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Golf has always had a complicated relationship with fashion. For most of its modern history, the sport defaulted to a look that was technically functional and aesthetically conservative — polyester polos, waterproof trousers, and a general suspicion of anything that suggested you’d thought too hard about what you were wearing. That’s changing fast, and few brands have done more to accelerate that shift than Aimé Leon Dore.
The Queens-based label, already well established as one of the most interesting names in contemporary menswear, has just dropped its third SS26 golf capsule — and it’s the most fully realised version of what ALD Golf is becoming. Having covered the brand’s evolution in this space since the first collection landed, I’d argue this is the drop where it stops feeling like a fashion brand dabbling in golf and starts feeling like a genuine contender in the category.
What ALD Gets Right That Other Brands Miss
A lot of fashion brands have tried to enter golf over the past few years. Most approach it the same way: take existing aesthetic DNA, apply it to a polo shirt, add a logo, and call it a golf capsule. The problem is that golf has its own codes — codes that have been established over more than a century — and simply ignoring them rarely produces anything convincing.
ALD doesn’t ignore those codes. It understands them well enough to work within them and, occasionally, bend them. The brand’s starting point has always been a deep familiarity with the game’s heritage: the pleated trouser, the cable knit, the windbreaker, the flat cap. These aren’t borrowed references — they’re the building blocks of a genuine golf wardrobe, reinterpreted through ALD’s particular lens of relaxed New York prep.
The result is clothes that look right on a course without looking like they were designed by a committee. That’s a harder thing to achieve than it sounds, and it’s why the ALD Golf capsule has earned the attention of both fashion people and actual golfers — which, increasingly, are the same person.
The SS26 Collection: What’s New
The third SS26 drop builds on what came before without simply repeating it. The silhouettes are familiar — relaxed, slightly generous, rooted in late ’90s and early 2000s sportswear — but the details have been refined and the material choices feel more considered this time around.
The Cordura Double Pleated Pants and matching Shorts remain the centrepiece of the collection. Cordura is an interesting fabric choice for a golf garment — it’s traditionally associated with technical outerwear and bags rather than tailored trousers — but ALD makes it work. The pleats give the pants a proper drape, the Cordura construction adds durability and a degree of performance, and the overall effect is a trouser that genuinely works both on and off the course. That kind of versatility is something ALD consistently nails and most golf brands consistently struggle with.
The Lightweight Tips Windbreaker returns in a breathable nylon mesh construction, which makes it a more genuinely functional piece than its previous iterations. The colour palette across the collection — Jet Black, Coconut Milk, and Blackwatch Plaid — is restrained and well chosen. Blackwatch Plaid in particular carries just enough heritage energy to feel specific to golf without tipping into costume.
The Knitwear and Shirting
Where the outerwear and trousers do the structural work, the knitwear and shirting are where ALD tells its story most clearly. The Clubhouse Sweater, Quarter Zip Pullover, and Polo all reference traditional golf dressing, but none of them feel stiff or period-specific. The fits are easier than you’d expect, the fabrics have texture and weight, and the overall effect is the kind of considered layering that makes you rethink how much structure you actually need on the course.
It’s worth noting that ALD’s approach to knitwear in particular has always been one of its strengths. The brand understands how to make a sweater feel luxurious without being precious about it. That carries over here.
The ongoing FootJoy partnership remains one of the more interesting things happening in golf footwear right now. FootJoy is the kind of brand that most fashion people wouldn’t look twice at in isolation — it’s deeply embedded in the performance and tradition side of the sport, which is not where style conversations typically start. But that’s precisely what makes the ALD collaboration work.
This season introduces two exclusive colourways of the Premiere Series Marquis alongside the StaSof Heritage Glove. The Premiere Series Marquis is already one of FootJoy’s more elegant silhouettes — a proper leather golf shoe with clean lines and genuine craft behind it. ALD’s input is relatively minimal, which is the right call. You don’t need to redesign a shoe that already works; you just need to give it a colourway that feels considered. Pristine and Black both deliver that.
The StaSof Heritage Glove is a smaller detail but a telling one. It suggests ALD is thinking about golf as a complete wardrobe rather than a collection of statement pieces — and that kind of thinking is usually what separates a genuinely good capsule from a fashion exercise.
The Accessories: Mood Over Function
The accessories in this drop are interesting precisely because they’re not trying to be practical. The 19th Hole Flask and Cigar Torch Lighter are mood pieces — they’re there to signal that ALD understands golf as a culture rather than just a sport. That distinction matters. The brands that resonate in golf right now are the ones that understand the social context around the game, not just the performance requirements during it.
The headwear offering — Skull Caps, Performance Sport Hats, and Bucket Hats — keeps things versatile without adding noise. There’s no attempt to make a statement piece out of a hat. They sit quietly alongside the rest of the collection, which is exactly where they should sit.
Shop ALD Golf SS26
The full collection is available now via ALD’s website and in-store at the ALD flagship. Given the brand’s track record, key pieces from previous drops have sold out quickly — the Cordura trousers in particular tend to go fast.
Shop ALD Golf SS26 ?
Final Thoughts
ALD Golf has moved from a promising experiment to a coherent point of view in the space of three drops. What makes it work is the same thing that makes the main line work: a genuine understanding of the clothes it’s referencing, combined with the restraint to not overdesign them. Nothing in this collection is screaming for attention. It doesn’t need to.
If you’re a golfer who’s been frustrated by the gap between what you want to wear on the course and what most golf brands actually offer, this collection is worth your time. And if you’re a menswear person who’s been curious about golf as a style space — this is the best current argument that it’s worth paying attention to.
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