When Did Nike Golf Become Nike, Golf?
The push and pull of heritage versus innovation is as delicate as a downhill putt at Augusta.
First it was the Air Max 90, then it was the 1. Last year was the Air Pegasus 89 and now it’s the Air Max Plus. We’re referring of course to retro silhouettes that Nike has taken from the street to the links. It’s a trend that many people associate with the post-COVID golf boom among 20 and 30-somethings. But the truth is that it began almost 10 years ago.
“I wear Air Max shoes casually off the golf course all the time,” said Rory McIlroy in 2016. “Making it into a golf shoe really brings something new to the golf course. Not only is it different and very cool but it also performs well, giving me the comfort, traction and stability that I need.”
This lifestyle push began only a few years after the sportswear imprint produced perhaps its most innovative golf shoe ever: the TW ‘13. Intended for an on-the-mend Tiger Woods, the Tobie Hatfield classic looked like nothing else on the market at the time, combining the ruggedness of a field boot, the responsiveness of a runner and the support of a basketball shoe. Up that point all of the Swoosh’s golf-specific offerings had some element of a classic golf shoe, but the TW was a true original.
Despite the shoe’s initial success, Woods moved on to another model within a few seasons. Nonetheless, it returned in 2023 as a retro and after the initial wave of excitement the TW ‘13 became just another in a batch of lackluster performance models. Now that might have something to do with the inflated price tag, but surely there’s more to it. “Consumers may say they want innovation, but what they really want is nostalgia,” says Jordan Rogers, a former brand marketing director in Beaverton-turned online personality. “It’s kind of like, I want you to make the old thing that I used to like.”
Fred Vuich/Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Fred Vuich/Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
The difference is that the early Air Max golf shoes, like the Air Zoom 90 IT that Rory actually wore in competition, used to have a more identifiable set of performance attributes. The latest AM90 G, on the other hand, could easily be mistaken for its lifestyle counterpart if it weren’t for the “Golf” branding. Even the spikeless outsole looks nearly identical apart from the raised traction lugs. All of this results in a product that doesn’t fully commit to being a golf shoe or a street shoe. But that versatility could be more of a strength than a weakness. Because even though a market exists for golf-specific footwear, Rogers argues that the brand’s strategy signals a better understanding of its lane and what differentiates it from competitors such as FootJoy.
“The younger demographic doesn’t have the expendable income that your classic golfers do, your high net worth individuals,” argues Rogers. “They’re gonna want something that is multifunctional and so a Jordan 1 actually makes a lot more sense commercially for a brand like Nike to land.”
That may be so, but as with anything in life, novelty tends to fade. And after seeing all of the AJ1 Golf Chicago, UNC and Shattered Backboards of the world the golf community appears to have lost its enthusiasm. Rogers feels the same way: “I used to scour the Internet for Michael Jordan‘s charity tournament once a year. The only place that you could see Air Jordans that were turned into golf shoes was at that charity tournament.”
“Consumers may say they want innovation, but what they really want is nostalgia.” – Jordan Rogers, former brand marketing director at Nike
The over-saturation of coveted models in the marketplace isn’t necessarily unique to the golf division at Nike. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons why former CEO John Donahoe stepped down in September. The real difference between Nike Golf and Nike as a whole lies in the respective customer bases. Although deeper cuts from the Air Max series may have a cult following among sneakerheads, most golfers don’t have the same understanding of sneaker culture. Consider last year’s Air Pegasus 89 G which never really caught on. Sneaker content creator Jacques Slade suspects the same fate could befall the Air Max Plus G in 2025.
“I think Jordan just has a cultural cache that has a little more tail to it. But the Air Max Plus isn’t a sneaker that the larger golfing community is familiar with. It’s like a sneakerhead’s sneakerhead kind of shoe.” This gets back to a larger point about the golf community. The ones who really eat, sleep and breathe contemporary fashion and streetwear are few and far between. In reality, even the golfers who consider themselves to be on the progressive side are way more likely to recognize the name MANORS than they are Gramicci.
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Tony Finau, the player widely considered to have the best shoe game in professional golf, admits he didn’t grow up as a sneakerhead. And bless Scottie Scheffler’s heart, but the world’s number one player doesn’t understand the word deadstock. Not necessarily the best look for Nike’s biggest golf ambassador. The man who used to carry that mantle, Tiger Woods, is gone. So is Jason Day, a player who was always willing to embrace the Swoosh’s more progressive footwear models even if his career was on the downturn. Add that up with a series of drops throughout the season which don’t appear to be tied to any particular moment in the golf calendar, and Nike’s strategy becomes harder to discern.
“I just think Nike Golf is so unorganized right now,” Slade concurs. “Everything feels so disconnected. So that’s why I think it makes it hard for people to put any allegiance toward it. Something just doesn’t feel right.”
And if there is a strategy, perhaps it’s simply to withdraw gradually. “I’m not privy to the inside workings, but I can tell you it’s clear from the outside that golf is not a priority,” adds Rogers.
The question then becomes: is Nike still out to make golf shoes? In a world where runners are now considered appropriate for the links, the answer depends on your definition of what actually constitutes a golf shoe. Once you’re done chewing on that, ask yourself if spending a few hours at Topgolf or the putt-putt course counts as real golf. And what do people want to have on their feet in those contexts? The golf community is still trying to figure it out. So is Nike.
