It’s a simple phrase that informs every decision Palm Golf Co. makes. You can almost hear it wafting in the breeze alongside the company’s increasingly recognizable palm tree logo.
Swing and smile.
Those three words evoke a visceral feeling that is carried not just through the brand’s product line of fashionable yet durable gloves and its wide-ranging, modern golf apparel but in the mission of why Palm exists in the first place.
To Palm and its growing base of ardent supporters, golf is not a place of suffering, stress or a narrow set of expectations for what the game should look like. There is laughter in a double bogey. There is acceptance in styles whether you are a tucked-in country clubber or showing up to your local muni in high-tops and joggers. There is a reverence and respect for what golf means to people on a personal level—but also an understanding that we are all here for fun, to enjoy being with each other.
When someone dons the palm tree logo, it is not only to wear a high-quality product that is a labor of love from three friends who came together to improve the world of golf style.
It’s also matter of identity, community and making a statement.
The statement is that you are here to swing and smile.
Three friends and an idea to change golf style
Dustin Ghaul, Justin Junior and Joe Ciafardoni do not pretend to be golf experts or great players.
The three New Jerseyans had all moved to Southern California after college and became good friends playing at Costa Mesa Country Club, a salt-of-the-earth municipal course near Huntington Beach in Orange County.
Around 2015, those casual rounds started to include pie-in-the-sky ambitions of starting a golf company.
They wanted to take that feeling of being on the golf course and carry it over into their professional lives.
“I always remember Justin saying, ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life,’” Ghaul said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, we both suck at golf. So what is something that’s neglected?’”
Their answer at the time was to create a golf glove they couldn’t find for themselves.
There were the traditional glove offerings golfers have known for years; the rare others that had more style were not necessarily dynamic enough to pair with a variety of outfits.
That middle ground hadn’t been explored. Palm describes a “staleness and fatigue” in the golf glove world at that time.
“We wanted to make a product that was being neglected in the marketplace,” Ghaul said. “But we also wanted one that has some character to it that you could wear with every outfit. Something that could be different and unique.”
The ultimate result was creating a glove that had patterned tabs adorned by the palm tree logo. While still being traditional white leather, the colorful tab popped.
The inspiration for such an idea came from their surroundings—and sports outside of golf.
“The culture in our area is so driven by action sports and surf,” Junior said. “It’s kind of the mecca of that industry there. We played golf growing up but our background was more as an athlete in any of those other sports or just working in those industries. We drew a lot of inspiration from what was currently in that marketplace.”
After an overwhelming response to its Kickstarter campaign—the money they were hoping to raise was met in less than three days—Palm shipped its first gloves in 2017.
In choosing to go down the route of creating stylish golf gloves, the trio didn’t have to worry about the intricacies of club manufacturing or other more technically complicated parts of the golf business.
That isn’t to say it has been easy. There has been an endless process of trial and error to produce a glove that competes favorably in quality while having that extra flair. Minor changes in Velcro here, subtle tweaks to the stitching there—and a persistent analysis of material types, leather thickness, breathability, water resistance and other factors.
Palm’s AWG glove is a honeycomb style made of Japanese synthetic leather meant to be a competitor to FootJoy’s synthetic offering. Their super soft AAA cabretta leather gloves are challengers to a Titleist player’s glove.
Every small improvement counts in the race to make the best glove.
“It’s pretty rare that any production cycle was exactly the same as the one before that,” Junior says.
The ongoing search for the highest quality
That perpetual obsession underscores another reality at the heart of this endeavor: Palm is not a big company.
The three friends, each being in their mid-30s, enlist part-time help from family and friends but are full-time in doing all of the dirty work leaders of a larger company might never see—the order taking, the packaging, the bill sheets and everything else that it takes to operate.
Palm developed organically and it moves forward every day with the same spirit.
While all three have their hands in all aspects of the business, Ghaul and Junior are concentrated more on the creative side like product development and marketing. Ciafardoni fills in the gaps with operations, finance, administrative work and the “boring stuff that just has to get done.”
When a decision needs to be made, everyone involved has input. That can be taxing in some respects but it’s also Palm’s greatest strength.
“The old adage is to never get in business with friends,” Ciafardoni said. “But, honestly, to this point, it’s worked out for us. We’re all learning new things on the fly and I think we’re all better for being able to kind of touch different areas of the business.
“It definitely doesn’t come without turbulence whatsoever but even in the harshest of moments or the most troublesome of moments, it’s like, ‘All right, we are friends first but now we need to be business owners together.’ And that’s sort of a good baseline.”
Over the course of more than eight years now, the three friends have steered Palm to success by establishing a premium glove and then expanding into other apparel and accessory areas.
There is a difference between merch and apparel—Palm has apparel. That ranges from its popular “golf therapy hotline” hoodies (1-800-NOT-PAR) to crewneck sweaters to classic quarter-zips. Its headwear and tropical-themed towels are also highly sought after items.
The aim is that you can wear Palm’s gear anywhere.
“If you look at something like our headwear, it doesn’t scream golf, which is unique,” Ghaul said. “I can wear this out to dinner and my wife will say that it doesn’t look like I’ve just walked straight off a golf course.”
That flexibility in lifestyle apparel—and the ever-expanding image of what a modern golfer looks like— has been a North Star for Palm.
The message is straightforward and without overcalculation: stay true to yourself.
“It wasn’t like we were like doing market research and trying to address who the current golfer was,” Ciafardoni said. “We thought about what kind of look would we want to have. Like we’re not tucked-in country club guys and we’re also not out there with inappropriate course attire.
“We knew we were somewhere in the middle.”
A boisterous response and a passionate following
A lot of golfers are in that middle ground which is a huge reason why Palm has been resonating with golfers.
The brand aspires for a John Ashworth-esque Southern California cool that translates beyond golf and into other parts of life.
Laid-back in identity—but not when it comes to the seriousness of quality.
“I think everything that we’ve done, there has been an intentionality behind it,” Junior said. “I’d like to think people see that and appreciate that.”
It seems that way. Whether it’s David Spade wearing a Palm hat in a playing lesson with Tiger Woods, accruing nearly 70,000 Instagram followers or starting to notice the Palm logo in unexpected places, there is a burgeoning community of golfers wanting be a part of Palm.
The logo brings out a longing for all that golf provides. Tropical locales and warm weather, yes, but also the warmness of togetherness on a course where music is playing and duffed chips are no bother.
“The logo creates a feeling of relaxation,” Ghaul said. “And with everything we do now, we’re there to create that feeling.”
As Palm says, there are no bogeys in paradise.
There is only swinging and smiling.
Want to learn more? Head over to Palm.
The post Palm Golf Swings And Smiles Its Way To Cult Following appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
