By ED TRAVIS
Golf shoes are not just something to keep your feet from getting dirty or wet or to protect them from the odd stone, they are an integral piece of equipment and that’s how Payntr Golf approaches building their golf shoes.
Michael Glancy, one of Payntr Golf’s founders and the brand’s creative director, puts it best, “We design and develop every part of the shoe around the golfer. There isn’t a single stitch on this shoe we don’t think about.
Payntr Golf shipped their first shoes three years ago and today is the fastest growing footwear brand in North America with distributors in major golf markets including the United Kingdom and Europe, Japan, SE Asia, South Africa, and Canada.
Another of the founders, 25-year footwear veteran and company President Mike Forsey, described a unique feature of all their shoes to me at the PGA Show. It’s called the Integrated Graphite Propulsion Plate which is a mouthful but is more than marketing hyperbole. He explained Payntr looks at traction as a three-dimensional problem, i.e., prevent rotation in relationship to the ground, provide support horizontally and most importantly to increase the leverage created by pushing into the ground to gain power on the downswing.
The Graphite Plate feature helps both to control and enhance the ground force to improve the performance of the wearer’s swing.
A couple of examples from the current line will serve to show their attention to putting these ideas into golf shoes which are designed for results and manufactured with care.
Like every model offered by Payntr the X Tour Proto RS has a Graphite Plate in the sole. The leather upper is water resistant and inside a breathable membrane that is fused to the lining and sealed to the midsole gasket makes the shoe fully waterproof. The outsole is made of TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) with seven Tour Flex Pro spikes by Softspikes. The interior cushioning is made for comfort with PMX foam or Performance Multiplied foam in the midsole and PMX Nitro+ in the footbed.
Priced at $220 per pair there’s a choice of white or black which has a white outsole perimeter.
The Payntr X 001 F is a spikeless shoe that has an attractive Jacquard textile upper with TPU thread interwoven for additional support. Water penetration resistance comes from using Neverwet superhydrophobic solution that is also non-wicking. The outsole of TPU contains several differently sized and shaped nubs around the Graphite Plate providing traction for even the most energetic swings. Two colors are available and priced at $160 per pair.
Just putting on Payntr golf shoes will convince you they are well made, comfortable and wearing them for 18 holes will prove their performance. If you are planning to purchase either men’s or ladies golf shoes this spring Payntr is worth considering.
