Coming onto the scene as one of the rising female-led golf brands, Featherie is inspiring girls across courses in the U.S., with no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Kate Korngold debuted her first girls’ apparel collection at the PGA Show at just 14-years-old; now they have a women’s line, too.
Heading into the PGA Show last week in Orlando, the daughter-mother duo behind Featherie, Kate and Kristy Korngold, respectively, gave Fairway to Green’s Annie Watson a peek behind the curtain of women’s golf’s latest breakthrough.
Annie Watson: How does Featherie balance comfort and versatility in its products and technologies?
Featherie: As the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of innovation—every aspect of Featherie’s design and product technologies has been a bespoke response to what had been a glaring void in the women’s performance golf apparel market.
With the luxury of a blank sheet of paper, we were able to reimagine performance apparel for female golfers without having to sacrifice style for function and performance. Our moisture-wicking fabrics move naturally with the athlete while protecting from sun damage to the skin and ensuring comfort for all-day wear on and off the course.
Features, such as hidden tee/ball holders, locking zippers, longer back panels for polos and fabrics to protect women’s privacy are all a direct byproduct of the fact that Featherie was designed by women who have a nuanced appreciation for what female golfers must contend with in ways that traditional men’s clothing does not.
A.W.: What has been the most surprising input since starting the brand, and how did that transfer over to daily action and innovation within Featherie?
F.: While Featherie initially began with a focus on competitive teen girl golfers, we were surprised to see that many women and teens were buying Featherie, highlighting what was clearly a deep-seated frustration by female golfers for having been underserved by the traditional golf apparel brands.
Amateur and professional female golfers alike were pleading us to help fill a void in their pro shops so that they were no longer an afterthought, as the existing product ranges would suggest they were. As such, Featherie took their feedback and expanded the range to now include a complete range of golf apparel for women.
A.W.: How does Featherie tackle challenges such as market saturation, growing demand for women’s golf apparel, youth golf initiatives and product sustainability?
F.: The industry is finally waking up to the reality that women and girls can no longer be ignored in golf, as evidenced by the fact that they now represent 60% of the growth in on-course golfers since 2019. We are far from facing any market saturation and feel that we are just getting started in our quest to level the playing field.
Since our beginning, and far beyond just selling clothes, Featherie has always been steadfast in its commitment to help expand girls’ participation in golf—to that end, we sponsor girls’ golf clinics, women’s pro-ams and donate a percentage of all annual sales to further girls’ entry into the game. Featherie is more than a golf brand; it’s a community and movement for women and girls who refuse to remain afterthoughts in the game they love.
A.W.: What does the future of Featherie look like, both during the 2026 golf season and before the end of the decade? The next ten years?
F.: Consistent with the 2026 line that builds on previous seasons’ selections, we will certainly continue to expand our product range to best address the needs of female golfers. Beyond that, a key measure of Featherie’s success will be to look back in a decade at a much larger number of female golfers and hope that, in some small way, Featherie helped to inspire girls to play who wouldn’t otherwise have, given they didn’t previously have the options to feel good while looking good.
A.W.: How does Featherie implement an inclusive product in a purposeful way rather than purely for a marketing purpose/advantage? What have you learned from your competitors about that delicate balance?
F.: Featherie was never designed to just be a golf apparel brand — it was built on an unyielding belief that golf should be made available to every girl and woman, which is why we spend so much of our company’s resources, management energy and partnerships to help foster a community of women who want to feel like equals in the game of golf.
A.W.: How does your dynamic at Featherie as a daughter-mother duo provide a benefit to your company?
F.: For one, we are both golfers, so our experience and frustrations with existing golf apparel options has allowed us to more thoughtfully address the features of the clothing that would no longer require a compromise between performance and style. Moreover, as a middle-aged woman and a teen girl, we also represent the broader range of women, both younger and older, for whom golf offers so much in terms of creating new friendships, a sense of community and an outlet for the competitor in all of us, regardless of level.
