As a card-carrying member of Club Medicare, I take just a tad more than my fair share of elder abuse from my younger MyGolfSpy brothers and sisters.
Hey, I’ll tell you what I tell them: This guy puts the sexah back in “sexagenarian.”
One concession to aging, however, is how I dress. My wife’s all-too-frequent eye rolls have done the trick of convincing me that some of my golf wardrobe might not be, shall we say, age-appropriate. So, when Bad Birdie came calling, a unique challenge presented itself.
Can a 65-year-old man desperately trying to balance his inner child with his wife’s desire for him to dress like an adult find happiness in a brand whose logo looks like a dead bird?
As a famous Zen master once said: We’ll see.
“The Boys” by Bad Birdie in Frosty Petal – the wife said “No.”
Who or what is Bad Birdie?
Bad Birdie was founded in 2017 by Jason Richardson. In his younger days, Richardson caddied at an ultra-exclusive country club. He grew to love the game but balked at the culture. Like many his age, he found that culture to be exclusive and intimidating. By the time he reached his 20s, Richardson had built a career in advertising, helping challenger brands build their businesses.
In short, it was on-the-job training for an outsider looking for something to disrupt. That something turned out to be golf apparel.
Bad Birdie founder Jason Richardson packing up the very first order
“Driving home from a golf tournament one day, I realized I shouldn’t have to dress like someone else just to play the game,” Richard told Leaders Perception magazine this year. “There was no brand that reflected how my generation actually wanted to show up so I decided to build it.”
Richardson self-funded his new company, launching in 2017. It was a true side-hustle, run out of his apartment with an initial run of 100 shirts. The company’s foundation was quality and performance but the vibe was all about personality, with bold prints, cultural relevance and style. It rejected the idea that golfers had to “look proper” (i.e., “boring”) to belong.
The first Bad Birdie orders at the Post Office, ready to go.
You know those upstart golf apparel brands you see on your social media feeds talking about how they’re different, non-traditional and disruptive? Bad Birdie makes a strong case for being the OG of that movement.
In 2020, Richardson pitched his brand on Shark Tank, securing a $300,000 investment that allowed him to shift brand awareness into overdrive. Bad Birdie would soon be found in pro shops and major retailers, cementing itself as a leader in the post-COVID golf culture.
Yeah, but why “Bad Birdie?”
I think, as golfers, we can all agree there’s no such thing as a “bad birdie” unless, of course, you whiff on a tap-in for eagle. As a brand name, however, it might help to imagine a Pulp Fiction-era Samuel L. Jackson saying it, only without the attributive maternal adjective formed from a present participle in between “Bad” and “Birdie.”
As for the logo, it could be a dead bird or it might be a passed-out bird. That’s up to your own interpretation. Visually, it represents knocking out old golf traditions and rejecting the safe, conservative norms. It is, in a word, rebellious.
I may be ready for Social Security but Bad Birdie is speaking my language. I grew up in the ‘70s, after all.
This is all well and good but can this old man pull off the Bad Birdie Spring Collection while at the same time earning his wife’s approval?
As it turns out, he can. He just needs to keep his rebellious instincts age-appropriate.
That’s not me, but I could rock that shirt.
Going through the Bad Birdie Spring Collection
For sheer comedy, I’m fairly certain John Cleese and Michael Palin would have enjoyed watching the Mrs. and me scroll through the Bad Birdie Spring Collection. It wasn’t quite the Cheese Shop sketch, but it was close.
Me: Ooh, that one’s nice.
Her: No.
Me: What about this one?
Her: No.
Her: No.
Her: No.
Her: No.
The Wild One works for me.
Jokes aside, we actually did find several polos we could agree on. We (meaning she) particularly liked the Midnight Muse, the Arizona and several of the Ridge Performance polos with ribbed collars and cuffs. We (she) also liked the golf shorts but we (she) decided the darker colors would look better on a man my age. I (she) ultimately decided on the Ridge Performance Wild One (can’t keep a good man down!) in navy blue and a pair of medium blue (Bad Birdie calls it “blue mirage”) golf shorts.
For good measure, Bad Birdie threw in a black snapback hat, which we’ll discuss later.
Does the Bad Birdie Spring Collection work for the 60+ crowd?
The short answer is absolutely. Yes, the Bad Birdie Spring Collection is bold and colorful and, yes, it features more than a few pieces that would look better on one of my offspring than on me. But if you still have that connection to your rebellious youth (along with an understanding and extremely patient spouse), any “experienced” golfer can find joy in the Bad Birdie offering.
I do, however, have to call out the hat. Like many men my age, I prefer the more relaxed, low-profile type that’s often referred to as the “dad cap.” The style features an unstructured crown with no stiff panels. Like me, it’s soft and somewhat slouchy as opposed to upright and rigid.
I can identify with that.
The Bad Birdie hat I tried was a classic “snapback” type with a high crown and a flat brim. I have a 29-year-old son who’d look great in it. For me, at age 65, not so much.
With that, I’ll see you on the golf course, my friends. If you ever make it up to Breakfast Hill in Greenland, N.H., you can’t miss me. I’ll be that sharp-dressed man groovin’ to some ZZ Top and styling some Bad Birdie, albeit with my trusty Red Sox dad cap.
If you want to shop “The Barba Collection” (my name, Bad Birdie won’t touch it), here are links to the Bad Birdie Ridge Performance Wild One and the Bad Birdie golf shorts.
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