Whim Golf makes the most American golf shirt we’ve found. Every step happens in the US: the merino comes from sheep raised on ranches in Idaho, Colorado, California and Nevada, the fabric is knit in Massachusetts or South Carolina, and the shirt is cut, sewn and embroidered in New York. And the clothes are only half of what Whim does. In CNN’s 2024 profile, they’re the “carrot” that gets people, especially in cities, to pick up a putter and try the game. Colin Heaberg and Will Gisel met at Camp Dudley in 2006 and made their first t-shirts together in the camp’s silk-screening course. They launched Whim in 2019 with pop-up shops in Chicago and on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and every one had a free putting green inside. There have been nine since, open more than 600 days across Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, and a permanent one now sits at 129 Eldridge Street.
Sheep to shirt. Whim has made everything in the US from the start, and in late 2022 it began sourcing the raw wool here too. The ranches are RWS and Nativa Regenerative certified, one of the mills is centuries old, and Whim calls itself “the only true Made in U.S.A shirt maker in golf.” The design is plain on purpose: a standard fit, horn buttons, a small script where a chest logo would go. Gisel told StockX in 2022, “I just don’t like clothes with a lot of logos on them.”
Free Golf. Heaberg’s argument, as he put it to CNN, is that people skip golf the way they skip broccoli, because they assume they won’t like it. Whim’s answer is to put a putter in their hands. More than 15,000 people had tried the greens by 2024, and Heaberg calls the number of people touching clubs “the only metric there is.”
Who it’s for. In Heaberg’s words, golfers who “might be into architecture, or watch a lot of basketball” as well. Whim probably has the widest price spread of any brand we’ve covered, from a $33 forged ball mark tool to the WHIMOWA trunk at $8,800, more than 260 times as much. The clothes sit in the middle, and they aren’t cheap: the merino shirts run $309 to $320, and the swing jacket is $499. Start with the slate long sleeve, or the $99 sheep headcover if you want something smaller, and keep an eye on the objects, because the La Cupola paperweight and the $8,800 WHIMOWA trunk are where the design studio shows.
From Whim’s Free Golf page · three photosWhim builds open-access putting greens in the densest parts of American cities, “creating the conditions for underrepresented communities to fall in love with golf on their own terms.” The permanent one is at 129 Eldridge Street, New York.
Sheep to shirtFrom Whim’s Sheep to Shirt program: the wool before it becomes a shirt.
Four shirts, seven colorways · $309–$320American merino in three weights, knit in Massachusetts or South Carolina and finished in New York.
Three pieces · $80–$499An undyed merino swing jacket, a nylon golf short and the Reebok collab.
Four pieces · $39–$89Woven merino and Japanese oxford caps, and a merino golf sock.
Five pieces · $33–$8,800A sheep headcover, a forged steel tool, a mesh tote, a concrete paperweight and a putting green in a suitcase.
From Whim’s About page · three photosThe founders, the trip that started it and the trip to the merino.
New York City. Whim Golf Inc. is at 83 Canal Street, and its permanent free putting green is at 129 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side.
Colin Heaberg and Will Gisel, who met at Camp Dudley in 2006 and launched Whim Golf in 2019.
Yes. Whim makes its clothing, footwear, objects and accessories in the USA, and its merino shirts use wool from American ranches, knit in Massachusetts or South Carolina and finished in New York.
The merino long-sleeve golf shirts are $299 to $320, hats are $39 to $99, and the range in this post runs from a $33 ball mark tool to the $8,800 one-of-one WHIMOWA putting green.
Free, open-access putting greens in cities. Whim has built nine pop-up greens across Chicago, Los Angeles and New York and runs a permanent one at 129 Eldridge Street.
