It’s just a golf shoe to some, but it carries a bigger meaning to many. An emotional equity that is hard to ignore, even as a journalist who pushes hard to not carry a bias.
This year, the FootJoy name turns 100 years old. You can buy a lot of things in this world, but no amount of wealth can buy you history. It’s something even the shoe brand’s competitor cannot deny. As great of product as the others can make, the factor that is always hard to reconcile is FootJoy’s tie to people’s emotions, their golf and personal histories. This year, wisely, the Massachusetts-based brand is leaning into it even more than ever.
That will become highly apparent this week, during the playing of 123rd U.S. Open, when they unveil a shoe that simply exudes what they have been about for a century. It is perfectly timed, as golf fashion trends among the aspiring golfer increasingly favours the classic looks, often prompted by social media visuals, of items like cardigans, visors, and traditional styled golf shoes. The latter has been fueled in part by FootJoy themselves, with the introduction of their Premiere Series in 2021 and built on the company’s rich footwear heritage.
For me, the Premiere Series is a surrogate for the FootJoy Classic shoes of the past. As an emerging golfer in the 1980’s, the Classic was the shoes the pro wore. It was part of the uniform; if you were going to be a pro (and what young golfers didn’t carry that hope) you had to have them.
Alas, I was not of the means to own a pair, but eventually buying my first pair of moderately priced GreenJoys would suffice as a connection.
Seemingly by fate and circumstance, within a decade, as a young co-owner of a retailer store I found myself on Field Street in Brockton, Mass.. It was 1993 and I was about to enter the FootJoy Cathedral, the original building where Classics were made, where the parent company of FootJoy, Field and Flint Company, had established roots in 1857. (The FootJoy brand emerged in 1923 courtesy of an internal employee naming contest)
Already in awe, I was even more so when I was able to get on to the manufacturing floor where the full leather uppers were being married to soles by members of the workers who were part of the Brotherhood of Shoe and Allied Craftsmen. As the sun pushed fingers of light through the old windows and the scene unfolded before me I marveled at their skills. A Dickens-like stage with creaking wooden floors, primitive but functional machinery, and workers who lived their job with a self-identity bound to the company and their work. An aging lady shared that she had been on duty there for nearly 50 years; an Italian gentleman proudly showed me the spiking machine he had invented himself in order to automate the process of inserting 4000 of the studs each day. It was magical.
While that factory would eventually close in 2019, and that manufacturing floor was vacant when I returned there a few years prior, the enchantment remained. Even in the modern FootJoy office it carries through to their design team. They look to the past for inspiration. The projects in the aging sample room, with both successes and puzzling disasters tucked away, never fails to tie them to 100 years of FootJoy history and what the brand has meant to people, often for reasons beyond golf. The shoes run parallel to their life history, becoming a symbol for the moments they cherish, on and off the course. It’s powerful.
And that, leads to this week, and the unveiling on the Centennial Premiere Series Wilcox shoe which will be worn by players like Justin Thomas, Max Homa, Justin Scott, and more. It’s a nod to a patriotic red, white, and blue model debuted at the 1973 U.S. Open, now the halftime mark in the brand’s annals.
While the new model carries with it modern features like a “VersaTrax+ outsole” and comes with a special 100-year medallion, it is more than the physical manifestation that draws admiration, connection, and appreciation.
In a pair of shoes, history is symbolized. A passion for the game of golf is represented. Lives shaped by golf are embodied.
When the shoes become available for public sale on June 15 in limited quantities, they will carry a price tag ($349.99 CAD), but for many, it will be far less than the actual value they hold for them.
Sometimes objects, even golf shoes, are worth much more when it comes to the feelings they evoke.
