Golf Pride x James Bond Grip Collaboration

If you want off-the-wall, the new Golf Pride x James Bond grip collaboration surely qualifies.

“Off the wall” is a very apt term.

So are “out of left field,” “are they serious?” and, if you’re particularly cynical, “what the hell?”

On the other hand, “wow” and “that’s pretty cool” also apply.

The reality, however, is that if nothing else, limited-edition collaborations are meant to be fun, different, attention-getting and, most importantly, limited. If you haven’t been CC’d on the memo, it’s good to remember a fundamental truth.

Golf is a game, my friends, and games are supposed to be fun.

Golf Pride x James Bond = fun

“We have a ton of Bond fans here,” Golf Pride CEO James Ledford tells MyGolfSpy. “It really shows a different side of Golf Pride. We nerd out on grips here but we had a ton of fun putting it all together.”

This new James Bond grip kit isn’t Golf Pride’s first foray into limited-edition collaborations. This past June, the company teamed up with NBA star Steph Curry to create a special grip set to support Curry’s UNDERRATED youth golf program.

However, if a James Bond-themed golf grip was on your bingo card for this fall, today’s your lucky day.

“A lot of this is a fun kind of experiment to see how it works for us and to create more visibility for the brand,” says Ledford. “The UNDERRATED grip was a first for us. This one, however, is probably the most pure fun we’ve had with a grip.”

While the collaboration may seem out of left field, the release timing is not. Oct. 5 happens to be Global James Bond Day and the Bond classic Goldfinger is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this fall. Goldfinger was released in the UK in mid-September 1964 and the U.S. just four days before Christmas. Golf Pride is paying homage to that classic and the golf showdown between Sean Connery’s 007 and Gert Frobe’s bad guy Auric “Strict Rules of Golf” Goldfinger.

“That scene is one of the most iconic golf scenes in movie history,” Ledford says. “We did a launch event a few days ago in London at Stoke Park where they filmed that scene. It was pretty cool to walk in the steps of Sean Connery and Goldfinger out there.”

(For the record, the Bond people handed out sleeves of Penfold Heart golf balls.)

Shaken, not stirred …

Ledford says there’s a business side to these collaborations, which is to reach as many golfers with varying interests as possible.

“It’s true Golf Pride has a 60- to 70-percent market share in the grip category but we only engage with maybe 40 percent of all golfers in any given year. People just don’t think about grips. Part of what we’re doing at our Global Innovation Center in Pinehurst is developing a totally different mindset about grips.”

If you’re wondering how a James Bond tuxedo-looking grip is going to do that, you might be missing the point of “limited editions.”

Golfers may find fun with stripes, icons or color drips on golf balls, but most of us look at grips as the thing we hold on to when we swing a club. We certainly aren’t thinking about self-expression.

“Golf Pride has always kept it pretty safe with our grips,” says Ledford. “This is just a way to help people see grips in a different way. It’s not like we intend to sell a lot of these.”

The Golf Pride x James Bond grip collaboration comes in a limited-edition 007-themed kit, similar to the Steph Curry collaboration. It includes 14 grips, 13 of which are meant to be installed on your clubs. The 14^th grip is a keepsake in a special gold bar display box.

Imagine throwing that down as the prize for your next match with a supervillain. Or your cousin.

The world is not enough

Give Golf Pride credit: it didn’t skimp on the details with an intricate 007-esque tuxedo design. The bow tie, for example, has a cross-grain to it while the tuxedo shirt gives off a quilted look. The lapels of the tux have a different texture altogether and the tux jacket has 007 texturing. There’s even a 007 spiral eye on the end cap. All that’s missing is an Aston Martin DB5 and a Walther PPK.

“It wasn’t easy to do but it was a lot of fun,” says Ledford. “We may not fold those design features from the James Bond grip into other Golf Pride grips, but we are pushing our capabilities to new limits. It puts new things in our tool kit that we can use in different ways in our core offerings.”

Ledford says more grip collaborations are coming but there’s nothing to announce now. Most likely you’ll see Golf Pride teaming up with other golf-playing celebrities but he isn’t ruling out additional Bond-themed concepts.

“We’re anxious to see how the market reacts. If people like it as much as we do, you can imagine all the fun Bond iterations we could build off this. If it brings a certain audience to Golf Pride that loves James Bond but doesn’t normally think about their grips, we’d love to do more of it.”

Maybe we’ll see a Diamonds Are Forever grip set or maybe The Spy Who Loved Me. How about a Moneypenny lady’s grip?

Hey, if you love Bond and golf, why the hell not?

Gold Pride x James Bond: Final thoughts

Folks, these are for fun, and there’s no harm in fun. The tuxedo design is pretty intricate and one can see how Golf Pride can use what it learned during the design and manufacturing process in the future. If it helps, think of the Bond grips as a concept car. If you prefer “gimmick,” that works, too.

But unless you play on Sundays to feed your family, you play golf for fun. So have some fun, OK?

“Everyone’s used to the Tour-proven, serious side of Golf Pride, and that’s still our core. That’s who we are,” says Ledford. “But it’s fun to let stuff like this out of the bag every once in a while. It has to be fun, which is why you’ll see us poking around in these areas, just to see what happens.”

If you’re not a Bond fan, don’t worry. Golf Pride isn’t going all 007, all the time. You can still buy plain black Tour Velvets. If you’re feeling a little saucy, the MCC grips in Teams colors are always there.

If, however, you’re a fan of the classic Sean Connery, the forgotten George Lazenby, the campy Roger Moore, the overlooked (and underrated) Timothy Dalton, the almost perfect Pierce Brosnan or the buff but brooding Daniel Craig, you can get a grip dressed up in a tux.

Somewhere Ian Fleming is having a smoke and smiling.

Price and availability

The Golf Pride x James Bond grip collaboration comes in the aforementioned 14-grip kit. The box itself is collectible, featuring a picture of the famous Bond-Goldfinger match on the inside cover. The 14th grip comes in a collectible gold bar box.

As a limited edition, only 2,000 sets will be made. They’ll be available in both standard and midsize.

The kit sells for $189.  It’s available for pre-sale starting today at 007Store.com. Ledford expects they’ll eventually be available on the Golf Pride website.