New way of life assortment celebrates Roger Dunn’s legacy

For six a long time, Roger Dunn Golf Shops have been a Southern California fixture, very like its sun-splashed sandy seashores and various landscapes.

The chain, began by former skilled golfer Roger Dunn, weaved its approach into the SoCal golf tradition with its first retailer at a North Hollywood driving vary that he operated in 1965. His function? Offer golf tools at low cost costs and to make the sport extra accessible to a broader viewers.

“The PGA mandated you had to mark up products at least 40 percent,” Dunn instructed Southland Golf journal earlier than his 2012 demise. “I thought that was too much. So, at the end of the model year, I would buy up merchandise at a deep discount, and even with a 40 percent markup it was still cheaper than anywhere else.”

Dunn, who competed on the PGA Tour within the Nineteen Fifties, constructed up the model over the following decade and opened a Santa Ana 63,000-square-foot flagship superstore in 1978; growth into Hawaii got here subsequent, and by 1986 there have been 16 shops in California. It didn’t take lengthy for the “You’re number one at Roger Dunn” slogan to develop into a catchphrase within the Los Angeles neighborhood.

In the late Nineteen Nineties, his son, Steve Dunn, purchased out his father earlier than promoting the chain in 1993 to Worldwide Golf Shops. Today there are 11 Roger Dunn Golf Shops in SoCal.

In a aggressive and fast-changing retail business, it’s not typically that smaller chains thrive for years, not to mention for a number of a long time. That’s why Adrienne Cass, vice chairman of attire technique at Worldwide Golf Shops, spearheaded a limited-edition way of life assortment (launched in September) to have fun Roger Dunn Golf Shops’ sixtieth anniversary. The Roger Dunn Collection may very well be described as heritage with a contemporary golf fashion that imbues Hollywood class mixed with Palm Springs leisure from the 1950-60s “swinging cool” Rat Pack period.

Stated in another way, “Built for the course, inspired by the culture.”

The assortment borrows from Dunn’s blue-and-white patterns with a scheme that offers a free nod to the Los Angeles Dodgers colours. T-shirts, hats, hoodies, quarter zips – amongst a number of different zip sorts – tout a laid-back fashion at reasonably priced costs for each golfer. There’s additionally a observe jacket, the one piece within the assortment that’s black.

The attraction of the Roger Dunn Collection, as defined by Cass, lies in its versatility. The attire is designed to be worn each on the golf course and as a part of on a regular basis streetwear, seamlessly mixing performance and elegance. This strategy pays homage to the wealthy heritage of Roger Dunn Golf Shops, permitting wearers to attach with the model’s storied previous whereas having fun with items that match into modern, on a regular basis life.

“When it came around to the 60th anniversary, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to let the brand take a more physical form for our beloved customers,” Cass says. “It’s really celebrating the generations of golfers we’ve served, and I wanted to produce a collection that was more lifestyle-focused and really resonated with the daily grind of who our golfer is.

“It’s like when your parents are like, ‘I wore that when I was growing up.’ We thought that was interesting and different, and so we reinvented [this line] as a young brand. I definitely felt like we needed to lean into that old look but make it cool.”

Golf has all the time been about its previous, current and future. Of course, there’s all the time a section that dives deep into nostalgia.

When Cass launched into the marketing campaign to create the Roger Dunn Collection greater than a yr in the past, she partnered with Sport Design Sweden — an organization famend for its collaborations with international skilled sports activities groups, leagues, and each summer season and winter resorts. The partnership introduced a wealth of expertise and inventive imaginative and prescient to the desk. During the preliminary levels, Sport Design Sweden introduced Cass with a variety of types and visible ideas to think about for the brand new assortment.

After reviewing the numerous choices, Cass was drawn to the retro aesthetic, feeling that it most authentically captured the generational spirit and the true essence of Roger Dunn. She was dedicated to making sure that the gathering mirrored each timelessness and freshness, emphasizing a glance that will resonate throughout generations. Throughout the design course of, Cass was unwavering in her insistence on upholding lofty requirements of producing, guaranteeing that each piece within the assortment wouldn’t solely evoke nostalgia but in addition meet the calls for of high quality and elegance anticipated by as we speak’s customers.

However, it was greater than merely sitting by way of displays and model tips. Who are the Roger Dunn customers, what do they characterize and would they’ve model affinity?

Cass relied on empirical information as she studied retailer patrons. She was satisfied its historical past wanted to be included into the gathering. That was one more reason for the retro marketing campaign. The line additionally wanted to manifest what it could be prefer to stroll by way of considered one of its shops, from the appear and feel.

“Here we are, we’re a brand that actually was alive [in the 1960s],” Cass says. “And so there’s this heritage and an authenticity to that vibe. We see [our consumers] all the time going back and forth from their club or the range or a mini course into our store, getting tweaked on their fittings, on new clubs, doing repairs, grip replacements, all that stuff, and then going back out there. They’ve been so loyal.”

In some ways, the gathering celebrates Dunn posthumously. In the Sixties he took an opportunity, invariably altering moods towards the stuffiness golf arguably exemplified. His quotient relied on affordability translating into extra golfers. When he first began instructing golf on the Studio City Golf Course in 1962, he didn’t understand then it could take him three years to rise up and working on the North Hollywood driving vary.

“I think for me,” Cass says, “more than anything, it’s not as much about the clothes as it is a moment to really celebrate Roger Dunn.”