If you want off the wall, new Golf Pride x James Bond capture cooperation certainly qualifies.
“Off the wall” is a very apt term.
So are “out of left field,” “are they serious?” and, if you’re particularly cynical, “what the hell?”
On the other hand, “wow” and “that’s pretty cool” also apply.
The reality, however, is that if nothing else, limited-edition collaborations are meant to be fun, different, attention-grabbing, and, most importantly, limited. If you haven’t been CC’d in the memo, it’s good to remember a basic truth.
Golf is a game, my friends, and games are supposed to be fun.
Golf Pride x James Bond = entertainment
“We have a ton of Bond fans here,” Golf Pride CEO James Ledford tells MyGolfSpy. “It really shows another side of Golf Pride. We’re not sure here, but we had a lot of fun putting it all together.”
This new James Bond glove set is not Golf Pride First attempt at limited edition collaborations. Last June, the company teamed up with NBA star Steph Curry to create a special group to support Curry’s UNDERRATED youth golf program.
However, if a James Bond themed golf grip was on your bingo card for this fall, today is your lucky day.
“A lot of this is kind of a fun experiment to see how it works for us and to create more visibility for the brand,” Ledford says. “The UNDERRATED grip was a first for us. This, however, is probably the purest fun we’ve had with a catch.”
While the collaboration may seem out of left field, the release time is not. October 5 happens to be Global James Bond Day and the Bond classic Goldfinger is celebrating his 60thth anniversary this fall. Goldfinger it was released in the UK in mid-September 1964 and in the US just four days before Christmas. Pride of Golf is paying homage to the classic and the golf showdown between Sean Connery’s 007 and Gert Frobe’s bad boy Auric “Strict Rules of Golf” Goldfinger.
“That scene is one of the most iconic golf scenes in movie history,” says Ledford. “We did a launch event a few days ago in London at Stoke Park where they filmed that scene. It was really cool to walk in the footsteps of Sean Connery and Goldfinger there.”
(For the record, Bond’s men spread their sleeves Penfold heart golf balls.)
Shaken, not stirred…
Ledford says there is a business side to these collaborations, which is to reach as many players with different interests as possible.
“It is true Pride of Golf has a 60 to 70 percent market share in the grip category, but we only engage with maybe 40 percent of all golfers in any given year. People just don’t think about gloves. Part of what we’re doing at our Global Innovation Center in Pinehurst is developing a completely different mindset around controls.”
If you’re wondering how a James Bond tuxedo-looking glove will do that, you might be missing the point of “limited editions.”
Golfers may be amused by stripes, icons or dots of color on golf balls, but most of us look at grips as the thing we hold onto when swinging a club. Of course we’re not thinking about self-expression.
“Golf Pride has always kept it pretty safe with our gloves,” says Ledford. “This is just a way to help people look at seizures in a different way. It’s not like we intend to sell a lot of these.”
of Golf Pride x James Bond the catch collab comes in a limited edition 007 themed kit similar to the Steph Curry collab. It includes 14 grips, 13 of which are intended to be installed on your clubs. 14th the catch is a memento in a special gold bullion display case.
Imagine throwing that down as the prize for your next match with a super badass. Or your cousin.
The world is not enough
Make Pride of Golf credit: he didn’t skimp on the details with an intricate 007 tuxedo design. The bow tie, for example, has a cross stitch on it, while the tuxedo shirt gives a quilted look. The tux jackets have a completely different texture and the tux jacket has the 007 texture. There is also a 007 spiral eye on the end cap. All that’s missing is an Aston Martin DB5 and a Walther PPK.
“It wasn’t easy to do, but it was a lot of fun,” Ledford says. “We may not be folding those design features from the James Bond glove into other Golf Pride gloves, but we are pushing our capabilities to new limits. It puts new things in our toolkit that we can use in different ways in our core offerings.”
Ledford says more collaborations are coming, but nothing to announce right now. You’ll likely see Golf Pride teaming up with other celebrities playing golf, but he’s not ruling out additional Bond-themed concepts.
“We are anxious to see how the market reacts. If people love it as much as we do, you can imagine all the fun iterations of Bond we could build from this. If you bring a certain audience to Golf Pride who love James Bond but don’t normally think about their checks, we’d love to do more.”
Maybe we’ll see one Diamonds are forever handle set or perhaps The spy who loved me. How about catching a lady Moneypenny?
Hey, if you love Bond and golf, why the hell not?
Gold Pride x James Bond: Final Thoughts
Folks, this is for fun and there’s no harm in fun. The design of the tuxedo is quite intricate and one can see how Golf Pride can use what it learned during the design and manufacturing process in the future. If it helps, think about it Bond is caught as a concept car. If you prefer “cheating”, that works too.
But if you don’t play on Sundays to feed your family, you play golf for fun. So have some fun, okay?
“Everyone is used to the serious side shown by the Tour Pride of Golfand that is still our essence. This is who we are,” says Ledford. “But it’s fun to let stuff like that out of the bag every now and then. It should be fun, so you’ll see us hanging around these areas, just to see what happens.”
If you’re not a Bond fan, don’t worry. Golf Pride won’t go all 007, all the time. You can still buy plain black Tour Velvets. If you’re feeling a little brave, MCC gloves in Teams colors are always there.
However, if you’re a fan of the classic Sean Connery, the forgotten George Lazenby, Roger Moore, the overlooked (and underrated) Timothy Dalton, the near-perfect Pierce Brosnan or the loved-but-loved Daniel Craig, you can get a handle on wearing a tuxedo.
Somewhere Ian Fleming is smoking and smiling.
Price and availability
of Golf Pride x James Bond grip collaboration comes in the aforementioned 14-grip set. The box itself is collectible, featuring a photograph of the famous Bond-Goldfinger match on the inside lid. The 14th catch comes in a gold bullion collective box.
As a limited edition, only 2000 sets will be produced. They will be available in both standard and medium sizes.
The kit retails for $189. It is available for pre-sale starting today 007Store.com. Ledford expects they will eventually be available in Pride of Golf website.
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