How the Heat Score Works
The Thrawn Heat Score is a momentum-first measure of cultural heat. We measure the move, not the mass — so a boutique upstart and a heritage giant can sit side by side on the same leaderboard.
The signal mix
Every brand's Heat Score blends five signals into a single number. Commerce and community are weighted highest because a real drop and authentic community pull are the hardest signals to fake and the most predictive of “this brand is hot right now.”
Current live coverage: commerce, community, and press are pulled from real sources — Shopify product drops, Reddit mentions and on-site upvotes, and news coverage. Search and social are treated as neutral while their live providers are being wired in, so today's scores lean on the signals we can verify. We'd rather show a real, partial picture than a complete, fabricated one.
Momentum over size
Within each signal, we weight momentum — the change versus the brand's own trailing baseline — at 70%, and absolute level at 30%. That keeps the board moving week to week and lets legacy brands surface the moment they do something relevant, while a little level keeps consistently-relevant brands from flatlining.
FAQ
What is the Thrawn Heat Index?
The Thrawn Heat Index is a live ranking of golf brands by their Thrawn Heat Score — a momentum-based measure of how much cultural attention a brand is gaining right now, not how big it is.
How is the Thrawn Heat Score calculated?
Each brand's Heat Score blends five signals — commerce (30%), community (25%), search (20%), social (15%), and press (10%). Within each signal, momentum (change versus the brand's own trailing baseline) is weighted 70% and absolute level 30%, so the move matters more than the mass.
Why can legacy golf brands rank as highly as new ones?
Because the Heat Score measures momentum against each brand's own baseline. A dormant heritage brand ranks low, but the same brand doing something culturally relevant — a collab, a drop, a rebrand — spikes just like a small brand breaking out.
How often is the Heat Score updated?
Continuously. The Thrawn Heat Index reflects the latest scoring run on every page load, and the leaderboard shows weekly and monthly directional change for every brand.