The VICE Golf Founders – Portraits in Creativity

VICE Golf was founded on the belief that the cost of a single golf ball was way too high, and that we could do it as well and better at a much lower price.

How We Got Balls

Ingo and Rainer, founders of VICE Golf, were both eager to start their own business after years of being on the payroll of established companies. Hungry but skeptical, they decided to take the risk and conduct months of research and prototyping, and even late at night, unable to sleep, they did not regret it when they both fondly remembered the safe monthly incomes they’d given up.

Honestly, if someone told us back then that we’d be CEOs of a golf-ball company, we would have 1) laughed and 2) asked if that person were sober, Ingo recalls.

Both having law degrees, they weren’t worried about the legal considerations of entering the golf market, which is famously litigious. Yet, they did worry about finding the right business partners and suppliers, those we could trust. We relied on personal contact and one-on-one communication to find partners who understood that our products would only succeed if they were the highest quality and performed outstandingly well.

Now, after a few rounds of rollercoaster, the most important part of their job is to stay brave and cheeky, and maintaining the energy every day to mess with bigger companies. “If the competition isn’t talking about you and annoyed by what you’re doing, you remain unknown”, Rainer affirms.

 

We recognized early the importance of creating a strong (and sassy) brand image and our greatest hurdle is still convincing people that our product is as good, or better, than that of our much bigger competitors—and at half the price!

Our feeling about business is the same as it is about golf: Do it with passion or don’t do it at all!

By the way, why Vice you ask?  Because…being bad is so good!