Malbon Golf Makes a Comeback in Los Angeles With New Store, Women’s Collection
Malbon Golf is back in the swing of things.
The six-year-old brand that blends fashion with golf apparel has opened a new Los Angeles store after being away from the local retail scene for more than two years.
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When the company started in Los Angeles in 2017, it scoped out a retail spot on streetwear-centric Fairfax Avenue, up the road from Supreme, with the idea of exposing a younger crowd to the sport and its clothing. The 2,000-square-foot space was part store, part showroom and part golfing experience.
In the middle of the selling area was a putting green over the concrete floor. There was also a sizable Swing Studio simulation range attached to the store where anyone could come in and take lessons from pros or rent the range to play 18 holes of golf.
Then the pandemic came along and Erica and Stephen Malbon, who founded the company, closed shop but kept selling online.
Now they’re back. This time, the apparel and accessories company has taken a tonier spot on Melrose Place in West Hollywood, where their retail neighbors are Oscar de la Renta, the Row, Chloé, Isabel Marant, Bottega Veneta, Maison Margiela, Golden Goose and Balmain. At the top of the block is a Gucci Salon, which recently opened to high-end clients on an appointment-only basis.
The Malbon Golf space, with only 1,000 square feet, has no putting green or simulation range on the premises. Instead, the Malbons worked with L.A.-based architect Dean Levin of 22RE to create a compact location that feels like a luxurious clubhouse with beige carpeting, a beige-painted brick wall and off-white exposed beams to showcase the windbreakers, vests, polos, sweaters, hoodies, T-shirts, chinos, shorts, sweatpants, shoes, hats and golf accessories.
“We knew we needed to find a new location in L.A. after the pandemic, and we thought through where we wanted to be and where it made sense,” Erica Malbon said. “Melrose Place is central and has a presence in Los Angeles.”
Coinciding with the store’s opening, the brand is rolling out a women’s collection, which has been two years in the making, to complement the men’s collection. It will have bomber jackets, windbreakers, blazers, dresses, cardigans, vests, polos, skirts, shorts, pants, sweatshirts and sweatpants. The collection, like Malbon Golf’s other apparel, will be manufactured in Asia, with some knits made in Peru.
“We got a lot of feedback from people who wanted to see a women’s collection alongside our men’s collection,” Erica Malbon said, explaining why the expansion into the female category. “Women’s is the fastest growing demographic in golf.”
The women’s collection will be flexible and able to move beyond the golf links. “There is a lot of crossover in the collection for anything with a club-sport angle. A skirt we have can be used to play golf or tennis or pickleball. It is not that big of a difference. We have been very intentional in thinking through function. We have bridge pieces that can stand on their own on or off the court and [you can] wear in your daily life,” Erica Malbon said.
More bright colors will distinguish the women’s collection from the men’s wardrobe while knits and wovens are meant to be functional on the golf course.
Melrose Place is just the latest retail spot for Malbon Golf. The fashionable brand opened a store last summer on Crosby Street in New York’s SoHo and debuted a small space nine months ago in Carmel, California, in the shadows of the legendary Pebble Beach links. That golf-course-centric store, at only 250 square feet, makes good use of its space.
“It’s like a super-plush walk-in closet,” said Stephen Malbon, explaining that the traffic there consists of a lot of international golfers coming and going who can select from golf clubs, golf balls, apparel and accessories. “It is very organized in a small place, but it is super cool.”
Later this year, the Malbons are opening a store in Coconut Grove, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami, to appeal to locals and the international golf set.
While Malbon Golf’s retail lineup is slowly evolving in the U.S., it has exploded in South Korea where the company has 10 stand-alone stores and 30 shops-in-shop in major shopping malls.
The Malbons hadn’t really planned to develop a large array of stores in South Korea, but then things happened.
Their first store on Fairfax Avenue was very close to L.A.’s Koreatown, which has the largest Korean population outside of South Korea. “Korean customers would come into our store on Fairfax and buy things in bulk — 10 shirts or 15 hats because all their friends in Korea wanted a hat. This was before we had direct-to-consumer,” Stephen Malbon said.
With demand so popular among Korean customers, Malbon Golf decided to take its show on the road there.
Malbon Golf’s retail expansion is syncing up with the rise in golf apparel and equipment sales in the U.S. For years, it was a dying sport that reached its heyday in 2000 when golf champ Tiger Woods was at the height of his popularity. The sport’s popularity declined over the years but started to see a resurgence in the last three years with more than 3 million beginners taking up the sport every year. The previous annual record high saw 2.4 million novices on the links.
Golf Datatech reported that golf apparel sales in the first two months of this year were up about 17 percent compared to the same time period in 2021 but up 49 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Now, several celebrities are taking up the sport, including basketball player Steph Curry and entertainer Justin Bieber. Recently, American Rag Cie, a hip clothing store in Los Angeles on La Brea Avenue for nearly 40 years, added a section for golf apparel. Mark Werts, the co-owner, cited the number of athletes taking up the sport and making it cool again.
Stephen and Erica Malbon started their company without a lot of fashion or retail background. Stephen, who has been playing golf off and on since he was 12, previously started Frank151, a creative agency that worked with clients including Toyota, ESPN, Coca-Cola and HBO. His company also published a streetwear-skewed magazine of the same name.
Erica Malbon, who was born in the Philippines but grew up in Los Angeles, cofounded The Now, a spa and wellness business she has since left.
She started playing golf when she and Stephen Malbon took their children to learn how to play. The game, she said, is great for people who want to get away from the urban hustle and bustle of everyday life. “I feel that is why so many people picked it up during the pandemic,” Erica Malbon said. “It is almost meditative and therapeutic in a way.”
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