If you’re anything like me, when you’ve heard the news of Max Homa signs with COBRA PUMA Golf, your first thought was not “What clubs will he play?”, but “What shoes will he wear?”
Just me? Yeah, I’m a little weird. But just as PUMA looks to strengthen their PGA Tour stable, they’ve done some work to bolster their spikeless shoe offerings with the addition of the all-new IGNITE ELEVATE 2 and IGNITE ELEVATE X.
You’ve heard some of this story before. Both shoes rely on PUMA’s comfortable IGNITE foam for underfoot cushioning and energy return. The new technology story this year, however, is all about stability in the form of what PUMA calls FLOATPLATE. Basically, it’s a new throat plate designed to give the shoe more stability.
WTF is a throat plate?
You’re probably wondering what the big deal is about this throat plate. No, it won’t stab you and, no, you can’t eat from it. Commonly found in basketball shoes (and starting to become common in some sportier style golf shoes), a throat plate is a stiff material in the midfoot area to keep a shoe from twisting.
In short, a throat plate adds to the overall stability of a shoe through torsional stiffness. They are often made of TPU or even carbon fiber. I’m not exactly sure about the materials in this case, but it appears to be your standard TPU (you can see it through the two small windows on the bottom of the shoe).
Two pairs, two styles
Outside of the new FLOATPLATE, both shoes have similar setups: full-length IGNITE foam padding, engineered mesh uppers, and TPU overlays for waterproofing. Each pair is rounded out with a studless rubber outsole with more than 100 lugs.
The difference in the two comes in style. The IGNITE ELEVATE 2 is more traditional, while the IGNITE ELEVATE X has a more minimalist look and feel with branding. The ELEVATE 2 also features PUMA’s PWRSADDLE TPU that helps lock in as you squeeze through the laces.
While I have yet to test either pair, I’m optimistic about the performance improvements made here. The studless shoe category often lacks durability and the new PUMA IGNITE ELVEATE offerings more than live up to the price tag as performance studless golf shoes.
You can shop both pairs now at PUMA.
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