Source Material 007: Cole Young

Someone who inspires me, something that inspires them. A series.

This series is for the creatives, seeking to go deeper. It’s for the new-ish parents, like me, who are craving for a stronger connection back to themselves and their art.

This year I’m on a quest to stay in tune with my inner artist and creative soul. And so I am reaching out to those who inspire me to find out what inspires them.

Call me jaded, but I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve just about seen it all at 41. I can be a ‘grumpy old head,’ it’s easier to be set in your ways. I love the classics, and history, and traditions. But my spirit is also restless and forever curious, and I find myself drawn to the emerging creative set, because that’s where the passion of possibility is.

Let’s talk Cole Young. I love that Cole has pivoted all of his golf experience as a college level player, and combined it with his personal interests to assert a lifestyle point of view of golf that is modern, and uniquely his own. Golf, heavily steeped in its traditions and etiquette, is known more for its cultural rigidity than its approachability. Metalwood bends golf’s boundaries, contributing a youthful aesthetic, a sense of humor, and a nostalgia that still upholds the game’s etiquette and function. In one visit to the shop on La Brea, you can “cop a sickkk hat,” test a putter, and get a history lesson in vintage irons. By and large Metalwood ultimately shifts the question: who is “allowed” to participate - answer: everyone.

SOURCE MATERIAL 007: Cole Young

Name: Cole Young, founder owner of Metalwood Studio

City: Los Angeles, CA

What inspires you today?

This is gonna sound silly but I always forget about fruit. I love fruit. But I’m never just buying fruit. Luckily, I live with the fabulous Candace Kim and she knows that if she puts fruit in the house for me, I’ll eat it. Fruit makes me happy. Today, we had a few cuties and it was a nice break from all the bread / red meat I was gorging myself with while on work trip to Paris last week. As a Christmas gift, our headwear factory in China mailed us a little ornament to bring us good luck and fortune in the New Year. We also had to give it some oranges and burn some incense around it.

Who would you like to see featured on Source Material?

Candace Kim, Darin Howard, Trevor Gorji, Darren Vongphakdy, Jemma Fong, Keegan Fong, Brad Gehl, Eunice Chang, Christina Choi so many people!

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Personal Reflection:

I’m learning that inspiration cannot be planned or bear any predispositions. Often times we expect that a grand trip to the art museum, wearing an osbcure tote bag and touting a fancy matcha is when we will be inspired. Or that a scheduled vacation to quaint Scottish cottage overlooking a lush, pastoral countryside will inspire us to write that script. When actually inspiration is all around us, anytime, often in the tiny details of the mundane day to day tasks. Accessing inspiration requires a dismantling of judgement, an emptying of the mind, an opening of the soul’s eyes to see it and receive. It involves the courage to act on the moment; to stop everything, follow it, and create.