If you're ever lucky enough to attend the Masters Tournament, once you get over the natural beauty and manmade perfection of the property, you might notice the overwhelming amount of Masters-themed merch on display. On hats, polos, pullovers or water bottles, there's no logo as immediately identifiable as Augusta National's green and yellow mark.
So when the first glimpse of a wood grain-textured Air Jordan 9 Golf shoe appeared on various sneaker websites with no sign of a clear reference to Augusta or the Masters, speculation naturally arose as to its meaning. But for former Jordan Brand VP Gentry Humphrey, who now focuses on Jumpman's golf division, subtlety is always preferred over the obvious. So when the time came to start envisioning the brand's nod to the 2024 Masters Tournament, Humphrey leant into his knack for storytelling, and called up Steve Thompson.
Otherwise known as Happy Life Wood, the artist has made his presence known in the sneaker world in recent years through his faithful 3D recreations of iconic Jordan silhouettes with real wood. The Happy Life Wood x Air Jordan 9 Golf is meant to evoke golf clubs of the past, which were made of persimmon, apple, holly and beech wood, each with its own unique color, grain pattern and texture. Ahead of the shoe's online release and the 88th Masters Tournament, we caught up with Gentry Humphrey and Steve Thompson to learn how the collaboration came to life.
Jordan Brand is very selective when choosing partners, so how did you find Happy Life Wood?
Gentry Humphrey: My wife actually found Happy Life and presented them to me. I don't do a ton on social media. And so when she brought it to me, I was really impressed. Obviously their love for the Jordan Brand would come through, and with my history with the brand I just took to it. What I was really impressed with was the level of detail and craftsmanship that is done in a way that no other does it. And that in a lot of ways parallels what Jordan tries to do in creating products.
Then a little over two years ago I realized that at some point I'd love to be able to do something with these guys. Well, fast forward, I left the brand and then was asked to lead the golf direction. And when the opportunity came, I reached out and basically said, ‘hey, look, I think there's something here as long as we're able to tell a true, authentic story.’
So what’s the story you’re trying to tell?
GH: I think the biggest thing was the tradition of the Masters. If you've had a chance to attend the tournament, you'll see that the tradition and the history of the game really lives there.
With Happy Life, what they do with wood is second to none. And you look at the old clubs that were created back in the day, you say to yourself "how did those guys play with this stuff?" We know the technology of today, and we know how the game has advanced. But it's crazy to see how much history has had an impact on the present. And so that led us to this concept of how the past can inform the future and why it’s important to pay homage to the past.
And Steve, for you what is it like to partner with Jordan Brand?
Steve Thompson: It's something that we had made as a goal, but we weren't sure if we were going to actually attain it. It was just cool when Gentry reached out because we consider him a legend, and for him to actually bring up that we could possibly do something was mind blowing. Gentry is an amazing storyteller. And from the minute the words came out of his mouth of the tradition and the detail with the wood, we were sold.
How did the design process work?
ST: We knew we were going to be using the AJ9 silhouette. And we just looked at it and said, ‘how can we translate this with woods that were generally used to make the clubs back then?’ And then from there Gentry basically mimicked the woods with the materials.
Gentry, what was the process like of choosing materials and textures to imitate wood?
GH: The materials library at Nike is tremendous, I mean it's almost overwhelming. The team really did their homework to try to mimic the actual wood as much as possible. Everything from texture, to graphics, to the feel of it all played a role. And sometimes it's really difficult in that space because you still want the product to be premium. So how you juxtapose certain materials with others to make the product truly come to life in a premium way is really important.
The folks at Augusta National are very particular and they're very strict on things that they want to see done. That’s why we try to tell stories on our own. For example, they pretty much own Amen Corner and if you try to do anything that speaks to Amen Corner directly, you have to deal with the wrath of Augusta National. So concept wise we have always tried to do various things that we think represent the venue and the weight of the moment. Everybody talks about azaleas and all the things that relate there. And rather than doing the obvious, we try to go a little bit deeper.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about the collaboration?
ST: So your story will be the first to break this news, but there will actually be an art piece associated with this as well. And there's going to be a charitable component, so we're going to be auctioning it off with a big major auction house. Personally, I think that the most natural fit for that piece is at the Grove. I've never been there so I don't know what the interior looks like, but man how cool would that be?
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