After a successful collaboration with Malbon Golf last year, Garrett Leight California Optical (GLCO) is making its second foray into the golf world by teaming up with Jones Sports Co. on a limited-edition bag and eyewear set. The idea spurred from a Ryder Cup-like event hosted by Malbon Golf’s Stephen Malbon at Bandon Dunes in which Garrett Leight (founder and CEO of GLCO) played with Jones Sports Co.’s COO Chris Carnahan and CEO Matt Lemman. The event began a friendship between the brands that evolved into the collaboration launching today.
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For those not familiar with GLCO, it’s an eyewear brand out of Venice Beach in California celebrating its 10-year anniversary of making classically tailored optical and sunglass collections. The brand teamed up with Malbon Golf in 2019 on a line that included a pair of sunglasses, a headcover and a reversible bucket hat. That collaboration led to Leight meeting the Jones Sports Co. team and the group instantly hit it off.
“After playing golf with Garrett, it was apparent he shared the same passion for golf and fashion as myself,” Carnahan said. “It’s always fun to see a fairway conversation among friends turn into our brands working together with the release of this collaboration.”
The packaged set, sold together, includes the GLCO Sport Utility Vision lenses and a custom GLCO X Jones Utility Daypack. The popular bag silhouette from Jones is a commuter backpack with enough space to hold the essentials for a quick weekend trip. Made with a durable weatherproof exterior, it’s got an interior laptop sleeve that’s padded, two exterior pockets and a deep zip closure that makes it easier to access the bottom portion of the bag. The primarily blue bag has two white diagonal stripes across the front with orange details for a sporty-yet-sophisticated look.
For the eyewear side of the collaboration, Leight, an avid golfer and fashion enthusiast, was inspired by the golfers at his local nine-holer to develop a golf-ready pair of sunglasses that are stylish without sacrificing optical performance.
“The modern golfer is wearing regular glasses on the golf course, not sport glasses,” Leight said. “The wraparound glasses that dominate the sports market are just not practical, so we wanted to be able to add a level of performance to a pair of glasses that would actually look good.”
The ultra-lightweight sunglasses are a remix of GLCO’s most popular frame, the Kinney. It’s an ultra-stylish frame designed to flatter almost any face shape and is extremely versatile to match most looks on the course or off. The translucent gray colorway adds to the classic and timeless styling of these frames, which Leight calls the “ultimate go-to” frame.
“There’s nothing like putting on this level of glasses . . . with the form-fitting design and the perfect weight that’s light but you can still feel the quality,” said Leight. “When people try them on, we usually see an immediate reaction of ‘Wow, these feel so good and fit my face perfectly.’”
The brand developed a lens optimized for golf called Trivex with enhanced clarity, color sensitivity and contrast to help you view on-course details better. As an added bonus, the sunglasses come with a protective case, a unique co-branded cleaning cloth inspired by golf flags and a vintage-y scorecard-themed case wrapper designed by Leight himself.
The Sport Utility Vision lenses and Utility Daypack are sold together and retail at $395.