The one piece of equipment you definitely need to be fit for

PGA Tour winner Adam Schenk knew something was wrong with his footwear; he just couldn’t figure out what it was. To make himself more comfortable, he started wearing two socks on one foot and three on the other. Just like roughly 90 percent of people, Schenk has differently sized feet. With the help of FootJoy’s Fit Lab, Schenk found out he should have been wearing a 10.5 narrow, instead of the size 11 shoes he was wearing.

“I was a mess,” Schenk said. “[FootJoy] moved me ... into a more structured shoe, and I’ve felt, and played, way better ever since.”

Golf shoes are golf equipment, and if you’re not thinking of them that way, you’re losing power, distance, hurting your score, and likely your feet. Your shoes are your connection to the ground and how you interact with the ground is massively important in the golf swing. That makes them one of the most important pieces of golf equipment you have; wearing the right size and right type of shoe is crucial.

However, not many players think of their golf shoes that way. In fact, about 70 percent of golfers are wearing the wrong size, often opting for shoes too big for their feet. It’s not all the consumer’s fault. The industry has no size standard, meaning one brand’s size 10 might not be the same as another's, and some brands offer only one or two widths. This leads to one of the most common mistakes in self-fitting: selecting a larger size to accommodate a wider foot.

Even a shoe that’s the right size might not be the best shoe for the way a player interacts with the ground. Many kinds of lateral and vertical forces and torques are applied through the feet during the golf swing, and the sequence in which they happen can make a big difference in how the club is delivered to the ball. Wearing a shoe that maximizes a player’s ability without sacrificing comfort is the ultimate dance of matching form and function.

These factors are easy to overlook, especially when fitting with a traditional Brannock device—a tool that’s been used to measure feet for a century. This is where FootJoy’s Fit Lab makes a difference. Using more than a dozen cameras that generate 1500-2000 images, FootJoy creates a 3D map that measures the length, width and, perhaps most importantly, volume of each foot.

Understanding these measurements, their combinations and how they can vary from foot to foot — even on the same person — is the foundation for the FootJoy R&D team to create a shoe line with dozens of styles to fit as many feet and swings as possible. For example, in one style of the all-white Premiere Series Field, FootJoy offers 47 size combinations.

Doubling and tripling up on socks might not sound so crazy for a guy who putts one-handed, brings almost two full bags of clubs with him to tournaments and still games clubs from 2017, but major champions Justin Thomas and Danielle Kang have also changed shoes based on Fit Lab.

With a wide array of sizes and styles, both spiked and spikeless, FootJoy’s offering is more like an all-you-can-eat buffet for a player in search of new kicks, and if pros are getting into the weeds regarding their footwear, you should, too.