As we said in our recent article on golf gloves advertised on Facebook, social media algorithms are remarkably efficient. Even if you’re just thinking about buying something, advertisements for that something will, somehow, someway, start populating your social media feeds like oh so many rabbits.
So it was with golf gloves. So it is with golf shoes.
In the name of journalistic service to you, my friends and loyal readers, I went ahead and bought four pairs of golf shoes advertised aggressively on my Facebook feed. I learned three valuable lessons.
First, all four of these shoes are pretty decent. They’re comfortable enough, stable enough and perform well enough to be worthy of consideration.
Second, don’t believe any of the brand stories these ads present you with on social media. None of them.
Third, and most surprisingly, in at least three of the four cases you can find the same shoe from a different storefront for less money. I mean the exact same shoe.
What we tested and why
I tried three pairs of spiked shoes and one pair of spikeless shoes, all from different “manufacturers.”
Why that particular mix, you may ask. Simple: I prefer spiked shoes. Hey, this is my test and these are my feet. I tried the spikeless pair because, well, the ad convinced me.
What can I say? I’m human.
I’m going to lump three of the brands together (you’ll understand why shortly). They are Rosland Ridge (the spikeless one), Bradley & Weston and Back9Lab.
The other brand is the one that might be making the most noise with social media advertising. It’s called Aceways, and on looks alone, it appears to be a PAYNTR knockoff.
If you’re going to knock off a shoe, PAYNTR is an excellent choice.
For the record, my go-to shoes this season are a bit erratic and fly in the face of my preference for spiked shoes. I regularly wear a pair of spiked adidas Adipower 26, backed up with spikeless models from Heathlander, Alma Mater and PUMA (some sweet Arnold Palmer models). I also wear SQAIRZ spiked shoes from time to time.
Yeah, I have more golf shoes than real shoes. My wife rolls her eyes at me a lot.
One more thing. Each of these shoes will face the Barba Adipower 26 Challenge, better known in certain circles as the BA26C. Named after yours truly and the Best Value shoe in this year’s MyGolfSpy spiked shoe testing, the test is simple: If I’d rather buy one of these than the Adipower (currently under $100 online), they pass. If not, they fail.
Enough of that, let’s get to the review.
Rosland Ridge/Bradley & Weston/Back9Lab: The Fujian/Zhejiang Connection
There’s a reason I’m lumping these all together.
Even though each of these shoes were bought from different “brands,” they originate from a Chinese shoe company called Thestron. In fact, once you get them out of the packaging and look at them, they’re all branded “Thestron.”
Not Rosland Ridge. Not Bradley & Weston. And not Back9Lab. We’ll call them the “Thestron Three.”
Each pair was packaged in China upon order and shipped to separate importers in the U.S. for customs processing. It was a long process, with each taking at least three weeks from order to delivery. Additionally, they did not come in boxes. Each pair came wrapped in a plastic bundle, looking not unlike the bundle that contained the black bird in The Maltese Falcon.
I felt like Sam Spade when I opened them.
As far as we can tell, Thestron is a Chinese golf shoe brand that has its shoes manufactured in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, both major footwear production regions in China.
We’ll discuss how these shoes found their way to New Hampshire via three different sellers. First, let me give you the downlow on each pair.
Rosland Ridge Drive Force 2.0
These were $89.99, marked down from $179.99. Every one of these shoes advertised was on some sort of discount. As I checked over the following weeks, those discounts are permanent.
The Rosland Ridge Drive Force 2.0 is a sorta-kinda ECCO knockoff. It claims a pain-relieving ComfortCore
sole and a waterproof build. They are pretty comfortable, so they get a passing grade there. I haven’t taken them out in wet conditions yet, but I have no doubt they’re at least water-resistant.
I will give them credit for their spikeless lugs. They’re aggressive, almost spike-like. They even crunch a little when you walk on pavement.
Overall, it’s a comfortable, stable shoe. My first impression was that it’s not a bad buy at $89.99, not so much at full price. However, since you’ll never see the full price, it’s kind of a moot point.
BA26C Result: At first, I graded this one a tossup. It’s a pretty comfortable shoe. I am, however, changing to a fail, and I’ll tell you why at the end because the rest of the story matters.
Bradley & Weston Striker Pro
These gave the impression of an even greater deal. I got the Bradley & Weston Striker Pro spiked for $79.99, discounted from $264.99. Am I a savvy shopper or am I a savvy shopper?
Bradley & Weston specializes in general men’s clothing, and its website is blissfully free of details and information in general. You’re buying based on pictures. That said, the Striker Pro isn’t a bad-looking shoe and, like the Rosland Ridge shoes, they’re pretty comfortable.
They offer four other styles of shoes, spiked and spikeless. One of them we’ll see in a couple of seconds. The Striker Pro is spiked but, in a shoe-buying first, it came with the spikes uninstalled. As you can see, the spikes are the screw in style as opposed to the quick-lock style.
On the other hand, just for fun, go ahead and Google Bradley & Weston. I’m curious to hear what listings come up first for you.
BA26C Result: Same as above. At first it was a push, due to comfort. That grade, too, will change.
Back9Lab Classic Performance
The Back9Lab Classic was $109.95, marked down from $219.95. It was a little more expensive, but I really like classic whites with a touch of brogue detailing. Again, very comfortable and pretty sweet looking.
The spikes for these shoes were also uninstalled and also the screw-in style.
BA26C Result: Same story as above. Pricewise, it should fail since the Adipower can be had for under $100. What can I say? I like the style.
Finally, the Aceways Wide Fit
Billed as a wide shoe that delivers, I scored the Aceways Wide fit for $161.10 (I really don’t get the 10 cents but I’m a writer, not a pricing agent). There was no discount. That’s the price, like it or lump it.
Much of the lingo on the Aceways website comes chapter and verse from SQAIRZ. They talk about their wide toe box that allows for natural toe splay for better balance and stability during you golf swing. It also touts its PMX+ Foam as a proprietary midsole cushioning foam that couples with a carbon propulsion plate designed to return energy with every step.
My guess is the only thing that makes is “proprietary” is the branding applied to it.
That said, like the others, it’s a pretty comfy shoe, with acceptable stability and traction. It’s a decent imitation of a PAYNTR.
BA26C Result: Did not pass. At roughly half the price, the adidas Adipower is the better shoe. I suppose if I needed a wide toe box, I might feel differently, but I don’t so I don’t.
Now for the interesting part
Remember the Three Stooges short where Curly is pulling a never-ending piece of wire out of a pipe and won’t give up? That’s how I felt when I started looking into why Rosland Ridge, Bradley & Weston and Back9Lab all sent me shoes branded Thestron.
This has gotta end someplace.
(If you don’t get the Curly reference, ask your dad. He’ll know. All dads know.)
Anyway, the rabbit holes all led me to the same places: Alibaba, Chinese white-label manufacturers, Shopify storefronts and Facebook advertising. I won’t include Aceways in this discussion, as the links aren’t quite as clear.
It is, however, the state of modern online commerce. A Chinese manufacturer designs and makes these shoes and sells them to various Chinese-based wholesalers or resellers. That’s where Thestron comes in. It appears to be an export-oriented Chinese footwear trading company that also sells its shoes as white-label products to other resellers through business-to-business marketplaces like Alibaba.
Resellers, like the three mentioned here, buy those shoes in bulk. They then create a brand story, some fancy AI-generated ads and sell them on Facebook to shmucks like me.
You want to know why, ultimately, all three shoes fail the Adipower 26 test? Virtually every golf shoe on the Rosland Ridge, Bradley & Weston and Back9Lab websites are also available on Thestron’s Amazon page. For less money.
The exact same shoes, using the exact same marketing pictures.
For the record, the Rosland Ridge I bought for $89.99 can be had on Amazon through Thestron for as little as $39.99. The Bradley & Weston model runs as low as $38.99 and the $109.95 Back9Lab Performance shoe, brogue and all, sells on Amazon for only $65.99.
Yeah, I know. Shmuck.
This has gotta be illegal, right?
Well, no. The marketing may be more than a little shady but that’s the social media marketplace for you. There’s no law against making a buck this way.
All you need to do to get into the golf shoe business is source some shoes through Alibaba and then create a compelling, interesting brand story. Nothing says it has to be true. After that, you can create a storefront through Shopify. .
As far as the Federal Trade Commission is concerned, a “creative” brand story isn’t the same as deceptive advertising. That’s reserved for making specifical claims that are outright lies, like claiming something is “Made in America” when it’s clearly not. None of what Rosland Ridge, Bradley & Weston and Back9Lab are doing is illegal.
Sketchy, maybe. But not illegal. Sellers are accountable for false claims. After that, Caveat emptor, or “Let the buyer beware.”
Disclaimer: I can’t give you any durability reports on these shoes. I only have two feet and probably won’t live long enough to see how long each pair will last.
A postscript on Aceways
Aceways should be kept separate from the other three, only because it goes to the effort of at least having its shoes branded. They were also shipped in a nice box directly from the U.S location. They were the last ones ordered but arrived well before the other three.
There’s no public trail linking it to Thestron, but some of the naming patters and product styles Aceways offers can be found in Chinese OEM and wholesale catalogs. Perhaps not coincidentally, Aceways sells a G615 spiked golf shoe. Thestron also has a 615 golf shoe in its catalog, although the colorways, uppers and styling details differ.
The final verdict
I hope you found this little exercise in small-stakes international commerce useful, if not entertaining. After going through this earlier with gloves and now with shoes, I can only say that the better the Facebook ad and branding story for a company you’ve never heard of, the greater the likelihood it’s a white-label reseller. Not illegal, not a scam, but maybe a bit shady.
And you want to return something that doesn’t fit? Good friggin’ luck.
Again, I’ll keep Aceways separate from that statement because, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there does appear to be a there there.
Anyway, if you are looking for a cheap golf shoe, I can only tell you these shoes are comfortable and stable with decent traction. They won’t cop any Most Wanted awards, but for the price, each is serviceable.
They just won’t necessarily pass the BA26C.
Unless, of course, you go right to the source and get them cheaper on Amazon.
Postscript: If there are any golf-related items you see on Facebook that you’d like us to test for you, drop a note in the Comments section. We’ll see what we can do.
The post I Bought These Four Golf Shoes on Facebook And Here’s What I Learned appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
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