Podcast Podcast, Season 4, Episode 1 : Stephen Malbon

Welcome to Season 4 of The Edge, a podcast by TAG Heuer. Our first guest this season is Stephen Malbon, co-founder of the lifestyle brand Malbon Golf. Stephen, along with his wife and partner Erica, are on a mission to inspire today’s youth to participate in what they believe is ‘the greatest game on Earth’. Since its inception in 2017, Malbon Golf has become the go-to brand for creative, stylish and active people. It is known for its unmistakable branding and playful curation. Stephen tells us why Malbon Golf is so attractive to its close-knit community, and what he thinks the future holds for the brand. Presented by your host Naomi Schiff, this is The Edge, a podcast by TAG Heuer.

Our guest today is Stephen Malbon, co-founder of the lifestyle golf brand that bears his name. Since its inception in 2017, Malbon Golf has become the go to brand for creative, stylish and active people. In this episode, Stephen talks about the beginnings of the brand, its philosophy and the natural reasons for the collaboration between TAG Heuer and Malbon Golf. 

Here are a few snippets to put you on the starting line and get the adrenaline pumping. But don’t forget to subscribe to our Podcast so you can listen to the full, unfiltered episode later. The Edge is a series of conversations with extraordinary people operating at the edge of possibility. It’s about the thin line between taking part and tipping into victory; it’s about what gives us our edge and what we can do to go beyond it.

I was not golfing, I was doing art stuff. Our offices were on La Brea (Los Angeles) and we switched over to Fairfax (Los Angeles) and opened this little shop. And it was very interesting quickly to see like golf is such an addictive thing where like within the first month or so that we were open both to Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake, like just pulled up on their own and came in and said like, “Hey, is it okay if I hit golf balls in the room?”. 

One side is sharing and trying to inspire young people to realize that golf isn’t as snooty or uptight as they may think. And then at the same time, it’s showing the older kind of traditional, older guard of golf that young people who are creative are not. And necessarily as tasteless as they may think or offensive as they may think. Like I remember people would come into the shop and say, like, I’ve never golfed before, and then I would hand them a putter. We had a putting green in the shop and I would say, okay, so just putt that ball into that hole and they would do it. And I’d say, okay, now you’ve golfed, that’s it. That’s all you’re really doing.

My grandfather bought me a TAG Heuer watch when I was very young, so I’m obviously a big fan. I obviously know that this watch that I’ve been using is very, very helpful. And when it comes to golfing and getting yardage there are thousands, and thousands of golf courses already logged in to the watch. So I think that’s insane. 

Like I said, I’m a fan of the history and the references and the research and the racing and all of the different looks and uniforms, how significant TAG is in the world, of design and performance, technology and with the golf watch, it was very much the success of the TAG team is incredibly professional and they don’t take shortcuts when it comes to the product, when it comes to the communications, when it comes to the events, the launch plans, all of the advertising and marketing and the store design, like the level of detail is insane.