瑞恩·埃利斯2003年从康科迪亚欧文大学毕业的时候, he decided not to pursue a career in basketball as his father and sister had done, 转而进军服装行业. Today, Ellis是Travis Mathew的总裁, 最热门的男装品牌，适合工作和娱乐, 他的粉丝包括演员马克·沃尔伯格, 电视名人克里斯·哈里森和几十名职业高尔夫球员, 冲浪者和职业运动员.
“I’ve always wanted to create comfortable stuff that looks good,” says Ellis. “[In the past] you could wear comfortable clothing and look like you just got out of bed, 或者漂亮的衣服看起来不错，但感觉不太好. 我一直想把这两者结合起来.”
Ellis was the company’s first hire in 2007 when a small team began hammering out the vision to create golf clothing that didn’t look like baggy fluorescent balloons. The industry was ripe for change—but at first, Ellis wasn’t convinced he’d be involved.
“我对高尔夫没什么兴趣，”他说. “但我相信这个理念，并认为我们拥有优秀的人才.”
随着品牌的迅速崛起, 埃利斯在公司几乎担任过所有职位, 2017年被卡拉威高尔夫收购. As president, he remains “on the forefront of building our products,” he says. “I know what customers will say almost before they say it because I presented to customers every season.”
我从篮球中学到了很多领导力, and a lot of it came from [欧文康考迪亚大学 coach] Ken Ammann.
Ellis, who is 6’5”, came to Concordia in 2001 looking to play one more year of basketball before heading into the real world.
“I was looking for a coach-to-player relationship that was less dictatorial, less Bobby Knight style” than what he experienced at another college, Ellis says. “The second I met [欧文康考迪亚大学 head men’s basketball] Coach Ammann, I loved him. 他非常有风度. I could see his vision of what he was trying to do, and it was exactly what I wanted.”
While Ellis was offered full scholarships and a starter role elsewhere, he chose 欧文康考迪亚大学 because of Ammann’s candor and vision. “安曼教练直截了当地对我说, ‘Look, 你可能会为我们替补出场,’” Ellis remembers. “He had the gall to say that to me in the recruiting, and that was brilliant. The coaches I had dealt with in the past would tell you one thing and do another. 我只是想知道我的立场.”
The Eagles won more games that year, 36, than any other college team.
“这太不可思议了，”安曼说. “At the national tournament we were just hoping to win a game or two, 然后我们赢了整个比赛, 88-84 in overtime.”
埃利斯对球队的成功功不可没, 在冠军赛中投进4个三分球, and setting Concordia Irvine’s record for three-point percentage in a single season, which still stands.
“他一直是一位优秀的领导者, great with people, 能和队里的每个人都相处得很好吗,” Ammann says. “他有一种罕见的品质. 这也是他擅长做生意的原因之一.”
No Eagles team before or since has generated better chemistry or more enduring relationships, Ammann says. “这是一个特殊的群体，”他说. “我们为拥有亲密的团队和良好的化学反应而感到自豪, 但那一年将很难被超越. 那些家伙每年都去度假，一大群人.”
“康科迪亚很棒，”埃利斯说. “All the teachers I had were very good about getting buy-in about what we were doing, explaining what we would accomplish and had good plans so we could all have success.”
在转动他的流苏之后, Ellis made a conscious decision not to play basketball in Europe as his father and sister had done for a combined 16 years.
“我知道我不会成为一名伟大的职业球员, 我不想在27岁的时候身无分文地回来,” he says. “我觉得我需要走出去，开始我的职业生涯.”
Aiming to work in the apparel industry for an action sports company, 他发现要进入这个行业是很困难的. 于是，他开始了自己的服装零售生涯, taking a job as an assistant manager at a popular large apparel company at one of their key locations. He did so well that the company gave him his own store after three months. Four months after that, he opened another store doing triple the sales volume.
“我意识到，如果我一直做得好, they would keep promoting me and then I’d get to a pay level where it’s tough to leave,” he says.
He wanted to be on the buying side, helping to create products rather than just sell them. 埃利斯说:“在商店层面，你没有任何控制权. “产品出现了，你就把它推出去. 我以为我知道什么能在商店里奏效. 我以为站在那边我就能做出更好的选择.”
在为PacSun经营零售业务一段时间后, 瑞恩终于有机会了, 在一家澳大利亚冲浪公司找到一份工作. 他开设并建造了他们的第一家零售店, then was promoted to sales professional and ultimately sales manager—all in his first year. While the U.S. 公司取得了成功, Ellis found himself out of a job on the cusp of his wedding when the Aussie company shut down its U.S. 由于在澳大利亚缺乏资金，该公司无法开展业务. Around that time, Ellis got a call from a yet-to-be-formed golf clothing company which wanted him to run their sales.
我觉得高尔夫服很无聊. 他们说，‘这就是重点. 我们想把高尔夫球服做得更好.
埃利斯说:“我觉得高尔夫球服很无聊. “他们说，‘这就是重点. 我们想把高尔夫球服做得更好 and something you want to wear, 不只是你打高尔夫穿的制服.’”
不过，埃利斯承认，最初的草图“对我没有多大帮助”. “那是一件带口袋的衬衫. 我当时不懂性能织物.”
Upon calling country clubs and resorts to gauge interest in a new brand, 这种积极的反应使他感到震惊.
“我想，这里有一个巨大的利基市场.” He concluded, “If there’s anyone under fifty playing golf, we have something.”
该团队在与客户协商后开始设计衬衫, incorporating feedback which was “extremely valuable to the company,” Ellis says. “我们能够避免陷阱.”
第一行立刻引起了人们的兴趣, but the second line, 设计没有客户反馈的好处, flopped.
“I went to our guys and said I’d like to cancel this whole line and keep selling the first line. 我们需要重新审视方向，”埃利斯回忆道.
The third line went back to Travis Mathew’s distinctives—hip work-and-play style and feel—and by 2010, 生长曲线呈上升趋势. Ellis moved from sales and merchandising to managing the creative process.
“I wasn’t Mr. 时尚，”他证明，但他对面料有第六感. “我不知道我的皮肤是否敏感, 但我是那种在冲浪之后, 我不洗个澡就不能穿t恤. 我对织物也是这样. I can sense and feel right away if a fabric is right or not, too itchy, too drapey. From day one I thought there were so many inconsistencies in brands from one shirt to another. We tried to create those consistencies so if you like one shirt, you’ll like the others we make.”
Travis Mathew, he says, 比他知道的任何品牌都更注重制作, 并提供超过50种聚酯的组合, cotton, Spandex, 天丝和其他材料设计承受收缩, wrinkling and fading, 同时干燥快，易处理. 特拉维斯·马修重新定义了表演, he says, 制造旅游产品, 舒适，易洗易穿.
Ammann, now a fan of the brand, calls Travis Mathew clothing “the best stuff.”
“涂在皮肤上感觉很好. 这是一个令人难以置信的产品，”安曼说. “我老婆对我很生气，因为我老是把那些马球带回家. 他们看起来很好，感觉也很好. 我不知道你还想怎么样.”
埃利斯称赞安曼帮助塑造了他的领导风格.
“我从篮球中学到了很多领导力, 其中很多都来自肯·阿曼以及他的领导方式,” Ellis says. “You don’t have to yell and belittle people to get the most out of them. 这是老派的想法. There’s a way to manage people more effectively and get the most out of them and have them respect you.”
From Ammann’s point of view, “It’s never an accident when someone achieves something great. 这需要天赋和大量的努力. It’s great to see Ryan have a clear goal and a strong career and achieve it at such an early age.”
瑞安是 2019年度校友:专业成就奖.