When Jason Day appeared at last year’s Masters in a pair of as-then-unreleased Payntr golf shoes, my interest was piqued. Up to now, Panytr’s Tour presence has been rather understated with the brand instead of focussing its investments on R&D as a fairly new player. Until today, that decision has been working in Payntr's favor and the brand, young though it is, has been developing some of the best golf shoes that go toe-to-toe (pardon the pun) with golf shoe brands twice its size.
With Jason Day on board, however, the brand has taken everything up a notch with the introduction of the Eight Seven SC. The Eighty Seven is named as such as it’s the Australian’s lucky number and you’ll notice the perforated section around the heel and tongue is made up of 87 holes specifically. A small detail though this is, it tells the story of a golf shoe where every minor detail has been carefully considered. Day was walking into a manufacturer already renowned for making high-level performance shoes like the Payntr X 004 RS and X 003 F spikeless and the Eighty Seven SC has built on what was already a platform designed for elite performance.
The carbon fibre propulsion plate situated just above the outsole is the real stand-out performer of this shoe. It runs the full length of the shoe and allows you to more effectively harness ground reaction forces. We've seen the use of carbon in the likes of the FootJoy HyperFlex Carbon as well as in Tiger Woods' new Sun Day Red shoes and each time I've worn a shoe with this material in, you can feel the difference. Will the average golfer with a sub 95mph driver swing speed benefit greatly from it? Probably not. But any 105mph+ golfers out there will feel a difference underfoot through the swing.
These things are nearly impossible to measure quantifiably, but I can attest to the amount of rebound I felt through the sole of my foot, both while walking and swinging the club. That this outsole also uses seven of the Soft Spikes Tour Flex Pro spikes makes for a shoe that breathes confidence in how powerfully you can swing the club. The foot locks closely but comfortably in place across the tongue area and the heel, giving that classic locked-in sensation you’d expect from a shoe of this type while plenty of foam in the midsole and a 3D moulded footbed offer the comfort needed to walk 18 holes.
As for the looks, I think this has been a huge step up for Payntr. Not that its previous shoes weren’t good looking, they just had some unique styling touches in the early days that didn’t always look great. I'm thinking about the heel area in particular on the 004 RS, which was a different material to the rest of the shoe and didn't look all that refined in my opinion. This shoe is refined however and I enjoyed the detailing and touches of gold additions dotted across the silhouette. This isn’t a loud shoe, but I think the classy styling puts it up against some clean silhouettes like the G/FORE Gallivan2r G/Lock, FootJoy Premiere Series Field or the Adidas MC80. The upper material is wonderfully premium too, both to the touch and to look at. That being said, such is its softness, using a shoe tree and making sure you clean them immedialy after playing is the only way to keep them looking in good shape.
From every angle, this is an impressive golf shoe. Refined looks create a very desirable silhouette and it is truly bursting at the seams with technology. It’s comfortably Panytr’s most holistic creation to date and golfers looking for that added edge in performance should seriously consider an investment in the quality of their footwear.
