Despite increased competition from both major brands and smaller shoe companies, Footjoy has maintained its absolute dominance in the golf shoe market. Next to your clubs, golf shoes are probably the most important golf gear you will buy. Take it from someone who regularly has 8 pairs of golf shoes, having the right shoe can make a huge difference in comfort, traction, and to some extent, performance.

Everyone has a weak spot, mine is golf shoes (at least that is what I am willing to admit to on a public blog). Fortunately, Three Guys Golf is a great way to feed my addiction without going to the poor house. So each and every year I look forward to checking out all of the latest golf shoes to find the latest and greatest. New colors, new technology, new names, it just never gets old for me. This year’s entry from Footjoy is called the Freestyle. If you recall, last Spring I reviewed the Footjoy Hyperflex which in my opinion was totally ill-named as they were stiff as a board. Luckily, the Freestyle is a whole different story.

So you absolutely dominate the golf shoe market despite a ton of new companies trying to chip away at your base. Despite your storied history, resting on your laurels is risky with the required annual new model release. Inevitably, you are faced with the same question every year- play it safe or try something new. Surprisingly, for the past few years, Footjoy has chosen to the road less traveled and risked going outside their brown saddle history to try and reach a younger demographic.

I’m willing to bet you’ve heard of Foot Joy, but you may not yet be aware of the FJ City, a new line of shoes they released in April of this year. The line is made of up of 6 different models – 3 wing tip and 3 standard, each with a slightly funky twist on color pairings that add a little edge to the standard FootJoy look. As FootJoy’s website puts it: “a street style shoe designed for golf, the FJ City is fashion forward allowing any golfer to look his best on the golf course”.

Being the Imelda Marcos of golf shoes, I now can tell a good shoe from a great shoe in about 5 seconds, which is exactly how long it took for me to determine that the FootJoy DNA fell into the latter category.

Last fall I reviewed the FootJoy Icons and I continue to wear them on a fairly regular basis. With that said, the new DNA’s are a clear upgrade in just about every facet (except they are not money blue and yellow like my Icons).

Each year we sit down to come up with a list of the absolute best products we have reviewed in the past 12 months. Not only is this task mentally taxing because we have to choose between hundreds of good products, but also because of the fact that each product is typically reviewed by only one of us.

Heavy is the head the wears the crown, and for Footjoy, maintaining their market share is surely not easy. Like every golfer, I have owned my fair share of Footjoys in the past. To be honest, I walked away from the brand a few years ago as I saw other companies releasing innovative designs while FJ tended to be stuck in the saddled Dryjoy.

Recently, however, FootJoy has become bolder as evidenced by the M Project shoe that we reviewed this summer. Additionally, Footjoy has expanded their popular MyJoys line in which customers can create a near endless pallet of shoe concepts.

The process is simple. Start by choosing the basic model and then customize base colors, accents, laces and initials. The web interface makes it all super easy to switch out colors and even gives you ideas based on color preferences.

So, with time to kill and endless opportunity, I sat down to design my first pair of MyJoys. While FootJoy now offers customization on the casual shoe, I decided to go with the Icon seeing how I have been bashing tour shoes for being outdated by the more progressive spikeless/alternative shoes. I guess I figured it was only fair to give them a real shot and with the Icon I would be able to test the top of the line FJ classic golf shoe.

To be clear, a basic white or black with a mild accent color would perhaps have been wiser, but no one has ever accused me of being wise. Plus, I wanted to push the envelope a bit. Hence, I ended up with blue shoes with yellow trim. The way I see it, we all have brightly colored tennis shoes and think nothing about wearing them with virtually any pair of shorts or pants so why should golf shoes be any different?

After completing the order, which included initialing the heel (why anyone would pass on this option is a mystery to me), I was informed that my shoe would take about two weeks to complete. Not too bad considering it would be made specifically for me and to my specifications.

When the shoes did arrive, I must say it was pretty cool to see my creation in the flesh. A monster? Maybe, but it is my beast. The next question would be how would I like them compared to my spikeless shoes that I have come to love.

Round one: Typically I walk, but his day we took a cart. I was pleasantly surprised that the FJ Icons did not feel overly heavy. On the contrary, they were very comfortable and obviously provided a ton of support and traction. After 18 holes my feet felt great and I had to admit that I dug the tour look. One odd advantage is that there is no doubt what sport I am playing when wearing these babies, something that is not as true with soft-spiked “alt” shoes.

Round two: 18 walking on my home course, or as I say “my bread and butter” round. I probably walk 100 rounds per year so I am no stranger to hoofing it. After 9 holes, the feet felt great. My dogs were not too hot despite waterproof leather and I appreciated the support as some of my walking shoes are a little sloshy.

After 18 holes, however, I did notice I was slightly more tired than normal. The fact is the FJ Icons are a bit heavier than the new super-light golf shoes. Frankly, the Icon was never marketed as a walking shoe so it is not a huge knock to say there are better options for those who prefer not to take a cart.

As I mentioned earlier, the FJ Icons are waterproof and come with a two year warranty. If there is one thing FootJoy knows how to do, it is make a shoe that lasts forever. I think I have three pairs of Footjoys in the garage that I cannot bring myself to throw away even though I wore them for ages and will likely never wear again.

In the end, I remain a huge fan of the spikeless golf shoe and believe they will ultimately dominate the market. With that said, I have a certain level of appreciation for the classic style and the MyJoy Icons represent a fine example of craftsmanship and lasting quality – they will be part of my “big match” rotation.

You can design your own Myjoys on the Footjoy website.

The Footjoy website says “M Project is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from Footjoy” That my friends, could not be more true. So true that I had to double check the tag to make sure this is in fact the same Footjoy that has been around since . . . well since forever.

Chances are if you’ve played golf for any length of time you have owned at least one pair of Footjoys. Despite all of the hoopla around new companies, these guys still command around 40% market share (at least). Don’t believe me? –  the next time you play golf, look around and see how many saddle DryJoys you spot – yup, nearly every other guy has a pair.

Personally, I have owned many pairs of Footjoy shoes over the years and I’ve enjoyed their stability, longevity and waterproofness (not sure if that is a word but it’s true). Therefore, I was very curious to see how the M Project matched up feature-wise versus the more familiar styles. First off, the M Project is waterproof and comes with a 2 year guarantee. Check 1. Stability wise, the leather M Project are quite structured despite the minimalist styling. Check 2.

Where you really notice the difference between these and any other Footjoy (beyond the over-stitching and ribbons) is the low profile. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I walk most of my rounds so I was interested to see if the M Project would be as comfortable as the other Footjoys I have worn.Suffice it to say, Footjoy knows feet and comfort. Despite my somewhat nagging back problems, I found these shoes to be a great walking shoe as they provide plenty of cushion. Additionally, I really like the feel that the low profile affords.

Note that Footjoy offers a cleated version of the M Project as well and while it is slightly elevated, they claim that is the lowest profile cleat in the industry. For the purpose of this review I figured we would go Full Monty and check out the most “alt version” offered. Anyhow, I have worn enough spikeless golf shoes to know that they can provide provide plenty of traction and this was also the case in the M Project.

In short, these have been really enjoyable shoes to review. I found them to provide a stable base to hit from, sensitivity to the ground and sufficient padding to walk 18 holes. Toss in a wide variety of styles, colors, materials, sole versions, and the pedigree of Footjoy and you’ve got all you need from a golf shoe. The Footjoy M Project have a street price around $130 so they won’t break the bank either.

You can see the whole line of Footjoy products on their website.