Malbon Golf

Malbon Golf was founded in Los Angeles in 2017 by Stephen and Erica Malbon, who came to the golf world through a cultural path rather than a purely athletic one. Stephen Malbon was a founder of the creative agency Malbon Brothers, and the brand he and Erica built is organized around the idea that golf occupies a cultural space adjacent to music, art, and streetwear in ways that the traditional golf apparel industry has not fully addressed. The Georgetown store at 1265 Wisconsin Avenue NW opened in November 2024, with a grand opening event that the brand announced through its social channels and brought to a corner of upper Wisconsin Avenue that has been developing as a destination for independent and lifestyle brands.

The Malbon Golf aesthetic is golf adjacent in the sense that it produces clothing you can wear on a golf course that also functions as streetwear in the contexts where the golf course’s dress code is the more relaxed end of the spectrum. The polo shirts, hats, and outerwear carry graphic elements and color combinations that draw from streetwear and design culture rather than from the conservative country club aesthetic that traditional golf clothing has inhabited since the sport’s English origins. The Malbon customer is the person who discovered golf through friends, through a social context at a Top Golf facility or a public course, or through the cultural visibility that golf has gained with younger audiences over the past decade.

Golf’s cultural repositioning over this period is the context the brand emerged from. The sport that Tiger Woods made visible to audiences outside its traditional demographic continued to broaden its reach as it became a social activity for young professionals, a content category on platforms where golf comedy and course lifestyle drove significant viewership, and the background for cultural figures across music and entertainment who made it visible in their public images. Malbon entered this repositioned market with a brand that addresses the customer who came to golf through culture rather than through tradition.

The Wisconsin Avenue location at 1265 is on the upper boutique corridor, near Huckberry and LiLi The First, in the section of Wisconsin that has developed as an independent and lifestyle retail destination. The Georgetown address gives Malbon access to the professional DC demographic that plays golf at the area’s private and public courses and that wears golf-adjacent clothing in the casual professional contexts that the brand’s aesthetic addresses.

Hours run Monday through Saturday from 11am to 6pm or 7pm, with Sunday from noon to 6pm. The full collection is available online at malbon.com for customers outside the Georgetown area. The Georgetown store carries the complete Malbon collection, from the polos and hats that are the brand’s most visible pieces to the outerwear and accessories that complete the golf lifestyle wardrobe. For Washington-area golfers who play at the public and semi-private courses around the city, the Malbon aesthetic provides an alternative to the traditional golf apparel brands that have defined the sport’s clothing since before the current generation of golfers was born. The grand opening in November 2024 established the brand’s Georgetown presence; the website at malbon.com carries the full online selection.