Fashion on the Fringes: An Interview with swang

Alicia: What was the catalyst - the moment leading up to the idea for swang?

Modi: I was VP of Creative at Def Jam, and it sounds exciting but we weren't doing anything exciting. I've always moonlighted as an entrepreneur but never believed in myself enough to make the jump. I lost my best friend, lost my dog, got Bell's palsy. I was climbing the corporate ladder but just wasn't fulfilled. So I took a trip to Japan for two weeks, told my boss I wasn't bringing my laptop, and knew coming back I was going to quit my job.

After I came back I was invited to the Hypegolf Invitational. I said, “golf? I don't give a damn about golf.” But I went, and it was the first time I saw golf in a way I could understand. My peers, athletes and musicians, all in cool outfits playing this game I never thought I could play because it always felt stuffy, stodgy, country club, frankly very white. I also appreciated it as an experience - sponsored holes, activities, closest to the pin. I'm not trying to tear my Achilles hooping like all my friends. Golf sounded like a thing I wanted to get into.

A friend took me to a historically black golf course and again - Tiger Woods was the only black golfer I knew. Meanwhile in South Central LA there's a whole community of Black and brown folks of all ages playing this sport. I parred the fourth hole and my friend started freaking out, and that's when I was like, I've gotta get good at this.

A month later I started swang. A friend gifted me the Instagram handle and it changed my life - once you have that handle, you can build the world around it. The premise was simple: I’ll cover the balls, the clubs, and friends of mine who were better than me at golf would help newcomers. The first one happened August 31, 2023. It was a bunch of different types of folks from people who never picked up a club to an LPGA pro. The one thing everyone said is they'd never seen golf like this. The sport is cool. The stuff around it isn't. I wanted to show up authentically - bring my speaker, wear my Jordans, my baggy shorts. Come as you are.

Alicia: Josh and Hannah - had you seen that lack of inclusion yourselves growing up in the sport?

Josh: Golf can be kind of invisible, right? You don't necessarily see it as an option because of how it's been positioned - and a lot of that is by design. It's been gated and stodgy, meant to keep folks out. Your perception is it's hard, it's expensive, all this weird etiquette, I've got to show up and cosplay into a uniform I don't want to wear. And there's nothing in the media storytelling that makes you go, oh, that's interesting. Unless you're already in the game.

Hannah: I very much came up in golf in the traditional country club manner. Growing up, I wanted to put cornrows in my hair and that was a rule - I was not allowed at the country club. You had to show up in your pristine polo, shorts a certain length. When I was 12, Ricky Fowler wore this all-orange Puma fit with a flat brim cap and it was like the coolest thing ever. When I was in high school Malbon came out and I DM'd Stephen Malbon on LinkedIn - I was like, dude, this is awesome, can I have 10 minutes? He told me all about the world he was creating. I said one day I want to come work for you. That didn't happen, but I found Swang, which I think is a little better aligned for what I want to build.

Alicia: What role is fashion playing in your strategy and monetization?

Modi: It's playing a big role. I compare us to Little Tokyo Table Tennis - a table tennis group founded by fashion folks who built Antisocial Social Club. Out of it spun a bunch of creatives who wanted to find like-minded individuals, and naturally apparel became hand in hand with the brand. If you want to signal to people that you're part of this thing, you go buy the T-shirt. With swang it's similar - golf is the vessel bringing people together, but one of the things people want is to be able to rep that.

Josh: A lot of brands start with where golf is and work to make the uniform cooler. Our POV has been: you should be able to show up authentically to the game. You shouldn't have to cosplay into golf. Everything with swang is in service of how do you show up authentically - from the wooden tees in your pocket to the head covers on your bag. All the things that allow you to feel like your fullest self in a game that may not have been positioned for you, but now it is.

Alicia: Tell me about the Free Range T-shirt drops.

Hannah: Josh is the mastermind behind the designs, Modi is the mastermind behind the ideas. Each week they come up with these insane tees that sell out. People get there at five o'clock for a six o'clock start and harass me for an hour to sell them one - only for them to be sold out in 30 minutes. It's one of the most incredible things to watch.

Alicia: What's the turnaround like? How much lead time?

Hannah: We're sending off about five designs at a given time now. In the early days we thought we could turn around a tee in a week. What I have come to learn is intricately designed tees are not tees that can be easily turned around fast. Now we've got a few weeks in between. You learn quickly.

Alicia: And what's the concept behind them?

Josh: We didn't want to just put out product for the sake of product. The idea was: the folks who've been showing up from the jump, building this with us - that's the first place you should be able to get product, and it should only be in the hands of folks who are physically showing up.

Our community is made up of creatives across music, art, design, fashion, sports. Every time we pop up at Free Range, something is going on in culture that week - why not make a tee that references what's happening and says, this is the week you showed up. Whether that's opening day with the Dodgers, the Grammys, Women's History Month, Earth Day. We are telling a story through the tee. I was here. I showed up.