It's almost impossible to not notice a great headcover floating on the driver head in someone's golf bag. Whether it's meant to be funny, or it has unique materials, or it's got a particularly weighty logo on it -- someone is going to ask about it.
I've had some great conversation starters that double as headcovers on my bag over the years. A few I've bought. I've even made some myself. But no headcover I've ever had on my driver got the same reaction as when I first used a Bluetross golf headcover.
I was in Orlando for the PGA Merchandise Show, playing in a foursome shamble in an industry outing. I was with three people I had never met until that day (and were all great), so they had no reason to say anything to me about anything in my bag. But when they saw the custom Bluetross headcover, they all came over and started petting it like it was the most beautiful pet they'd ever seen. They marveled at the quality craftsmanship, the high-end materials, and the custom, laser-engraved Golf News Net logo and wordmark on it.
Frankly, I marveled at it from the second it arrived on my doorstep prior to this trip. My Bluetross custom premium headcover is made from Horween Leather's Dublin vegetable-tanned leather -- the same kind that you would see in high-end dress shoes. Tanning is the process by which animal hides are turned into leather, and vegetable tanning uses vegetable tannins (liquors with fats, oils and greases from leaves, tree barks and roots from various trees) to alter the protein structure of the hide to transform it into leather. Tanning preserves, strengthens and gives color to the hide.
As Bluetross founder Marc Hanson told me, vegetable-tanned leather can create a leather piece that is firmer at first but is sturdier and stronger. Scratches can be buffed out, and the color and aesthetic can change over time as the material patinas. Since there are no synthetic coatings used in vegetable tanning, the leather is allowed to absorb moisture and oils, with a patina-ing hide indicating a level of quality and luxury compared to chrome-tanned leathers, which are about 90 percent of product you'll find.
In other words, Bluetross starts with the best stuff. You'll pay a premium at $195 per headcover, but the materials are world-class.
From there, Bluetross craftsmanship transforms the leather into a fantastic, artisanal headcover. The heavy-duty stitching and soft, leather-matching lining bring everything together so well. Even the branded leather tab is a spectacular touch that is often done with a stitched tab.
The construction style ultimately makes for a unique effect on the headcover's patina, as the pull-up effect of the leather on its dyes, waxes and oils causes it to lighten in color when stretched, spreading out those materials and pulling them up, so to speak, to create a worn-in effect that changes with time. The headcover you get on your doorstep won't look like your headcover a year or three years from now because how it was finished and what it's exposed to will help it age in a beautiful way. The headcover has a story, authored in part by Bluetross and part where you take it on your golf adventures. That's pretty awesome. Your headcover won't ever look truly the same.
The laser engraving is exceptionally clean, and it really showcases the GNN logo and wordmark. It's visible, but it's just one component of the full product.
The headcover itself is longer than most standard headcovers, offers a great, snug fit that stretches in stress spots as the headcover is taken on or off the club.
Bluetross headcovers are not inexpensive. They're not meant to be. They're made with high-end materials and hand-made craftsmanship that are designed to last years in the bag. The great news is that you can purchase one knowing that it'll last for a long time, continue to evolve in how it looks, protect your clubs and almost always catch someone's eye -- in the best way -- on the golf course. You really can't make a headcover better than that.
