Tiger Woods turns golf apparel from 'square
wear' to status symbol
By Roy H. Campbell
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Time was when the term "golf fashion" was an oxymoron.
Golf clothes, those geeky plaid ensembles seemingly designed
for old codgers, were about as unfashionable as divots on a putting
green.
And who, except those who actually knew how to blast their
way out of a sand trap, really wanted to walk around looking like
a golfer anyway?
But that was all B.T. - "Before Tiger."
Since the young golf sensation Tiger Woods drove, chipped and
putted his way to superstardom, breaking records, drawing massive
galleries, winning the Masters, all of sudden, the look of the
links is more than just hip. It's what's happening.
"Golfwear is no longer square wear," declared Neal
Orman, co-owner of Golf America, a five-city chain of golf boutiques
located in upper-end malls.
Even company officials are surprised at how many people who
wouldn't know a nine-iron from a sand wedge are coming in looking
for shirts like those Woods has worn during tournaments, people
just wanting the trappings of a golfer - minus the clubs. There
are plans to open 12 Golf America stores a year for the next few
years, a plan that crystallized when Woods' wins put a tiger in
the tank of golf merchandisers.
"Tiger Woods has exploded the market," said R. Mike
Matthews, Golf America's director of marketing. "He's taken
it from the typical golfer, an older white male, to everyone."
Everyone from young hip-hoppers to skater or surfer dudes are
hitting the scene all done up in colorful designer golf duds from
the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, while sophisticated
corporate golfers are donning expensive Arnold Palmer threads.
"It really is all about Tiger Woods. He is the key,"
said Bud Konheim, president of the Nicole Miller company, which
introduced a golf collection this season, advertising it with
photographs of leading New York doctors in the printed Miller
attire.
Nike obviously believes Woods is key because the company locked
him up for a multiyear endorsement deal.
Woods' popularity comes at an opportune moment for the $830
million golf-apparel market, which has grown by 15 percent since
1992. He broke through just as a number of new, hipper golf clothing
companies such as the Skins Game swung into the market. Add to
that the dress-down workdays that have brought greater demand
for such casual merchandise as golf or polo shirts, and a decade-long
boom in athletic apparel.
But unlike basketball shirts, football jerseys or biker shorts,
all of which have become fashionable and inexpensive, golf apparel
had been exclusively for those with the money and the means to
play the sport. In fact, most golf apparel historically has been
sold in pro shops of country clubs, golf resorts and other so-called
"green grass" locations.
That's changing quickly as department stores are realigning
the men's department to give more space to duffers' duds, ordering
the new golf collections and advertising them heavily like Macy's
recent Father's Day sales catalog of young golfer models.
"Tiger Woods has brought golf and golfwear more into the
mainstream," said Erin Gaffney, a spokeswoman for lines named
for Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus. Jones was the great amateur
golfer who won the Grand Slam in 1930. (At that time the Grand
Slam consisted of the U.S. and British Opens and the U.S. and
British Amateurs.) Nicklaus won the Masters a record six times.
The publicity blitz surrounding Woods, 21, the youngest man
ever to win the Masters and who did so by the largest margin (12
strokes) with a course-record 270 at Augusta National, has brought
new attention from retailers and customers.
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