Interview: Good Sport
Golf is a foreign sport for us here at Good Sport. However, we hear whispers of it gaining a next gen crowd and players and a fresh curiosity. Admittedly, the closest we’ve come to it physically is cutting through the local public course during an early morning run. A few friends of the magazine who play tell us of weekend games. This usually leaves us with puzzled faces, not quite understanding the how’s and the whys. In the current state of sport (globally), we feel the entry points are being split wide open. Sport now feels like a place inspired by earlier remix culture and sampling. Let’s take a bit of this other world that never belonged and mix it right in.
And sometimes the remix becomes better than the original. A lot of sports, like golf, need remixes, not just one, but a heap of remixes that turn the wheels of change a little faster.
And here we have Found Golf. A South African born and Melbourne based golf apparel brand.
Our pal and longtime contributor to Good Sport, Kent Andreasen photographed the campaign and we spoke with the founders Lance and Ellen to hear more about what the go with Golf is and how Found fits into it all.
GS: So, what are your relationships with golf?
Lance: I am obsessed with it all. Connecting with the challenge against yourself. The surroundings, the sounds, and out of bounds.
Ellen: Now that I finally have clothes to wear, I am really getting into it! For now, I’m still on par 3 courses, but the bug has bitten.
GS: You mention taking cues from surf and skate and translating over to Golf. How did this play out for the brand, and what were some of those cues?
Found: Mainly that you can dress like a skater (even if you can’t skate) because you aspire to the culture or to be a part of the movement. Golf has never been seen comfortably on some youngster going for their first pint. Both surf and skate are sports that have built their image alongside music, art and magazines. There is a distinct identity that can be taken away from the sport itself and still translates. It's a lifestyle, not a sport. Golf should be the same. Found is a fashion brand that’s creating a lifestyle around golf that is bigger than the course and the stuffy clubhouse, hence having our Melbourne launch party at Molly Rose Brewery.
GS: Is Golf changing, if so, how? What kinds of things are you noticing that are perhaps positive and negative?
Found: Golf is trending, there are way more people playing and this means that there are also way more alternative subcultures pitching up at the tee box. When I (Lance) first really started obsessing over golf, I was confused at the obvious conformity in what everyone was wearing and how disconnected that was from modern fashion trends. With brands like ours, we are slowly shifting the dial to create space for greater personality on and off the course. We want to champion golf for the challenge that it is. While undergoing a rebrand at the highest level (LIV) as well as at street level, the only negative is the old school holding onto the wrong traditions and the new school ignoring the right traditions.
GS: You're split between Melbourne and Cape Town - is there more of a voice from one particular city, and what kind of differences in the world of sport and fashion do you notice between them?
Found: After looking at multiple options around the world for manufacturing, we came back to Cape Town where the idea was originally born. As a fashion brand, it is important to us to make conscious choices about where and who makes our clothing. Interestingly, we were based in London when we designed the first collection, and we now find ourselves in Melbourne. Both Cape Town and Melbourne are great hubs to broadcast to like-minded individuals. There is a freedom to the way people think in Cape Town and a commitment to taking risks that is definitely at the heart of who we are and why we started. Whilst Melbourne possibly has a larger audience and appetite for what we are doing. There is a great synergy between the two places, there is more in common than not. In Cape Town, freedom is a way of being (think mountain hikes and less rules). For Melburnians, freedom is self expression (Carrot Man), we try to exist as the common thread between the two.
GS: What do you find tasteless about the mainstream world of Golf?
Found: Tight joggers and 1500 private jets at The Masters.
GS: How would someone who has a curiosity about golf find a way to play? What kinds of avenues are there? It feels more complicated than getting a club and rocking up to a course?
Found: Go to the range, hit some balls. You won’t have to look too far to find someone you know who will join you. And if the bug bites, keep your style - you might not be wearing the same clothes as everyone else there, but you will analyse your swings all the same.
GS: And what are your plans with Found for 2024?
Found: 2023 was about not short cutting on quality, stubbornly perfecting garments until we were happy. This year we are all about market growth. We have some influencers on board, stockists, and brand collaborations lined up as well as important magazine coverage like this (thanks!). We have a few markets tee’d up, including the next one at the Royal Exhibition Building on the 24 - 26th May. And, of course, we have a number of new garments, including a boiler suit.
GS: Finally, what does left field mean to you?
Found: André 3000 playing flute.
Read original interview and more at Good Sport Magazine