Golf fashion; betting big with Rico Leon
with Rico Leon, Golf Class Society
Golf fashion; betting big with Rico Leon
Show Notes
Rico Leon is a serial entrepreneur, HGTV personality (Rico to the Rescue, Bet on the Mountain, Frozen in Design, House Hunters), and lifelong golf obsessive who has been building in public since before most people had a content strategy. He owns Rescue Restoration, a construction and remediation company in Denver, and has spent the last year designing a women's golf fashion brand called Golf Class Society - a direct response to a gap he noticed every time he took his girlfriends shopping at a PGA Superstore: twenty-two thousand items and nothing they actually wanted to wear.
The concept crystallized on a trip to Tokyo where Rico happened to be shopping with Canelo Alvarez and walked into a store that had the sharp, sleek, high-fashion golf aesthetic he had never seen stateside. He came home, started sketching designs on a whiteboard, uploaded photos to AI apps, refined the outputs through detailed prompting, and within months had a collection compelling enough to earn a VIP invitation to New York Fashion Week from someone who manages the event. Golf Class Society is in the sampling phase and targeting a launch roughly four months out.
The Gap in Women's Golf Fashion
Rico's diagnosis of the market is blunt: Alo, Lululemon, and Girls Golf make comfortable activewear, but none of them are designed for the female golfer who wants to look genuinely sharp on the course. The existing options skew either athletic-generic or boring-classic - black, white, neutral, nothing that turns heads. Rico posts golf content regularly and consistently pulls 400,000 views and 17,000 shares. A construction tip or a home improvement clip gets five thousand. The algorithm has been delivering a clear signal for years. Golf Class Society is his response to finally paying attention.
The brand aesthetic he is going for is best described as Tom Ford for women's golf: sexy, sharp, classy, functional, and unmistakably distinct. Nationalistic designs for Puerto Rico, Brazil, Greece, and other countries add a dimension that has an almost Olympic-kit energy - the kind of look where you could imagine a whole team walking out in it. Every female friend he has shown the designs to has responded the same way: when can I buy this?
AI-Assisted Design Process
Rico's design workflow inverts the traditional fashion industry process. Rather than starting with a trained illustrator and a watercolor pad, he starts with research - hundreds of hours browsing clothing brands from Japan to Italy to Gucci to Ralph Lauren, every page - and then interviews female friends about what they love, hate, wear, and avoid. Skirt lengths, collar preferences, pockets, breathability, range of motion for a swing.
He translates those inputs into whiteboard sketches - pleat here, strap detail here, secret pocket on the right side - then photographs the sketch and uploads it to an AI app with hyper-descriptive prompts: half-pleated, slightly higher on the leg, using this image and this image combined. He iterates on the AI output - adjusting collar shape, logo placement, color - saves the strongest results, and builds from there. The tech stack is not exotic; the advantage is in how much research and taste he loads into the prompts before he starts.
From Sketch to New York Fashion Week
Rico sent his early designs to a friend in New York who passed them to someone who runs New York Fashion Week. They loved the collection enough to offer a VIP invitation - front row, on the house, as many days as he wants. The momentum compounds the way Rico's career always has: once he can tell people he has a VIP pass to NYFW, they want to know why, he shows them the designs, and they want to be first in line to buy.
The current phase is sampling. His manufacturing partner - a company with established relationships with factories in Pakistan, China, and the Philippines - handles the tech pack, production specs, and sample runs. When samples arrive, Rico's close circle of female golfer friends will wear, wash, move, and swing in everything to validate fit and construction before any real inventory is ordered. The minimum order quantity is roughly 100 units per style at around $35 per unit - manageable enough to test multiple designs before scaling.
The Go-to-Market Playbook: Relationships Over Paid Ads
Rico has never asked anyone in his network for a favor. He has simply built genuine relationships with people at every level - celebrities, athletes, influencers, hedge fund investors, fashion insiders - by showing up with energy and passion for whatever he is working on. His go-to-market strategy for Golf Class Society runs on the same principle: send the clothes, let the clothes speak, and don't ask for anything in return.
His target list includes Mark Anthony, Luis Fonsi, JJ Barrera's wife, Canelo's girlfriend, and golf influencers he has met through playing - including Lenny (7 million followers) and Gabby Golfs. His dream ambassador is Charlie Hall, a professional golfer he describes as the Anna Kournikova of golf: presence, talent, and the kind of look that would make the brand instantly legible to a mainstream audience. No paid media to start. Just the right clothes on the right people, documented on social, and the natural virality that follows.
Operating Model: Pay for Expertise, Focus on Brand
Rico is self-financing the launch and plans to stay bootstrapped until the collection is live and the market has responded. He has a list of golf-specific hedge fund contacts - investors who have already backed boring golf clothing brands for $10–20 million - ready for outreach once there is product in hand and early sell-through data. The pitch practically writes itself: a celebrity-connected founder with a viral social media presence, a collection no one has seen before, and a market with 7 million new female golfers entering the sport.
On operations, Rico is deliberately paying a premium to outsource everything he is not the best at. His manufacturing and fulfillment partner handles Shopify, shipping, returns, and logistics. He makes less margin doing it this way and does not care. His lane is growing the brand, building relationships, and creating content. Paying to protect that focus is one of the clearest strategic decisions he describes in the conversation.
The Website UX: Models That Look Like You
Rico has a specific vision for the e-commerce experience that addresses one of fashion's most persistent conversion problems: shoppers cannot tell how something will fit on their body from a single sample model. His solution is five models of different heights and builds, each wearing the same item in small, medium, and large, filmed in video in a white studio - swinging a golf club, walking, laughing, having a drink. A customer enters her height and approximate build, and the site surfaces the closest model match so she can see how the garment moves on a body like hers before buying. The goal is fewer returns and higher confidence at checkout.
Tools & Resources Mentioned
- Golf Class Society - Rico's women's golf fashion brand; ~4 months from launch at time of recording
- AI design apps - used to visualize whiteboard sketches; Rico prompts with detailed specs (pleat placement, collar style, color palette, reference images) and iterates from there
- PGA Superstore - used as the primary example of what the market currently offers and why it falls short for fashion-conscious female golfers
- New York Fashion Week - extended a VIP invitation after seeing Golf Class Society designs through a mutual connection
- Shopify - e-commerce platform; managed by Rico's fulfillment partner
- Rescue Restoration - Rico's existing construction and remediation company, currently funding the brand build
- HGTV - Rico to the Rescue - Rico's flagship TV show; one of five HGTV credits
- ricoleon.com / @ricorescues - Rico's website and Instagram handle
Frameworks
Headache-to-Income Ratio
Rico's filter for which projects and clients to take on: it is not just about the dollar amount, it is about the dollar amount relative to the mental and emotional cost of earning it. A $3,000 job with a high-maintenance client who sends a hundred messages a day is not worth it. He would pay money not to work with that person. Saying no protects the bandwidth needed to go all-in on the thing that matters.
Follow the Signal, Not the Plan
Rico has been posting golf content and HGTV content side by side for years. Golf gets 400,000 views. Construction expertise gets 5,000. The audience has been voting every day. The lesson is to let real-world data - views, shares, replies, who calls you, what people ask for - override your assumptions about what your brand should be. The universe tells you what it wants. Pay attention.
Contagious Momentum as a Business Development Tool
Rico's network moves because of his energy, not because of his pitch deck. When he is genuinely passionate about something, that passion transfers - over the phone, over text, over Zoom - and it makes people want to participate. The practical implication: the best time to reach out to investors, collaborators, and customers is when you are most fired up. That energy is not cosmetic; it is the reason people act.
Outsource Your Non-Lane, Protect Your Lane
Rico pays a premium for his fulfillment partner to handle Shopify, logistics, returns, and customer service. He makes less margin. He does not care. His lane is brand, content, and relationships - and those activities compound in ways that logistics management never will. Paying to protect your lane is not an expense; it is an investment in doing the thing only you can do.
Full Send as the Only Mode
Rico has been broke multiple times, lost money, had money stolen, and gone all-in on bets that did not work. His view is that having been there before removes the fear of it. He has never operated any other way and does not intend to start. The risk is not going all in - the risk is hedging on something you believe in.
FAQ
What is Golf Class Society and what makes it different from existing women's golf brands?
Golf Class Society is Rico Leon's women's golf fashion brand built around a gap he identified firsthand: the market has no option for the female golfer who wants something sharp, edgy, and uniquely styled. Existing activewear brands (Alo, Lululemon, Girls Golf) are comfortable but generic. Golf Class Society draws on Japanese and European fashion sensibility - half-pleated skirts, Mandarin collars, nationalistic designs, one-of-one custom gloves - and is positioned at a premium price point. Rico describes the goal as being the Tom Ford of women's golf.
How did Rico design the Golf Class Society collection without a traditional fashion background?
He spent hundreds of hours researching global clothing brands from luxury (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren) to new entrants, interviewed female golfer friends about preferences and fit, sketched designs on a whiteboard with specific annotations, photographed the sketches, and uploaded them to AI design apps with highly detailed prompts. He iterates on the AI output - adjusting collar shape, pleat placement, logo size, color - until the design matches his vision, saves the strongest results, and builds the collection from that process.
How did Golf Class Society get invited to New York Fashion Week?
Rico showed early designs to a friend who passed them to someone who manages New York Fashion Week. They loved the collection and offered a VIP invitation - front row access, complimentary, open-ended. Rico had not pitched anyone; the designs circulated through his existing relationships and the invitation came back to him. He describes this as a pattern across his career: genuine energy and genuine product create their own momentum through networks.
How is Golf Class Society being financed?
Rico is self-financing the initial build from revenue generated by his construction and restoration company. He is not giving up equity in the early phase. He has a prepared list of golf-specific hedge fund investors - people who have already backed women's golf brands - ready for outreach once there is product in market and sell-through data. He is willing to discuss equity, royalty structures, or other arrangements with the right partner once the brand has proven its market signal.
What is the manufacturing and fulfillment setup?
Rico works with a third-party partner that has established relationships with manufacturers in Pakistan, China, and the Philippines. That partner handles tech packs, sampling, and production specs. Minimum order quantities are approximately 100 units per style at around $35 per unit. Rico's same partner manages Shopify, shipping, and returns - deliberately outsourced at a premium so Rico can stay focused on brand, content, and relationships rather than operations.
Who does Rico want wearing Golf Class Society?
His top target for the golf world is Charlie Hall, a professional golfer he describes as having the presence and visibility that would make the brand instantly credible in that space. For the broader celebrity layer, he plans to send clothes to friends in his network - Mark Anthony, Luis Fonsi, JJ Barrera's wife, Canelo's girlfriend - without asking for anything in return. He also cites golf influencer Gabby Golfs and Lenny (7 million followers) as high-priority sends. His philosophy: never ask for a favor, just send the product and let it do the work.
What is the website experience Rico is building?
Five models of different heights and builds each wear the same item in small, medium, and large, filmed on video in a white studio - swinging a golf club, walking, laughing, having a drink, living the golf course experience. A customer enters her height and build and is matched to the closest model so she can see how the garment fits and moves on a body like hers before purchasing. The intent is to reduce returns and increase buyer confidence at checkout.