The name’s Pride, Golf Pride.
The brand synonymous with developing golf grips utilized by more than 80% of Tour professionals continues to expand its product line in an effort to further its messaging and the importance of grips as “equipment for your hands” by leveraging IP and pop culture with its latest collection.
Featuring 13 custom grips, an additional commemorative grip and a gold bar collector’s display, the limited-edition James Bond-inspired collection available for presale starting October 1 ($189.99) pays homage to the world’s most popular secret agent.
“It’s us trying to put ourselves out there in fresh and new ways,” Golf Pride president James Ledford said. “We’re 75 years old. … This is keeping us young and trying to keep things fresh a little bit versus continuing to put out the same classics every year which is a big part of our business. We’re not trying to rest on that.
“We’re trying to continue to push forward and celebrate the grip and get people to see grips the way we do inside Golf Pride.”
Leaning into 007’s quintessential classic style with nods to the actors who portrayed Ian Fleming’s iconic spy in film, each grip boasts a black and white tuxedo aesthetic featuring a 007 embossed surface pattern on the lower hand inspired by Sean Connery, a diamond quilted pattern on the upper hand to evoke Daniel Craig, and a sharp bow tie that ties it all together paying homage to Pierce Brosnan.
Bond fan or not, the latest limited-edition collection from Golf Pride is another example of the storied brand’s next chapter. Founded in 1949, the North Carolina-based company has built its grip on the golf grip industry with tried-and-true Tour-quality classics including the Tour Velvet and MCC franchises.
Rather than needing to reinvent its flagship products year after year, Golf Pride instead is reimagining its classics that not only reinforces trust and consistency with consumers, but keeps the 75-year-old brand fresh and playful.
Gold Pride’s first foray into further fun came with the release of MCC Teams in July 2020, offering the No. 1 hybrid grip on Tour in a variety of colors that give golfers the ability to showcase their sports fandom. Golf Pride then collaborated with Asher Golf on a fall-themed glove/grip combo collection in September 2023.
Taking things one step further, Golf Pride partnered with Steph Curry and Underrated Golf this June for a limited-edition collection of MCC Plus4 grips, custom ball marker and display box to help support Underrated’s mission to provide greater equity, access and opportunity to student-athletes from every community by creating more balance in participation.
Not only do these limited-edition collaborations help golfers further showcase their personalities and styles on the course, but, ultimately, get people talking about golf grips. Often an overlooked essential piece of equipment in golf, Golf Pride is trying to shine a spotlight on the importance of grips.
Players using a new Tour Velvet grip compared to a grip placed in a weather chamber for 24 hours saw their average carry length increase by 2.3 yards while their average ball speed increase by 1.3 mph, according to a 2023 Golf Pride study.
“We still have an opportunity to help golfers see grips as equipment for their hands, not just handles for their clubs,” Ledford said. “We spend a lot of time working on all these new grips so people can see grips in that way as an independent equipment choice.
“In a lot of ways, we see grips similar to footwear—there’s a performance element to them, a fit element and style/self expression element.”
Before Golf Pride goes collaboration crazy by releasing limited-edition collections every other month, Ledford said the Curry and 007 collections this year were learning experiences for the brand. Not only was Golf Pride challenged from a design and operational standpoint, Ledford said, the grip manufacturer needs to see what the market response for these collections is before they continue to pursue this path further.
That doesn’t mean Golf Pride isn’t aware of the seemingly endless amount of potential opportunities at hand for licensing and collaborations with practically any IP out there, especially as golf continues to get younger and more diverse.
“There’s lots of fun angles to pursue, but I want to make sure that before we start doing more, we’re really ready to do them right and do them in the right way,” Ledford said. “There’s a ton of opportunities out there for us and this is us barely scratching the surface with a couple of collaborations to see what it’s like.”
Michael LoRé 