Eastside Golf is set to open its first flagship store at Phipps Plaza on October 30, swapping out the pop-up shop it ran at the Atlanta mall for a permanent home. The brand, built by two Morehouse College golfers who met on campus, has spent the past several years turning a scrappy streetwear-meets-golf label into a national name with retail deals, sneaker collaborations and a growing footprint that now stretches from Tokyo to Detroit.
According to WWD, the new store will replace a pop-up that had opened at Phipps Plaza the previous month, marking the brand's first true flagship location. The timing hasn't been consistent across coverage, however — whatnow.com had previously reported that no opening timeline for the Phipps Plaza store had been announced. Per that same outlet, the shop will sit on the mall's second floor, tucked between LIV ATL and Sunglass Hut and across from JoJo's Atelier.
The store will carry Eastside Golf's apparel and accessories, including bags and gloves, items the brand already sells in stores across the U.S. and in a handful of locations in the United Kingdom, whatnow.com notes. The brand has also built out a sneaker business since launching an Air Jordan collaboration in 2021, an effort it has continued to expand with specialty releases.
Two Morehouse Golfers Building a National Brand
Eastside Golf was co-founded by Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper, who met at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 2008, according to Cooper, and went on to win a national golf championship together in 2010. Ajanaku, who grew up in East Atlanta and earned a golf scholarship to Morehouse, named the brand after the neighborhood where he was raised, per Eastside Golf's own account of its founding.
Accounts of exactly when Cooper joined the venture differ. Whatnow.com reported that the brand was founded in 2019 by both Ajanaku and Cooper, while WWD's earlier reporting on the Centric Brands joint venture stated that Ajanaku founded the company in 2019 and that Cooper joined as cofounder in 2020. Either way, the company has grown around the pair's shared Swingman logo, created by Ajanaku, which depicts a Black man in jeans, white sneakers, a baseball cap and a gold Cuban link chain mid-swing — an image NBC News describes as central to the brand's identity.
Cooper told WWD that Atlanta has always been part of the founders' story, and that the new store will support community partnerships and golf opportunities going forward. That local focus has coincided with rapid financial growth: NBC News reported that Eastside Golf surpassed $10 million in revenue in 2024, up from just $1 million in 2020.
Retail Expansion From Nordstrom to Tokyo
The Phipps Plaza flagship lands amid a broader growth push. Eastside Golf expanded into Nordstrom, Golf Galaxy and Dick's Sporting Goods in 2025 while also opening its first international location in Tokyo, the company said in a blog post. It has also placed products in 10 PGA TOUR Shops nationwide and distributes through independent sneaker stores, lifestyle retailers, golf performance shops and green-grass courses, including stops like Sneaker Politics and Pebble Beach.
Centric Brands formed a joint venture with Eastside Golf this year, a partnership Andrew Berg, president of Centric Brands' luxury, sports and emerging brands division, said is meant to help support the company's sourcing, distribution, marketing and international expansion goals. Berg said retail is a key priority in Eastside Golf's growth strategy. The company has also reported 600% year-over-year growth over the prior two years, according to PGA.com.
The brand's reach shows up in its fan base, too. PGA.com reports that Eastside Golf apparel has been worn or embraced by NBA stars Chris Paul and Jayson Tatum, NFL great Victor Cruz, musician DJ Khaled and former President Barack Obama, alongside seven collaborations with Jordan Brand and licensing deals with the NBA, MLB and Mercedes-Benz.
Part of a Wider Shift in Who Plays Golf
The Atlanta opening arrives as golf participation in the U.S. is both growing and diversifying. The National Golf Foundation found that 28.1 million Americans played golf on a course in 2024, the highest total since 2008. Women and girls made up 28% of on-course golfers that year — also a record — while Black, Asian and Hispanic golfers accounted for 25%, the highest share on record, according to the foundation.
Since the start of the pandemic, the number of female on-course golfers has grown by 2.3 million and golfers of color by 2.1 million, per the same data. The female golfer population reached nearly 7.9 million in 2024, an all-time high, while almost 7 million Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans played golf on a course that year, also a record.
Eastside Golf's retail ambitions extend beyond shopping centers. The company opened its first U.S. retail store earlier this year at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a 300-square-foot storefront in Terminal A, Gate 34, operated in partnership with Paradies Lagardère. The Phipps Plaza flagship will mark its next step in bringing that growth back home to Atlanta, where the brand plans to hold its latest community day at Charlie Yates Golf Course on November 1, offering golf instruction, interactive activities, music, food and chances to meet the founders — an event organizers say is open to golfers and non-golfers alike.
