Two years ago, Under Armour launched the Drive Pro golf shoe. At the time, it was a big leap forward in performance for a brand that doesn’t get nearly enough love in the golf space.
The Drive Pro featured a revolutionary design with a focus on harnessing the ground. Everything from the custom directional spikes to the targeted dual-foam midsole was designed to give you maximum energy transfer from your lower half to the golf club and eventually the golf ball.
The tech story this year, though, is less about what’s under your feet and more about what’s covering them. The all-new Under Armour Drive Pro Clone features the same great tooling as the Drive Pro: HOVR and Charged foams, UA S3 spikes.
But it also features a new upper material that harks back to Under Armour’s heritage.
Under Armour is rooted in fabric innovation. I mean, the company was founded on the idea of a moisture-wicking half-shirt to be worn under football jerseys. So when they got feedback from golfers like me that the TPU upper on the original Drive Pro was too stiff, restrictive and provided a wonky fit, they tapped into their roots to come up with a proper solution.
Enter Clone.
It’s been in Under Armour’s football (and fútbol) lineups for a little bit but it’s new to golf so it deserves a proper introduction.
At its core, Clone is an auxetic (Google that!) material designed to move with your foot, not against it. For those unfamiliar with the term auxetic, let’s perform a simple experiment.
Got a rubber band nearby? Grab it by both ends and stretch it. Notice how it gets shorter in the middle as you pull the ends further apart? That’s what happens to most things when they get stretched.
Not auxetics. When force is applied to an auxetic (like stretching or pulling), the material expands in the direction opposite of the force as well.
Here’s a brief example of what this looks like in practice.
Now for the practical application to golf. What if a golf shoe could have an upper material that doesn’t restrict your movement but moves with you to provide better support, more comfort and adaptability?
That’s what Clone aims to do and that’s the whole point of bringing that crazy cool technology to the Under Armour Drive Pro Clone.
And in that way, it makes this whole story not just a material story but an engineering story. Auxetics like the Clone upper on the Drive Pro Clone are a marvel of engineering. It’s also a labor of love for the Under Armour crew who’ve been working so diligently to remind everyone that they make great golf footwear.
What can Clone do for you?
“Traditional golf shoes create gaps, pressure points, and lost power because they’re built around a single, fixed shape,” said Jake Haley, Senior Manager of Golf Footwear and Apparel at Under Armour.
“With the Drive Pro Clone, we set out to eliminate those compromises entirely. Every golfer deserves a shoe that adapts to them, not the other way around, and this design gives athletes a truly personalized fit that stays consistent from the first swing to the last.”
One shoe for every golfer.
Or, rather, one shoe that properly fits every golfer.
That’s the goal at least.
A lofty one. But a damn worthy one. Because you deserve a pair of golf shoes that work with you, not against you.
The Under Armour Drive Pro Clone launches on Feb. 6. You can learn more at underarmour.com.
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