Cole Buxton Takes Golf Seriously

If you were to ask the average Cole Buxton fan what a ready-to-wear line for the golf course might look like, it probably wouldn’t be this. Founded in 2014, the UK brand emerged from London’s crowded streetwear scene with heavyweight hoodies, sweatpants and mohair knits worn by footballers and fashion insiders alike. A few years later, co-founder Jonny Wilson and his partner Cole Buxton helped launch UVU, a performance running brand born from the same ethos of sport and culture.

Given the cultural rise of running over the past few years, it might have been easy to assume golf was simply the next stop. But Cole Buxton Golf isn’t a reaction to the sport’s renewed popularity. Wilson has become genuinely immersed in the game, finding a tight-knit community of creatives and athletes in London who share his obsession.

“I guess we need to be very clear here, this ain’t no hobby fellas.”

But this isn’t just another streetwear brand trying its hand at golf. The collection is designed to live comfortably in traditional settings. Polos are cut long enough to be tucked in and made from performance Coolmax fabric. Trousers come in tailored silhouettes (offered in “tour” and “classic” fits) while knitwear leans on fine merino wool. Even the croc-embossed Italian leather belts signal intention rather than irony.

We got in touch with Jonny Wilson to learn more about the new line and how he sees Cole Buxton Golf fitting into a market saturated with lifestyle-driven golf brands.

You’ve approached running through UVU as its own world. Do you see Cole Buxton Golf in a similar way, or more as an extension of the Cole Buxton universe rather than a standalone performance brand?

I guess we need to be very clear here, this ain’t no hobby fellas. Cole Buxton Golf is not just an extension or a side project on the main line to help us validate the time spent on the course on an occasional Friday afternoon. Cole Buxton Golf is our golf universe, just like UVU is our running one.

When you picture someone wearing Cole Buxton Golf, who are they? Are they a golfer first, or someone coming to the game through style, sport and community?

Our muse, or preferred customer, is not someone who sits on the fringes of golf; we want the devoted, the obsessed. And to be honest, that counts for most people who play the sport. Since I started playing, I have connected with so many people and made so many friends all over the world, people I would only have met through sharing the love for the sport. I want this brand to serve us in creating a global community of people who share the same love not only for golf but how they dress on and off the course.

 

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Visually, the golf line feels more restrained and classic compared to some of your other collections. How did you think about balancing heritage cues with a modern Cole Buxton point of view?

Restrained wouldn’t be a word I would use. I would say we are respectful of the heritage that surrounds golf, even more so in the clothing. What I see in the industry of golf fashion that we are entering is that there is a trend in which a lot of brands want to make clothes that are almost anti-golf, stripping away the key pillars that we wish to stand on. It’s not smart or formal in any way, there’s no performance, and the designs sit more among the streetwear category than the tasteful environment of a clubhouse.

Cole Buxton Golf is our perspective on what we think golf fashion should embody. Visually it’s a clash of all the eras. That photo of Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer ripping cigs on the tee box at the Masters, Tiger’s various looks from 1999-2001 that just oozed power and dominance, or Adam Scott when he wore Burberry—just pure class. That’s the picture I’ll paint for you.

What’s a detail or decision in the product assortment that best captures what you wanted this line to be?

When people have been asking me over the past year, “What kind of stuff are you doing, what’s it going to look like?” I definitely think they thought it would be different to what we are doing, but the simplest way to define what we are doing would be to say that it’s a traditional golf brand, with a modern-day lens. A Cole Buxton lens to be specific. There are certain design queues that make it CB, whether it be specific merino yarns we sourced for the knitwear, the tasteful branding or the luxury touches like the leather belts.

I guess what you can see from the group of brands that we own is that we go all in, immersing ourselves and taking our community along for the ride. The blueprint remains the same.