The golf shirt, usually a three-button job with an sewn logo on the
chest (a pony, a crocodile, a dolphin, a skull and bones, a swoosh), is perhaps
the most ubiquitous garment on the planet. But manufacturers are always looking
for a new twist. Now the Polo Ralph Lauren company has come up with a way for
you to customize their golf shirts to your taste.
In advance of Father's Day, Polo has introduced "Create Your Own Tournament Golf
Polo," a feature that lets you choose from 10 body colors and two chest
embroidery designs: the famous polo pony or your own initials. The Polo golf
shirts, made of breathable pinpoint cotton mesh, can thus be tailored to your
personal esthetic requirements, assuming you have any. For example, if you are
exceptionally preppy, you can choose a pink (raspberry) pony to go on your green
shirt. Or if you are really in style, you can opt for a black pony on your black
shirt. To see in advance how it will look, you can use their website to model
your choices electronically on Davis Love III, a Ralph Lauren-sponsored golfer.
An executive of Polo Ralph Lauren, calls the feature,
"a fun, original way for golf enthusiasts to infuse their own personal style to
our classic polo." Other companies have experimented with similar
personalization programs, for instance, Nike, which allows consumers to custom
order its athletic shoes.
The customized shirts cost the same as Ralph Lauren Polo's regular Tournament golf shirts
($85). Mens golf Shirts with American flags and even bigger ponies—the standard pony is
about 1" tall, but the create-your-own offer allows you to mess around with a
larger, 2 3/4" pony—cost more. We kind of like the dark blue pony on an
all-black shirt, cool but, you know, understated. To play the ponies yourself,
go to ralphlauren.com
LIKE THE DESERT, ONLY DRIER
So how do you distinguish your company's
golf shirts from the hundreds of others
out there, especially if they are your main product? At the Antiqua Group, the
golf and sports clothes company based in Peoria, Ariz., the quest for newness
has resulted in Desert Dry Extra Lite (D2XL, as they like to call it), a
variation on their popular Desert Dry proprietary fabric.
This is for those who take their mens golf shirts extra-dry. Every company has its
lightweight, moisture-wicking performance fabrics, so the golfer doesn't have to
sweat through a round. But Antigua's director of product development, Sean
Gregg, issued a challenge to his team and fabric makers: come up with a fabric
that weighs less than 150 grams per meter of cloth. Most golf shirts, including
Antigua's, come in the 180 to 220 grams per meter range. He also insisted that
the fabric be a sort of super polyester microfiber. Polyester microfibers are
inherently moisture proof, but this one has been chemically treated for even
more, faster evaporation.
Other sports apparel companies have developed shirt fabrics that come in under 150
grams per meter, but the fabrics tend to be sheer. The Antigua golf shirts,
which sell for $50 to $60, have enough meat in the fabric to be opaque.
"No dude wants to be wearing a shirt you can see through," Gregg said. Although
we must say there are a few guys in our neighborhood ...
ruletwentyone towel Expand
Provided
ruletwentyone towel
THINGS THAT SHOULD STAY WET
Sometimes the towel on your bag is not enough. You need to wipe your hands or
clean a muddy clubface, but the cart is on the other side of the green already,
or your caddie has stalked off to look for someone else's ball in the woods.
Hence the thinking behind ruletwentyone, a small back-pocket towel made with
eco-friendly materials. (The name comes from the official Rules of Golf, number
21: Cleaning the Ball.)
You whip it out and you're ready for a clean, dry shot. It's always there,
tucked into your back pocket, when you need it.
The towel is the brainchild of Joe Borgenicht, who describes himself as "an
Oxford-educated auto mechanic," who says that avid golfers faced with $300 GPS
systems and other expensive gadgets, should instead opt for a moist towel, or as
he puts it, a "high-end, must-have, intuitive tool for under $20 that simplifies
their game."
The ruletwentyone towel comes in an absorbent bamboo terry cloth, which stays
wet all day, with a waterproof shell exterior that keeps your pockets dry. They
cost $10.