If you zoom in on Jason Day’s footwear at this week’s PGA Championship, you’ll see a logo that might be unfamiliar: A somewhat nondescript X on a clean, classic yet athletic-looking shoe. Which brand is Day sporting?
The answer is Payntr — a footwear company that launched its first pair of shoes in 2021 and has since been quickly gaining traction with pros and recreational players alike. Payntr is currently the fastest-growing footwear brand in North America. But why?
Payntr’s primary point of differentiation from other golf shoes on the market is the brand’s cutting-edge propulsion technology. Most golfers have heard about the increasing significance of biomechanics when it comes to swing analysis and improvement. But how many are choosing their footwear in accordance with biomechanics principles? That’s where Payntr soars. Every Payntr shoe model features a propulsion plate to help golfers harness ground reaction forces to bring more speed and power to the ball during the downswing.
Every one of our shoes is based the on-course needs of the golfer and the biomechanics of the golf swing,” said Payntr co-founder and president Mike Forsey, who has 30 years of experience in the golf shoe business, working at footwear powerhouse Nike, Reebok, Under Armour and FootJoy prior to Payntr. “What happens during the golf swing is your feet want to twist out from under you, or rotate. You need horizontal support, and the thing that really sets us apart is this vertical push, pushing into the ground and getting that energy return and responsiveness the golfer can bring to the golf swing.”
So what does that technology actually feel like? Forsey says it should be noticeable right away.
“You’ll feel it when you’re walking the course, but when you’re over the golf ball during the golf swing — and it happens so quickly — you’re going to feel that stability,” he said. “When we talk about traction for the golf swing, that’s where we can deliver the performance advantage from the perspective of, if your feet slip out from under you, that’s going to adversely affect your score. If you’re not efficiently and effectively harnessing ground reaction forces, you may not hit it as far, and it’s going to affect your performance. So you’ll feel it there.”
In addition to the biomechanics-minded technology in the shoe, Forsey and his team knew that making the shoe as comfortable as possible was still paramount.
When you’re walking the course, and you’re in your shoes for as long as you are, comfort is going to be your No. 1 priority,” he said. “Tour players are in their shoes for eight, 10, 12 hours per day. So when we look at comfort, it’s not only underfoot cushioning, but it’s comfort that’s, for us in the development-design world, we look at it holistically. So we want to give underfoot cushioning. We want to move perspiration from the inside, but we want to keep water out. We want the shoe to be flexible and lightweight. We want the shoe to fit. We want to choose not only materials but top line constructions that will be comfortable.”
That reputation for comfort is what ultimately drew PGA Tour players like Justin Rose, Denny McCarthy and Mike Weir to the brand. They’re among a sizable contingent of PGA, LPGA and Champions tour players who wear Payntr’s shoes without a deal, simply because they like them. Jason Day is Payntr’s only sponsored player on Tour, and Day became a Payntr equity partner early last year. He performed a 10-month wear-test before releasing his limited-edition signature model, the Eighty Seven SC, in October, which initially sold out in 90 minutes.
