Oscar Jacobson: Swedish golf heritage since 1903

Oscar Jacobson is a Swedish golf apparel brand with a heritage that reaches back to 1903. Long before it dressed players on the fairway, it was a tailoring house in Borås, the historic centre of Sweden's textile trade. That century of tailoring is the reason an Oscar Jacobson polo or knit feels the way it does, and it is worth telling properly.

This is the story of the brand: where Oscar Jacobson came from, how it grew, and why a Swedish tailoring philosophy still shapes every piece of golf clothing we make today.

Founded in Borås, 1903

Oscar Jacobson was established in 1903, when Oscar Jacobson registered the business in Borås alongside Johan Anders Söderberg, his aunt's husband. The firm set out to trade in the sale and manufacture of sewn garments, and it grew quickly. By 1906, only three years in, annual sales had reached 160,000 kronor.

The location was no accident. Borås had been a centre for the Swedish textile trade for centuries, a town whose whole character was built around cloth, sewing and the movement of finished garments. To found a tailoring business there in 1903 was to plant it in the most fertile ground in the country. That textile town is still part of the brand's DNA.

A tailoring house ahead of its time

The early Oscar Jacobson business was quietly radical. In 1908, the company embraced the then-revolutionary idea of selling ready-to-wear menswear in set sizes, rather than making every garment to individual measure. It is easy to overlook now, when almost all clothing is bought this way, but at the time it was a genuine shift, bringing well-cut, consistently sized menswear to far more people.

That instinct, to take the standards of fine tailoring and make them wearable, repeatable and genuinely useful, is the same instinct behind a modern performance polo. The house was never precious for its own sake. It was precise in service of the person wearing the clothes.

The design philosophy: three traditions in one garment

Over the decades, Oscar Jacobson settled on a design philosophy built from three traditions: Anglo-Saxon textile heritage, Italian tailoring, and Scandinavian simplicity. Each pulls its weight.

The Anglo-Saxon influence brings a respect for cloth and for the quiet, weatherproof wardrobe of British country dressing. The Italian influence brings cut, line and a sense of how a garment should sit on the body. And Scandinavian simplicity, the through-line of everything Swedish design does well, strips away anything that does not earn its place. Restraint, good materials, honest construction, nothing added for the sake of it. It is the reason the brand reads as understated rather than loud.

From the tailoring bench to the fairway

Oscar Jacobson's move into golf grew naturally from its tailoring. The brand developed a golf collection alongside its menswear, and in the 1970s began supplying trousers to players on the European Tour. Dressing tour professionals is an unforgiving test: the clothing has to move, breathe and hold up under pressure, in front of cameras, week after week. Passing that test shaped the brand's approach to performance.

From there, Oscar Jacobson built a long association with elite golf, including a long-term partnership with the Ryder Cup. Golf became not a sideline but a natural home for a house that had always made refined, hard-wearing clothes for men who valued how they looked and how they moved.

What Swedish heritage means for the golf clothing we make

A heritage is only worth anything if it shows up in the product. For Oscar Jacobson, the century of tailoring behind the brand is exactly why the golf wear looks and feels the way it does.

It is there in the collar of a polo shirt that holds its shape, in the clean line of a knit, and in a colour palette drawn from the Nordic landscape rather than the trend board. It is there in the restraint: small logos, considered detail, nothing shouting. That understated, quality-first approach is precisely what the wider golf world now calls quiet luxury, a look we explore in our piece on the quiet luxury golf look. We have simply been making clothes this way since 1903.

Why heritage matters when you buy golf clothes

Heritage is not nostalgia. In clothing, it is a proxy for knowledge: how to choose cloth, how to cut a collar that keeps its shape, how to build a garment that survives a hundred washes and still looks right. A brand that has been tailoring since 1903 has made those decisions tens of thousands of times, and it shows in the details you do not consciously notice.

It is also why heritage pieces reward a little care. A well-made merino knit or a properly finished polo will outlast several cheaper versions if you look after it, which is the whole logic of buying well once rather than often. Our guide on how to look after your golf clothes covers exactly how to make good pieces last.

Oscar Jacobson today

Today Oscar Jacobson is a premium golf apparel brand sold across Europe and beyond, still rooted in that Swedish tailoring tradition. Its modern chapters include being the official apparel partner of Southern Guards GC, a team in the LIV Golf League, dressing elite golf once again while carrying the same quiet, well-made philosophy onto a new stage.

You can read the fuller company history on our our history page, or simply feel the heritage in the clothes themselves across the current Spring/Summer collection.

Oscar Jacobson history FAQ

When was Oscar Jacobson founded?

Oscar Jacobson was founded in 1903 in Borås, Sweden, as a tailoring and garment business, and has more than a century of tailoring heritage behind its golf apparel.

Where is Oscar Jacobson from?

Oscar Jacobson is a Swedish brand from Borås, a town that has been a centre of the Swedish textile trade for centuries.

What is Oscar Jacobson known for?

It is known for premium golf clothing built on a Swedish tailoring heritage, blending Anglo-Saxon textile tradition, Italian tailoring and Scandinavian simplicity into understated, quiet-luxury golf wear.

Is Oscar Jacobson a good golf brand?

Oscar Jacobson is a premium golf apparel brand with more than a hundred years of tailoring heritage, a history of dressing European Tour players and the Ryder Cup, and a current role as apparel partner to a LIV Golf team.

Does Oscar Jacobson have a connection to the Ryder Cup?

Yes. Oscar Jacobson began supplying European Tour players with trousers in the 1970s and went on to form a long-term partnership with the Ryder Cup.