Mark Evasic had just sold his company that had been manufacturing auto parts since 1942 and wondered what was next for him. He and his son, Matt, are avid golfers and had a history of milling putters for themselves and family members.
The two joined up with Matt Swanson, Mark's son-in-law and Matt's brother-in-law, and Matt Swanon's father, Phil, to start Detroit Putter Co.
"Those guys were retired and kind of looking for something to do," Matt Evasic said. "We're really avid golfers, and we thought, you know, we could give it a go at making some putters."
"We spent a couple of years developing a putter for ourselves and we weren't sure where it was going to go," Mark added. "As time went on, we started to refine what we were doing and we were always locked in on machining the face of the putter, the ball contact point."
In 2022, the four of them decided to officially form Detroit Putter Co. and start selling putters to the public. It's a family business, with everyone involved in making the business. Mark said he has a background in machining, Matt Swanson has a background in branding and marketing, Matt Evasic has supply chain expertise, Phil was in the distribution business, and Mark's daughter, Lauren, works on their social media.
As Mark mentioned, they really focused on the face of the putter. They drew up concept drawings and had prototypes made without the milling on the face, but then developed the milling, and Mark said they knew they had something good. They started putting shafts on them and grips to finish out the putter.
According to the Detroit Putter Co. website, the putters are built with 303 Stainless Steel, and a single-point CNC milling is performed on each putter face.
"This proprietary face design creates an unprecedented feel, sound and performance you won't see from mass golf equipment brands," the website reads.
"It was about a two-year period because we were all kind of working part-time on this," Mark said. "It all came together in 2022 when we said, 'Hey, we've got three models here that we're really happy with," and we started showing them around to people."
Those three designs are named after iconic spots in Detroit – The Woodward, The Grand River and The Ambassador. The Woodward is a blade putter with a slant neck, The Grand River is a blade with a plumbers neck, and The Ambassador is a mallet putter. They all come in 33-36-inch lengths.
According to Matt Evasic, the putters are also heavier than most people are used to, with the Ambassador coming in at 360g, Grand River at 370g and Woodward at 380g.
"We did that on purpose. It seems like nowadays, a lot of people are just adding tape to their putters and they're making them heavier, so we thought we would go about 10 to 15 grams over what you may find," Matt Evasic said.
In December 2022, they had a launch party for their other family business, The Garage Grill and Fuel Bar in Northville. They turned the banquet room into a putting green for their event, and had a small amount of putter inventory.
In all, Mark said they invited around 50 people – friends, family and golf friends from area country clubs.
"We sold over 30 putters that night, so it was pretty cool, and they were widely accepted and people were excited about them," Mark said.
They booked their first golf show in Grand Rapids in February 2023, and took some inventory with them – about 100 or so of each putter, Mark said.
"On the second or third day of the show, we ended up selling out," Matt said. "We were wondering how it would go over, Detroit in Grand Rapids, but I think everybody likes the idea of a local, Michigan-based company."
They went to their second golf show – the Michigan Golf Show in Novi in March – with more inventory than they went to Grand Rapids with. They sold out on the second day.
One thing they said they wanted to focus on was the price point. Putters can be expensive, and Mark said they found a lot of small putter companies selling custom-putters for higher prices. Putters from larger companies can range from $250 all the way up to $500 for some brands.
"We didn't want to be there, we wanted to be in an affordable price range," Mark said.
The group came up with a business plan that got Detroit Putter Co. putters at $299.99 as a retail price.
The company continues to grow, with The Ambassador putters sold out as of June 21. They have also carefully expanded into some retail sales at stores throughout Michigan. You can find them at Carl's Golfland and Miles of Golf in metro Detroit, plus several country clubs in Michigan and Boyne Country Sports in Petoskey.
"We want to make sure we can service those retail clients we have, and make sure we have inventory for them," Mark said. "We want to get all the feedback that they have to help us plan in the future."
They also get a lot of feedback from people on social media, and Matt said they are working on a couple of new models for 2024 and expanding the product line, plus making some tweaks to the current designs they have out there.
They are also expanding their apparel line, selling hats, shirts, sweatshirts, towels and headcovers with the Detroit Putter Co. brand. However, they don't plan on expanding into other clubs outside of putters
"I think we're going to continue to grow our grassroots thing into a more sophisticated golf company," Mark said.
