Under Armour Drive Pro: Primed to Perform

Are you ready to drive it like a pro? 

All right. I’m being only a little facetious. Under Armour just announced its new flagship golf shoe, the Drive Pro. The goal? As the name suggests, the Drive Pro hopes to help your game through a trio of golf shoe technologies. 

Is Under Armour promising longer drives? Not necessarily. But they aren’t really shying away from what they’ve seen in testing. “Ready to Drive like a Pro?” is the tagline for the new launch. 

Under Armour has been in the lab. And that’s the truth. The footwear team at UA worked hand in hand with renowned biomechanist JJ Rivet to design a shoe that works with the natural motions of the golf swing. 

Let’s take a closer look at the new Under Armour Drive Pro and the Swing Support System (S3) that fuels its upgraded performance over its predecessor. 

Tactician Versus Transcendent

Under Armour is in the same position as nearly every golf shoe manufacturer. How do you cater to professional golfers who need performance-enhancing footwear without alienating the casual, everyday golfer who just wants something cool and comfortable?

The Baltimore-based sportswear brand has really split their golf shoe line down the middle. On one side, you have the Drive Pro and Drive Pro SL. These are billed as UA’s top performance shoes. 

“Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed massive growth in more casual golf shoes that offer great versatility & style, which has undoubtedly been a positive trend for the sport” said Jake Haley, Senior Product Line Manager for Golf Footwear at Under Armour. “However, for the golfer that’s longing for every possible solution to increase yardage and tighten dispersion (and spending north of $600 on drivers in the process), they need to be investing in the piece of equipment they use on every single shot – their shoe!”

On the other hand, the new Phantom Golf shoes (more on these in a separate piece) sit squarely on the “cool and casual” side of things. 

The scope of this piece is to focus on the new Drive Pro, the golf shoe for tacticians. But it’s important to touch on how Under Armour is positioning its new shoes for 2024, simply because I think this is how every brand should do it. 

UA isn’t dancing around the fact that the Drive Pro may not look quite as cool or casual compared to other shoes in the brand’s lineup. It’s for a very specific golfer, one who, like Jordan Spieth, wants ultimate performance. 

A clear separation between performance golf shoes and “casual” golf shoes is a delineation that I feel strongly every brand should make. 

Tech Story: Swing Support System

Every golf club has a tech story, and most golf shoes do, too. This is the stuff that really gets me excited, that can either make or break your new stuff. 

For this year, Under Armour’s tech story is the introduction of the Swing Support System or “S3” as you’ll sometimes see it referred to. 

What is S3 and why the heck should you care?

As the name suggests, S3 refers to three different and distinct performance attributes of the new Drive Pro that work holistically. 

“The Swing Support System™ (S3) is the differentiator,” said Haley. “Created in partnership with Jordan Spieth and leading golf biomechanist, JJ Rivet, the Swing Support System™ is a revolutionary 3-layer structure that guides the natural movements of the foot in the golf swing.”

Smarter Traction

Under Armour upgraded the traction of the Drive Pro with two distinct spike styles. One is the S3 spike which UA designed with Macneill Engineering. The other spike is the tried and tested SoftSpikes Tour Flex Pro. 

The easiest way to describe the difference between the two is the S3 spikes are more directional while the Tour Flex Pro spikes are omnidirectional. Where the S3 spikes are placed in certain locations to provide very target-directed traction, the Tour Flex Pro spikes provide 360-degree traction in a less targeted approach. 

The combination of both should provide traction that grips when it needs to. On the spikeless side of things, the Drive Pro SL relies on a hybrid TPU-rubber outsole that provides torsional rigidity (something that spikeless shoes often lack) and ground penetrating traction in wet or dry conditions. 

Dual-Foam Cushioning

Single foam setups are so last year. It’s not uncommon now (especially with the shoes I’ve seen coming down the pipe for 2024) to see a golf shoe designed with two different foams. 

More often than not, a dual foam cushion setup consists of a softer, plusher foam and a firmer, more stable foam. The manner in which these are intertwined and implemented in the overall design make a big difference in the way of comfort, ground feel and stability. 

This year, Under Armour relied on their flagship foams, HOVR (softer) and Charged (supportive), to guide the foot through the golf swing. The visual cues on the midsole tell the whole story. The blue sections of the midsole are HOVR and the white foam is Charged. 

You’ll mostly see the softer HOVR foam in the heel and medial forefoot with the Charged foam on the outside. The setup is designed to guide the natural motion of your foot as you roll from the inside (HOVR) to the outside (Charged). 

The placement of the softer HOVR foam promotes a sinking, almost rolling, feel that guides your weight placement in your lead foot as you transition to the more supportive Charged cushion to finish your swing.

Lockdown Lacing

I’ve often said a golf shoe is only as good as its lockdown (I haven’t really said that but I’m saying it now). A functional lacing system is only half of the battle, though. Anyone can make laces. Not anyone can provide total lockdown to keep your foot “one” with the golf shoe. 

Under Armour spent a lot of time developing this new Lockdown Lacing system with Rivet. 

He found that being locked down from the lateral ball to the medial instep of your foot will help you produce the most power and stability. This is where you’ll see a new elastic band integrated into the lacing system. This band provides this angular lockdown that will keep your foot exactly where it needs to be. 

“Last” but not Least

Outside of the new S3 technology, Under Armour took the time to listen to player (and consumer) feedback to change the last of the shoe. The new Drive Pro now is built on a wider last that provides more room in the forefoot for added stability and better fit. 

This, coupled with a new molded sockliner, should also enhance the overall comfort without taking away from the special S3 technology. 

My Initial Thoughts

I’ve spent ample time in the new Drive Pro (and Drive Pro SL). I also had the pleasure of going to Nice, France, to meet with Under Armour and Rivet to learn more about the biomechanics of the golf swing. 

Can a golf shoe really provide you with more speed, better dispersion or more distance? After trying out both the Drive Pro and Pro SL alongside some of our top-performing golf shoes from all major brands, the Pro SL came out on top as the best for my swing. All I can tell you is what I saw as I worked with Rivet on his custom force plates. My peak ground force was better overall with the Drive Pro SL.

Under Armour saw similar results at the PGA Show Demo Day, where they put Drive Pro to the test with real golfers.

“We even put our neck on the line at PGA Show Demo Day, where we were the only footwear brand present, and the 55 Demo Day testers added an average of 11 yards, 3.9mph club speed, and 4.5mph ball speed versus their current shoes. Truly embodying UA’s brand mission – to make athletes better.” Haley said.  

While I’ll save most of my performance comments for our Most Wanted testing, I’ll leave you with this: each and every change UA made to the new Drive Pro was done because it has performance benefits. 

“We hope that our obsession over every single aspect of the shoe is felt by the golfer when they put on the Drive Pro or Drive Pro Spikeless.” Haley concluded.

While that may seem a little obvious, the same can’t be said for every golf shoe. Remember that divide I talked about? Under Armour went all-in making the Drive Pro a performance golf shoe: no frills, no cosmetic storytelling (outside of the coloring of the foam midsole). The Drive Pro looks to be Under Armour’s most advanced golf shoe ever. 

You can purchase the $170 Drive Pro and $150 Drive Pro SL now. 

PS: Looking for more budget-friendly options? The new Drive Fade SL is $120 and features a lot of the same great tech as its big brother. This takedown model looks to be a great budget performer.