The argument for this group is not who founded the brands but how well the things are made, and Jan Craig is the proof. In 1962 a golfer of that name, out on a rural route outside Cincinnati, made her own headcovers in worsted wool because she could not buy any she liked for a new set of clubs. Jack Nicklaus ordered a set within a few years, Tom Watson carried them, and so did multiple Ryder Cup teams. Every cover is still hand-knit to order, and the only design change in six decades was elastic inside the driver.
The animal headcover came seventeen years later, from a mother and daughter in Phoenix. Frank, the tiger, went on Tiger Woods’ driver at the 1997 Masters, Nike licensed the character and named him, and the business grew four hundred per cent in a quarter.
Neither of those is a novelty company, and neither is interesting only for who started it. Seventeen brands do both things at once: founded or co-founded by a woman, and making what men buy, which is headcovers, leather, bags, gloves, towels, socks, polos and shoes. Almost every women-founded golf brand makes women’s apparel and nothing else, and almost every independent brand making unisex hard goods was founded by men, so the overlap between the two runs thin.
One pattern turns up again and again. Megan Chisti co-founded Seamus, trained as the designer, rebuilt the headcover that started the company and still sews product, and there is no published quote from her anywhere. Gail Hanson co-founded Bluetross, and the first prototypes came off her inherited sewing machine; the biggest feature ever written about the company is headlined “the unlikely story of a man who quit his job to make leather headcovers.” Neither brand is hiding anything, and both credit her plainly on their own About page. The voice just defaults to him. So every entry names the woman, and says plainly when she co-founded with a husband or a mother rather than rounding up.
Six · headcovers and leatherThese are the brands where a woman is the one cutting and sewing the product: a hand-knitting operation running since 1962, a Pendleton designer working in factory scrap, and a leather shop built on an inherited sewing machine.
Five · bags, gloves, towels, socksThese are the things that hang off the bag or go in it. Two have been trading since the seventies, and one names no founder anywhere on its own site, leaving a Companies House filing as the only public record.
Six · apparel and footwearThese brands cut an actual men’s line. One of them sells nothing else, one started as a camper towed across America, and one is an Italian shoe house that has not been owned by its founders for a decade.
Seventeen are covered here, all currently trading with stock: Jan Craig Headcovers, Seamus Golf, Bluetross, Daphne's Headcovers, Mackem Golf, Zalea's Golf Co., ORKAI, Hedge, Sinking Birdies, Devant Sport Towels, Inside Story Socks, Kingfisher Golf, Rhoback, Malbon Golf, Bunker Mentality, Royal Albartross and Duca del Cosma. Each founder is named from a brand-owned page, a signed interview or a company filing.
Yes, six of them here. Kingfisher Golf makes men's polos and tees and nothing else — founder Fiona Cohen designs no women's line at all. Rhoback, Malbon and Bunker Mentality all run full men's ranges, Royal Albartross makes men's leather golf shoes, and Duca del Cosma makes men's Italian footwear.
Daphne's Headcovers, the Phoenix company Jane Spicer started with her mother Daphne in 1979. Woods first carried it at the 1997 Masters. Nike later licensed the character and named him Frank. Daphne's covers are a flat $45.99.
Jan Craig Headcovers, founded in 1962 by Jan Craig, who knitted her own covers because she could not find any she liked. Jack Nicklaus ordered a set in the mid-1960s. Devant Sport Towels is next at 1976, and Daphne's at 1979.
Partly. Megan Chisti co-founded it in 2011 with her husband Akbar, and the company registers as women and minority owned. Megan was a womenswear designer at Pendleton Woolen Mills and rebuilt the original headcover from Pendleton remnants — though nearly every published quote about the company is Akbar's.
Six. Jan Craig hand-knits wool covers to order. Seamus works in Scottish wool, leather and waxed canvas. Bluetross uses Horween and Italian leather. Daphne's makes the novelty animals. Mackem Golf sews wool and corduroy in Perth. Sinking Birdies does bold-print PU.
Two. ORKAI, founded by Deborah and Erica Bennett, makes stand and cart bags from $275 and was the official bag supplier to all eight teams at the 2023 LPGA International Crown. Hedge makes a $99.99 Sunday bag.
It is not women-owned, though it is very often assumed to be. It was founded by Mike Buchfuhrer. Rose was his grandmother, who designed hats after the Second World War, and Fire is a play on his surname.
Both appear in most articles on this subject and neither has a working store. KINONA's domain redirects to an unrelated site and PRIO's has lapsed to a parking page. LIJA and Jamie Sadock don't resolve at all. That is why this list was rebuilt from live stores rather than from other lists.
Every founder had to be named in a source we opened — a signed About page, a named interview, or in one case a Companies House filing — rather than inferred from a brand seeming women-led. Every store was checked for live stock. Birds of Condor was cut because its own About page names no founder and only one local paper credits a woman co-founder.
An object with history: a Jan Craig hybrid cover at $63, hand-knit the same way since 1962. Cheapest way in: Inside Story men's calf socks at $18, or a Devant towel at $12.95. For clothing: a Kingfisher polo at $65.
