I recently headed to Boston to learn more about how thriving golf shoe brand PAYNTR designs its own products.
The short 60-minute flight and subsequent conversation with Mike Glancy, co-founder of PAYNTR, left me thinking about how small details can make a big difference.
Ever heard of the infamous Mount Erebus disaster? A passenger plane took off from New Zealand, heading for Antarctica. A miscalculation in the scale coordinates (two degrees to be exact) caused the flight path to end 28 miles east of the final destination and eventually ended in the plane crashing into Mount Erebus, an active volcano.
Two degrees. Twenty-eight miles.
This is just one example of how the smallest changes can make a big difference.
A shot that is a few millimeters above, below or to either side of the center of the club face can have drastic effects on the flight of your golf ball.
Small details, drastic effects.
This is it the driving force behind PAYNTR’s exponential success. The small, scrappy team led by Mike Glancy and Mike Forsey does a few little things differently than the rest of the golf shoe industry.
Not because they need to. Because they want to. When your sole mission is to build the best damn golf shoes on the planet, every little edge you have over your competitors is essential to slaying the proverbial dragon in golf shoes.
I spent a few hours with Glancy in the PAYNTR Golf design studio to find out exactly what she does PAYNTR Golf Access so different and how that difference is paying real dividends for the brand and performance dividends for the golfer.
Expertise
If you rread my last piece on PAYNTR Golfyou already know that Glancy and Forsey have worked on just about every shoe brand on the planet. NIKE, Reebok, Under Armor and FootJoy, just to name a few.
“I truly believe that all my years of designing indoor shoes helped me drive golf innovation,” said Glancy. “We (Mike and I) have over 50 years of shoe experience being at the biggest brands in the world and seeing what works and what can be improved.”
Experience is priceless, something you can’t put a number on. Countless hours. Countless failures. But even more success.
Fingerprints from each of the brands Glancy and Forsey have worked on can be found on every pair of PAYNTR golf shoes they produce.
If it takes 10,000 hours to master something, the combined 50 years (438,000 hours) of experience that Glancy and Forsey share surely places them with the smartest and most experienced veterans in the shoe industry.
Although I don’t know that they would call themselves “shoe masters”. Not because they aren’t good enough. But because “good enough” is never good enough for PAYNTR Golf.
If Glancy and Forsey have already climbed the Everest of footwear (or in this case, Mount Erebus), they decided it would be fun to retire from the back, quit their cushy corporate jobs and try to reach the top again by starting their own brand.
This is the PAYNTR change.
Versatility
A short walk around the PAYNTR Golf design studio makes it clear that Glancy is an athlete. A helmet from his days as a college lacrosse player is proudly displayed behind his desk. Of the million lessons to be learned from athletics, perhaps the most important is agility.
Agility itself describes why and how PAYNTR Golf was able to move up so quickly in an overcrowded footwear market.
It goes along with words like flexibility or agility. Or, in other words, the things that aren’t given to billion-dollar corporations with hundreds or thousands of stakeholders to satisfy.
PAYNTR Golf, although growing rapidly, is still what most would consider a “small” business. A few full-time employees, a few outside assignments, but a lot of determination.
Where big brands have hoops to jump through for almost every project, the versatility of the PAYNTR Golf team allows them to be responsive. When Jason Day rocked a pair of special gator-print Match Day shoes earlier this year, the internet looked for a way to buy them.
Just four months later, the shoes became available for retail, a surprise moment that turned into one of PAYNTR’s most successful releases of the year.
It’s a process that would take big brands an entire product cycle to do. But thanks to PAYNTR’s agility, they were able to take a niche project and bring it to retail within months.
That’s unheard of in an industry that relies so heavily on lead times that brands often have to plan two to three years ahead to get their products on the shelves.
Better products for the consumer within a better time frame. The PAYNTR difference strikes again.
Athlete involvement
Almost every shoe brand has signature sneakers. But few, if any, of those brands involve their athletes to the level that PAYNTR Golf does.
This is how most sneaker dating goes. The brand shows them a sketch or design (or even a finished prototype) and they get a thumbs up from the athlete in question. It’s as uninvolved as it gets.
Not for PAYTNR. We have already talked at length about the work they have done Jason Day in the Speed ​​Classic lineup of golf shoes. “The relationship that I have now with Jason Day and the real collaboration that we share is very cool,” Glancy said.
“Our strength lies in the ability to partner with professionals and influencers who truly embody our brand,” continued Glancy. “Our partners don’t just get a shoe box every season. They are designers, innovators, trendsetters and the wearers of every new project or sample.”
As we speak, PAYNTR is working with an unnamed athlete (you’ll find out who soon enough) on a new golf shoe. It’s not one of those situations where they just slap his name on and call it a day.
In Glancy’s words, they are literally building this golfer “the perfect golf shoe for them.”
“We’re hungry for collaboration. Encourage it, almost demand it in a way. Why not? These players, like Jason Day and the world-class team we have at 2026, have their fingerprints and design DNA all over our product,” Glancy said. “It’s what makes our product so special and gives consumers so much confidence in the shoes they buy from PAYNTR Golf.”
And this level of involvement from the world’s best athletes filters into every pair of shoes that PAYNTR makes.
PAYNTR Golf Shoes are built for the best golfers in the world and those who want to become them.
This is the PAYNTR change in action.
Customer experience
Your product is only as good as how you treat your customers. Because PAYNTR Golf isn’t just selling golf shoes. They are selling themselves as a brand as well. They should give you every reason to try them over old names like FootJoy and adidas, who have dominated the space for decades.
They do this by creating a customer experience that is as good as you will find.
Did you know that PAYNTR Golf has never denied a return? Not once have they stopped a golfer (although there are very few of them) from returning a pair of their shoes.
They have dedicated customer service representatives who can be reached by phone or email just to make sure that when a golfer has their first PAYNTR golf experience, it’s a good one.
When you stand behind the quality of your product, this is how you treat your customers.
So when you send in a visibly worn pair of PAYNTR Golf Shoes and they send them back, no questions asked? This is PAYNTR’s change.
The difference
Let’s end where we started.
Small details make a big difference.
At each stop on their shoe journeys, Glancy and Forsey have gathered information about what works and what doesn’t. Small things that have a lasting impact.
And when you put all those little things together? You have a chance to do something really special.
So the next time (or the first time) you try on a pair of PAYNTR Golf Shoes, take a second to notice the little details. lay The eyelids. Presentation of the box. The smell of leather and glue.
It’s clear to me, as it should be to you, that PAYNTR is obsessed with making the perfect pair of golf shoes. This is it change PAYNTR.
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