It's taken a little while to get to here, but golf shoes are seemingly finally getting their due.
For way too long, golf shoes seem to have been viewed purely as a fashion statement to be made on the golf course, reflective of your personality, style or mood. As it turns out, though, golf shoes are a critical piece of equipment that impact your game on every single shot -- on equal footing with your golf ball.
Wearing well-fitting, well-performing golf shoes helps golfers hit the ball farther on any full-swing shot, keeps them connected with the ground in the myriad stances players take during a round and gives them the combination of comfort and stability that is a key to feeling good on the course.
In the main, the elevation of golf shoes from fashion piece to important equipment has been about both traction and stability. Generally speaking, wearing spiked golf shoes means more distance and reduces the likelihood of slipping in any set of conditions. However, a new insole maker is arguing that the insole has as much impact on golf-shoe performance as the outsole.
Blumaka is a relatively new company in the marketplace, and their Konnect insole has a compelling story behind it.
The insole is made from 85 percent recycled material, and its appearance makes that a standout feature by showing off the materials put together to create the product in a blue-white color scheme.
The top of the Konnect has an anti-slip coating on it, designed to help athletes from all sports to keep their feet stable in the shoe. In any athletic endeavor, wearing shoes with a tigher fit is going to help performance. That's particularly true in golf, where the footwork is the foundation of the swing. If your foot is moving about in the shoe while you're trying to swing out of them, it's not going to go as well. Keeping your feet in place in the shoes means having more control over what you do with them.
Blumaka also claims data suggesting the Konnect insole returns energy 14 percent more efficiently than the average insole tested, while reducing force on the foot by 17 percent. In golf, there's a discussion brewing around the cost-benefit of energy-returning foams, with data suggesting too much energy return can have a negative impact on the use of ground forces in the swing.
But when Blumaka contacted me about the product, I was intrigued. There's really not much of an aftermarket, so to speak, for golf insoles. I have predominantly worn Sqairz the last three years, and their research around golf-shoe stability and spiked performance has convinced me that any product that can improve shoe performance is a net benefit for a golfer. So I asked to try the insoles, which retail for $59.
I replaced the stock insoles in my Sqairz with the Blumaka Konnect. The Konnect insole is a bit thicker and obviously shaped a little differently than what came in the Sqairz. The padding in the Konnect gives a little less but it also definitely returns back to shape quickly after a step, as opposed to feeling like you're just squishing foam with most stock insoles. The heel cup in the back of the insole felt great and helped keep my foot in place with both a cradling feeling up top and a traction pattern on the bottom to prevent movement.
All told, after maybe 20 or 30 steps with the Konnect insoles in, the Sqairz felt even more stable. Modern golf shoes often have a cage-style fit, looking to use the midsole and upper to create a cage-style fit for more stability. The Konnect insoles complete the loop on the bottom of your feet, truly making me feel like I had the most stable fit available.
I've played a handful of rounds with the Konnect insoles in my shoes, and the difference is stark. When I'm hitting power shots, particularly with the driver or long irons, I feel less pronation over the outsole, meaning I'm not losing energy due to inefficient foot movement. I feel locked in and able to swing comfortably with plenty of power. The energy-returning features of the Konnect don't seem to impact distance, so it's a net positive in terms of shot length. My feet feel more comfortable at the end of the round, and that's a plus as well. For a golfer that might want a firmer shoe to have more stability and use the ground better, the Konnect insole could be the difference as they won't lose comfort.
Of course, the idea of adding $60 to the cost of your golf shoes is probably not appealing. But the good news is that you can easily transfer the Konnect insoles into other golf shoes. If you have a rotation, it's easy enough to move the insole between shoes and retain the same benefits. With knit shoes and shoes with a lower-profile upper, the fit may be a concern, but that's on a case-by-case basis and wasn't a problem for me.
If you're a golfer who wants to feel better connected to their shoes and have more freedom with the footwork in their golf swing, the Blumaka Konnect insoles are worth the investment.
