The FootJoy Performance Golf Apparel line will feature a complete range of men’s golf apparel utilising FootJoy’s very own performance fabrics, complementing its existing line of advanced outerwear. The lineup will be available to South East Asian consumers beginning March 2012.

Starting off with a core range of essential performance offerings that will be in-stock from season to season, each range will offer multiple colour story collections featuring contemporary colors and patterns in a variety of styles and designs.

Having undertaken an extremely sophisticated and comprehensive study of the golf apparel category, FootJoy has developed a performance material with better moisture wicking properties compared to ordinary cotton-based apparel lines.

Incorporating the layering system introduced in 2010, golfers will be able to select garments to meet their specific body temperature needs as well as the demands of changing weather conditions – be it wet, windy, cold and warm conditions.

Staying true to their mission to enhance enjoyment of the game for golfers everywhere, the apparel line will be purely dedicated to the sport of golf.

Having entered the golf outerwear category in 1997 with the launch of DryJoys rainwear, the company feels that the time is ripe for it to enter the full line men’s golf apparel business.

“We take the opportunity to enter full line apparel seriously. We didn’t want to, in doing this, just stick the FJ brand on any product and expect that to be good enough.We wanted to make sure that what we did in this category was in the right way,” said Steve Gale (right), FootJoy’s Vice President Worldwide Apparel Sales during an exclusive interview with The ClubHouse during the region’s first media and retailers showcase in Singapore on July 26.

“It’s a great opportunity [for FootJoy]. The apparel category is a massive segment of the golf market, so it gave us the opportunity to grow the reach of the brand and to be successful in another category other than our golf footwear and glove categories.

“The timing we felt was perfect, we thought the FJ brand fits very well with the market as it stands now, given the target that we want to address with. We spend the last two years researching this and how to come into the market. Today, we’re at the culmination of that research project,”

With its tagline ‘Make Everyday Playable’, FootJoy’s Performance Golf Apparel promises avid golfers high levels of quality, fit comfort and performance in any weather conditions. The prototype version of the Performance Golf Apparel has already seen action on the professional tours with PGA Tour player Steve Stricker appointed as a brand ambassador late last year.

The Spring 2012 lineup will feature four distinct ranges, namely Cape Cod and Savannah which will be available in March next year with the Napa Valley and Newport collections to follow suit in May and June respectively; all tailored to fitting requirements of the South East Asian market.

“I think our retailers and customers in Asia and Australasia can be rest assured that the sizing specifications for this region will follow a more European cutting as opposed to the bigger US size specifications. From our brand point of view, it is vital that the golfer feels comfortable in the apparel and perform at  his best,” shared Nick Arnold, the managing director of Acushnet Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

Timothy Yoong, brand manager of FootJoy Southeast Asia was excited about the brand’s new venture.“This marks a new chapter in the FootJoy story. It’s an exciting leap forward and we are confident that our existing FJ loyalists will find this lineup very refreshing. Combining both function and form, the apparel lineup with offer an attractive range of updated traditional designs, which are not ultra conservative nor overtly outlandish – fitting the sweet spot in the market.”