Two Men, One Goal: Build The Best Damn Golf Shoe On The Planet

What’s in a name?

Some are long. Some are short. Some invoke positive emotions, like happiness and joy. Others strike fear into the hearts of all who have ears to hear them uttered. 

Names are given. But the legacy associated with those names? That’s earned. 

What do you notice about the six names listed below? 

Mike Forsey

Mike Glancy

David Ortiz

Tom Brady

Cam Newton

Jordan Spieth

Tiger Woods

Jason Day

The first two names on our list, Mike Forsey and Mike Glancy, are the co-founders of PAYNTR Golf, the no longer underrated golf shoe brand that burst onto the scene back in the early 2020s. 

The other six names? Those are athletes for whom Forsey and Glancy have built, designed and produced shoes. The tandem has a combined 50 years of experience in footwear design, so building a good golf shoe must have been easy for them, right? 

Right?

Not quite. Very seldom are the success stories we love to hear and read about without hardship, trial and error. For Forsey and Glancy, PAYNTR Golf is the culmination of literally decades of time spent working with some of the biggest names in the world. 

I mean, Glancy literally designed cleats worn by Tom Brady, arguably considered the greatest football quarterback of all time. Oh, and Cam Newton’s MVP cleats, too!

“I truly believe all my years designing cleated footwear helped me push golf innovation,” said Glancy. “We look outside our category and find any advantage we can to help you perform better.”

Forsey had a hand in the creation of the first 10 (yes, 10!) of Tiger Woods’ golf shoes at NIKE. 

“I honestly don’t know where this comes from,” said Forsey when pressed on his the origins of his footwear fetish. “I knew when I was working retail and selling like Timberland boots and NIKE and adidas product, that the only thing I ever wanted to do is work in footwear.”

Yet, almost no one recognizes their names. Why? Because for the duo I admiringly refer to as M&M (I don’t think they like my nickname), it’s not about getting famous. Their focus is singular and finite: make the best golf shoes in the world. 

And based on their performance in MyGolfSpy testing and the recent backing of Jason Day, I’d say they’re well on their way to accomplishing that goal. 

How about another batch of names?

Saucony

Reebok

FootJoy 

Cole Haan

Under Armour

NIKE

And, finally, PAYNTR.

These are brands that M&M have poured their hearts and souls into for nothing but the love of the game. It is the experiences at darn near every shoe brand in the industry that gave Forsey and Glancy the edge that makes their PAYNTR product so damn good. 

“I owe a lot of my success and foundation to Reebok and the designers there,” said Glancy. 

“I actually graduated from college on a Sunday and I went to work for Spot-Built and Saucony on Monday,” said Forsey.

It’s almost like M&M were born to start a golf shoe brand. Maybe they were destined to work in footwear. Perhaps that’s what led the tandem to meet while working at Under Armour, fresh off of Jordan Spieth’s Masters win. 

But 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? That deserves another (nick) name: Crazy.

“My wife suggested, hey, why don’t you start your own business? You’ve always wanted to do that. So I did,” Forsey explained. 

At the beginning, PAYNTR Golf worked off of a license model from the PAYNTR cricket brand. But explosive growth made it possible for M&M to purchase the IP around PAYNTR Golf earlier this year. 

What does all that legal talk mean? The two men who have over 50 years of experience in footwear now have complete control over their destiny. 

And for Forsey and Glancy, that ultimately means having the ability to make the best possible product without worrying as much about margins, something the billion-dollar brands obsess over. 

Where the NIKEs of the world have to cut corners on things like insoles, materials and more, Forsey and Glancy don’t have a bunch of stakeholders riding their coattails. This gives them the creative and financial freedom to just do the only thing they know how to do: make a killer product. 

And having a former world No. 1 golfer in your corner doesn’t hurt, either. His name? Jason Day. 

Seeing the relationship between PAYNTR Golf and Day blossom has been one of golf’s best stories. A PGA Tour star taking a vested interest in golf shoes is something we seldom see. It’s even more rare that the pro has an actual friendship with the guys designing his footwear. 

“Honestly, the relationship I have now with Jason Day and the true collaboration we share is so cool.” Glancy said. ”Having him part of every decision we make, every round of samples we test and not being scared to show the world that process has been awesome.”

“The involvement from an athlete like Jason … Jason is fully passionate.” Forsey said of Day’s relationship with Glancy. “He’s, you know, non-stop on a text message exchange with Mike: ‘Can we try this?’”

Not only Day is the benefactor. You and I also reap the rewards of PAYNTR’s close-knit 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 footwear they walk into PGA TOUR Superstore, GOLF GALAXY or even their local pro shop to buy has been tested and perfected by the best and is probably part of over a hundred text messages back and forth between Jason and me,” Glancy remarked. 

So, to come full circle, just what’s in a name? 

For Forsey and Glancy, it’s pretty simple. They want the name PAYNTR Golf to be associated with the best, most premium golf shoe brand on the planet. 

“We want a premium solution for our customer but it’s all about the product … we will definitely focus first and foremost on the product we put in the market,” said Forsey. 

“We never put the pen down and we never say it’s good enough until it is,” affirms Glancy.