What’s in a name?
Some are long. Some are short. Some induce positive emotions, such as happiness and joy. Others strike fear into the hearts of all who have ears to hear them uttered.
Names are given. But the heritage associated with these names? This is earned.
What do you notice about the six names listed below?
Mike Forsey
Mike Glancy
David Ortiz
Tom Brady
I have Newton
Jordan Spieth
Tiger Woods
Jason’s day
The first two names on our list, Mike Forsey and Mike Glancy, are the co-founders of PAYNTR Golf, the most underrated golf shoe brand that burst onto the scene in the early 2020s.
The other six names? These are athletes for whom Forsey and Glancy have built, designed and manufactured shoes. Tandem has a combined 50 years of shoe design experience, so building a good golf shoe must have been easy for them, right?
Right?
Not enough. Very rarely are the success stories we want to hear and read without difficulty, trial and error. Forsey and Glancy, PAYNTR Golf is the pinnacle literally decades of time spent working with some of the biggest names in the world.
I mean, Glancy literally designed the palaces worn by Tom Brady, arguably the greatest football quarterback of all time. Oh, and Cam Newton’s MVP gloves too!
“I truly believe that all my years of designing indoor shoes helped me drive golf innovation,” said Glancy. “We look outside of our category and find every edge we can to help you perform better.”
Forsey had a hand in creating Tiger Woods’ first 10 (yes, 10!) golf shoes at NIKE.
“I honestly don’t know where that comes from,” Forsey said when he dwelt on the origins of his shoe fetish. “I knew when I was working in retail and selling like Timberland and NIKE boots and adidas products, that the only thing I wanted to do was work with shoes.”
However, almost no one knows their names. Why? Because for the duo I lovingly refer to as M&M (I don’t think they like my nickname), it’s not about getting famous. Their focus is single and narrow: make the best golf shoes in the world.
And based on their performance in Testing MyGolfSpy and rgreat support from Jason Day, I would say they are well on their way to accomplishing that goal.
What about another set of names?
Saucony
Reebok
FootJoy
Cole Haan
Under armor
NIKE
And, in the end, PAYNTR.
These are the brands that M&M have poured their hearts and souls into for nothing but the love of the game. It’s the experiences around every shoe brand in the industry that gave Forsey and Glancy the edge that makes their PAYNTR product so good.
“I owe a lot of my success and foundation to Reebok and the designers there,” Glancy said.
“I actually graduated from college on Sunday and went to work for a Saucony build site on Monday,” Forsey said.
It’s almost like M&M’s were born to create a brand of golf shoes. Perhaps they were destined to work in shoes. Maybe that’s what led the group to meet while working at Under Armour, after Jordan Spieth’s Masters win.
But are you deciding to leave your cushy office jobs with some of the biggest brands in the footwear space in favor of building a golf brand from the ground up? Which deserves another name (nickname): Crazy.
“My wife suggested, hey, why don’t you start your own business? You’ve always wanted to do this. So I did,” Forsey explained.
In the beginning, PAYNTR Golf worked with a license model from PAYNTR cricket brand. But explosive growth made it possible M&M to acquire the IP around PAYNTR Golf earlier this year.
What does all this legal talk mean? The two men who have over 50 years of shoe experience now have complete control over their destiny.
And for Forsey and Glancy, that ultimately means having the ability to make the best product possible without worrying so much about margins, something that billion-dollar brands obsess over.
Where the NIKEs of the world have to dig into things like insoles, materials and more, Forsey and Glancy don’t have a multitude of stakeholders riding on their apparel. This gives them the creative and financial freedom to do the only thing they know how to do: make a killer product.
And having a former golfer no. 1 in the world in your corner doesn’t hurt either. His name? Jason’s day.
Seeing the relationship between PAYNTR Golf and Day blossom has been one of golf’s greatest stories. A PGA Tour star interested in golf shoes is something we rarely see. It’s even rarer that the pro has a real friendship with the guys who design his shoes.
“Honestly, the relationship that I have now with Jason Day and the real collaboration that we share is really cool.” said Glancy. “To have that part of every decision we make, every round of samples we test, and not be afraid to show the world that the process has been great.”
“The involvement from an athlete like Jason … Jason is completely passionate.” Forsey said of Day’s relationship with Glancy. “He’s, you know, constantly in a text exchange with Mike: ‘Can we try this?'”
Not only Dita is charitable. You and I also reap the rewards of PAYNTR’s close relationship with their brand’s biggest fan.
“Since the consumer or fan is part of this journey with us, we can assure them that the PAYNTR GOLF shoes they use at the PGA TOUR Superstore, GOLF GALAXY or even their local pro shop to purchase have been tested and perfected by the best and have probably been part of over a hundred text messages between Jason and myself,” said Gl.
So to come full circle, what’s in a name?
For Forsey and Glancy, it’s pretty simple. They want the PAYNTR Golf name to be associated with the best, the most premium golf shoe brand on the planet.
“We want a premium solution for our customer, but it’s all about the product… we’re definitely going to focus first and foremost on the product we bring to market,” Forsey said.
“We never put the pencil down and we never say it’s good enough until it is,” asserts Glancy.
Post Two men, one goal: Build the best golf shoe on the planet appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
