Do you still feel like there’s that barrier to entry in golf? Do you still feel like there’s still a lot of that old guard mentality that you have to convince?
We recently did a thing with 300 Entertainment at the Alpine Country Club in Jersey. It was like a huge party. There were maybe 300 people there, heavy hitters DJing at the clubhouse, people dancing, the wildest situation you could ever dream of on a golf course. Ja Rule, Angie Martinez, JR Smith, and CC Sabathia are all colliding with traditional golfers. Eight years ago, thinking that that would be accepted at a private golf course in New Jersey, I never dreamed it would go that far. So on one side, we are all doing a really good job at getting golf to a better place.
But yeah, I mean, golf traditionally is very intimidating for someone who doesn’t grow up in golf culture. There’s a lot of rules and traditions. But what I think is interesting is that there’s maybe 15 million people that started playing golf during [the pandemic]. They all picked up golf on their own terms. All these rules, they didn’t even know any of that stuff. When I go to Topgolf, I don’t know about the traditions of Augusta National. Not only do I not know about it, I don’t really give a fuck about it. It’s irrelevant to me. This is the whole new wave of what’s happening.
This happened in fashion with brands like Louis Vuitton. They wanted aristocrats sitting front row at the fashion shows, and they didn’t want any creatives, weirdos, and rappers even near that fashion show. Now, all the aristocrats are in the back of the room and all the weirdo creatives are in the front row. People can resist until they can’t anymore. And so I think that’s happening in golf, but the most old historical clubs are going to take a lot longer than the modern ones.
I wanted to ask you about how the brand approaches collaborations. You’ve worked with the LA Rams, which is a totally different sport. You did something with Curb, which is this major cultural television series. You’ve worked with Chief Keef. They’re all different, but they all sort of work within this world that you’ve built.
It is all pretty organic. When I ran Frank151, I did a project with Chief Keef. I’ve been friends with him for over 10 years. The LA Rams, we’re in LA. They did a project with Born X Raised. I’ve been friends with 2Tone and Spanto forever. When the Rams hit us up, I called Spanto like, “How was it working with them?” He’s like, “Great. You can get your logo on the big screen at the football game. It’s the Rams. What are you talking about, fool? Do it.” So I did it.
We’re doing something with Ghostface Killah soon, but we’re also doing something with Willie Nelson. They’re all passion points somehow. I love Coca-Cola. I love Budweiser as a graphic designer and a branding guy. I don’t even drink, but I love Budweiser. It’s either people we respect and love as humans or brands that we respect and love as brands.
My golf coach in LA, Ron del Barrio, is Larry David’s swing coach. Our first brick-and-mortar store on Fairfax had a simulator in it. Larry would come in and do lessons at seven in the morning before the staff got there. That’s how the Curb project came to be.
We do a lot of collaborations, but we try not to do all one thing. We did Girl Skateboards followed up with Jimmy Choo, followed up by Tag Heuer, and then jumped to Chief Keef. It’s all kind of different, almost like inspiration, brands we love and support.
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