Since its 2021 debut with a single shoe model available in three colors, PAYNTR has made golf footwear that provides a performance advantage in the form of the brand’s signature propulsion plate technology, which is designed to help golfers keep their footing as they shift their weight, rotate and push against the turf during the swing.
Now, that innovation has been patented.
If you’re keeping score at home, the brand was granted U.S. Patent No. 12,765,631 for a golf-shoe construction that combines a directional carbon-fiber propulsion plate with a nitrogen-infused foam midsole, a traction outsole and a microfiber upper. The patent was awarded Oct. 20, naming PAYNTR co-founders Mike Forsey and Michael Glancy as the inventors.
“Earning this patent is an incredibly proud moment for everyone involved with our brand,” Forsey said in a release. “Michael and I have spent decades in golf footwear studying how players use the ground to generate power. When you watch a golfer shift pressure from one foot to the other and turn through a shot, you begin to understand where a shoe needs to flex and where it needs to hold firm. This patent validates the years our team has spent turning those observations into a better golf shoe. We built PAYNTR Golf on the belief that footwear is essential equipment and that engineering it around the way a golfer moves can give that player a real performance advantage.”
According to the release, the new patent protects a specific construction in which the carbon-fiber plate sits in a recess in the foam midsole. The plate bends more readily in the direction the foot tends to flex during a stride. When a golfer plants and turns through a shot, the plate offers more resistance in the opposite direction. The plate and compressed foam are designed to return energy to the foot as they spring back.
PAYNTR, in which GOLF.com’s parent company, 8AM Golf, holds an equity stake, is the fastest growing footwear brand in North America, with more than 200 styles on offer. Jason Day became a PAYNTR equity partner in 2024, and spent 10 months developing his signature shoe model, the Eighty-Seven SC. Min Woo Lee and Sam Burns joined PAYNTR as brand ambassadors in January, with Lee releasing his first signature shoe, the Chef RX RS, in September.
Other top players opt to wear the shoes without an official deal in place. Justin Rose became the first player to win in a pair of Payntrs when he claimed the FedEx St. Jude Championship last year. Shane Lowry, Ben Griffin and the LPGA’s Ashleigh Buhai also wear the shoes in competition.
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The post PAYNTR earns U.S. patent for its golf-shoe technology appeared first on Golf.
