Tehama makes golf shoes?

Apparently.

TEHAMA Links - Tan Firenze

I watched a chick flick called Elizabethtown with my wife the other night (it’s the penance I do for getting time by myself on the course). The movie starts out with an athletic shoe designer who has wasted a billion dollars by creating a hideous monstrostity that no one wants. The company owner said that people would rather go around in bare feet.

The strange thing was that the shoe looked an awful lot like some of the golf shoes I’ve seen lately on the walls of my local Golfsmith.

It’s a disturbing trend in golf shoes: they’re turning into basketball shoes—overblown, overdesigned and garish. Many of the latest designs would look more at home on the feet of an overly tattooed NBA thug than on a golf pro.

Exhibit Number One: The NIKE Shox

It’s bad enough that its running shoe design makes it incompatable with anything I can wear at my home course (where jeans and athletic pants are forbidden). Wearing sneakers with pleated Dockers just makes you look like Bill Gates. The worst part though, is the bizarre red shock absorbers that make it look like a kid’s toy. My son has a toy truck with similar struts.

The Shox is just one example of many in Nike’s stable of shoes.

My other gripe involves the shoes with the massive Swooshes. It is as though the swoosh itself improves your game.

Inside Information: Sergio will be wearing these Green Adidas Tour 360s on Sunday at the Masters’—when he is winning his first major title.

Even with their classic look shoes, Nike golf shoes tend toward the athletic. And why not—the Nike empire was built on running shoes (before Jordan—remember those days?)

But with the Shox, they have abandoned all pretense of making the shoe look like traditional golf footwear. Take off the spikes and it would be at home on any basketball court or marathon in America.

What makes it look so untraditional are the five columns under the heel that provide the cusioning for the shoe. Nike says that the columns provide extraordinary responsiveness, stability and comfort. The Traction At Contact (T@C) outsole is designed to offer maximum grip with the Scorpion Stinger Spikes.

To keep your feet comfortable and dry, Nike uses its WaterShield Plus system, which includes a lining that draws moisture away from your foot, and an exterior membrane that repels wetness. The shoe comes with a two-year limited waterproof warranty 45-day limited comfort warranty.

I’ve had a lot of good luck with Nike shoes—they’re always comfortable and wear well. If you prefer a more athletic looking design, they are worth trying.

NIKE Shox Golf - Navy / Grey

Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week

Thanks to MediaGuru at Hooked On Golf Blog for this one.

I’m appalled. What is FootJoy thinking? These look like something you would buy at KMart in the kids shoes section.

When I first started playing, I used to think that shoes were shoes. And so I played with a succession of budget priced shoes from a local department store. However, I’ve found that there clearly ARE differences between shoes that make a difference in my score. I think shoes are like everythign else in golf. You’ve got to find the right one for you.

Adidas’ Mens Tour 360 Golf Shoes is the latest high tech shoe.

You can read the entire press release below:

Continued...

I’m of the age where I can’t even think about shoes without hearing the voice of Mars Blackmon saying “It’s Gotta Be The Shoes!”

After the last round of golf I played, my feet were suffering from blisters, and I thought to myself “It’s gotta be the shoes”. So I went shoe shopping at Golfsmith in Novi, Michigan the and tried on about twenty pair of shoes.

The variety of shoes out now truly is bewildering. There had to be a hundred—including of all things—sandals.

I was looking for a pair designed for walking—and that wasn’t over $100. Further, they had to be black or brown. I really don’t like white.

After spending about an hour, I had the choice down to three:

The Callaway Sport Comfort in Black This is a good looking shoe with athletic shoe comfort. The toe box is plenty and the arch support felt good. It also had a neat feature: under the sole is a removable panel which somehow adjust the inside width of the shoe. I looked at it for quite a while but couldn’t figure out how it worked. But sure as shootin’, when you remove the panel, the shoe feels wider. My only complaint was that it felt a bit stiff out of the box.

The Nike SP-5 Brown This Nike shoe is a bit less traditional looking, but I thought it would do. The first thing I noticed is that it runs small. I normally wear a 9 or 9 1/2 wide. I had to go all the way up to a 10 1/2 to get one that would fit. But at that, it fit well. Still, after walking around in the shoe for a while, I got the sense that they would do better as a “cart shoe” than a shoe for someone who walks three rounds a week.

E-Comfort Black/Black Weave I’ve worn the FootJoy E-Comfort shoes for the last two seasons, and have really liked them. Still, I expected that there would be some new shoes that I liked better.  But I kept returning to them. They are lightweight, flexible, and comfortable. Like a pair of pre-washed jeans, they feel like old friends from the moment I put them on. So that’s what I bought. A size 9 wide black with black weave Footjoy E Comforts. Now its off to the club.