We Sold 500 T-Shirts in a Season, Here is How…..

Off- course wear has been a booming trend in the golf business. Members and guests alike are looking to rock the logo both on and off the course. In the average persons day-to-day life they are wearing more than polos and quarter zips…. so why would we only sell polos and quarter zips in our golf shops? Our members are proud to be members at this club, guests are excited to be invited time after time again, so we have to constantly be innovating and finding new things to provide to these members and their guests. But one of the most common things I hear in the golf shop is “I don’t need another polo”. I hate to hear it but at the end of the day it is true. I say the same thing when I look in the black hole that is my closet.

I started leaning into the ‘off-course’ wear in the Fall of 2025 and it instantly was a hit. My small private club sold over 500 t-shirts in a season. What makes t-shirts and casual wear so fun to do is it doesn’t just have to be the logo. You can experiment with fun name drops, images of signature holes, clubhouse images, course maps, and other things to tell a story about your club. This is a more creative apparel item than another polo with a left chest logo.
Throughout the season I had both workout tees and cotton tees. Both had great success.
The cotton tees with screen print were my best seller! It is easy to find vendors with lower MOQ’s and the great thing about casuals is they are lower cost, make great gifts, AND we found most people who came in would add it to their purchase last minute, sort of as an impulse buy. Because it is usually under $100 it is a great grab and go item. People wear t-shirts all the time (esp in South Florida), to workout, travel, day-to-day, get groceries, go to the beach, etc.

There are so many fun ways to tell a story through the art on t-shirts. We had customers buy almost every t-shirt that we brought in! When members are proud of the club they are members at and guests are excited to be there they want to wear the logo as much as possible. Even off the course.

I had some people (way more than I thought) make comments about having t-shirts in the golf shop, because we don’t allow them on the golf course. The fact that this is still a stigma in the golf business and that some people are still approaching golf shops like that is crazy to me. I want our shop to be a “lifestyle shop”, a place where members and guests can get anything they would want. We only play golf 4 hours a day, we spend the rest of our lives in clothes for work, clothes for everyday life. Leaning into and accepting the idea that your members and guests have enough golf polos opens a whole other relm of merchandise for you.