When golfers think of elegant and classic silhouettes, they may picture an Ivy cap wearing Ben Hogan holding his finish after yet another valiant fairway finding stroke or Tiger Woods in resplendent Sunday red firing his patented stinger.

Del Toro, a luxury shoe brand known for their velvet wedding slippers, wants to be part of that conversation. After striking a deal to outfit Scottie Scheffler and crew at events surrounding this Fall’s Ryder Cup in Rome, they’re banking on avid golf fans taking note of the U.S. team’s below the ankle game.

Footwear auteur Matthew Chevallard teed up Del Toro in Miami back in 2005. While the company quickly began to build a fanbase among formal wear wonks, it wasn’t till the 2010s when the brand picked up a head of steam and began penetrating celebrity and professional athlete circles. But as the fickle winds of fashion swirl, what is ‘in’ can just as quickly become ‘out.’ According to WWD’s reporting, sales were under $10 million in 2018 when Chevallard sold his majority stake in the company to a group of investors that included NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Draymond Green. The new owners rebranded the company and made a pivot towards athleisure but the new tack failed to gain traction with consumers.

“They took a business that wasn’t doing well and took it in the wrong direction,” CEO Chad Kramer, who had stints at J.P. Morgan followed by Meta before being placed at the helm of Del Toro last November, explained. The current ownership group, the brand’s third, has made a concerted effort to return the company to its roots.

When Kramer was being interviewed for the role, he expressed that his vision was for the company to make inroads into the golf space. He believed the brand could become the shoe that players choose to wear when they drive to the club and also what they change into post round.

“I called it the before-and-after-golf-shoe, what you show up to the course in and what you leave in,” Kramer said.

Right Place, Right Time

By a stroke of dumb luck, Del Toro—an almost exclusively direct-to-consumer brand with just a few small wholesale partnerships—found itself on the radar of the marketing agency that the Ryder Cup relies on to source new partners. In golf parlance, this turn of fortune would be deemed a 'member's bounce.'

The Legends Golf representative tasked with striking apparel and footwear deals for the U.S. team happened to see a family member wearing a pair of Del Toro Milano loafers and they caught her eye. After learning the elegant kicks were made by an American company that produces their shoes in Naples and Milan, she reached out to their support channel. Now, the opportunity wasn’t just simply dropped on their lap—they still had to work for it. After a number of calls got the ball rolling, Del Toro put together a pitch deck to seal the deal with Legends but it was team captain Zach Johnson who ultimately made the final call.

“Zach had to approve all of the designs we put forward and then it had to go one step further because Ralph Lauren is doing all the uniforms and apparel. So, Ralph’s team also had to put a checkmark on our pitch and our designs,” Kramer explained.

For a small brand, landing a starring role at a premiere sporting event can really move the needle and Kramer expects the impact will be significant.

“This is a space we are calling one of the main pillars of our vision: lifestyle footwear, weddings and golf,” Kramer said.

“I really want to capture what I see is a really blank space and not really having a lot of players marketing themselves as the footwear brand you should wear to the course and off the course. Think of us as your go-to golf transport shoe and the shoe you wear to have lunch or dinner when you get off the course,” Kramer said.

They plan to go all in on golf driven partnerships. To facilitate the heavy in push, they recently brought on art director Nick Martinelli who previously worked for golf fashion powerhouse J. Lindeberg where he was in charge of their influencer program, a hat he continues to wear at Del Toro, a small outfit where most employees juggle multiple roles.

“When we were fitting players at the PGA Championship, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth were well aware of the brand so it was really nice to know that these guys had already known about Del Toro prior to us doing the fitting or letting them know that we’re a Ryder Cup sponsor,” Martinelli said.

There tends to be a trickle-down effect when it comes to emerging golf brands with PGA Tour player awareness filtering down to fans and to capitalize on their Ryder Cup sponsorship they will be releasing a capsule collection available to the public a week before the event.

These selections targeting fans will be more ‘loud than what the players wearing’ as the team didn’t want the shoes to be too showy, whereas supporters tend to prefer more demonstrable style statements.

“A lot of people get into the Ryder Cup, there’s a lot of sense of pride in the U.S.A. versus Europe so the shoes are heavily decorated and colored with red, white and blue accents,” Kramer explains.

While the stars seemed to be aligned for an American brand producing a made in Italy product for a Ryder Cup being played at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club just outside of Rome, Kramer is optimistic the relationship will have legs.

“I want to be the brand that they choose for Bethpage in 2025. I believe that they are very happy with us, the player feedback after the fitting was very strong and the Ralph Lauren team loved working with us. I’m hopeful and confident that we’ll be invited back,” Kramer said.