Min Woo Lee to design clothes for Lululemon: He talks about becoming a designer, moving to Vegas and social media superstardom
Min Woo Lee is one of the best golfers in the world. He’s also a social media star, Nevada local, friends with NBA players and - now - a fashion designer.
Designing clothes, chatting with NBA superstars and living in Las Vegas is the rapid career progression golf star Min Woo Lee always felt was coming, just not this quickly.
The 25-year-old who has developed a cult following in the sport and ascended to No.33 in the world rankings is, by all measure, in the infancy of his sporting path.
After all, it was only four years ago he turned professional and missed the tour cut by one shot.
Yet now he has a huge, growing fan base and has signed a deal to be an ambassador with US fashion brand Lululemon – one in which he will help design garments and add his own motivational quotes to clothes.
“I’ve always had the motto of trying to make people’s lives funnier or better, so all my social media has somewhat of a meaning to it,” said Lee, who has more than 400,000 Instagram followers and another 260,000 on TikTok.
“I try to put a smile on a lot of people’s faces, but then I can play? There’s the pressure of playing good golf and I have been playing good golf. So that makes it even better.
“And it has inspired a lot of new golfers to come out and play some golf, which is what I want to do in the bigger picture of golf.
“I’ve kind of always thought that I could have done this and right now it’s becoming a big reality and becoming a really big thing.
“I’m becoming one of the bigger and more popular golfers out there, so it is very cool. It’s very fun.
“I always wanted to get there and now it’s reality. It is pretty cool.”
He is leaving his native home of Perth to relocate to Nevada and will play on the US tour in 2024, including Augusta, as he aims to become the best golfer in the world.
“There’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes that needs to happen but I feel like every year I’ve gotten better and better and I’m really happy with the progress,” Lee said.
“And 2024 is going to be a big one. I’m going to live in America, which is a massive thing for myself. I’ve always wanted to live there and play on the American tour and the PGA Tour.
“That’s the big positive of last year. At the end of the year I tried to solidify it and I ended up doing that, so that took a lot of weight off my shoulders.
“And then keeping my card and doing all that is going to be a big thing, too.
“Living in America and playing in America is going to be the biggest thing for 2024.”
Lee has developed a cult following. His fans chant “let him cook” and wear chefs hats.
Asked if this was in any way related to NBA superstar “Chef” Steph Curry, Lee replied: “No, I don’t think so, it kind of just happened.
“But it’s cool. I speak to Steph on the phone, he loves golf and I’m a big fan of his. He said next time I’m in San Francisco to come to the game, so I probably will.”
Off the golf course, Lee is making his first foray into clothing design.
“Lululemon shirts, the bottom side of the back of the shirt, they have a positive message,” Lee said.
“I was like, ‘Oh, that will be really good if I did bring out my own collection, then I can write something positive on there’. I thought that was a very cool moment where I can create something.
“And I did bring it up and they were like, ‘Yeah, that’s amazing’.
“The quality of the shirts is awesome, so if I can design some stuff, then I could put some positive messages on there, which I think is just a gentle reminder or a nice reminder to have when you do wear the shirt or when someone does see the shirt.
“That was a big part of the designing side of it and being with them.
“They have a really good community and that was a big thing on my part as well as to why I joined.
“I wanted to be with them and they have a very positive, positive way. And my motto, making people smile, that was a big thing on their side as well, so we matched up really well.”
Lee understands just how important his performances are to the “bigger picture” he envisions, as he experienced in his first year on tour.
“I lost my card by one shot,” he said. “It was the top 116 people for that card next year but I was 117.
“If you look back, it was one shot for the whole year, so that was a kind of kick in the gut.
“And that was a pretty good wake-up call for myself.
“A few months later, I won my first tournament in Australia, so it was a setback but it was also a big eye-opener for me because I thought I did pretty good for my first year.
“But we want to be a good golfer, so we couldn’t let that get to me.
“Looking back, I stressed about it a lot and was quite annoyed but it’s what you do afterwards and how you bounce back.
“I felt like that was a big turning point in my golfing life and my life itself.”
Being the younger brother of Australia’s best female golfer, Minjee Lee, also has its inspiration.
“A lot of people say, ‘How is it being the second best golfer in the family?’” Lee said.
“But it’s good that she’s doing well because I want to get to that stage and I want to be the best golfer in the world.
“So if I do become the best golfer in the world, maybe I’m the best golfer in the family. So that pushes me.”
Lee has learned to savour the wins and the losses.
“You don’t win that much in golf, so learning about that early on my career was a big thing,” Lee said.
“Even if you win once a year, that’s such a big asset.
“A lot of the top pros were saying [after I missed the cut in my first year], ‘Forget about it quick and move on’.
“I had a good team around me and they said, ‘Don’t sweat it, there will be plenty of invites and plenty more tournaments to do well in’.
“It was more just relying on my team and not getting upset. It was my first year.
“If you did give up straight away, there was kind of a recipe of, not failure, but a recipe of not success because this game is a lot about learning and a lot about learning about the failures.”
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