ORLANDO — Patrick Mahomes will soon become the first non-golf Adidas athlete to launch their own golf line—but he may not be the last.
“Patrick is the tip of the spear, in terms of all the athletes we can tap into from around the brand that are in other sport categories, but have a passion for, or an interest in, golf,” Adidas Golf president Jeff Lienhart told Front Office Sports at the PGA Show.
In November, the two-time NFL MVP signed a contract extension with Adidas—the brand he signed with when he turned professional in 2017—that will include the creation of a Mahomes Brand golf line. Details on what exactly that means have been scarce, but Lienhart said the initial approach will be to roll out “smaller capsules to sort of test the waters and figure out where there’s traction.”
Outside of playing football, Mahomes is an avid golfer, and has competed in celebrity events like the The Match made-for-TV specials and the annual American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe—always sporting Adidas golf apparel.
“It does a lot for us with the consumers that speak to these other athletes from other sports coming to the game of golf, and how cool the game of golf has become, and how relevant it has become,” Lienhart said.
Mahomes has been the most vocal Adidas athlete showing interest in golf, Lienhart said, and it was the quarterback who first expressed an interest in working with the company further. “We were open arms,” Lienhart said.
“As he transitions out of the [NFL] season, he’ll spend more time with us, and we’ll get a better feel for what he’s looking for, what he wants, and how we can work with them,” Lienhart said. “There are some preliminary things that are going to hit the market sooner than later.”
No LIV Team Deals, for Now
Beyond the upcoming Mahomes line, Adidas has a robust roster of professional golfers, like the PGA Tour’s Ludvig Aberg and Collin Morikawa, the LPGA’s Rose Zhang, and LIV Golf’s Tyrrell Hatton, among others.
More apparel brands have been entering LIV lately, like Under Armour signing a team-wide deal with former Adidas endorser Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces, but don’t expect the sportswear brand to follow suit any time soon.
“We’ve evaluated the opportunity, but it is tricky because you lose our focus, which is the product focus, and it becomes more of a team sponsorship,” Lienhart said when asked about a potential LIV team apparel deal.
That strategy goes beyond golf, too. “We’ve had our moment with the NBA, where we were the uniform [provider], and NHL and others, and you’ll see that we no longer have those larger deals,” Lienhart said. “We have individual deals, so we’re not focused on the NFL and trying to have teams wearing the Three Stripes. We’re having Patrick Mahomes wear the three stripes.”
