Newest Golf Trend - Golf Shoes or Street Shoes? - Part 1

 Fred Couples has done it again! He has been a trend setter time and again. His swing, his attire, his equipment, and now his choice of shoes. Lately, he has started wearing a new style of golf shoe that closely resembles a casual sneaker. This craze has started to catch on. At the Franklin-Templeton tournament last weekend I started to see other golf professionals wearing similar shoes such as Sean O'Hair. What has peaked everyone's interest is that these shoes are spikeless. They have multi-pronged little rubber stubs along the entire sole. They are being promoted as golf shoes that you can wear to and from golf as well as out on the street.

My interest in this latest trend is two-fold:
1-Profession= Podiatrist
2-Worst Vice= Dedicated Golfer

So I've decided to spend some time researching this phenomenon and I also need a new pair of golf shoes or two for the upcoming golf season. I'm intrigued by these new shoes and will give you my professional opinion from a podiatric point of view as well as my personal observations as it pertains to golf. I want to critique these from a structural component, its versatility, how comfortable they are, and their ability to give the proper traction. Traction is important for swing balance, how they fare on slopes, stability in bunkers, and most importantly how they perform in wet conditions.

Fred Couples wears the Ecco Street versions, either the Premier (MSRP $150), or the Luxe (MSRP $180). There have been some similar versions manufactured recently, the Adidas Adicross (MSRP $90), and the Ashworth Cardiff (MSRP $120). I suppose it is only a matter of time before the other major manufacturers such as Foot Joy, Nike, and Callaway release their own versions.

In Part 2, I will give my early opinions after sampling these styles.

In Part 3 I will disclose what shoes I eventually purchased and whether they are the conventional soft spikes or the new street shoes (or both).

Stay tuned,
Brad Jacobs, DPM

http://www.podiatrycarespecialists.com/