FootJoy says it has reached the final stage of its footwear development process – a step it calls “TOUR Validation” – as some of the world’s top players begin testing and being fit into two next-generation models: a reinvented Pro/SL and a fully updated Premiere Series.
For the company, getting new shoes onto the feet of Tour players is more than a product milestone. It’s the final check that years of research, testing and iteration have translated into performance that holds up under the demands of elite competition.
“When I think about the essence of who FootJoy is – we are innovators. Our sole focus is to bring performance innovation to the game of golf,” said Chris Lindner, President of FootJoy.
FootJoy says its footwear development journey begins years before prototypes ever reach a tournament range. The process is built around two inputs that run in parallel: lab-driven research and direct player feedback. On the research side, the company points to decades of proprietary work that informs design decisions through mechanical, biomechanical and psychophysical testing. On the player side, FootJoy’s Tour leadership team maintains regular communication with athletes to track evolving needs in key areas such as traction, stability, ground interaction, comfort and fit.
The first public step in this latest validation phase came in late summer 2024, when early prototypes reached players during the PGA Tour Playoffs at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. FootJoy says Sahith Theegala tested early versions of Pro/SL, while Adam Scott worked with prototypes of the Premiere Series, alongside James “Bubba” Kroeger, the company’s senior manager of sports marketing, as the team gathered initial reactions to bring back to its developers.
From there, FootJoy describes four major checkpoints that helped shape the final direction of both models.
At the TOUR Championship in August 2024, Theegala and Scott were among the first to test Round 1 prototypes. “It’s the perfect shoe for me, you really listened to my feedback,” Theegala said.
In January 2025 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Will Zalatoris and Keith Mitchell tested a prototype Premiere Series in practice rounds. Zalatoris’ assessment was emphatic: “The performance is a 12 out of 10. I feel like I’m at a competitive disadvantage if I’m not wearing these.”
The next stop came in March 2025 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where FootJoy says Cam Young, Theegala and Scott tested Round 2 prototypes. Young pointed to what he noticed immediately. “As soon as I picked it up, I could tell the weight difference,” he said. “For me, I need that trail foot to be locked in. I tried to exaggerate my movement and to make it move — but it’s not going anywhere.”
By October 2025, FootJoy says it moved into final performance fittings at Panther National in Jupiter, Florida, with players including Zalatoris, Justin Thomas, Theegala and Davis Riley. Kroeger was joined by Chris Tobias, FootJoy’s vice-president of footwear, and Dan Buonomo, a footwear product manager. “These are the best prototype shoes I’ve ever tested… I’ll be taking these to put in play next week,” Theegala said.
According to FootJoy, those sessions were enough to confirm the 2026 versions of Pro/SL and Premiere Series were ready for competitive play across tours worldwide.
Much of the work behind the scenes, FootJoy says, is supported by the FJ Performance Lab — a dedicated research and engineering hub established in 2020. “Research, design, and development have always been part of our DNA, but opening the FJ Performance Lab gives us day-to-day access to cutting-edge research and direct connectivity with Tour players — right in our own backyard,” Tobias said.
FootJoy says the lab’s testing takes place at the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, California, and the Titleist Performance Center at Manchester Lane, located near the company’s design headquarters. The aim, it says, is continuous testing across golf-specific machines, multiple turf types and varied soil compositions, allowing new designs to be measured and refined long before they ever appear in competition.
“We’re the only company in the world that combines the mechanics of footwear, the biomechanics of the golfer, and the psychophysics of the golfer — the trifecta of performance — to create shoes for the best players in the game,” said Dr. John Swigart, Principal Footwear Innovation Engineer.
FootJoy says its internal protocols can capture more than 500,000 data points per shoe model, with annual testing producing more than 20 million data points across nine performance metrics. The company adds that fit and wear testing includes a panel of more than 1,000 golfers, with shoes evaluated after 12 to 20 or more rounds using 26 measurement criteria.
On the product side, FootJoy says the updated Premiere Series is designed to improve comfort and traction while maintaining the stable feel and fit Tour players prefer. Pro/SL, meanwhile, is being positioned as a full redesign timed with the model’s 10th anniversary. FootJoy says the next version is 30 per cent lighter, with improved comfort, a new traction pattern and an updated athletic fit.
“Adding the next-generation versions of Pro/SL and Premiere Series to HyperFlex gives our teams an incredible line-up of performance footwear to meet the attributes our Tour players are looking for to perform their best,” Tobias said.
FootJoy says the models will be introduced more broadly following Tour adoption, with further details expected to be shared at a later date.
