Today I learned that the Ryder Cup 2020, staged at Whistling Straits, will have the European players wear once again a Scottish brand as official team apparel.
I don’t want to be too critical about it, but I can remember some despicable and pathetic team wear in recent events that were really, I mean REALLY, embarrassing! Diarrhea brown and puke green colors come to my mind…
This time a company called Sunderland got the big contract for the technical golf wear. Sunderland belongs to the Glenmuir brand which also outfitted the past events and again is an official licensee for the 2020 Ryder Cup as far as polos and knitted products go. The five year agreement will see the brand appointed for the 2020, 2022 and 2024 matches.
Glenmuir’s success story and close collaboration with the Ryder Cup began in 1987 with Tony Jacklin as team captain of the Europeans. Since then it’s the longest-running partnership between a clothing brand and a sports event.
The technical products in the Sunderland 2020 collection all look very cool and of high quality. Let’s cross fingers that the actual athletes are equipped with equally good looking stuff (and colors). I still have my doubts.
The shown mens light waterproof jacket could be yours for €264.
“The Ryder Cup captures the essence of athletes competing at the very highest level with changing match pressures, weather conditions and climate. Sunderland of Scotland’s high performance technical golf wear is engineered to perform by allowing players to own the elements ensuring they’re #NEVERWEATHERBEATEN so they can remain focused on factors of the game they can control”, Mikhel Ruia, Managing Director at Sunderland adds to the discussion.
Time to change though, I say!
Being born and raised in Germany, the country of Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss, just to name a few, I honestly don’t know why nobody ever considered to give one of them a shot. All three are quite big in golf clothing for years, all are successful and produce exquisite golf apparel for athletes around the globe and it would be a great European achievement to bring the best and coolest forward—in all aspects of the game.
Instead we’re going (again) with a rather small Scottish brand that just happens to have the best and closest collaboration to the Ryder Cup corporation, the best lobbying at least.
Just as a side note, the last Presidents Cup had Lacoste as official outfitter of the whole event, both teams to be precise; one other example of a quality European clothing brand to choose from.
Some external links for you to decide:
Golficiency 