Despite the major progress golf equipment has made over the past decade, golf apparel has been somewhat left behind.
At the start of the century Tiger Woods was single-handedly revolutionising the game. Suddenly gyms were packed with golfers and sports companies woke up to the realisation that there was a market for performance golf clothing. Performance polyester was developed to meet these new demands, applied to golf shirts and hailed as the pinnacle of golf apparel. But after this blaze of innovation nothing much happened for the next four years - until the advent of the base layer.
Under Armour applied this technology to golf in the form of the Coldgear Mock, and what had been traditionally used for American football became a near overnight golfing necessity for golfers playing in cold conditions.
Over 20 million Coldgear Mock sales later, the reason they have sold so well is simple: because it worked – it fulfilled a need for the consumer.
So where does the industry go from here? I see this very clearly – in difficult economic times the industry must strive to be better, to offer more to the consumer. Spring/Summer apparel has been untouched in terms of innovation for nearly nine years now. If the industry is to grow Summer sales then it must innovate – and not just re-label existing technology. Companies must strive to create their space within the market.
From our perspective, we are approaching Spring 2012 as an opportunity to change the market through the release of three new fabric technologies:
• Charged Cotton – the first true performance cotton: tests show it moves moisture and dries five times faster than standard cotton
• Coldblack – scientifically proven to keep athletes up to 9°F cooler in temperatures over 20°C.
• Catalyst – for which four water bottles are recycled to produce an ultra performance product.
These are new innovations born out of Under Armour’s core philosophy of enhancing athletic performance. This has been our position in golf since day one, and we have been delighted with the response from our customers to date.
