Golf apparel has been invaded by athleisure.
Lululemon, Vuori and the biggest sportswear brands have trained golfers to expect clothes that stretch, breathe and move seamlessly from the gym to the office to the first tee.
Andreas Duplantis, the founder of Technically Golf, thinks they’re missing something important: making clothes you can play golf in isn’t the same as making clothes for golfers.
His bet is that a smaller, golf-native brand can compete with the giants by understanding the game, the culture and the people who obsess over both.
“To me, the best golf apparel feels like thoughtfully considered clothing first but when you play in it, it stretches, breathes, dries quickly, and moves exactly as you need it to,” he says.
After years of working in the fashion industry, Duplantis noticed a giant, Omega-shaped hole in the golf clothing industry. And who better to fill it than himself?
“I’m not trying to figure out how to make our clothes work for golfers. I’m starting with the golfer and building outward from there.”
Where Big Athleisure looks at its current lineup and asks, “What can we feasibly label as golf-adjacent?”, Duplantis and his budding apparel brand, Technically Golf, do the opposite.
He designs clothing for golfers.
A novel idea, right?
I’m being a bit sarcastic, I know. But it seems obvious. Shouldn’t golf apparel actually be designed for golf, rather than designed for (insert any activity here) and simply marketed as usable for golf?
That distinction is at the center of what Duplantis is trying to build.
“I understand that serious golfers obsess over everything in their bags and on their bodies. Every detail matters to them. Making clothes you can play golf in and understanding the golfer are two very different things.”
Duplantis believes he understands the latter. And that’s the philosophy behind each product Technically Golf produces from its popular Shoulder Season polo to the Nio Half Zip.
So how do you actually produce a garment made specifically for golfers?
It starts with movement.
“The ‘golf’ is built into the way the garment moves, the fabric, the color and the context it was designed to exist in,” Duplantis says. “If you can’t comfortably swing a golf club in something we make, we won’t make it. That’s design filter number one.”
Technically Golf’s take on how golf apparel should move isn’t necessarily new. Stretch, breathability and freedom of movement are table stakes at this point.
Where the brand begins to separate itself is in how it thinks about everything surrounding performance: branding, CMF (color, materials and finish) and the broader aesthetic of what a golfer should look like.
For Duplantis, performance doesn’t have to mean abandoning the traditions that make golf clothing distinctive in the first place.
“That core golf archetype—collared polo, tucked-in, trousers and a lightweight layering piece—feels like one of the last stands we have against the decline of ‘dressing up’ in American society. I’ll respect your codes but I’m going to interpret them my way, through my fabrics, my colors and my point of view.”
That’s ultimately what makes Technically Golf interesting. Duplantis isn’t trying to overthrow traditional golf style nor is he interested in simply reproducing what the major athleisure brands are already doing.
He’s trying to occupy the space between them: respecting golf’s codes while building something that feels distinctly modern and distinctly his own.
At the end of the day, though, Duplantis and Technically Golf welcome the different philosophical approaches to both golf and golf apparel.
“I think golf is more interesting when those different philosophies coexist. Golf doesn’t need to be a monoculture,” Duplantis says. “Just rake your bunkers, fix your pitch marks, keep your music at a respectful volume and maintain pace of play.”
You can check out what Duplantis has cooking at technicallygolf.com.
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