The dead of December might not seem like the time to be talking about short sleeves and lightweight, moisture-wicking fabrics, but if youve got a sunbelt destination in your holiday future, this is news you can use.
And besides, with all the talk of climate change these days, who knows when the Canadian courses might open in 2010?
Know this: whether youre sweating it out in the Bahamas this winter or looking instead to another one of Canadas 30 C (86 F)-plus summers, youre eventually going to want a golf shirt that doesnt wither and wilt under the heat.
One of Antigua's new Desert Dry Extra-Lite offerings for 2010
The Arizona-based Antigua Group, maker of one of the games newest mid-range apparel brands, is marking its 30th year in the golf business by doing its bit for global warming.
Desert Dry Xtra-Lite (D2XL) is the wispy, light-as-air fabric that comprises the backbone of Antiguas mens and womens apparel line for 2010.
Despite its almost space-age lack of mass, D2XL isnt even remotely sheer, which means those of us with curves and jutty bits where were not supposed to need not endure the suffocating indignity of cotton any longer.
Sure, there are a host of other moisture-wicking and heat dispersing fabrics on the market, but D2XL is the closest thing youll find to the sensation of not even wearing a shirt at all. Thanks to a hit of elasticity, it doesnt bind, trap body heat, retain odour or accentuate your love handles the way some other modern fabrics do.
D2XL is a marked improvement over some of Antiguas earlier performance-line offerings, which “ like so many early efforts at moisture-management fabrics “ ended up feeling hot and clammy to the touch.
According to Antigua, the fabrics three-dimensional construction makes it extremely light without being sheer or see-through, and wicks away moisture even quicker than Antigua’s original Desert Dry fabric introduced some ears ago.
If you have any Antigua from previous years in your closet, you might notice a common theme: a lot of bright pastel colours. In 2010, Antigua says its going in a new direction with something called contemporary performance, replacing its active brights with a rich, sophisticated color palette and clean, updated styling details to complete its transformation to a contemporary performance men’s golf wear collection for Spring 2010.
Our target audience is the weekend golfer who expects their apparel to perform, Antigua president and CEO Ron McPherson said in a release. 
When golfers began demanding performance apparel several years ago, we not only continued to excel as a genuine golf brand, but we easily shifted to performance apparel.
Here’s the release:
Antigua’s New Holiday Delivery Hits Shelves and Is Available Now
PEORIA, ARIZ. – The Antigua Group, Inc.-celebrating its 30th year in business in 2009 as one of the nation’s leading designers and marketers of genuine golf and sports apparel under its Antigua brand has added an additional golf apparel delivery for the Holiday season featuring it’s DESERT DRY„¢, and introducing it’s new light weight DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE (D2XL), moisture management styles.
This is the first time Antigua has offered this special Holiday delivery to its accounts.
Antigua has developed this Holiday/early Spring delivery specifically to cater to the demand from its Sun Belt, as well as to its northern accounts and will begin shipping for Holiday ’09. Antigua’s new deliveries will include exclusive styles for the holiday season that give accounts a fresh look when replenishing in-stock items.
“We feel so strongly about the course that we’re on with our contemporary performance that we’ve expanded the collection into three deliveries,” says Ron McPherson, President and CEO of Antigua. “This gives us the opportunity to deliver fresh new product early to the Sun Belt states and follow that up with additional new product from the beginning of 2010 through summer of 2010.
“Our DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE technology has really been accepted by all golfers, of all genders and has allowed us to expand the demographic of our target audience as more golfers, young and old, expect apparel that performs,” McPherson adds, “so it’s great that we’ve increased the availability of our performance golf apparel offering to include this holiday season.”
The special Holiday delivery also features sophisticated styling details, including an argyle pattern designed using a subtle look in a pointelle mesh as part of the DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA LITE offering, as well as updates on the traditional hounds tooth design. The holiday delivery also offers a preview look at Spring 2010’s more sophisticated color palettes. The rich, warmer colors include Henna Red, Sienna Rust, Bayou Olive and Capri Blue, and are complimented by a natural shade of Natural Birch and accented with a Granite Charcoal.
The outerwear pieces in this new holiday delivery of 2009 are designed to merchandise together with the new golf polo’s, and include long-sleeve stretch shell layering pieces and lightweight fashion rain outerwear.
The comfortable technologically advanced fabrications are what truly set Antigua’s Holiday 2009 and Spring 2010 delivery apart from the competition.
“Greater performance is, simply, more comfortable on the course,” says Sean Gregg, director of product development at Antigua. “Moisture wicking keeps you dry, which in turn enhances your ability to perform. The fact that the performance fabrics also don’t fade or wrinkle, which provides easy care and longer life of the garment, are added benefits that make for greater performance of both the product and the player.”
For instance, DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE (D2XL) combines Antigua’s exclusive DESERT DRY„¢ moisture-wicking feature with specially constructed ultra-light fabrics for maximum wicking performance and optimum comfort. The additional benefits of DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE are:
Moisture wicks more rapidly
Lighter weight on body
Less heat trapped on body
Less restrictive movement
Antigua’s new DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE is an extremely light fabric while remaining opaque. The three-dimensional construction is what makes the fabric extremely light without being sheer or see-through. Because the fabric has a lighter weight construction, DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE wicks away moisture even quicker than Antigua’s proprietary DESERT DRY„¢, a performance fabric the company created when it introduced its performance category for golf several years ago.DESERT DRY„¢ BAMBOO is a combination of Antigua’s exclusive DESERT DRY„¢ moisture-wicking feature and environmentally friendly bamboo-blended fabrics for maximum wicking performance and optimum comfort. Using bamboo yarn as a fabrication in Antigua’s performance collection not only offers consumers additional choices in natural, environmentally friendly fabrics, but the bamboo fiber itself is an extremely supple, natural and synthetics-blend fiber that knits into an exceptionally comfortable, soft garment and still allows Antigua to achieve the performance ability of the garment and classify it as one of Antigua’s new DESERT DRY„¢ XTRA-LITE products.
“We are constantly pushing the envelope in the development of new fabrics, ensuring that we are staying current and contemporary in both style and color,” Gregg says. “We continuously look at the sports industry-tennis, running, soccer, etc.-as a whole for fabric direction and inspiration, then look to make the translation into golf so the consumer clearly knows that what he or she is buying is golf apparel.”
Headquartered in Peoria, Ariz., The Antigua Group, www.antigua.com, through its license sports division, holds license agreements with Major and Minor League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), along with numerous American universities and colleges for men’s women’s and children’s apparel, headwear and outerwear. Antigua additionally designs, produces and supplies product for corporate America and specialty retail managed under its corporate division. Its golf division also holds license agreements with the PGA TOUR, LPGA and the PGA of America.
