Dockers and Malbon Link Up for a Colorful New Golf Collab

In the style world, what goes around comes back around — we’re seeing ’90s and early 2000s designs cropping up everywhere from the street to the runway. Believe it or not, the same thing is happening in the golf world, albeit not as quickly.

Today’s golf apparel is not the stuffy, athlete-driven performance gear of the 2000s. As of four or five years ago, you’d see a golfer and immediately be able to point them out, on or off the course, thanks to golf apparel akin to a uniform: long, flat front stretchy shorts and pink polos, performance caps and socks with funny tabs on the back were all the rage, as players filled up their closets with purpose-built gear that stuck out like a sore thumb once you left the 18th green.

As golf continues to thrive on the heels of the pandemic, however, younger players are looking for something different.

The newer set of players prefer clothes that blend traditional golf wear — think slightly oversized polos, roomy khakis and cotton sweaters — with the style and personality of the streetwear they’ve grown up with. Much like the pandemic made dressing for work a more casual affair, it has made how people dress on the golf course more casual, as well.

This new wave of stylish golf apparel is bringing a breath of fresh air to the course, allowing players to bring their own style to the game. One perfect example of this new attitude toward golf apparel is the latest collaboration between the stylish disruptors at Malbon Golf and the purveyors of perpetual casual Friday, Dockers. After a successful first collection released back in May, the brands have linked up again to drop round two.

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Pushing back against the restrictive dress code historically seen at public and private golf courses, alike, the collab takes traditional silhouettes and updates them with a more modern fit that thrives on the golf course without feeling golf-specific.

When Stephen Malbon, the founder of Malbon Golf, thinks about his early days on the golf course, he remembers relying on Dockers ahead of golf-specific brands.

“I remember the old school ‘80s pro golfers would wear very Dockers-ish silhouettes with polos and sweaters,” he recalls about dressing for the greens. “And I like how Dockers were made for ‘office wear,’ but then, because it was just a preppy guy look, it worked across golf as well.”

The collection includes some of the aforementioned Dockers chinos, along with a matching chore coat, chino shorts, a washable merino sweater polo, a traditional pique polo and chino overalls. Each item blends the casual comfort of Dockers with Malbon’s eye for heritage and modern golf wear, making for an easy-wearing lineup of staples that can be worn on and off the course. Prices range between $98-$200.

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