Malbon Golf Names Former Nike Exec as its First CEO


Stephen and Erica Malbon had a few targets once they created Malbon Golf in 2017. The married couple sought to construct a group of people that cherished the sport however weren’t all that eager on its staid, conventional attire decisions. They had been additionally decided to construct a top quality product that, whereas trendy, may nonetheless stand up to the pains of the course.

Over the previous seven years, the Malbons have succeeded in attaining these targets and have managed to interrupt by means of and construct a profitable model that has additionally partnered with everybody from Tag Heuer, Nike, New Stability and Prince to Bushmills whiskey and Budweiser.

However the model has reached a tipping level and to proceed its speedy progress, the Malbons knew they wanted to carry on somebody with sturdy expertise in trend. That government is Aaron Heiser, a longtime Nike government, who will take the reins as chief government officer of Malbon Golf on Monday, reporting to the model’s board of administrators.

The Malbons will proceed as co-chief artistic officers and also will proceed to serve on the board.

Heiser, who will now oversee all features of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm, spent practically 18 years at Nike, serving as world vp of attire, equipment and licensing the place he was accountable for all features of product creation and merchandising. He additionally served as vp and normal supervisor of the Higher China retail division at Nike, was normal supervisor of its Western European Nike shops, and in addition served as normal merchandise supervisor of its U.S. shops. He left the corporate in June 2023.

His background additionally contains Armani Change, Tommy Hilfiger and Hole Inc. and he began his profession as an assistant service provider on the Federated Merchandising Group.

“We did a 12 months’s price of interviewing earlier than we selected Aaron,” mentioned Erica Malbon. “Steven and I began the model in 2017 with lots of ardour, however not lots of experience in trend and attire.” However to proceed to develop Malbon Golf from a enterprise standpoint, they realized they wanted somebody with stable business experience and Heiser match the invoice. Erica Malbon pointed to his “virtually lifetime of expertise at a big sports activities model that we admire” as key to the rent.

Jason Day at the Masters in a look from Malbon Golf.

Jason Day in a follow spherical on the Masters in a glance from Malbon Golf.

Getty Pictures

“Stephen and I are excited for this subsequent chapter for Malbon,” she added. “We searched excessive and low to seek out the individual that we felt would align with the tradition that we now have constructed but understands the inside working of a worldwide way of life and sports activities attire enterprise. Aaron checked our bins and we couldn’t be extra obsessed with him becoming a member of the group.”

Her husband mentioned he was proud that that they had managed to attain their targets to “curate a group” of like-minded folks whereas constructing a model with nice product. “However as entrepreneurs, if you make selections utilizing your intestine intuition and your coronary heart,” it’s not all the time one of the best technique, he mentioned, and it was time to usher in an outsider with a contemporary perspective.

“What Stephen and Erica have constructed is completely unimaginable, and one thing I’m undecided I’ve seen within the business earlier than,” Heiser mentioned. “Malbon actually has develop into a worldwide group that bridges various backgrounds, celebrates individuality and fosters camaraderie each on and off the golf course. To say it’s completely on fireplace as a model can be an understatement, and I sit up for working with all the group to supercharge that momentum and obtain the subsequent part of progress and growth.”

He added that the model “has energy far larger than the dimensions of the corporate at present. It’s an actual juggernaut and so they have created a model profile folks need to be a part of. Now it’s time to scale that to a wider viewers.” They declined to offer a quantity determine for the corporate.

Malbon Golf store

Inside a Malbon Golf retailer.

Picture by Austin Leis.

They acknowledged that the style panorama is plagued by manufacturers whose founders introduced in an outsider to run the enterprise and the consequence was not good once they started to butt heads. However they’re satisfied that received’t be the case at Malbon Golf.

“I’m very conscious of the state of affairs,” Heiser mentioned. “I’ve seen it work in some situations and crash and burn in others. However fixed communication is primary. The true secret sauce at Malbon is Erica and Stephen. They’ve made it clear the place they need to proceed to play and the place I’ve the aptitude to make the model larger. We’re all aligned on the place we need to see this model go.”

Erica Malbon added that not solely was Heiser’s background key to the rent, it was his character as nicely.

Stephen Malbon added: “We’re not a publicly traded firm so there’s no strain from shareholders to proceed to develop at a excessive fee. I wish to design and produce storytelling content material and we don’t need too many cooks within the kitchen doing the identical factor.”

Stephen Malbon has been a fan of the sport of golf since he was 12, however as a result of his friends had little interest in the game, he gave it up for a few years. He returned to the sport a couple of years later, taking a job as a caddie throughout school and enjoying when he may throughout college and when he launched a artistic company, Frank151, that labored with shoppers comparable to Toyota, ESPN, Coca-Cola and others. He additionally printed a streetwear-skewed journal of the identical title.  

Erica Malbon was additionally entrepreneurial, founding The Now, a spa and therapeutic massage parlor.

Along with the golf attire and equipment, Malbon Golf additionally operates shops in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Carmel, Calif., within the U.S. in addition to items in Asia and Europe.

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