The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2022–2025
CDC Golf & Sports, operator of Craig & Karl golf-wear, entered rehabilitation in 2025
A small Korean golf-wear maker rode the COVID boom into a market that then shrank — under court-supervised rehabilitation from December 2025.
CDC Golf & Sports (씨디씨골프앤스포츠) · 2025-12-01
What happened
CDC Golf & Sports (주식회사 씨디씨골프앤스포츠), a small Korean apparel maker, operated the premium golf-wear brand Craig & Karl Golf (크랙앤칼골프), licensed from the pop-art duo Craig & Karl.
The Seoul Rehabilitation Court decided on 1 December 2025 to open a corporate rehabilitation procedure for the company, as the golf-wear market shrank and small operators could not withstand rising competition in the post-COVID downturn.
Why it happened
- The company built its business on a pandemic golf boom — as overseas travel resumed and MZ-generation golfers left the sport, demand for golf wear fell.
- The market became oversupplied as many brands that had proliferated during COVID were being weeded out, and small manufacturers lacked the scale to ride out the downturn.
- The prolonged economic slump kept consumer spending weak just as competition among golf-wear labels intensified.
The lesson
A licensed premium brand is only as strong as the market it sits in — when the COVID golf boom reversed, a small manufacturer with no scale advantage had no buffer against the downturn.
Aftermath
The Seoul Rehabilitation Court decided on 1 December 2025 to open a corporate rehabilitation procedure for CDC Golf & Sports, the small Korean apparel maker operating the premium golf-wear brand Craig & Karl Golf. News reported in February 2026 that the golf-wear market's contraction and fiercer competition among COVID-era brands had pushed some small operators into court receivership, with larger rivals such as Cris F&C and Hyungji Global also seeing profits and sales fall sharply. The company proceeded under court supervision.
Sources
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