Story By: Hal Jack and Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
West Palm Beach, FL–
It has been a few weeks since we picked up the new 2023 edition of the Puma Ignite Elevate Golf shoes at the PGA Show for a performance wear test and wow, we were sort of shocked how good these shoes really are.
We must admit we have stayed away from the Puma product until early last year because we just didn’t think they met the full combo of stylish and performance on the course, that was last year and with these new colors and even more tweaks on the shoes for 2023, this may be a front runner again for those looking for an everyday shoe on and off the courses.
While the best spikeless golf shoes definitely dominated the market in 2022, there have been some great examples of more traditional spiked golf shoes released this year. Going up against the likes of the FootJoy, Adidas and Under Armour, the Puma Ignite Elevate gives you more spiked technology in this version without the spikes.
One big feature we liked about this shoe was the upper material with engineered mesh to provide structure, fused underneath TPU film that provides support and a 1-year waterproof warranty. We played three rounds with both staff members wearing the shoes at various points in the day. The shoe didn’t not let the wet early morning grass water seep through on two rounds and the third one we did incur a little bit of sock wetness.Where you will find this shoe excels overs others in the same category is the IGNITE Foam. Revolutionary and proprietary midsole foam provides energy return, responsive comfort, stable cushioning, and superior step-in comfort. We can easily see why people would want to wear this on and off the course. It does look like a basic running style shoe at first glance. This definitely is another 9.5 of 10.
If you are looking for a great shoe that certainly pairs well with some of their great golf apparel, this is a good shoe to toss in your bag. Great inside the clubhouse for kicking it over drinks after your round too.
The only downside to this shoe for us is, that with the waterproof component to the shoe, it does have a little of less than “luxury golf” shoe look to it. Sort of a too much plastic look at first sight. But if comfort and performance over basic color design and construction are a must, this is your shoe.
All of the color variations are available on www.puma.com for $129.99 and other golf shoe retailers like Dicks and Golf Galaxy just to name a few.
