Eastside Golf and Jordan Brand join forces for the first golf shoe collaboration

Golf is a sport that you can play at any age. Golf is a sport that you can play regardless of ethnic origin. But golf has never been a game for young, street-style kids. Eastside Golf is here to change all that. With the first ever collaboration, Eastside Golf has collaborated Jordan Brand, creating Air Jordan Retro IV sneakers with spiked soles for top golf performance. As of Friday, July 23, 2021, the tender offer will be drawn on August 7.

Eastside Golf is a lifestyle clothing brand that combines youth and street culture with golf traditions. Traditional golf aesthetics are combined with the eclecticism of founders Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper. These two Morehouse College alumni have established their presence in the golf community as a top teacher operator in Cooper and Ajanaku as a champion of PGA minorities.

Ajanaku started golfing at the age of six in his hometown east of Atlanta. He eventually earned a scholarship to Morehouse College. Cooper began cadeting in his hometown of Delaware. Both golf enthusiasts would meet and commit to college out of a genuine love of golf. But it is unlikely that they would have thought they could make it a career and move beyond the yard of Alma mater.

Ajanaku originally founded the brand while living in Detroit. Ajanaku says I was raised in golf – in high school and high school. I decided on a scholarship to Morehouse College, and that’s how I found Earl. At the university, we won the national championship in 2010. [Were] used to winning together. The duo would set up the network they needed for each other in those moments.

Ajanaku remembers starting his professional career after college [Earl] went his way to a PGA professional [teaching]. But I turned to a golf professional after college. I did it for two years. I won a couple of mini-tour events, so I have some professional wins under my belt. But it came to the point that I could no longer afford golf. It’s an expensive sport, and playing professional golf requires about $ 100,000 to $ 150,000 to maintain [your career].

Ajanaku was frustrated with everyday office work. He says I have chosen my professional route – my major was accounting. I was in the commercial finance area for about nine years. I was becoming vice president of a San Diego finance company. It got to the point [where] I came home [one day] and was like this, it wasn’t that. I wanted to play golf. I knew I couldn’t find sponsors, it’s going to be hard.

By keeping his life up to date, Ajanaku dived into his passion and relied on himself. I just made a logo. The logo, jeans, sweatshirt and [gold] chain, it had to be just me. Put it on my polo and my bag. I showed it to Earl and he said, put it on his t-shirt, Ajanaku remembers him saying.

I found Gildan [tee], ironing [the logo] and it probably cost me 20 bucks. I went to downtown Detroit, and maybe stopped 50 times. Same questions; Who are you?; What is that logo? Do you play golf? and where do i get it I decided to make clothing brand sweaters, t-shirts, hats and socks to find the highest quality [material] for each song. I founded the company in June 2019.

Ajanaku would allocate resources to finance a professional golf career and at the same time begin its entrepreneurial journey. He recalls the sale of clothing in November 2019 and [it] Sold five times between November 2019 and February 2020. I called Earl and asked him to go [with me] PGA [trade] show and see what the rest [golf] the world says about it. I started the brand because I wanted to afford a way to play sports.

Collaborating with the Jordan brand on Air Jordan Retro IV would strengthen the Eastside Golf name in the golf world as well as participation in a game of tennis. Our brand means something. That means Jordan [Brand] really believes in golf. Even [speaking] With Michael Jordan and his believer in Eastside [Golf]. It’s really important and the performances went the right way. That golf invites a new perspective on what it should look like and how it looks forward. There is a lane for this.

Eastside Golf x Air Jordan Retro IV golf shoes come to Eastside Golf in dark blue and gold. The tongue features the Player logo designed by Ajanaku and sewn and embroidered. The classic cement details of the shoes feature dark blue details that complement the Eastside logo design and a white upper. At the bottom of the shoe is Ajanaku’s adapted work Be You.

As all the traditional aspects of golf remain, the energy and vitality of the sport will take on a younger audience, trading in polo shirts and brown khaks for hoods and jeans, and white golf benches for fresh J, literally. Over the years, golf had to look a certain way. We are completely different [swag]. We keep the same [street] style, and they have to accept it. It shows culture and that [now] we have a shoe, this [is] part of the culture that people need to take advantage of in this game. These things go into what makes Eastside Golf. And important for all black people and colors. Use it as a tool!

Ajanaku created these works of art, which are breaks in the Eastside Golf brand that promote the presence of black in golf. With this design and Eastside Golf, I hope to be able to show future generations value in your true self, Ajanaku states. He goes on, the Eastside Golf Player logo and Be You artwork is a description of who I am and how I know a black man on a golf course.

Eastside Golf Air Jordan IV shoe launch at the lottery on Friday, July 23rd. The only place you can participate in the raffle is Eastside Golf site. Lottery winners will have the opportunity to purchase shoes on August 7th. Eastside Golf also has a clothing capsule with a crew collar and polo shirts that launch alongside the Air Jordan Retro IV shoe.