Public Drip is a Brooklyn-based golf apparel brand founded in 2020 by Neil Tan. It is built around the idea of the public athlete, the golfer who plays municipal courses and public tracks rather than private clubs, and who values self-expression and versatility as much as performance. The brand blends the timeless forms of traditional menswear with the function of modern sportswear, producing pieces designed to move seamlessly from the golf course to the cafe, the park, and the rest of everyday life.
Tan founded the brand after getting back into golf and teeing it up at Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course in the North Bronx, the oldest public golf course in the United States. That setting is central to the brand's identity. Where most golf apparel is built around the aesthetics and exclusivity of the country club, Public Drip is an ode to public-course golf and the venues that open their doors to everyone. The brand name itself plays on that ethos, public access crossed with the streetwear sense of drip, meaning style.
The Menswear Influence
What sets Public Drip apart from the louder streetwear-golf brands is its restraint. The pieces are largely subdued in their aesthetic, with subtle accents rather than bold graphics. The signature Public Athlete Polo features a contrasting knitted spread collar inspired by classic Italian knit ties, with a four-button placket shaped to reference the brand's P logo. Knit collars echo traditional dress shirts. Tan has a clear affinity for menswear, and the design language reflects an effort to modernize the menswear roots of classic golf apparel rather than reject them.
That versatility is the core proposition. Tan has talked about loving the way dress shirts look but recognizing you cannot wear one every day, so he set out to build a line of menswear with enough range to dress up with a jacket or sweater and blend into a modern office, while also performing on the course. The pieces are made through a cut-and-sew method, the construction approach serious apparel designers favor, and increasingly use recycled materials, including polyester from recycled sources and graphic tees made from recycled fishing nets.
Collaborations and Growth
Public Drip has steadily raised its profile through collaborations and editorial coverage. It has been featured by Hypebeast multiple times and named among the rising brands changing golf. In 2025, the brand collaborated with LIV Golf's Cleeks Golf Club on a limited capsule unofficially titled Tradition, Refreshed, which paired the brand's recycled-material approach with a professional team's roster. In early 2026, Public Drip partnered with RepSpark, the leading business-to-business e-commerce platform in golf, to scale its wholesale operations and reach more retailers.
The DORMIED Take
Public Drip is one of the more thoughtful entries in the crowded streetwear-golf category precisely because it does not lean on streetwear loudness. The menswear restraint and the public-course ethos give it a point of view that feels earned rather than borrowed. Where Malbon channels Los Angeles streetwear energy and Students Golf sells the emotional comedy of the amateur game, Public Drip occupies the quieter, more design-driven menswear lane, closer to what Manors does in London but rooted in New York municipal golf culture.
The brand's commitment to recycled materials and its public-athlete positioning give it a clear identity that should age well as the broader category matures. The RepSpark wholesale partnership signals an ambition to grow beyond direct-to-consumer drops into broader retail distribution. Whether Public Drip can scale while keeping the understated identity that differentiates it is the open question, but the foundation is one of the more coherent in the category.
