Williams Athletic Club is a premium performance apparel brand built on the intersection of modern athletic functionality and elevated, timeless design.
The brand is known for refined essentials that transition seamlessly from the course to everyday wear, without compromising performance.
At the PGA show, Williams Athletic Club will present Volume III, available for immediate delivery, featuring its best-selling outerwear styles, including the Kaylee Jacket and Luna Vest, and Volume IV for pre-orders.
Both assortments expand the brand’s core offering, while adding in new high-performance styles and high style pieces round out the collection, designed specifically for on and off course play.
My Story
In 2023, I founded Williams Athletic Club with a clear vision; to redefine women’s golf apparel by blending high style with performance functionality. Drawing on more than 30 years of global apparel industry experience with iconic brands including Mark & Spencer, Nike, lululemon and Aritzia.
I bring a unique perspective to golf — one that merges technical innovation with timeless, sophisticated design. I believe my collections are built on classic wardrobe pieces in a refined palette of colors, designed to be elevated with bold hues or softened with neutral tones.
The result is apparel that performs on the course but transitions seamlessly into everyday life — modern lifestyle, versatile and distinctly personal, just like the golfers who wear it.
The name of the company comes from the middle name of my son. It’s one passed down through the generations and a nod to golf’s rich tradition. In an industry still largely male-dominated, it established a masculine tone and opened doors and sparked curiosity.
The word “Athletic” underscores the brand’s technical performance approach, with fabrics engineered for movement, breathability and function — even in pieces tailored as pant suits.
The word “Club” reflects the lifestyle – the brand embodies chic, elevated dressing rooted in country club heritage designed for modern versatility.
My Journey
I don’t think there was a single moment that set me on the path I’m on now. For me, it was a series of small permissions over time — moments where curiosity quietly outweighed caution.
Looking back, the throughline isn’t a straight line at all, but a gradual learning to trust what I was drawn to. My mother taught me to sew, and through Vogue Patterns she introduced me to Fashion. We’d choose fabrics, cut pieces, and work through garments together.
I loved clothes early on, but I didn’t yet see that love as something that could translate into a future. It felt personal rather than professional — something you enjoyed, not something you were meant to build a career around.
As a teenager, I was torn between that interest and a strong desire to conform. I wanted to be taken seriously and assumed that meant becoming a lawyer. At the same time, I found confidence through art at school, which eventually gave me the courage to explore textiles. Even then, I chose textile science over design — a way to stay close to creativity while keeping a sense of credibility and safety.
With time — and age — something else shifted. I worried less about what people thought of me, and I began to develop a quiet confidence in being myself. A defining moment for me came when someone asked me to imagine standing in a room of 400 people, close my eyes, and repeat the phrase, “Everyone is looking at me.” Then they said, “Open your eyes when you get it.” It took a moment, but when it landed, it was clear: everyone else was thinking the same thing. No one was looking at me. That realization created space — space to be more honest, more myself.
My career followed that opening. Each role helped unlock more confidence in my point of view, my instincts, and my style. Today, I get to bring that full perspective— a lifelong relationship with product, a respect for craft and performance, and a belief in thoughtful design — alongside a team of equally passionate and exceptionally talented people.
My path wasn’t linear, but the twists and turns are what made it meaningful, and ultimately, what made it mine.
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You wake up in the morning — what’s the driving passion?
I love this industry. I’m not sure I could do anything else.
I’m energized by being around fabric, product, and creative people—by the process of taking an idea and seeing it thoughtfully brought to life.
There’s something deeply satisfying about building from the ground up and obsessing over the details that most people never see.
What drives me is creating product that truly earns its place in a woman’s life—pieces that deliver confidence, comfort, and ease, whether she’s playing, traveling, or moving through her day.
The genesis of Williams Athletic Club was what?
The genesis came from a personal frustration and a very clear gap I saw in the market. As someone who has spent decades in fashion and performance apparel, I noticed that women were still being asked to choose between looking polished and feeling truly functional — especially in sport-driven environments like the golf course.
I wanted to create something different: a brand where luxury, quality, performance, and modern style coexist, without compromise. Williams Athletic Club was born from the belief that women deserve thoughtfully designed, quality performance wear that reflects how they actually live.
How does the company differentiate itself from others in the highly competitive women’s apparel category.
Our unwavering commitment to a clear set of values that guide every decision we make. In a crowded women’s apparel market, we don’t chase trends — we focus on timeless design, thoughtful innovation, and long-term wearability.
Our pieces are created to live in a woman’s wardrobe for years, not seasons. The principles, style and longevity, performance excellence, innovation, sustainability, integrity, and community— aren’t marketing language for us. They are the foundation of how we design, build, and grow the brand.
Who is your customer and how do you fathom clothing needs – both now and in the future?
Our customer is an informed, active woman with a full life—she seamlessly transitions between sports, work, travel, and social settings, and she expects her wardrobe to do the same. She values quality, function, and design, but she’s not driven by trends for trends’ sake. She wants pieces that work harder, wear better and are style-forward.
Understanding her starts with research across markets—both domestic and international.
Trend research and consumer insights play an important role, but they’re only part of the picture. The most valuable insight comes from conversation. We listen closely—on the course, in fittings, in showrooms—not to be told what to make, but to understand what’s missing.
In approximate percentages – what are sales via green grass shops, online efforts and those via brick and mortar retail outlets?
Today, our sales break down to approximately 60% through green-grass, 30% through online, and 10% via brick-and-mortar retail.
Long term, our strategy is much closer to a 50/50 balance between wholesale and direct-to-consumer, here and abroad.
Companies routinely tout the importance of customer service. Define the term and the approach you follow.
We take a proactive, hands-on approach, anticipating needs rather than just resolving
issues, to support our partners and customers at every stage. Clear communication, timely follow-through, and accountability guide every interaction.
What role does customer feedback play and how do you attempt to solicit such comments?
Customer feedback is integral to how we design—it’s not something we layer on at the end. We wear everything ourselves and test every product at multiple stages: at the fabric level, the component level, and again as a finished garment.
Beyond our own testing, we place development samples with a trusted circle of friends of the brand—women who wear the pieces in real life. They play in them, travel in them, wash them repeatedly, and then tell us, without embellishment, what works and what doesn’t. That honesty is essential.
From there, we refine, adjust, and improve. Designing and creating product is not a linear process, and it’s never truly finished. As one person I once worked with always said, “There is no finish line.”
If you could change one thing in golf unilaterally — what would it be and why?
I’d love to see the industry move away from status being defined by gender, handicap, or frequency of play, and toward a broader definition rooted in engagement and contribution.
The biggest challenges Williams Athletic Club is facing — short and long term — are what? And what strategic responses are you looking to implement with each respectively?
Short term, our biggest challenge is the one most growing brands face: disciplined prioritization. As momentum builds, there’s no shortage of opportunities — new accounts, new categories, new consumers.
Our strategic response is to stay operationally focused: investing in product excellence, strengthening our wholesale and direct relationships, continually serving our consumers’ needs and ensuring that every touchpoint reflects the quality and experience we stand for.
Long term, our challenge is increasing brand awareness while staying deeply true to who we are. The hardest thing for a growing business isn’t coming up with ideas — it’s saying no. We’re constantly encouraged to expand into men’s, push harder into pure performance, or chase adjacent categories. While we appreciate the enthusiasm, we have a very clear point of view on who we are, who we serve, and why we exist.
Best advice you ever received — what was it and who was it from.
“The day you think you’ve learned everything is the day you should retire. The moment you stop learning, you stop growing.”
I received this from a deeply respected mentor early in my career. It reframed ambition for me—not as mastery, but as curiosity. It taught me progress comes from staying open — asking better questions, and never assuming you’ve arrived.
That mindset shaped how I build teams, design products, and how I lead — with humility, conviction, and an appetite to keep evolving.
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