The struggle
Golf demands an unreasonable amount of hardware. Tees, extra balls, a divot tool, a ball marker, sometimes a rangefinder. All of it has to live in your pockets, and that assumes your outfit even has them.
I've lost countless ball markers. They disappear out of my pocket like socks in the washing machine. On days I'm wearing a skirt, or playing without a hat, I usually completely forget one. So I started thinking: how can I make a ball marker I’d never lose or forget?
The red string
When WUWEI was just an idea, I spent time in China sourcing fabrics and vetting manufacturers to prepare for our eventual first product run. While I was there, I spent some time wandering through local jewelry markets and kept seeing shops selling intricate red string bracelets.
In Chinese culture, there is a concept called 本命年 (ben ming nian)—the year of your zodiac. During the year of your sign, it is tradition to wear a red string to bring luck and ward off bad energy. Looking at all the bracelets in the shops, I realized this would be the perfect thing to design for golf.
My co-founder, Charles, is a mechanical engineer and went straight to work. He 3D-printed and CNC’d prototypes, tested different magnets and metal housings, and we debated over the string materials and the type of knot we wanted for hours.
CNC Machining
Then we went back to China to find a manufacturer. I vetted factories in person because I wanted to see the conditions and meet the people who would be making this. Once we found the right partner, we left them with our 3D-printed prototype to produce our first sample.
Forcing the flow
Then we hit a wall. Our braided design took too long and cost too much at scale. The factory refused to make it, and insisted on a different knot and a different material instead. I hesitated, but I felt like they were the experts, so I went along with their suggestion and ordered a production run anyway.
When our shipment finally arrived months later, the cord felt stiff and hard to slide open. I kept putting it on and taking it off. Over and over again, trying to convince myself this was a suitable experience. But deep down, I knew it wasn’t up to the standard I wanted for the brand.
Our whole mantra is flow over force, and for my first real production decision, I forced it.
We tried waxing the string. We tried manually opening and closing them to “break them in.” Even though we were getting good feedback from our early testers (mostly friends and family, to be fair), I ultimately decided to take it as an expensive lesson and pulled the bracelet from the site. We sat down, untied the factory's work, and went back to the drawing board, starting with our original design.
Finding the flow
The process was agonizingly slow, and at first, every single one just felt like a reminder that I'd messed up. But somewhere along the way, the untying and retying stopped feeling like a punishment. Getting into the rhythm of tying the knots actually became kind of meditative. It made us physically slow down. It’s exactly what happens when you try to swing too hard and the entire round starts falling apart. The only way to fix it is slowing the tempo down. By forcing ourselves to slow down and fix this by hand, we realized the act of making the bracelet was just as meaningful as wearing it. It felt about as close to wu wei as anything we've done.
That's why we hosted our first ball marker bracelet workshop. We sat down together, meditated, and taught everyone how to tie the knots by hand.
The biggest lesson we learned from this, and I’m so grateful that I learned it so early on, is always to trust your gut. Hold your ground and know what you stand for, but also don’t be scared to fail, because it is inevitable. The important part is to keep going when you do fail, and maybe sometimes you come up with an entirely new event concept for your brand while you’re at it.
Trying again
Over the last two months, we have been testing more options and finding ways to improve our initial design. We took all our learnings from V1 and made a better, scalable V2. We found a new manufacturing partner who sees our vision and is willing to work with us, and we are finalizing production now.
To us, the red string is a symbol of luck. But more than that, whether you're slipping it onto your wrist or looking down at it before a shot, we want it to serve as a physical reminder of flow. A reminder that as long as you aren’t forcing it, everything will be okay.
We are launching the pre-order for V2 next week — follow us on Instagram and join the newsletter to get the updates. We are really excited about the new and improved version, and we’ll be continuing to host in-person workshops to teach the original, complex knot for anyone who wants to sit down and experience the process with us.
With love and gratitude,
Sandy
Founder at WUWEI
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