Antigua: Staying Dry

Buoyed by the popularity of the Desert Dry and Desert Dry Xtra Lite lines, Antigua doesn’t plan to mess much with success. Jewel tone colors will be the focus for women, while classic colors will dominate the men’s line.

Updated performance will be featured in both men’s and women’s golf shirts from the company that is a leading designer and marketer of men’s, women’s and children’s lifestyle apparel and sportswear. The reputation the Antigua Group, Inc. has earned over the last 32 years for producing the finest knit shirts in the industry is now being enhanced by the outerwear it is producing.

“We’re featuring updated styling designs on our outerwear,” said Sean Gregg, Head Designer for Antigua. “Among those updates are the pockets in those pieces. They are more useable for what men like particularly in golf outerwear.”

An area that is getting attention at Antigua are pieces that can be worn as part of a layering look or as standalones. One of the tweaked styles for 2011 is a stretchable fleece, a piece that allows golfers to move freely as they swing, while providing the warmth of fleece.

“The focus is now on developing products from the base layer up. Lightweight base layers such as our style Hero developed as a micro-fleeced back jersey mock can stand alone or can be worn under a performance polo such as Exceed, or with a mid-weight pull-over performance fleece style such as Succeed, or under a water and wind resistant wind shirt such as our styles Resilient and Highland,” said Sean Gregg.

“The new mentality -- from the tour player to the weekend golfer -- is they want to be comfortable at any point during play, and they look for layering options that correspond with the fluctuations in weather that occur especially during golf season.”

As technology has evolved in the golf equipment arena, apparel technology has evolved as well.

“We've developed lighter and lighter fabrics with the intention of them performing faster with regard to wicking speed, while simultaneously being less restrictive and minimizing garment friction during release with our Desert Dry Xtra-Lite (D2XL) fabrics,” Gregg said.

When the Desert Dry concept was first conceived, the focus was on warmer climates. The lighter weight fabrics are cooler on the body and wick faster. This concept is ideal in those warmer places. But as it’s turned out, it’s become hot nationwide during the summer months and now all Desert Dry products are distributed nationally.