While professional golfers get the headlines and notoriety, it’s caddies that help with the dirty work behind the scenes and often out of the public eye. So perhaps it’s only fitting a men’s underwear brand, SAXX, chose to pursue a partnership with five PGA Tour caddies.
Two of the caddies – Geno Bonnalie, who works with Joel Dahmen, and John Elllis, who is teamed with reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark – have had greater visibility recently through their appearances on the Netflix
Netflix
docuseries about professional golf, Full Swing. The others to sign the group endorsement deal with SAXX, which first ventured into golf sponsorship a year ago, are Aaron Flener (J.T. Poston), John Limanti (Keith Mitchell) and Joel Stock (Will Zalatoris).
SAXX has been around since 2006 and, with its patented BallPark Pouch, lays claim to being the first pouch underwear brand in the market. When the brand looked at getting involved in golf from a promotional perspective, Vice President of Brand Marketing Shawna Olsten said SAXX gravitated toward pro caddies because they’re often overlooked on the course and could be featured in a fun, authentic way.
Perhaps not suprisingly, as part of the Ball Masters campaign there is plenty of publicity and marketing language tied in to one of the main caddie responsibilities: taking care of their player’s golf balls. And that, of course, plays into the primary responsibility of SAXX’s underwear.
While specific terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, the group of five pro caddies will receive more than $100,000 in total and wear not only the company’s underwear on the course, but its new chino-style shorts and cooling polo shirts.
In addition, SAXX will hold a fan activation at an upcoming PGA Tour event, the Travelers Championship in Connecticut, and said it will donate $100 to the Testicular Cancer Foundation for every birdie made by the caddies’ players for the rest of the season. The company is also on a search to find golf fans to become honorary “Ball Masters,” with winning applicants getting free underwear for a year.
As part of its continued reach into the golf space, SAXX is targeting resort and hotel as one of its fastest emerging wholesale channels and has secured product placements at properties such as JW Marriott, Ritz Carlton and Fairmont that have well-known golf destinations. But uniquely teaming with caddies instead of players is proving to be the brand’s most high profile venture in expanding its visibility in the golf world.
