Golf Shoes: Nike vs. Adidas

Many golfers have a personal preference to what brand they like to shop, from golf shoes to drivers to irons. People, growing up may have received a set of Callaway Big Bertha’s when they were younger, and feel a product loyalty to Callaway and only golf Callaway equipment. Others may have remembered when Tiger Woods was signed by Nike Golf in the mid 90’s, then proceeded to become a power house in the golf world, dominating every tournament on the PGA. In turn their thinking went directly to, if I golf with Nike, I will become the best golfer on my local links.

It is these type of prejudices that holds back golfers from using the best product available on the golf market. I am going to write, in this installment, about the major men’s golf shoe manufacturers. I will compare Nike Golf to Adidas Golf, giving you the pros of each individual company. Also note, that these are not the only companies that offer golf shoes, there is a slew of golf shoe manufacturers that may offer better products, better prices and overall better customer service, but you are going to have to do your own research on companies that I will not be listing.

Let us first look at Nike Golf. Nike Golf Shoes are priced on a wide range from $90.00-$230.00 and everywhere in between. Nike makes their shoes from a number of different materials, all depending on the shoe you purchase. The Nike Air Tour Saddle II which retails for a cool 90 bucks, is crafted from %100 leather uppers, while the Nike Lunar Ascend, the more modernly designed shoe, is constructed from Hyper Fuse technology; Nike claims this technology optimizes durability.

Nike Golf also claims some of their products being waterproof, backing them by a waterproof warranty, some being a one year warranty, others two. Nike Zoom TW 2012, Nike Air Range WP, and the Nike Zoom Trophy are a few on the list that are back by the warranty. Now mind you these are limited warranty’s, meaning you can’t jump into the water hazard on your local par 5 to fetch your ball, the go back to Nike and say your shoe is falling apart due to water damage. However, on rainy days you can guarantee your foot will be dry and protected no matter how much the sky’s pour.

If you are looking for the higher end type of golf shoe, the shoes that employ every technology in them, except for microwave technology, and are willing to spend in excess of $200.00, Nike can sure suit your tastes. Including the New Nike Zoom TW 2012, manufactured for Tiger Woods, Designed by Tiger Woods with Nike Free Technology, the cream of the crop in Nike Golf Technologies. The Free technology actually conforms to the human foot, giving golfers feet the flexibility of being barefoot, while still giving traction and protection.

The final overview on Nike is great quality products backed by Nike’s confidence in all the goods they offer throughout their different lines. The negatives, the shoes are very expensive and probably over-priced, they also have a very limited selection when it comes to integrated traction soles; the hottest and up and coming technology on the market for golf shoes.

We have looked at the super-power Nike; now let us look at another sports sovereignty, Adidas. Adidas has been in cahoots with TaylorMade golf since 1997, wrecking the other competition in golf sports merchandise including golf clubs, golf equipment and most importantly, golf shoes.

Let me clarify that TaylorMade handles the Golf Clubs and Adidas handles the apparel along with Ashworth, but today are only concern is with Adidas.

Adidas along with Nike has a very wide price range on golf shoes; although no discount golf shoes, the starting rate for Adidas is at $87.00 with the Adidas adiCROSS Golf shoes, one of three golf shoes on the 2012 Adidas line with an integrated spike sole. The other two are the Adidas Pure Motion and the Adidas Cross Flex, prices ranging from $99.00-119.00. The cheapest conventional shoe on the product line (conventional meaning spiked sole) would be the Adidas Power Band 4.0 costing $144.00.

All of the shoes from Adidas Golf are crafted from full-grain leather, giving the necessary durability all golfers need and want. Adidas also backs some of their shoes available with a waterproof warranty, the downside, when compared to Nike, is it only comes with two different styles you can choose from. One is the Power Bands the other is the adiPURE which retails at $249.00, which makes me wonder, how quality are the products coming off the Adidas assembly line?

To sum up Adidas in a few short words, they have very stylish shoe make ups they offer. Adidas also offers a decent selection of integrated spike shoes, with three different models, varying in over 12 different colors. The downside is, the general selection is very limited, marketing only 7 different style variations, not exactly a wide variety of choices. The prices are generally the same as Nike, no positive there; it really is starting to look a bit shaky for Adidas.

I am going to let you be the final judge of what company is better. Maybe you have special unique experience with one of these two companies, maybe you will have an opinion that may need to be heard. But these are not my personal opinions I have shared with you, these are just the cold hard facts. No bias on end, I actually prefer using Ecco Golf Shoes, I believe though, other than FootJoy, these are the one and two companies on the top of the market. I truly hope I have shed some light on the subject for you as a consumer, nothing less and nothing more.

This article was written by Richard Hart from Vegas Golf Inc.