After my piece on $100-plus “premium” golf polos, I received quite a few comments making the same general point: premium polos can be worth it, and golf apparel, like anything else, should be allowed to be as expensive or as affordable as people want it to be… I agree with that.
To be clear, my issue is not that expensive golf polos exist. If someone wants to spend $120, $150 or more on a golf shirt, that is entirely their business. I’m not interested in policing how people spend their money, especially in a sport where we routinely justify $600 drivers, $400 putters and enough launch monitor subscriptions to fund a small municipality.
My issue is much more specific: what are you actually getting for the money?
A premium polo needs to justify being premium. That justification can come from material, construction, fit, durability, hand feel, provenance or something meaningfully distinct like a great brand story or a different value proposition. The shirt doesn’t necessarily need to be “complex,” but it needs to be authentic and a different value proposition. That’s where two bands really stand out: B. Draddy and Dock Street.
B. Draddy polos are expensive. There’s no getting around that. But when you’re buying one of their 100-percent cotton polos, you’re getting a different value proposition than you are with most premium golf shirts. You’re not just buying another synthetic performance polo with a slightly different collar and a $120 price tag. You’re buying texture. You’re buying softness. You’re buying a shirt that looks and wears more like an actual piece of clothing.
Dock Street is a different kind of example. Its polos are not cotton. They’re performance shirts. But Dock Street gives you something a lot of premium golf apparel lacks: a reason to care.
Founder Brandon Evans grew up on Dock Street in Wilmington, North Carolina, and built the brand around lighthouses, coastal Carolina and the idea of guidance. That could easily become gimmicky but, in this case, it feels personal. Evans was a financial analyst who lost his job the day before his daughter was born. With the support of his wife, he finally took the leap into the golf business he had been talking about for years.
Simply put, that’s an awesome brand story. As a fellow Black American in the golf space and a lighthouse fanatic myself, Brandon’s story and Dock Street as a brand resonate deeply with me. Dock Street’s shirts are inspired by real lighthouses, including Bodie Island, Oak Island, Calibogue Light, and Santa Marta. The designs are not random patterns thrown onto a synthetic polo to make it look premium. They are tied to place, memory and symbolism.
One of my favorite details is that Evans wanted a specific thread for the Dock Street logo so that, if the sun hit it just right, it would shine from the fairway like a lighthouse from the shore. That is the kind of small, almost obsessive detail that makes a brand feel human.
That, to me, is also a value proposition. Not the same one B. Draddy offers, but a real one. B. Draddy makes the case for premium through material and texture. Dock Street makes the case through story, specificity and intent. Both are doing something more interesting than simply charging $120 for another synthetic polo and hoping the collar copy does the rest. That is where my criticism of premium polos really lives.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: golf apparel has become overwhelmingly synthetic. Polyester, spandex, elastane and nylon dominate the space. Those materials have a place. I’m not pretending they don’t. If you’re playing in extreme heat, sweating through 18 holes or want something that dries quickly, a good performance polo can make sense, but synthetic does not mean premium; not by a longshot.
Too often, golf brands take a fairly standard polyester polo, add a pattern, give the collar a marketing-friendly name and act like they’ve reinvented menswear. That’s where I struggle. A shirt being stretchy and moisture-wicking is not, by itself, enough to justify a premium price anymore.
Cotton, on the other hand, offers something different. It is not made of microplastics and, in my opinion, it usually looks and feels better than performance material. A good cotton golf polo can still be relaxed and comfortable, but it gives your outfit a level of depth that most synthetic shirts simply don’t. That’s why I have far less hesitation with an expensive cotton polo than I do with an expensive synthetic one.
Again, this does not mean every cotton polo is automatically worth the money. It also doesn’t mean every synthetic polo is a ripoff. Take Dock Street, for example. I think those polos are well worth $95. There are excellent performance polos, and there are less-than-stellar cotton polos. The point is not “cotton good, polyester bad.” The point is that premium pricing needs to come with a premium reason.
B. Draddy and Dock Street, to me, often give you that reason. Their shirts feel and look distinct. They occupy a space that most modern golf apparel has abandoned in favor of ultra-light, ultra-stretchy, ultra-similar performance wear.
That’s what I want more of in golf apparel: difference that actually means something. If a brand is going to charge premium prices, give me premium materials. Give me a real point of view. Give me a story, a texture, a detail or a reason to feel connected to what I’m wearing. Because, if I’m honest, that matters to me.
So yes, premium golf polos can absolutely be worth it. But they need to earn the premium. And for my money, a well-made cotton polo or a performance polo with genuine meaning behind it has a much stronger case than yet another expensive synthetic shirt that’s just like the others.
The post Premium Golf Polos Can Be Worth It… They Just Need To Earn It. appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
Article Link: https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/premium-golf-polos-can-be-worth-it-they-just-need-to-earn-it/