Nashville’s Huntley Rodes, Amy Parker Anderson, and Jenna Walter recently launched a golf apparel brand that is earning some serious buzz. With the debut of Honors, the trio brings an infusion of style to a market historically lacking in stylish, high-quality options for women. In fact, the golf industry is notorious for simply reproducing men’s apparel in smaller sizes and feminine color palettes. (The process even has a name — it’s called “shrinking and pinking.”) Not a golfer? You’ll still want to wear these designs. Read on to hear the brand’s origin story and get a peek at their collection!
It all started when Huntley and Amy met in New York City. “Amy and I first met over 10 years ago in New York while I was at Cole Haan and Amy was at William Morris Endeavor,” explains Huntley. “We reconnected when we started working at Warby Parker. I met Jenna at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Business, where we decided it would be our dream to launch a company together.”
Avid golfers Jenna and Amy have played golf since they were kids. Huntley, on the other hand, describes herself as a COVID golf convert. “I got the three of us together in 2021 to play a round of golf at Gaylord Springs,” she says. “Afterward, over pizza and beers, the idea of Honors was born.”
“Once we decided this was a problem we were passionate about fixing, we used one of our first meetings to map out what was important to us,” says Huntley. “Instead of jumping into the design phase, we made sure our values aligned and spent half of the day talking about how we would work together in this new venture. It was important for us to set a strong foundation. Honestly, it has made all of the difference in how we communicate, set expectations, and collaborate these past two years. Once we set that foundation, we began with market research, then building our business plan, and finally, the fun part — designing the product!”
Merging modern, classic designs with high-performance materials, Honors is maximizing their impact — they are simultaneously catering to women both on and off the course. “We all agreed that it has historically felt like women’s golf apparel has always been an afterthought,” shares Huntley. “It has never felt like a brand has truly come in, listened to what women want, and then went out and created that for them. After interviewing dozens of women, taking notes on our own pain points around what’s currently offered, and collecting hundreds of surveys, we set out to implement those findings into a brand that would feel more in line with what the modern female golfer is looking for.”
The answer seems to be a chic, sport-friendly aesthetic for modern female golfers, which Honors delivers with its 11-piece collection of matching tops and bottoms sets in a range of sensible colors. “We found that we, like many other female golfers we’ve met, share the same struggle in finding comfortable and fashion-forward options for the course,” says Amy of the disconnect that plagued the industry for so long.
“Over the years, the menswear industry evolved with better fabrics, fashion-forward designs, and modern cuts, yet women’s stayed the same,” Amy adds. “We noticed a trend — women’s ‘golf apparel’ is shoved in the back of the closet and makes up perhaps 1% of their wardrobe that they will only wear to play golf, never for any other activities. We wanted to create a collection that isn’t embarrassingly tucked away but is fully integrated with the other 99% of pieces. With that thought, we set out to design a collection for golf that also plays well with the rest of the pieces you’d wear daily.”
For Huntley, Amy, and Jenna, a massive sense of pride comes from building an apparel line from the ground up and finally having it available for purchase. “When we were going through the design process, it all felt a bit surreal,” says Jenna. “Now that we can see our clothes out there in the market, it’s a thrill. We love hearing customer feedback on the clothes’ fit, style, and feel. And we love seeing people in them, playing golf, out and about, looking styled and chic. It’s an incredible sense of accomplishment, and we are so excited about the future of this brand!”
When designing the Honors line, the women considered everything from style to performance. “We really want women to have options, to have fun getting dressed for golf, and never have lack of clothing options be a barrier of entry to the game,” says Amy. “The goal is to have a collection that is all buildable and interchangeable depending on the climate you’re playing in. Everything goes together and can be layered accordingly.”
The women drew design inspiration from stylish golfers from the 1960s and minimalist style icons like Katharine Hepburn, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and even some of Cindy Crawford’s iconic 90s looks. “We also looked to modern pieces in our own closets to create an assortment that speaks to a new generation of female golfers who want performance clothes to be comfortable and chic.,” Amy says.
The result is a clothing line that offers practicality as well as pretty, giving the line an appeal that goes far beyond the bounds of golf. “Our consumers range from women who just started playing golf to lifelong golfers (and tennis/pickleball players) and also women who never play and just appreciate the design of the clothes and like that we offer our silhouettes in performance fabrics,” says Amy. “We designed to solve the apparel problem for golf, but what we did was create a line for the sport of life.”
You can shop the new Honors line via the official website and at a series of pop-ups the women are hosting around the country. Follow along on Instagram for updates!
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