Adidas influence in sport has been shaping fashion and culture movements for decades.
This week’s re-launch of Originals Golf brings the three-stripe brand’s iconic Trefoil logo back to the golf course with a range men’s and women’s apparel, footwear and accessories born of sport and rooted in golf.
During the Originals Golf media reveal at adidas World of Sport headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, MyGolfSpy contributor, Rick Young conducted a roundtable discussion with adidas Golf’s, Dylan Moore, senior creative director; Shaun Madigan, global apparel director and Masun Denison, global footwear director to talk about Originals Golf and how the design trio balanced adidas heritage with the modern game.
Q: How does Originals elevate adidas brand authenticity in the golf space?
Moore: First and foremost with us we hang our hat on performance. That’s at the root of everything for adidas and obviously on a performance range were working with the best athletes in the world and what we build to help them perform at their level, the highest level, we know those products will perform for everyday golfers. The key to Originals for us was making sure the style of Originals is relevant to the modern culture of what’s happening inside of golf but also outside the game. I mean, fabrication-wise, look and feel, we still wanted it polished for the lifestyle lane.
Q: Was there a conscious effort to create separation between mainstream Originals product and Originals Golf?
Moore: The key difference is the performance qualities we’ve put into Originals Golf. It doesn’t necessarily look like performance has been built-in for the game but it’s all there – stretch, breathability, fit – and we worked in key areas to make sure it moves with you. Same on the footwear side for cushioning, waterproofing and traction.
Denison: That’s spot on. A lot of the benefits you don’t see but you feel. When you put the Originals Golf product on right away you can tell right away the intention is golf.
Q: Is the correlation between lifestyle and golf sometimes a tricky balance in the apparel space?
Madigan: Not as tricky today in my opinion. The golf uniform has way less boundaries now. Don’t get me wrong. There are still boundaries we have to follow out of respect and appreciation for the game and the uniform of the game but I do believe that today the individual, that golfer, has an opportunity to express themselves on and off the golf course through the golf uniform. Something as simple as looking back 10 years ago when a hoodie became relevant as a layering piece. As disruptive as that was at the time a hoodie is not that disruptive. It’s comfortable, it provides warmth. We just brought it to our game and the game is learning to accept it. Less boundaries with the golf uniform is good for the game, it shows growth. We’ll always respect the tradition of the golf uniform. We just look to evolve it in certain ways. With respect to Originals, that balance between lifestyle and golf you mentioned, I think we nailed it.
Q: Does the same balance apply to footwear?
Denison: Dylan really hit on it. We’re rooted in performance. There’s a lot of brands in the golf space that are all fashion without having maximum benefit for the golfer. For us, that balance is on the performance side. When you look at the footwear the Originals Golf Gazelle we’re launching looks exactly like the Gazelle you’d buy in an Originals store to wear on the street. The difference is that cushioning comfort and waterproofing. It’s there because it has to be. We’re going to have the look, the fashion, the versatile style part of it BUT it has to perform for the golfer on the golf course. That makes us feel good about what we’re doing with Originals but it’s another ‘why’ the consumer will want to try it and why it’s different. We definitely don’t want to cannibalize Originals but we had to make it appropriate for our sport.
Moore: The funny thing about footwear is ten years ago it was considered more like equipment because it was technical, it had spikes, it was more rigid and stiff to make sure you’re stable. I think the movement to spikeless becoming more and more common (close to 75% of the category today) opened up for more versatility to come into the game. Sure, it opened up the game to other competitors that aren’t capable of making technical golf shoes but they’re in the game now because they have a spikeless outsole.
Denison: Lot of truth to that. If your foot is falling out of the shoe or you get plantar fasciitis or if its not designed well it’s not going to work for golf.
Q: What about other categories at adidas that have influenced the golf division and maybe this new golf line of Originals?
Moore: What you see today historically with Originals we were able to look back into our own golf archive for influences. I also think there some hints from tennis. There’s a natural connection with that game and golf being club sports. You look at our skate division and seeing that kid, that athlete so attracted to our sport. Skate and golf look like very opposite sports but the more and more we thought about it they’re actually super similar. They’re individual sports, they’re outside, it’s you against yourself. There were so many parallels. Yeah, one is this kind of anti-anarchist activity, one is a centuries old traditional sport but look at them together there are a lot of similarities.
Madigan: For sure the culture of skate and the uniform of skate is something we definitely infused into Originals and in our performance range as well. Tennis, as Dylan mentioned. You can even look, especially in the past with the performance range, and see European football and the styling of European football. That has been infused into our golf product. They’re all different sport categories but this is what separates us in golf. We have that culture. It works both ways too. It’s cool to see some of our other divisions being inspired by golf and our golf archives as well. That’s the beauty of adidas history. There’s a lot of opportunity within our own four walls to be inspired.
Denison: We pull from a lot of areas. Retro-running is another one. It impacted product in Originals and on the performance side. Bit of a detour but with the adidas-Gucci collection for example you’re also seeing high fashion come in with textures and materials that look more elevated in some of the Originals golf footwear. The Kiltie and some of those classic golf details coming back. Yeah, you don’t see the Kiltie too often, and it’s not for everyone, but it definitely harkens back to another generation of the game.
Q: Being three males what influences were in play with Originals Golf women’s line and how did you pull together something equal to the men’s product?
Madigan: I have no problem stating this: I am more inspired by the female golf uniform and what they’re doing in the game. It’s almost like their boundaries are less and less, whether that’s leggings or different layering pieces, they have full opportunity to express themselves. When you look at what’s happening in women’s runway fashion, we’re excited to have women in the game in a more meaningful way. I think there’s a stat for North America today that 26% of golfers today are female. That means that one out of every individual in a foursome is female. We want to connect with her. We want her to know our brand. It gives her that chance to express herself the way she desires on the golf course. I think it’s been fascinating exercise with Originals. We utilized our female personnel in the office, we looked at the female consumer in a very meaningful way, we listened to them, we heard what they want in a golf uniform and it’s been an awesome opportunity for us.
Moore: I totally agree with Shaun. On the women’s side it’s easier to play the silhouette. They’re more open to different silhouettes. I mean, how much can you really change the male polo? The three of us would also tell you we’re fortunate to get feedback from athletes like Linn Grant who are open and more fashion-forward which makes more ideas available to us.
Denison: When we showed the Originals products to our male and female athletes early on all of it was great and we got some valuable insights there. We’ve seen the momentum and the response and the opportunity on the women’s side of the business the last few years. Arguably it could become an even bigger part of our growth potential.
Q: That word, opportunity. On the heels of the Originals debut what do you the three of you see as adidas best opportunity going forward?
Denison: I think it’s the combination of leading in performance but having this layer of Originals where we can bring in more fashion-forward designs and different materials. It’s still rooted in performance but that gives us a different lane to play in than just being a performance brand. I think if we take that two-pronged approach of pushing the boundaries of our performance product but also pushing the boundaries of culture into golf with the Originals product, I think it’s an amazing one-two punch.
Moore: On the Originals side I just think too it’s so wide open to style and trends and what’s happening out there in modern culture. From our side I get most excited by what we can do with performance. We can push innovation but performance-style has been sort of stagnant for a while. If we can move that style forward that’s a big opportunity.
Madigan: The golf division has way more support from our brand than we’ve ever had. Bjorn (Gulden, adidias CEO) mentioned in his remarks to you guys that the brand is investing in golf and we have a massive opportunity from the brand’s momentum and our own focus on the game. Born of sport, rooted in golf. We cannot forget our DNA. We need to be proud of the performance brand we are. We have to make it true for our game and stay on that line and continue to give consumers the best performing product in golf. If we do that we’ll continue to be at the top.
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