going to guangzhou for my golf brand

in june, i’ll be heading to guangzhou to level up OKKA.

i’ve built OKKA from the ground up with a hands-on approach from day dot. designing, screen printing, packing and shipping everything myself.

that’ll never change.

but as OKKA has grown, i need to make smarter, more informed decisions about what’s possible when it comes to scaling, sourcing, and planning future collections.

so why not go straight to the sauce?

it’s no secret that i source my blank garments i screen print from china, as well as the other complimentary pieces. fellow perth brands streetx and oli have done guangzhou trips, and me being the little ratboi brother wanting to copy their cooler, bigger brothers, i’m gonna do the same.

i’m passionate about good clothing. but i’m also a noob at this. given guangzhou is one of the world’s major hubs for textile and garment manufacturing, i wanna see the process up close.

what’s the stitching like on a performance polo? how do different fabrics behave? what are the limitations and opportunities when it comes to customizing cuts, colours, and the little details?

i’ve got a never-ending list of questions and a full schedule of factory visits to help me find answers.

i’ll be bringing physical samples (even competitors' pieces i like) to show them fit, fabric, and style expectations.

learning from competitors’ pieces i hear you ask? i can always learn from others so i’m not gonna pretend everything i create is fucking gods gift to this earth. there’s always bits to improve and to live in a world where competitors are in all ways inferior is not a reality i will participate in.

and this should be abundantly clear by now, but this trip ain’t a cost-cutting mission. i wanna see the sausage get made. i want quality, consistency, and better managed timelines. i want to experience everything that will help me level up.

i’m gonna meet factories, see their operations, and figure out what’s realistic/possible/exciting for my small but growing golf brand.

obvious - but i’ll be sharing everything along the way too. photos, videos, stories. and not just the fun cool shit. no rain, no flowers after all.

building OKKA the right way means diving into the nitty gritty and trying to learn as much as possible.

no point getting any older if you ain’t getting any smarter.