Golf.
“Is it a game?”
“No! It’s a sport.”
“Wait, I thought it was a hobby?”
Basically, up until 1996 when Tiger Woods blasted through golf’s brick wall like the Kool-Aid Man, business execs, booze enthusiasts and leisure lords alike sought out time on the golf course to exorcize their demons. A game of vices. The line drawn in the sand between professional sport and weekend pass time had been raked over, trampled on, chili dipped in and then raked over again. John Daly, in some capacity, was every weekend golfer’s knight in shining armor. This guy could play with the best of them, outdrive all of them and still make it look like every other casual round at the local municipal course. Just this past month at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, Daly consumed 21 cigarettes, 12 Diet Cokes, 6 packs of Peanut M&M’s and 0.0 ounces of water on his way to a first round, 2-under par 70.
Enter: Tiger Woods. New to the scene, Tiger forced every one of his competitors to start power-lifting and minding their caloric intake in an attempt to keep up with him. It was at that point that the golf world changed. Now, golfers, professional and not, will do anything they can to get a leg up on the competition. To increase distance. To tighten up their shot dispersion. Faster. Stronger.
The result is a bunch of branded products putting up a facade, urging you to believe that you’re moving faster and shooting better scores. It’s ironic. Which is where the MP-14 draws most of its inspiration from. At the height of streetwear and high-fashion, we find brands like Balenciaga, A-COLD-WALL* and C2H4® leaning into faux-utilitarianism and pseudo, hi-performance wares for what? Scaling walls in your everyday life? Guess some people enjoy looking like they’re moving Mach 3 while sitting on their all-hands Zoom calls.
So, where do we draw the line? Are we lost on how romantic the game of golf used to be? Did we trade all finesse for just a skosh of distance? The point is, we’re never going to need to play at that level. Relax. The MP-14 Sunglasses with Bladium Teknology from Metalwood and Garrett Leight–are they going to protect your eyes from the sun and make you look cool? Yeah, for sure. Are they going to help you read greens better and help you hit more fairways? I mean, “Look good, Play good,” right? We can make all the egregious claims we want about the performance enhancing features of these shades but, ultimately, we’re just hoping you have a good time wearing these things.
SHOP THIS STYLE: Available in Chrome and Matte Black
