The navy storefront sits on Level 2 of Phipps Plaza, at 3500 Peachtree Road NE, behind a white brick wall and a round blue sign. On Friday, October 30, Eastside Golf opened its first flagship store there, in the city where its two founders met as college golfers 18 years ago.
The opening gives the lifestyle golf brand a permanent home at last. Until now, Eastside Golf has sold online and through other people’s stores: Sneaker Politics, Nordstrom, Golf Galaxy, and the shops at Pebble Beach among them. The Phipps Plaza store replaces a pop-up the brand ran at the center in September, and the Simon directory lists its hours as 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Inside is the full lineup, apparel, hats, shoes, and accessories cut to be worn on the course and off it.
A full-circle opening
Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper met at Morehouse College in 2008 and won a national championship together in 2010, the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship. Cooper, who leads business development and partnerships for the brand, put the address in those terms when the opening was announced. “Atlanta is where Olajuwon and I first connected back in 2008 at Morehouse College, so opening a store here is a full-circle moment,” he said. He described the store as a platform for partnerships and community work, a place to introduce more people to golf.
The founders built the opening into a weekend, not a ribbon on a door. On Sunday, November 1, the brand held its latest Community Day at Charlie Yates Golf Course in Atlanta, with free golf instruction, interactive activities, music, and food for golfers and non-golfers alike. In the brand’s own photos from the weekend, five people hold a ceremonial $5,000 Community Day check, and the store floor is busy with customers at the counter and a DJ behind the decks.
From a finance desk to a flagship
Eastside Golf was founded on June 1, 2019. Ajanaku grew up in East Atlanta, which gave the brand its name, and came to Morehouse on a golf scholarship. He graduated with a degree in accounting and worked in commercial finance for years. The brand began as his answer to a closed door: he wanted to turn professional, could not find sponsors, and decided to sponsor himself.
Cooper took the other road into the same business. He is a PGA professional whom Golf Digest has ranked among the best young teachers in America, and he was the first African American golf professional at both Detroit Golf Club and Wilmington Country Club. The Swingman logo that hangs on the Phipps Plaza wall is Ajanaku’s drawing of himself mid-swing, in jeans, a sweatshirt, and a gold chain.
The business behind the store
This summer, Centric Brands formed a joint venture with Eastside Golf, and retail moved to the front of the plan. Andrew Berg, president of Centric’s Luxury, Sports and Emerging Brands division, said retail has been a key priority since the joint venture, and he framed the flagship as a chance to build the brand’s idea of a modern golf clubhouse in the city where its story began.
In 2023, the founders were saying in print that a brick-and-mortar store in Atlanta was the goal. The store on Level 2 is that goal with the lights on.
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