Looks from the new Cole Haan Women’s Line
Cole Haan
Cole Haan may have only stepped into men’s apparel this past spring in a partnership with Catapult, but the nearly 100-year-old American brand’s ties to golf date back to when Byron Nelson was still swinging a 1-iron. The company filed its first golf shoe patent back in 1940 and returned to the golf footwear category in 2021.
Now, the company is deepening those roots with a head-to-toe approach. Cole Haan just launched its first women’s apparel collection, following up on its men’s debut from earlier this year and ratcheting up its clubhouse credibility in the process.
Before committing to a women’s golf collection, Cole Haan had been testing the waters. Three years ago, the brand teamed with Byrdie Golf Social Wear on a women’s golf shoe collaboration, followed last year by a partnership with PXG that spanned both the men’s and women’s side.
Those collaborations gave Cole Haan a read on demand among female golfers before the brand took a Poppie’s Pond-sized plunge into the category. The company was also seeing indications of interest closer to home.
“Our customer, both on the men’s and women’s side, was overindexing in the sport itself,” Jeanine Farucci, vice president of global brand marketing at Cole Haan, said. “We saw a real opportunity to meet our current customer where they are, but really for new customer acquisition as well.”
The broader numbers suggest Cole Haan will have plenty of company chasing that opportunity. According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of female golfers jumped 45% between 2020 and 2025, adding 2.5 million players and bringing the total to a record 8.1 million.
Early Cole Haan golf footwear designs drawing inspiration from the brand’s original golf shoe patent filed back in 1940.
Cole Haan
Farucci sees more than sheer growth in those numbers. The female golf consumer, she said, “is younger, she is more diverse, she sees golf as more of a lifestyle activity.”
That expanding customer base is giving brands reason to rethink women’s golf. What was once treated as a niche within the sport is increasingly being viewed as a sizable lifestyle and apparel opportunity.
Pieces in the collection range from $98 to $218 and include polos, a skort and a lightweight windbreaker, with performance features such as four-way stretch, moisture management and weather-resistant fabrics. Catapult supplies the performance apparel and golf industry expertise in the partnership, while Cole Haan brings its fashion and footwear background to the fore.
But the proposition isn’t simply about concocting an outfit for 18 holes.
Cole Haan is pitching the assortment around what it calls a “course to everywhere” philosophy, with pieces designed to look as natural away from the fairway as they do on it.
“It needs to look good, it needs to perform while she’s playing,” Farucci explained. “But then she can travel and go about her day after that. The versatility piece is a huge part for us, and that is where Cole Haan lives and thrives—in that bridging of wearing occasions from our footwear to our apparel.”
Headquartered in New York, Cole Haan was acquired by private equity firm Apax Partners from Nike for $570 million in 2012. The brand sells its products through department stores, 108 domestic locations and 68 international stores across Canada, China and Japan, as well as through its e-commerce channel.
Despite the record participation numbers, Cole Haan isn’t flooding the fairway just yet. While its women’s golf footwear is already carried in most of the brand’s doors, the new apparel line will start primarily through digital channels and a select group of wholesale partners.
“It’s super early days,” Farucci said. “Our excitement and expectation is that we grow it the same way we are growing men’s.” Building a broader brick-and-mortar presence for apparel, she added, would ideally be “the next step and the next phase.”
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