1:41
- living
- September 25, 2025
Designer's upcycled golf brand inspired by nature
Karsten Jurkschat upcycles textiles to make his golf apparel and accessories.
1:41
Jurkschat, a former advertising creative director from Melbourne, said he felt like he'd \"fallen out of love with creativity\" after nearly seven years working in the concrete jungle, and as an avid, lifelong surfer who grew up with an affinity for the ocean and spending time outdoors, he said he re-discovered golf during the pandemic, which provided him that same connection with the natural environment.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/TORREY_PINES-GUMTREE_1758761285861_hpEmbed_4x5_384.jpg\")
\"I found that getting up at 6 a.m. or 5 a.m. and going to one of the courses in the city and just walking around before everybody's up and playing a round of golf gave me that same disconnect and kind of mental health break that I was kind of looking for,\" he recalled.
Gumtree was born of Jurkschat's passion to reconnect with the environment and was built off every aspect of his life experiences up to this point.
\"When I I started this, it was just due to burnout in the corporate creative industry,\" he said. \"I didn't really expect it to go anywhere. It is just really special because the brand really is an amalgamation of my entire life.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/karsten-portrait_1758761286772_hpEmbed_4x5_384.jpg\")
Jurkschat said his father was a landscape gardener -- \"That's where I learned all my plant knowledge,\" he said -- and his German grandmother \"made a lot of our clothes as kids and taught me to sew,\" a craft he said he kept up over the years and eventually prompted his $300 sewing machine purchase to hand-make \"all the [Gumtree] products myself at my little studio in Brooklyn\" for the first six months of production.
\"When I started the brand, I thought, 'You know what, if I really want this to be truly sustainable and the pipeline to be really short, I'm gonna try to make them,'\" he recalled.
In just three short years, Jurkschat created his multifunctional Greenpoint shop, which functions as both a showroom and work studio where he makes prototypes and sells merchandise.
Gumtree products range from handstitched golf club covers or golf bags made from upcycled wax canvas camping tents with beautifully weathered patina -- much like the kind Jurkschat said his family slept in on the Australian coast for weekslong camping trips as a kid -- to other vintage sourced materials for T-shirts, hats and other nature-inspired golf accessories.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/HERO_2x3_1758761285920_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
The [production] cycle is pretty short and sweet,\" he said. \"I source everything myself, the fabric, and do all the design work myself in the studio -- then I take it to the small workshop we use in Manhattan and the guys put it together from there. It keeps the production timelines short, and it's sustainable as possible 'cause we're not shipping back and forth across oceans or across the country. And we do fulfillment out of here too.\"
Unlike large athletic fashion apparel brands that have to do things more than a year in advance, Jurkschat said Gumtree is uniquely positioned to remain \"small and nimble.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/DSCF7777_1758761286120_hpEmbed_4x5_384.jpg\")
\"We make something, we promote it, it sells out, we use that money to make the next thing and we just keep it feeling tight and special,\" he said. \"We make every decision with the brand based on the best piece of storytelling we can do in a product that furthers the purpose of the brand -- if we started mass producing everything, we would start to make decisions based on, like, moving product versus kind of making interesting pieces.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/DSCF0453_1758761286548_hpEmbed_4x5_384.jpg\")
Gumtree also says it donates \"2% back of all sales to help remove carbon from the atmosphere,\" which Jurkschat said he researches and changes up every quarter.
\"There's a lot of good initiatives fighting [climate change] -- we like to let our customers know we're putting our money where our mouth is,\" he said. \"I'd sometimes love to have that extra 2%, because we're self-funded and don't have investors. [But] it's really important to me to give our customers the opportunity to feel like they're making a difference through Gumtree.\"
","canonicalUrl":"https://abcnews.com/GMA/Living/gumtree-golf-designer-nature-sustainability-ryder-cup/story?id=125812865","legacySlug":"/living/story/gumtree-golf-designer-nature-sustainability-ryder-cup-125812865","noIndexNoFollow":false},"publishTime":"09:18","publishDate":"09-25-2025","updatedTime":"19:43","updatedDate":"09-25-2025","socialImage":{"alt":"Founder of Gumtree Golf & Nature Club, Karsten Jurkschat, tees off at a golf course.","credit":"Gumtree Golf & Nature Club","ratio":"16x9","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/karsten-golf-club_1758761189731_hpMain_2_16x9_1600.jpg","width":992,"height":558},"datePublished":"9/25/2025 09:18:00 GMT","video":{"live":false,"id":125812865,"headline":"Designer's upcycled golf brand inspired by nature","mediaAssetTitle":"SUSTAINABLE GOLF CLOTHING LINE (GMA)","description":"Karsten Jurkschat upcycles textiles to make his golf apparel and accessories.","duration":"1:41","posterImg":{"url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","width":608,"height":342},"video":{"feed":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2025/09/250922_gma_digital_gumtree_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8"},"playlist":["124950516","119877275","123795382"]},"relatedItems":[{"contentType":"story","date":"August 25, 2025","headline":"Tommy Fleetwood wins 1st PGA Tour title in the Tour Championship","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/tommy-fleetwood-reflects-long-awaited-pga-tour-title-124950516","id":124950516,"image":{"alt":"Tommy Fleetwood wins 1st PGA Tour title in the Tour Championship","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/tommy-fleetwood-5-epa-gmh-250825_1756136675221_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Erik S Lesser/EPA/Shutterstock","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"March 17, 2025","headline":"Rory McIlroy watched this movie to reset before The Players Championship playoff","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/rory-mcilroy-the-players-championship-golf-devil-wears-prada-119877275","id":119877275,"image":{"alt":"Rory McIlroy watched this movie to reset before The Players Championship playoff","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/McIlroy-gty-er-250317-_1742225762842_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Richard Heathcote/Getty Images","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"July 16, 2025","headline":"Scottie Scheffler says winning at golf is 'not a fulfilling life' ahead of The Open","section":"culture","slug":"/culture/story/scottie-scheffler-british-open-golf-winning-isnt-fulfilling-123795382","id":123795382,"image":{"alt":"Scottie Scheffler says winning at golf is 'not a fulfilling life' ahead of The Open","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/scottie--scheffler-01-gty-jef-250716_1752668256527_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Peter Morrison/AP","ratio":"1x1"}}],"relatedContentSection":"news","schemaContent":{"name":"Designer's upcycled golf brand inspired by nature","description":"Karsten Jurkschat upcycles textiles to make his golf apparel and accessories.","duration":"1:41","uploadDate":"09-25-2025","publication":"09-25-2025","images":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","url":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2025/09/250922_gma_digital_gumtree_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","contentUrl":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2025/09/250922_gma_digital_gumtree_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","link":"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/gumtree-golf-designer-nature-sustainability-ryder-cup-125812865"}},"playlist":[{"id":"133390157","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133415361","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133414032","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133380485","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133358298","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133350119","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133307515","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133307527","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133282665","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133220149","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133179167","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133144373","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133144059","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133143081","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133075455","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133063114","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133063086","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"133015093","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132998564","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132998072","contentType":"story","section":"news"}],"kvps":{"pgtyp":"article","lang":"en","sp":"goodmorningamerica","programmatic":"true","bundleId":"com.abcnews"}},"analytics":{"accountID":"wdgnewwdgnewgmaweb","ns":"gma","pageName":"gma:living:video","pageType":"video","globalSpecVersion":"v1.08","siteDifferentiator":"gma:site","tagID":"g_page01","userABCookie":"0","section":"living","title":"Designer's upcycled golf brand inspired by nature","pubTime":"05:18","pubDate":"09-25-2025","modTime":"15:43","modDate":"09-25-2025","taxonomyTags":"none","id":125812865,"editorialOtherSubjects":"","wordCount":"none","columns":"none","authors":"","authorsUnit":"none","authorsBureau":"none","subBrand":"Good Morning America","provider":"Good Morning America","videoName":"Designer's upcycled golf brand inspired by nature","mediaAssetTitle":"SUSTAINABLE GOLF CLOTHING LINE (GMA)","videoId":125812865,"mediaOnPage":"video","legacySlug":"/living/story/gumtree-golf-designer-nature-sustainability-ryder-cup-125812865"},"taboola":{}},"request":{"headers":{},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"GET","url":"/video/125812865","vary":{"host":"www.goodmorningamerica.com","cached":true,"path":"/video/125812865","forwarded-proto":"https","device":"desktop","userab":"0"}},"viewport":{"width":1260,"height":0},"user":{}};