Gap × Malbon Returns: American Sportswear Gets a New Golf-to-Tennis Edit
fashion
fashion
August 26th, 2026
By: mesh. magazine
There is something inherently seductive about sportswear when it stops behaving like sportswear. This fall, Gap and Malbon return for their second collaboration, taking the codes of American athletic style and loosening them just enough to move beyond the course and onto the streets.
Following their first collaboration in 2025, the new Gap × Malbon collection expands the conversation between fashion and sport with 35 pieces designed for both women and men. The result is a wardrobe that moves effortlessly between golf, tennis and everyday life—rooted in heritage, but styled with a distinctly contemporary eye.
Photo: GAP
The collection draws from Gap’s unmistakable vocabulary of American essentials while introducing Malbon’s playful, culture-driven approach to golf. Classic rugby polos, pleated skirts, preppy knits, relaxed outerwear and limited-edition golf accessories reinterpret familiar silhouettes without making them feel overly precious. It is sportswear with a sense of attitude: polished, functional and slightly irreverent.
“Coming back for a second collaboration with Gap felt very natural,” said Stephen and Erica Malbon. The collection also places a stronger emphasis on womenswear, expanding the possibilities of the partnership and exploring the intersection of fashion and sport through a more complete lifestyle perspective.
Photo: GAP
At its core, the collaboration is less about dressing for a specific sport and more about the culture surrounding it. Golf and tennis have increasingly become visual languages of their own—spaces where tailoring, athleticism, nostalgia and personal style overlap. Gap × Malbon taps into that tension, creating pieces that can travel from the clubhouse to the city without requiring a change of identity.
The accompanying campaign, photographed by Duncan Wolfe, pushes that idea further. Friends of the brands and creators come together around a shared sense of community, individuality and self-expression, with the imagery placing originality at the center. Rather than presenting sport as performance alone, the campaign treats it as a social and cultural space.
Photo: GAP
It is a natural evolution for Malbon, the Los Angeles-based golf lifestyle brand founded by Stephen and Erica Malbon in 2017. From its beginnings with multifunctional golf clothing, the brand has helped position golf as something more fluid—a lifestyle, a community and a canvas for personal expression.
For Gap, the collaboration continues a broader conversation around its legacy of American style: taking recognizable essentials and allowing them to evolve with the culture around them.
Photo: GAP
The Gap × Malbon collection launches August 21 at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT on gap.com and in 18 Gap stores. It will also be available internationally in Japan, Mexico, China, the Philippines, Australia, the United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as through Zalando. Prices range from $28 to $250 USD.
Golf, tennis, street style, nostalgia—perhaps the real point is that none of these worlds exist separately anymore. Gap × Malbon understands the assignment: take the uniform, disrupt it slightly, and let it live somewhere else.
Follow @gap and @malbon and join the conversation with #gapxmalbon.