When rapper Macklemore isn’t on stage performing or in the studio creating new music, you’re likely to find him on a golf course.
Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, fell in love with the game of golf thanks to his manager, Ben Secord, who took him out for his first time in Hawaii.
But it wasn’t love at first swing for the music star.
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“My grandpa was a scratch golfer, so I had grown up and one of my first jobs was cart kid at the course,” Secord told FOX Business “I loved playing. I took a long time off and got back into it about 10 years ago, and I actually dragged Ben out. We were together in Hawaii, and I was like, ‘Just come play nine holes with me.’ He hated every part of it. He was like, ‘I f—ing hate golf culture. I always feel like I’m holding somebody up.
“As happens, he goes out, hits one shot that gives him that feeling, and he goes, ‘I’ll do this every day for the rest of my life.’”
As Macklemore started to get obsessed with golf, his love for fashion ultimately led to a marriage of two passions. Thus, Bogey Boys was born in February 2021, and it’s quickly become a well-recognized golf and lifestyle brand on and off the course.
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In three years, Bogey Boys has collaborated with several established brands, including Adidas, to produce golf attire and apparel that every player, no matter their skill level, can look good playing in.
But the latest collaboration with Ebbets Field Flannels hit differently for Macklemore and Secord, the GM of Bogey Boys. The reason? It’s hometown flare.
“We launched the brand in 2021, and it’s a Seattle brand,” Secord said of Bogey Boys. “So, in a way, collaborating with Ebbets, it’s one of the most natural things we could do. When I think of Ebbets, I think of vintage. I think of extremely high-quality product. And I think of Seattle because it was sort of raised in the same city as us.”
Secord explained that the Macklemore team previously collaborated with Ebbets Field Flannels as the musician gained popularity globally. So, there was a “mutual excitement” to work with them again in this capacity as a golf brand.
“I think the folks on the Ebbets team know Ben and his backstory, and know that everything he gets involved with creatively, he goes 110%,” Secord said. “So, that has really reflected in the first three years of Bogey Boys, where he is the true founder and creative director. He’s designing all the pieces. Samples are going to his house. He and I are trying on the pants, measuring the inseams and touching and feeling the fabrics almost to a fault probably. But it’s who he is at his core. The folks that have been with Ebbets for a long time and sort of the root and identity of that brand know that about Ben, so I think there was an excitement.”
The collaboration led to several golf-related items, including head covers and a heart ball marker that was collaborated with Lids as well.
As for apparel, Secord loved seeing the adjustable wool cap, which he called a signature item for Ebbets. Their flannel jersey is also something Bogey Boys loved to see, but it was the V-neck baseball jersey that Secord knows Macklemore wanted to see the most.
“The piece I was probably most excited about was their V-neck batting practice jersey,” Secord said. “Part of the backstory behind that is when we’re on tour, Ben usually likes to find a jersey or something from the hometown that he’ll put on at some point during the set. Last summer, he got really into the old Mitchell & Ness, vintage, mesh batting practice jerseys from all the baseball teams. So, if we were in Minnesota, we’d get a Twins one, etc., etc.
“So, with this collab, the first was, ‘We gotta get a V-neck practice jersey.’ So that one was really cool to see come to life as well.”
Bogey Boys is among several top golf lifestyle brands that are changing the way golfers dress when they head to the links every week, and Secord loves being a part of a growing community that continues to rapidly grow.
“It’s not about, ‘Yo, f— the country club,’” Secord said about the different golf course styles Bogey Boys brings to the game. “It’s really just more about bringing more people into that, making the game more accessible, and pushing the boundaries in the sense of like, ‘Yo, maybe we don’t always have to wear a specific kind of pant with a specific polo tucked in at all times.’ There is room for more beyond that.
“I think just breaking down those barriers a little bit and being like, ‘It’s all good. Come out, kick it, you’ll have a great time, and here’s some clothes you can wear and look great doing it.’”
Creating clothes with another brand that embodies what it means to be from Seattle makes it all that much sweeter for Bogey Boys, too.
“Any time Seattle is at the forefront, there’s something that just feels special about it,” Secord said. “[Macklemore’s] had the opportunity to go tour in all the far reaches of the world, and doing the hometown Seattle show, there’s nothing quite like it. So, likewise, getting to collaborate with an iconic brand in Seattle, it just feels like a really authentic outlet and a really dope creative project. The fact that it’s two Seattle-at-their-core brands, this was a really one to be a part of.”
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