Back in the early 1990s, Eric Schindler, Nike Golf’s global apparel product director, can recall looking at photos of professional golfers playing in loose-fitting, sweat-stained cotton golf shirts.
“I wondered how they were even able to play golf,” Schindler said.
“The way that those fabrics would absorb sweat throughout the round,” said Whitney Trimble, FootJoy’s director of marketing, “the garment would get heavy and stick to you, and after you’d wash it, the collar would start to turn and the plackets would start to bubble.”
Fast-forward to the present. Golf shirts have evolved, trading heavyweight cotton materials for longer-lasting performance fabrics with a variety of benefits and technologies.