When I sat down with Johan Lindeberg at the Aramco Championship at Shadow Creek, I expected to spend an hour talking about fashion.
After all, this is the man who helped build Diesel into a global phenomenon before redefining golf style through J.Lindeberg. Today, he’s writing a new chapter with Jay3lle, the luxury women’s golf and lifestyle brand headquartered in Riyadh. Led by CEO Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud and backed by Golf Saudi, the brand sits at the crossroads of luxury, golf, fashion and culture, with global ambitions rooted firmly in Saudi Arabia.
Given that background, I assumed we’d spend most of our time discussing collections, design and the future of golf fashion.
Instead, we spent much of the conversation talking about intuition.
Listening back while editing the episode, I realised Jay3lle isn’t really a story about clothing. It’s a story about challenging convention, building communities and using creativity to shape, and challenge, sport culture. The fashion is almost the outcome, not the starting point.
Here are the five things that stayed with me.
It was built on intuition, not market research
Johan’s career has been defined by trusting his instincts.
After studying business in Sweden, he found himself standing outside a Diesel store in Copenhagen. Something clicked. The following day he flew to Italy, drove to Diesel’s headquarters and knocked on the door asking for a job.
“I quit everything and followed my intuition,” he told me.
That decision changed his life.
Years later, he made another equally bold decision, walking away from Diesel to pursue an idea most people didn’t understand. The result was J.Lindeberg. Throughout our conversation he returned to the idea that many people have instincts they never act on. His career, by contrast, has been built on following them.
Listening to him speak, it became clear that Jay3lle is another example of exactly that. The same intuition that led him to Diesel and later to J.Lindeberg has now brought him to Riyadh.
Jay3lle uses golf to challenge convention
When Johan launched J.Lindeberg, he wasn’t simply trying to make golfers dress differently.
He wanted to change the culture surrounding the sport.
“Fashion people didn’t like golf. Golfers didn’t like fashion whatsoever,” he recalled, describing the reaction to an idea that many dismissed at the time.
Looking back, he described J.Lindeberg as his “Trojan horse” to modernise the golf establishment.
“If I dress someone more modern, they can start to think more modern.”
It’s a fascinating philosophy because it treats fashion as a catalyst for cultural change rather than something superficial.
Jay3lle feels like the next evolution of that thinking. Rather than simply designing golf apparel, Johan is again challenging perceptions of who golf is for, what it looks like and how fashion can help shape the future of the sport.
It’s building a community, not just a brand
One word came up repeatedly throughout our conversation: belonging.
“Everything is about belonging,” Johan said.
Reflecting on Diesel, he didn’t measure its success by the millions of pairs of jeans it sold, but by the community it created. People weren’t simply buying clothing; they were buying into a feeling, an identity and a culture. That same philosophy runs through Jay3lle.
The company describes itself as a luxury women’s golf and lifestyle brand, but listening to Johan it became clear the bigger ambition is creating a community that connects people through golf, creativity and shared values. The clothing is simply the invitation.
Golf is where you have to be yourself
One of my favourite moments in the conversation came when Johan described golf as his meditation. For him, golf isn’t simply a sport. It’s a search for balance.
Then he shared an observation that has stayed with me ever since.
In the clubhouse, he said, people often feel they have to be somebody else. But once you step onto the golf course, none of that matters.
To play good golf, “you have to be yourself.”
It’s a simple idea, but perhaps one that explains why golf has remained such a constant throughout Johan’s career. Beyond competition, it offers authenticity. And perhaps that’s why he believes it’s the perfect platform for building a brand centred on confidence, self-expression and community.
Saudi Arabia isn’t just where Jay3lle is based. It’s why it exists.
The final thing that struck me was Johan’s passion for Saudi Arabia. His decision to build Jay3lle in Riyadh wasn’t simply a commercial one. It was creative.
“I’m so passionate to create this from Riyadh and from Saudi Arabia at this moment of time.”
Since relocating its global headquarters to Riyadh, appointing Princess Noura bint Faisal Al Saud as CEO and welcoming Golf Saudi as a strategic investor and partner, Jay3lle has positioned itself as a Saudi-built brand with global ambitions.
Throughout our conversation, Johan spoke passionately about the Kingdom’s transformation, describing it as a place where creativity is encouraged and ambitious ideas are given room to grow.
“Riyadh is the new New York City.”
After spending an hour with Johan, it became clear that Jay3lle isn’t simply another luxury fashion label entering golf. It’s the culmination of more than 35 years of intuition, creativity and brand building, brought together at a moment when Saudi Arabia is rapidly establishing itself as a global centre for sport, culture and innovation.
And perhaps that’s why Jay3lle feels like it’s about far more than fashion.
Listen to the full episode of The Mettleset Podcast: “Riyadh Is The New NYC” — Jay3lle Founder Johan Lindeberg on Intuition, Community and Changing Golf from Saudi Arabia.
