Pete the Penguin is turning 70 this year, and so are the golf shirts that the bird first adorned in 1955. It is a significant milestone when one considers how revolutionary those tops were from both a style and technology standpoint, with their three-button plackets and use of an “action gusset” to allow for unrestricted movements during the swing, and how popular they became. They were also the first shirts of that sort ever to employ a logo, with theirs embroidered on the chest pockets.
All these years later, the penguin and the garments that feature him still have plenty of appeal. Among men and women who remember when PGA Tour stars such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Jackie Burke wore them along with celebrities like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Clint Eastwood.
Millennials and Zoomers have become fans, too, with many first noticing the brand after Aussie Cam Smith started wearing Original Penguin in 2018. He won the 2022 Open Championship while clad in those shirts. And even though he and the company parted ways two years later, largely due to his diminishing presence in the professional game after his move to LIV Golf, that demographic’s affection for the brand continued to grow.
“Original Penguin still has appeal to the heritage consumer as a classic and stylish brand,” said Brad Holder, senior vice president of Perry Ellis International, which in 1986 bought the Munsingwear company that created the brand. “And the newer generations like it as well. For a look that they see as both cool and retro, and for being well designed and made of quality materials that not only fit well but also perform at very high levels.”
To celebrate its 70th anniversary, Original Penguin has released a limited-edition collection that includes shirts, sweater polos and quarter-zip pullovers as well as shorts and slacks, all of which are inspired by the brand’s archive of mid-century designs.
“Seventy years ago, we introduced a shirt that changed the game, not just for golf but for American style as a whole,” said Oscar Feldenkreis, CEO of Perry Ellis. “This curated collection is a celebration of that legacy, a homage to the players, entertainers and the everyday men who made Pete the Penguin an icon. These timeless pieces have been thoughtfully redefined to suit modern lifestyle while staying true to the heritage and craftsmanship that established Penguin as a household name.”
With those new offerings, the company is also transitioning to what Holder describes as a “more modern marketing approach” that augments the exposure the brand receives during television coverage of professional tour events with greater use of social-media influencers. Such as Carolin Pinegger, a golf instructor and former tour pro who boasts more than 155,000 followers on Instagram. And the online personality Mike “Officially Sonny” Kollet, whose presence on Instagram and X is just as large.
“They are creating content 365 days a year, and now they’re doing so while wearing Penguin,” said Holder.
“Original Penguin still has appeal to the heritage consumer as a classic and stylish brand. And the newer generations like it as well.” — Brad Holder, senior vice president of Perry Ellis International
Holder has also led an effort to fill the void left by Smith’s departure as a pitchman by signing a handful of other tour professionals, such as Jake Knapp, Nico Echavarria and Brian Campbell, to tout Penguin wares.
“Cam really got us back on the map,” said Holder. “It was just him for five of the six years he was here. I call that Penguin 2.0. And these new guys are Penguin 3.0. They’re young, they’re cool and they are more in front of golfers than Cam was after he went to LIV.”
The company that created the Penguin brand was founded in 1886 by George Munsing, who had moved to Minnesota from New York to start a textile factory. His company made underwear for men and women and became especially well known for its union suits, which were one-piece, long-underwear garments that were wildly popular in the colder climes of the country before the arrival of central heating.
Originally called the Northwestern Knitting Co., the concern was lauded for the advances it made in terms of materials and manufacturing techniques. It also attracted attention for being the first ever to display underwear on a live model, starting with a magazine advertisement of its products in an 1897 issue of Ladies Home Journal.
Some two decades later, the firm was renamed Munsingwear Inc., after its founder – and after it had gone public. At that time, the company was the largest producer of underwear in the world, a position it attained in part because it was the primary supplier of undershirts to the U.S. military during World War I. Munsingwear held onto that business during World War II and the Korean War and continued to prosper as a result.
The conflict in Korea ended in 1953, and two years later, the company introduced the Grand Slam golf shirt – and Pete. The product became a bestseller and remained one through the 1960s and 70s.
Alas, Munsingwear could not sustain that success and filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 11 reorganization in 1991. Five years later, Perry Ellis bought the business, and the new owners sought to reboot it as a lifestyle brand. In 2003, they got back into the game by launching a golf collection, signing Australian Aaron Baddeley four years later to a sponsorship contract. A little more than a decade after that, Original Penguin turned to one of Baddeley’s countrymen, Cam Smith, for help in promoting the brand on the PGA Tour.
Today, Original Penguin offers a full range of men’s and children’s clothing and accessories, as well as tennis and pickleball apparel and, of course, golf garments. Holder declines to provide specifics but says that golf makes up a healthy portion of its business, with about a third of those sales coming from the green-grass channel and comparable portions from off-course retailers and e-commerce.
“We have strong footholds in each of those places,” he said.
And while Penguin is not near the fashion phenomenon it was when Hope and Crosby as well as Arnie and Jack were wearing it all the time, it nonetheless appears to be doing quite well.
“Penguin is one of our better-selling brands,” said Kristie Fowler, the head golf professional at the Tubac Golf Resort in southern Arizona, a 27-hole facility that is famous in golf circles for being where parts of the movie “Tin Cup” were filmed.
“The fit is good, and people like that the sleeves are a little shorter, so they do not hang down below the elbow. The price is reasonable, too, the designs are fun and people love the Penguin.”
Happy birthday, Pete.