activation, the Levelwear Caddie Lounge, which includes a barbershop, physiotherapy, product gifting, food and drinks and even massages for the game’s professional loopers. The Caddie Lounge is on-site at select PGA Tour tournaments throughout the year.

At the recent RBC Canadian Open, the Lounge was a favorite hangout.

“It feels like you’re in a clubhouse and a member of the club,” said Danny Sahl, who caddies for Corey Connors. “Everything is in one place that you need for the day.”

“This experience is an 11 out of 10,” said Ryan Moore’s caddie, Austin Gaugert. “Love that Levelwear does this for the caddies and always pumped to find out the guys are out at the event.”

“The guys go over the top to make sure were taken care of,” said Matthew Achatz, who caddies for Kevin Streelman. “They cover off everything we need if we forget something.”

The anticipation of wants and needs — especially when it comes to the Caddie Lounge — is something that sets Levelwear apart, said David Desmond, the PGA Tour’s VP of endemic partnerships and media sales.

“Levelwear puts together unbelievable products,” he said. “So you know what happens? All of a sudden, they’re going to market X and the temperature drops down to 38 degrees. [The Caddie Lounge has] pullovers, they’ve got rain jackets, they’ve got little bags of shirts. Players actually wear their shirt just because it was there. And the player didn’t have to go into the clubhouse and try to figure things out. Levelwear built a program that was focused on the well-being of caddies, and it was also an outlet for somebody who might need something.”

That goodwill helps create an army of brand ambassadors, all of whom are grateful to Levelwear for prioritizing their needs.

“I look forward to working an event where Levelwear provide us with the lounge,” said Jeremy Wu, who caddies for his brother, Dylan. “They touch all the bases. It gives caddie a reason to stay and hang out at the course.”

Relationships. Quality. Service. Doing things differently. Those are the attributes that launched Levelwear to success in the past, and should continue to propel the brand to even greater heights in the future.