Tuesday, October 6, 2009

More Shoes, More News

FJ SPORT
NIKE Tour Premium
FootJoy ICON
Adidas Tour 360 LTD



(Photos the property of Nike Golf, FootJoy/Acushnet and Adidas Golf)
 

Nike's Tour Premium got the go-round from British Open champ, Stewart Cink, in the TOUR Championship just over a week ago and was introduced to retail stores on Oct. 1.  The shoe is definitely a new and more elegant approach from Nike, who has strongly favored sportier designs for many years. The tagline is "Old World Craftsmanship Meets New World Performance" which everyone seems to be going for recently. (FootJoy took inspiration from traditional FJ models throughout the years for the ICON.) 

The quality levels seem to be matching the performance/stylistic levels in terms of importance with new design - which is really a win-win for consumers. These days your product really needs to stand apart to garner attention from golfers who are spending less and expecting more. Welcome to 2009 in the retail world. 

We suppose you'd like to know what we think of the shoe? Well. It's nice enough looking...specifically the all-white. We're quite scared Nike heads may not gravitate towards it. We know a few big Nike fans and we can tell you that they won't buy this shoe. It isn't spicy enough, it isn't sporty enough. 

FootJoy just released photos of their new SPORT model shoe, due out next February, and it's fair to say that Nike has its work cut out to keep up. No, FootJoy does not pay us...

Adidas, meanwhile, is going to grab the crowd looking for a sportier shoe, as it has been for years - so we're not sure this Nike Golf shoe really has a niche in the market. We wish Nike the best, but we think their shoe design is severely trailing the rest of their development in apparel, equipment and accessories - it just seems flat for such a dynamic company. We'd be interested to know what people thought of Nike as a golf shoe...Let us know... 

One thing these guys can agree on is a price, all (3) flagship pairs can be had for 250 clams - MSRP. Pricing on FJ SPORT to come. 

-KC 

1 comment:

David said...

It's about time that Nike got more stylish. I like DryJoys, but I'll have to take a look at these.