Duck dynasty: success in golf publishing and apparel prepared Tom Nolan for a shot at reviving a revered brand.

• Author: Dodson, Jim

I'm really a nobody," says Tom Nolan matter-of-factly. "But, thanks to the game of golf, I've been able to do some amazing things." The late-morning visitor to Nolan's modest office--formerly the bottom of a grain silo in a flour mill on the southern fringe of downtown Greensboro--can't resist a smile. Even though he's dressed in mud-stained cords, work boots and a flannel shirt, Nolan, 37, the president and CEO of Prospect Brands LLC, which owns of a trio of apparel brands, is anything but your basic nobody. Before the private-equity-backed company acquired the iconic Gerbing, Duck Head and Crittenden clothing lines over the last three years and set up a corporate office in the former factory on South Elm Street, Nolan ran Ralph Lauren Corp.'s Polo Golf and Tennis apparel division as senior vice president for four years, racking up impressive sales gains at the sports-clothing line. Before that, he worked four years as publisher of Conde Nast's Golf World magazine--the youngest ever to do so--leading the venerable golf-industry weekly to new heights. Not bad for the son of a Long Island, N.Y., electrician who was first in his family to go to college. But more on that in a New York minute.

Nolan's passion for golf seems like a good place to begin deciphering how he brought the brands together under one roof in a city that once dominated the textile industry. "So what exactly has golf allowed you to do?" his visitor asks. "Oh, my gosh. Where do I start? The game has taught me so incredibly much about so many things, especially about leadership--respect for rules and doing things the right way; how to conduct myself in any situation, pay attention to details and listen to others. It's a game that constantly teaches you about yourself and others--civility, patience, personal honesty, how to treat people. I could go on and on. It's about values and authenticity. Bottom line, I wouldn't be here today without golf."

He gestures to his rustic office where he works from an old metal drafting table found in an antiques shop. Behind him rises a large chalkboard bearing spring and summer product-design and shipping schedules, projects underway and client delivery dates. Other adornments include a framed American flag, a print of Douglas MacArthur wading ashore at the liberation of the Philippines in 1944 and a photo of Secretariat running away with the 1973 Kentucky Derby. The iconic American images speak to Nolan's passion for authenticity. It's a reason he was drawn to acquiring a once-proud Duck Head brand that had faded into near oblivion and restoring it to its former glory.

Brothers and Civil War veterans George and Joe O'Bryan established the brand after returning from battle to their Nashville, Term., home in 1865, using canvas material called duck from army tents to make durable work pants and overalls that became the company's signature for the next century. In 1892, the brothers attempted to register "Duck" as a trademark, which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected as too general. Later, "Duck Head" was accepted. During World War II, the company supplied more than 5 million pairs of cotton khaki pants to the military, setting the stage for a postwar chino revolution.

In 1949, Hank Williams Sr. became one of country music's first celebrity spokesmen, endorsing the Duck Head brand and its "Made to be Worn" motto. Savvy marketing, kicked off by an initial sale of a batch of pants at the University of Mississippi's bookstore in the 1970s, broadened the brand's appeal to the well-heeled. "For a preppy Southern college guy in the 1980s, Duck Head Apparel khakis were as indispensable as a pair of worn Topsiders and a pink Polo shirt," Forbes noted in 2000. Delta Woodside Industries Inc., a publicly traded textile company in Greenville, S.C., bought O'Bryan Brothers Inc. and the Duck Head brand for $14 million in 1989. Over the next four years, sales soared sixfold to more than $130 million, aided by an overseas expansion. But that proved to be Duck Head's high-water mark as a new emphasis on selling through high-priced department stores and the addition of a women's line didn't work. Starting with a spinoff in 2000, Duck Head went through a dizzying array of unsuccessful owners over the next decade and a half, culminating in Nolan's 2013 purchase of the brand from a Virginia-based group.

Nolan had formed Prospect Brands in 2012, acquiring Gerbing's Heated Clothing Inc., a 40-year-old specialty-clothing company based in Stoneville that made outerwear that keeps motorcyclists, football fans and others warm in frigid dimes. Last November, Nolan acquired majority interest in Crittenden and Co. of Midway, Ky., which designs fine men's...