Meet The Disruptors: Gustav Schauman of Goatlane On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions to people that have been in your shoes before — I got surprised how helpful people really are.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gustav Schauman, CEO and Founder of Goatlane, the footwear brand developed with PGA Tour pro golfers to redefine style on and off the golf course. Sweden-born Goatlane creates golf sneakers that combine PGA-level performance with chic street fashion, and launched in the US and Europe ahead of the 2022 golf season. Goatlane’s footwear is unique in blending street fashion aesthetics fit for the office, nightclub, or clubhouse, with all the technical requirements of a professional-standard spikeless golf shoe.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I love golf. It’s been a true passion since I was a child. I’ve always played competitively, and I’m a good golfer, but I wasn’t professional standard. As a kid, I did well academically, too, and I find numbers and business interesting, so I studied Economics at Bocconi University in Milan. Milan is possibly the world’s chicest city, and my time there laid the seeds of a business-centric interest in style and design. But my degree initially led me into a very corporate investor relations career. After a decade, I was realising I wasn’t fulfilled — I longed for the golf world, and for professional freedom.
My founder ‘eureka moment’ for Goatlane was very specific. In 2019, I was in Turkey for a European Tour Pro-Am Rolex Series. I was playing against a party of Italians, who were, as so often is the case with Italians, immaculately dressed — but then you looked at their golfing footwear. It was terrible, functional, ugly. That was the moment of inspiration: I would create a footwear brand that was PGA-standard on the golf course, comfortable off the course, and looked great wherever you were. As soon as I got home, I began sourcing materials, sketching designs, and contacting pro golfers, asking them to participate in testing the products. In less than a year, the first Goatlane collection launched.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Our footwear brand is redefining style on and off the golf course. Until now, any golfer, from amateur to professional standard, expects the awkward shoe-change in the golf course’s parking lot. It’s not a ritual many people enjoy — throwing your regular shoes into the trunk of your car, hopping on one socked foot as you pull on ugly, unstylish golfing spikes.
We’re changing that, by creating a product that is both an elegant, stylish streetwear shoe, and a first-class piece of golfing equipment. PGA Tour pro golfer Henrik Norlander serves as our technical advisor, and from the beginning has been heavily involved in the design of the shoes from a performance perspective. We’ve been meticulous and rigorous in our design and testing to make Goatlane shoes as good as any professional golf shoe out there. And our Swedish design aesthetic makes Goatlane shoes as well suited to the office, clubhouse, or nightclub, as for the golf course.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The first batch of Goatlane shoes arrived from our production centre in Portugal the day before my wedding. I told my now-wife I had to go into the city and run a few wedding errands. My team and I carried 300 pairs of shoes to my apartment, printed post labels, packaged all our pre-orders, and delivered them to the post office. My wife was a little surprised when she returned to Stockholm a few days after the wedding to find that the spare room was filled with shoe boxes..!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
In terms of the golf performance aspect of the products, mentors have been my brother, who is a former Tour player, and Henrik Norlander, who plays on the PGA Tour. They have given us a lot of input towards fit, design, and style. Business-wise, several of our lead investors have helped with strategy. Henrik Grundén, a co-founder of the women’s activewear brand Stronger, has provided some excellent insights on e-com and how to build a brand identity.
As a start-up, you have to allow yourself to make mistakes and ask tons of questions to people who have been on the journey before. I think that’s a smart way to improve both yourself and your business.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
It’s a really interesting question. Being disruptive as a startup is, of course, generally a positive thing. In the case of Goatlane, we perceived a problem in the status quo — the ugliness of typical golf shoes and the consequent frustrating need to carry a second pair of shoes solely to play golf, which is already an extremely equipment-heavy sport — and we’re disrupting the norm with our innovative solution.
But ‘disruptive’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘faultless’. Take fast food — the business model of McDonald’s and others was about as disruptive as it gets, and is one of the biggest commercial successes in history. But fast food empires have also had a big impact on global health, not to mention on the environment.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Be patient because things take time.
Your product will always have room to improve, so don’t hold back waiting to launch your product.
Learn from the feedback you get from your customers and use that to improve your brand.
Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions to people that have been in your shoes before — I got surprised how helpful people really are.
Surround yourself with positive people that give you good vibes and support your journey.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We’ve only just begun. Our disruptive concept is working, and we know we’re on the right track. We launched in the US and across Europe late in 2021; in just a couple of months, preorders for the 2022 golf season exceeded last year’s entire sales including retail and e-com.
Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to say too much about specific upcoming plans just yet, but we have some very exciting things in the pipeline. What I can say is that we’ll keep creating and improving products with a focus on blending technical excellence and aesthetic elegance.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
One book really resonates with me, for reasons that are probably obvious! It’s Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, by Phil Knight, Nike’s Co-Founder. It’s a really honest and eye-opening account of what taking a company to greatness involves. It’s candid, human, and insightful. I learned a lot from it.
It’s a real source of inspiration for what I hope will be Goatlane’s own Shoe Dog story. Just like Phil, I’ve actually sold a few shoes from the back of my car. When I go out and play golf, my goal is always to make sure that at least one person from the group buys our shoes.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My mom always used to tell me that you should solve your issues before you go to bed, and never go to bed angry. I try to live by that, addressing and tackling the big problems, and letting the small things go and not sweating them. And getting a good night’s sleep!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I’m very passionate about animals. They are so important to the planet, and to humanity, too. I would love to inspire a movement where some form of wasteful consumerism — for example, the annual spending on plastic decorations at Halloween or Christmas, which mostly end up as landfill — was instead invested in conservation.
How can our readers follow you online?
We’re a really visual brand, so our Instagram is the best way to keep in touch and follow what we’re up to: @goatlanegolfers (www.instagram.com/goatlanegolfers)
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
