Turning Sports Jerseys into Golf Club Head Covers
From the field to the fairway, Ethan Redman transforms old jerseys into uni-themed golf accessories.
As most of you know, I love uni-centric creative projects. And if someone can turn their creative project into a business, more power to them! So I was intrigued when Uni Watch reader Ian Wright recently told me about an Etsy shop called Tees to Green, which features jersey-based golf club head covers like the ones shown above. And while they look good on their own, they look even better out on the links:
I’m not a golfer, but I loved this way of putting a uni-themed spin on things. I wanted to learn more, so I got in touch with the Etsy shop owner — a guy named Ethan Redman — and asked if he’d consent to an interview. Here’s the transcript of a Zoom call we recently had, edited for length and clarity.
Uni Watch: Let’s start with some basic info about you: Where do you live, and what do you do for a living when you’re not making head covers?
Ethan Redman: I live in Edmonton, and I work in sales for a software company that helps small businesses. I’ve been there for a little over two years now.
UW: I gather that you’re also a pretty serious golfer.
ER: I do enjoy golf, and I get out as much as I can. I wish the scores could be a bit better, but I enjoy my time out there regardless.
UW: Are you a sports fan in general? Like, not just golf?
ER: Yeah. Hockey is probably my favorite sport to watch. I played a little bit growing up. Some soccer, too. And then volleyball would probably be the sport I played the most — I played that in college.
UW: How and when did you get the idea of converting team jerseys into head covers?
ER: It was probably about two years ago now — I was chatting with my sister, and she asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said that some head covers would be awesome. I was looking at some custom stuff around that time, but a lot of the options were kind of tough to get up here in Canada, so I was a little bit limited in terms of what I could do. And she said, “You could probably make them if you wanted to. I could show you how.”
UW: Had you ever sewn anything before?
ER: No, never. But my sister is quite crafty — she used to make bags and stuff and sell them when she was younger. So she showed me where to get fabric, how to make a basic pattern, and how to get started with it. The first few didn’t turn out so great. But then, as we kind of refined it, I got better and better.
Once I’d done a few, I was feeling more confident and thought it would be good to try doing one with a jersey. So I cut up an old volleyball jersey that I had, and that turned into my first jersey cover. I still have it on my bag today.
After that, my head covers got better and better, more and more people saw them when I was out golfing, and it kind of went from there. A buddy would see them and ask about them, and then when I said, “Oh, I made them,” they’d ask if I could make one for them.
