Stocking a golf pro shop with apparel is a problem of restraint. The temptation is to buy wide, every cut, every color. The clubs that turn the most inventory do the opposite. They anchor the shop on a tight 20-SKU rotation and push everything else to a digital companion store. Here is the exact plan.
Pick two anchor colors plus white. Most clubs use their crest colors: navy and forest, navy and red, charcoal and gold, sage and cream. White is always in the mix because it photographs well and members buy it as a daily polo. The whole front wall lives inside those three colors, with one rotating accent color that changes seasonally.
This rule keeps your buy disciplined. When a sales rep offers eight color options on a quarter-zip, you take navy and forest. Done. The wall stays coherent and the member visual identity stays strong.
Build the opening order around these 20 pieces:
That is the starting buy. Two sizes deep per piece (most-purchased medium and large), one each of small, XL, and 2XL. Total opening inventory: roughly 130-150 units depending on size assumptions.
Bear Grips Pro Shops: Custom Apparel for Your Team. No Minimums. Free Shipping.Everything outside the 20 anchor SKUs lives on a digital pro shop. Womens specific cuts, plus sizes, junior sizing, accent colors, off-season items, and one-off event apparel all sit on the website with a "shop online" QR code at the counter. Members and guests order direct, the piece prints to order, ships to them in about a week.
This is how modern clubs avoid the dead-stock trap. The physical shop carries what regulars buy weekly. The digital shop carries everything else and earns margin without consuming back-room space. See how to set up the online companion for the technical walkthrough.
Two restock cycles per peak month. Cycle one is a re-up on the fast movers (whatever cleared 80 percent sell-through in the prior 30 days). Cycle two is a new piece introduction: one or two SKUs in the existing color story to keep the wall fresh.
End of season: mark down the slow movers to 25-40 percent off and clear the floor. Whatever does not move at clearance goes to the staff appreciation bin, not back into next season inventory. A clean floor in November sets up a clean wall in March.
Member-guest, club championship, junior camp, charity outing, opening day. Each of these earns a dedicated drop on the digital pro shop with a one-week order window. Members commit, the order ships direct, and the pro shop captures revenue without sitting on event-themed leftovers in August.
If you want to keep a small stack of event polos at the counter for impulse, run a 6-12 unit reserve buy. Anything beyond that, push to the online drop. See member-guest apparel for the event-specific drop strategy.
Bear Grips Pro Shops gives your golf course a free online pro shop with the full 63-product catalog. No minimum buys, no back-room storage, free shipping direct to your members.
Start FreeA reasonable opening apparel order is 130-150 units across 20 anchor SKUs in a two-color story. That gives you a full wall, two sizes deep per piece on the most common sizes (M and L), and lets you measure sell-through within 30 days before placing the first restock.
Five polo SKUs is the sweet spot for the physical floor: two navy, two white, one accent color. Stock them two sizes deep (M and L), one each of S, XL, and 2XL. The remaining size and color variants go on a digital pro shop with print-on-demand fulfillment.
Run event apparel through a no-inventory print-on-demand layer with a one-week order window. Member-guest polos, charity outing shirts, and club championship gifts almost never sell out after the event, so holding them in physical inventory ties up cash and creates clearance markdowns.
Mark down at 60 days if sell-through is below 50 percent. Mark down again at 90 days. Clear everything remaining at end of season at 25-40 percent off. Carrying last seasons inventory into next year almost never works in apparel because trends and member preferences shift.
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