Malbon Has Been a Trailblazer in Golf’s Style Revolution. It’s Not Done Yet
Co-founder Stephen Malbon discusses bringing the streetwear ethos to golf, upcoming collabs, and more.
Stephen Malbon says he’s been addicted to golf three times in his life.
The first time came when he was a 12-year-old in Virginia Beach working at a local course. Cleaning, golf carts eventually evolved into playing with the other workers. That lasted until the age of 16 when he got his first car and “wanted to do everything other than golf.” The golf bug bit Malbon again when he was attending art school in Atlanta in the late ‘90s. He picked up a job as a caddy in college and would golf every Monday. When he moved to New York City, he put the clubs back down for another decade. Around age 33, when work took him out to Los Angeles, he got addicted for the third time. That was 13 years ago. It snowballed into him operating one of the most prominent lifestyle brands in the golf world. Third time’s a charm.
Malbon’s namesake label has been at the forefront of golf’s cool facelift in recent years that appeals to a younger and more diverse crowd. Its designs veer further away from the sport’s waspy country club roots and more into the world of streetwear. Think fun graphic T-shirts, outerwear covered in eye-catching prints, or knits with bold branding.
Sure, Malbon’s pieces still obviously live in the golf world, but you can easily wear them somewhere other than your local course without looking ridiculous. Malbon founded iconic street culture mag Frank151, so keying in on streetwear’s ethos should come as no surprise. It's made the brand a go-to for many golfers in the space eager to ditch their boring polos and khakis.
“One brand can't do it by themselves. So, I'm very much a fan of all the brands that are changing the narrative and all the big brands that are taking that influence,” says Malbon. “I'm proud that those types of things are happening, where you're mixing the two worlds together. That was the original mission that we had.”
Since he started the brand with his wife, Erica,in 2017, Malbon Golf has continued its rapid ascent. That has included collaborations with everyone from Nike and New Balance to Undefeated and Jimmy Choo. An upcoming partnership with the Irish whiskey brand Bushmills shows that there aren’t many limitations to Malbon’s reach. In January 2024, the brand even signed PGA Tour pro golfer Jason Day to a first-of-its-kind endorsement deal that further legitimized the Malbon with golf’s more traditional fanbase.
Despite all of the accomplishments thus far, Malbon is still thinking bigger. He envisions partnerships with resorts and airlines to bolster their golfing experiences. Looming collaborations with Futura and Edison Chen’s Clot will excite streetwear enthusiasts. Malbon isn’t going to abandon his roots.
“It's just a part of my life,” says Malbon. “I don't have to put much thought into it.”
Read more from our conversation with Malbon about being at the forefront of golf’s style revolution, his brand’s organic approach to collaborations, and more, below.
Pro golfer Jason Day wearing a Malbon vest at the 2024 Masters. Via Warren Little / Getty Images
At what point does your passion for golf turn into the idea for the brand?
I got so addicted to golf when I was in my mid-thirties. I started playing golf again like crazy in LA. Only five or six people I knew played golf. So, I had an Instagram that was mainly photos of everything that traditionally is the opposite of golf. I started putting up vintage photos of Tiger Woods and other golf photos on my personal Instagram and everyone's like, “Dude, you're the only one that golfs. Cut that shit out.” So I started a separate Instagram so I could just nerd out. I used it as an obsession to take golf news in. I started to just post images of historical golf stuff that I love and modern art type of stuff. It became more like a mood board.
Our kids went to a preschool called Wagon Wheel in LA, and we would go to functions for school. I'm a bit introverted sometimes, so I wouldn't really be talking too much to the other parents until one of the dads is wearing a Bel-Air Country Club hat. I’d be talking about golf for an hour and a half. So my wife was like, “You only really talk about golf anyway. Why don't we try to figure out how to turn this Instagram into a business?” So we built a great community and then started a little pro shop with a simulator on Fairfax and Melrose, the most non-golf place in the world. We made hats. We made polos. We just kind of kept going like that.
Did you like playing the role of disruptor in the golf space? Did you see yourself as one?
No. I think obviously people would say such a thing, but that word was kind of a trendy word to say in marketing. I thought of it more as just trying to inspire young people that old stuffy golfers aren't as lame as you think and trying to inspire the old stuffy golfers that young creative people aren't all total derelicts.
If you love golf, you're on a pretty good common ground with everybody. Whether you're a caddy or you're a CEO of a big company who loves golf, those two have a common ground that's quite similar. So it was more inspirational than disruptive, but it obviously has disrupted stuff.
Your brand has been at the forefront of streetwear penetrating the golf world and making golf apparel more lifestyle friendly. What are your general thoughts on that trend and how it's continued to grow since you've started the brand?
I think the stuff that I learned from streetwear and from graffiti has been used. There's branding exercises and more creativity using the thought concept of streetwear, being able to flip logos and things like that. Being able to do collaborations comes from streetwear. So, working with streetwear minds and doing collabs is very helpful. I did a collaboration six years ago with Beats by Dre. I'm pretty certain that the majority of the people who follow Beats by Dre don't golf. Doing a collaboration with FootJoy, I'm pretty certain that all of those people do golf. It's just a balancing act of going from traditional to non-traditional golf messaging.
There's been a ton of brands that were probably inspired by us because we were quite early. When I started that Instagram, there were no Instagram accounts doing that. It was basically just Golf Digest and Golf Channel. Now, there's all types of media outlets that are pushing golf.
And then there's obviously a ton of brands. Similar to urbanwear taking over menswear back in the day, it takes a lot of brands. Back in the day, it was brands like Ecko Unlimited, Phat Farm, and Enyce that changed menswear. Magic trade show went from Dockers and Ralph Lauren to Nas at the Willie Esco booth. It changed. One brand can't do it by themselves. So, I'm very much a fan of all the brands that are changing the narrative and all the big brands that are taking that influence. TaylorMade is doing collabs with Kith. I think that's really good for the game. I'm proud that those types of things are happening, where you're mixing the two worlds together. That was the original mission that we had.
Undefeated is one of Malbon's many collaborators from the streetwear space. Via Malbon
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.
In 2024, Malbon collaborated with 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' to commemorate the show's final season. Via Malbon
Do you have a dream collaborator that you would love to work with at some point that you haven't gotten a chance to yet?
I've been looking into working with hotel chains and things like that, like Four Seasons, and having suites designed for golfers. Airline companies travel to golf destinations all over the world. What does the little tchotchke bag you get when you sit in business class look like? My friend Daniel Arsham is designing suites and putting his artwork around on the Whistling Straits golf course. It's just enhancing the whole experience while you’re playing golf. So, things like that. Working with hotels and airlines would be rad.
Because you come from that world, any other streetwear brands you’re working with?
We're doing some really cool ones. We're doing Clot. Edison Chen and I have been friends for years. We're doing Neighborhood. We're doing Futura 2000. We do Undefeated each year. So, they're happening, but I don't want to do the obvious ones. I have to be a massive fan of it. I'm a huge fan of Neighborhood and what they've done for a long time in Japan. I'm a fan of Undefeated. They were pioneers. I've been friends with Eddie Cruz and James Bond for 20 years. It's just being organic and having a proper reason to do it. It isn't just to make money.
You're talking about hotel chains and airlines. The brand is getting very big. Is it important for you to keep streetwear as a pillar of the business?
Yeah. It's just a part of my life. I don't have to put much thought into it.
